[rhaway84773]

> The story goes that Hindus had nuclear energy 10,000 years ago, but filthy foreigners corrupted Mother India.

I’ve never understood this kind of messaging. You see it in all sorts of supremacists.

But how is it a credit to you and your ancestors that they had the ability to create nuclear power or fly, etc and then they just lost it!

That’s a sign of deep shame. The particular group of people you’re claiming are superior are so incompetent they weren’t even able to keep knowledge they already had.

Seems like the group of people you think are so superior have been getting dumber with every generation and you therefore are the dumbest of your lineage.

What’s there to be proud of about that?

[godelski]

It's also like bragging that you were a highly advanced civilization and got conquered/occupied by a bunch of dumb savages. There's a few more prominent countries that follow similar narratives and I agree with you that it sounds far more embarrassing than boasting. And if you're superior then why haven't you caught up or surpassed the others? I can understand if this is like <100 years but longer than that feels embarrassing and counter to the superiority narrative.

As to why it works, I completely understand. We just want reasons to feel superior. It is why in high school jocks define metrics as strength and why nerds define metrics as intelligence. It's why we have "well I have street smarts" and other things like that.

[kamaal]

>>It's also like bragging that you were a highly advanced civilization and got conquered/occupied by a bunch of dumb savages.

They explain that part by using the idea of 'traitors'. They are often the minorities of that land(whom they currently hate, and serve as a nice punching bag in the whole process, and in the overall scheme of hate process).

The 'traitor' part is like a constant theme in these stories. Super advanced ancestors, but also very nice, accommodating to everyone. Some savages from the outside invade, traitors help them from inside. Savages win, they are colonised. Traitors benefit. The monuments, symbols and anything to do with the traitors is now demonised and the 'treason' is used as a casus belli for a genocide/ethnic cleansing.

[renewiltord]

Quite similar, in that respect, to the Vietnam War. The "We would have won if it weren't for the people back home who stopped us from fighting" stance, for instance.

[nickcotter]

It’s a popular gambit in various guises:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_myth

[duskwuff]

The corollary story that usually shows up is that Westerners "stole" scientific discoveries from India and suppressed them while the country was under occupation. There's a fairly standard example of this at:

https://pparihar.com/2017/05/22/modern-inventions-stolen-fro...

And the BBC reported on some instances of this sort of thought at the Indian Science Congress in 2019:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46778879

[godelski]

But how is knowledge "stolen"? I understand in the context of piracy, but like piracy you can't really remove it from the originator. Sure, you can take and destroy all books you can find, but it is also pretty easy to make new books (and hide them) or pass knowledge through word of mouth (or hidden in stories). Wouldn't a highly intelligent society be able to accomplish such a simple feat that's been demonstrated by hundreds of civilizations through historY?

[duskwuff]

I didn't say the narrative made sense! But I think the implication was that there was some sort of systematic campaign to erase Indian records of that knowledge after "stealing" it, i.e. by destroying artifacts and written records, preventing word-of-mouth transmission of history, etc. Of course this is all nonsense, but it's nonsense which plays well to an audience which is open to nationalist, anti-imperialist messages.

[rovolo]

I agree that all of the example in the blog post and bbc article are nonsense. However, I think that you're slightly wrong in this statement:

> I think the implication was that there was some sort of systematic campaign to erase Indian records of that knowledge

The blog post is more specific than "Indian records". The blog post is talking about the Vedas in particular. I don't know much about the Vedas, but this looks a lot more like biblical literalism to me. The references to the Raj and to stolen knowledge are used to bolster the Vedas as a primary source of truth.

> Even by today’s standards, if properly applied, these Vedic Sutras can create most advanced technological instruments and mammoth machines ever known to mankind.

> Science expanded its views in the area of observation as well. Thomas Edison developed the light bulb and the motion picture based on Vedic principles. Sun rays emitting illusory rainbows, speed of light and its composition are all explained in Vedas. The idea that light defines or makes our universe visible can be found as explained by Shrila Prabhupada in his purport to SB 2.9.4 “In the darkness one cannot see the sun, nor himself, nor the world. But in the sunlight one can see the sun, himself and the world around him.”

FWIW, I think that it's pretty straightforward to suppress knowledge though. You can record knowledge into books, but it's not really known if no-one is reading the books or using that knowledge. You can suppress metal-working know-how by eliminating metal-working jobs. The Raj had a profound control over India which affected the available areas of work, which would affect what people wanted to learn. You don't have to explicitly ban a topic to make people not want to study that topic.

[andybak]

That first link is a gateway to a whole level of insanity I had no idea about.

[neilk]

Humiliation is essential to any fascist project. You can see this in any of the statements from fascist and authoritarian leaders. They’ll emphasize how tricky and duplicitous the enemies are, how the good and honest people were defrauded, but now they’re exacting revenge.

[hef19898]

The Dolchstoß legend lives on in various forms.

[davchana]

Its crazy man. There is constant barrage of world's best prime minister, best food, best flag, bext xyz declared by NASA/UNO/AMERICA and stuff. Anything tou can think of, its best is in India as per that whatspap forwards & university. If you agree, good. If you object based on facts, you are anti national, anti Hindu. Really crazy.

[jackmott42]

It doesn't matter if a story makes sense, just that it is easy to understand. See much of rhetoric in America right now, and Russia regarding Ukraine.

[renewiltord]

Haha, it's funny but that's the story they go with. There's also great anger in India for "paid conversions" where Christian missionaries give people money and resources if they'll become Christian. Ultimately, it seems reasonable that you go with the god who serves you best.

[godelski]

Reminds me of the story of Job. I'm not sure how people read it any other way than Satan pulling a fast one over God. How is it not a story where Satan tricked God into torturing Job?

[xeonmc]

To lose one civilization may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two looks like carelessness.