Nothing unites Indians faster than the feeling that someone, somewhere, has Hurt our Sentiments.
We are a nation that is constantly looking for a reason to be offended. We have turned grievance into a high-status emotion. We have built an Economy of Outrage where the loudest victim wins the most attention.
This is the Religion of Victimhood. It is the belief that our worth is measured by how much we have suffered, and that our “pain” grants us the right to silence others.
It is the drug we use to avoid facing our own modern-day failures.
“We Were Great Once”: The Opium of Past Glory
The most common symptom of the victimhood religion is the Obsession with Ancient History.
We spend hours talking about the “Zero,” about Vedic mathematics, about ancient surgery, and about how “We taught the world everything.”
This is the Vishwa Guru Delusion. It is the use of 2000-year-old achievements to hide the fact that we cannot provide clean water to our citizens today. It is the pride of the bankrupt man who still carries around his grandfather’s gold watch.
When we say, “The Mughals destroyed our temples,” or “The British stole our wealth,” we are not stating historical facts—we are making Moral Alibis. We are using the pain of the past to justify the stagnation of the present.
A sovereign individual respects the ancestors but doesn’t live in their shadow. A sovereign individual knows that the only glory that matters is the one you build with your own hands, today.
The Offense Industry
The “Offense Industry” is the most profitable business in modern India.
It is a simple mechanism:
- Find a book, a movie, a tweet, or a piece of art.
- Claim it “Hurts the Sentiments” of a specific group (Caste, Religion, Region).
- Launch a mob (online or offline).
- Force an apology or a ban.
This is the Heckler’s Veto. It is the death of critical thinking and creative freedom. We have allowed the most easily offended person in the room to dictate the intellectual boundaries of the entire nation.
We have developed a Fragile God complex. We believe that the Divine—the creator of the universe—is somehow so weak that He needs a group of shouting young men with sticks to protect His reputation.
True faith is quiet and confident. The “Offense Industry” is loud and insecure.
Competitive Grievance
In India, victimhood is a Strategic Asset.
Because our state is a “Provider of Patronage,” every community is fighting to prove they are the “Most Oppressed.” We see this in the endless demands for reservation from groups that already hold land and power.
This is Competitive Grievance. Instead of fighting for a larger economic pie, we are fighting for a larger slice of the state’s shrinking charity. We have turned our identity into a “Sob Story” to be presented to the government in exchange for a quota or a subsidy.
This mindset kills the Entrepreneurial Spirit. It teaches us to look backward at our wounds rather than forward at our opportunities. It makes us “Professional Victims” rather than “Professional Creators.”
Blame as a Survival Strategy
The Religion of Victimhood allows us to avoid Radical Responsibility.
If the potholes aren’t fixed, it’s the “Colonial Bureaucracy.” If we aren’t innovating, it’s the “Western IP regime.” If our air is toxic, it’s “External forces.”
We are always the Main Character in a Tragedy where everyone else is the villain.
But Path 3 requires us to kill the victim inside us. It requires us to admit that while the past was often cruel, the present is our responsibility. We cannot blame Nehru, or the Mughals, or the British for the garbage outside our door today.
The Verdict
Victimhood is a cage made of “Self-Pity.” It feels warm and safe inside, and it gives you a sense of moral superiority.
But it makes you Small. It makes you Weak. And it makes you Easy to Manipulate.
The Sovereign Indian is an Agent of Change, not a victim of history. You must stop asking for “Justice” for the past and start building “Opportunity” for the future.
But even as we wallow in victimhood, we are chasing a mirage. A dream of success that requires us to stop being Indian entirely.
Let us look at the Material Mirage.
