When Indians talk of Hindutwa, I ask them some uncomfortable questions. Tell me what Hindutwa gives? They talk of Sanathan Dharma, the Vedas, our tolerance, etc. I tell them, but please tell me, whatever a modern man needs how many of them are Indian inventions, or creations or even innovations? From safety pin to aeroplanes. They will say the concept of zero. They will flaunt the name of Aryabhatta. Do not even hear from them the name of Susruta. That's OK. But tell me about things like motor car, train and all the machines that modern society uses. They obviously can't. I say, Egypt was a great nation. China was a gereat nation. Greece too was a great nation. They all contributed to human history. India too in olden times. But you know human society is driven by newer knowledge, by new technology. How many of them have Indian minds behind them? They then talk about our progress in IT sector. I reply that is because of our English education. First, Indians would be taken to sugarcane fields by colonial rulers and now passouts from IITs and IIMs to multinational companies, foreign universities. First, we were physical labours, now it is intellectual labour. Very little knowledge that drive world society is of Indian origin! But yes, we are spiritually very rich. We have exported Yoga, Sitar, various philosophycal concepts. But they are all of old origin. Modern science, modern management, not so much. We can name a J C Bose, a C V Raman, who were original thinkers, indigenous thinkers. Why do we not get more of such people? Because our society does not allow us to think. We are Bhaktibaadis, an excellent philosophy no doubt. It can solve many social problems. But people who question are not allowed to do so. So, science does not have great prospects here. Hindutwa, or for that matter Islam can not be driving forces of modern society. Spiritually fine they are, except when their proponents become dogmatic and aggressive, disturbing body politic. I blog this just to make people think and decide for themselves. At least, I should not be dogmatic about my thoughts!