Recently regular reader and commenter “ScorpionEater” said something to the effect of “why do you bring up non-Indian history/phenomena in conversations where we are talking about Indian history/phenomena?” The simple answer is that you can’t understand the history and culture of any particular place without understanding the history and culture of other places. Without a cross-cultural perspective, history becomes “just one damned thing after another.”
Perhaps the bigger problem is parochialism in general. As an American, I am aware of this problem firsthand. When the terrorist attacks on September 11th occurred many Americans expressed shock at the proposition that there could be anger and the United States of America abroad. The fact is that most people are stupid and ignorant and don’t know anything, and Americans in particular, in their continent-sized nation, are simply unaware of how they are perceived by other peoples.
Americans have a high self-regard and many blind spots. I was raised as a child to believe that the Revolutionary War was unreservedly good. But as Dr. Johnson observed, “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?” Reality is more complex than our imaginings and myth-making.
With a substantial proportion of the readership from this website coming from India, parochialism has now reared its head differently. My personal experience with Indians has been with the cosmopolitan Diaspora. Indians in India seem somewhat different, and frankly, more like Americans in their self-regard and self-centeredness. India is after all a continent-sized country, with its own long history and cultural predilections.