As you might know that there are claims being made by Patanjali about having manufactured a cure for the COVID-19. Soon after the claims, I saw a huge public outcry and severe backlash against Baba Ramdev and Patanjali on all the social media platforms. The criticisms were mainly coming from two groups of people, first one was coming from the people who fundamentally had a problem with Baba Ramdev being a Hindu monk. I personally have no problem with these people. I always expect this group to act in the same manner. The second group was of Hindus who were of the belief that ‘If the West couldn’t manufacture the medicine how the hell can we?’, it is with this logic I have problem with.
This statement clearly shows how we Indians think and feel for ourselves. The inferiority complex we carry, proves that even after decades of independence, we aren’t capable of thinking that we are a civilization and a nation that has the potential to manufacture and invent something that the West hasn’t. If you were to go by the previous logic given by the people, then Yoga and Ayurveda shouldn’t have been invented or discovered by India in the first place itself, because the West couldn’t do it.
The idea of a White Man or a White Nation being superior than us, is the fundamental problem that has led to dissatisfaction and doubt among Indians. The difficulty of R&D in India should be evident by volume of Brain drain that’s happening, no capable scientists stay in the nation, due to unavailability of a research environment, lack of better lifestyle and monetary incentives, so, you can imagine how hard it is for those scientists who stay in the Nation and work for the Indian corporates like Patanjali.
The medicine becoming successful or not is secondary, at least the attempt of our Scientists is praiseworthy, blind criticism of the Scientists and other the top minds would do no good to the society and the nation. We need to acknowledge that we were a civilization of seekers, we have innumerable feathers in our cap, may it be Spirituality or Sciences, we have had many great brains then, why can’t we have today? You are free to criticize Baba Ramdev and Patanjali, but the demeaning comments that are directed towards the Scientists and the Scientific capability of this Nation proves why, we as a Nation haven’t achieved great feats in modern times.
