Your brain is a liar.
It was evolved on the African savannah and refined in the Indus Valley to do one thing: Help you Survive. It was not designed to help you “see the truth.” It was designed to help you find food, avoid predators, and stay part of the tribe.
Because of this, we all carry “software bugs” in our heads. We call them Cognitive Biases. While these biases are universal to all humans, they manifest in specific, high-resolution ways in the Indian context.
To be a Sovereign Indian, you must learn to “Patch” your own mental software.
Authority Bias: The “Sir/Madam” Culture
In India, we have a fatal weakness for the “Chair.”
We instinctively believe that the person in the uniform, the person with the “Sir” title, or the person sitting behind the big desk is “Right.” We equate Rank with Truth.
This is Authority Bias. It is the reason why a low-level bureaucrat can bully a room full of PhDs just by raising his voice. It is the reason why we surrender our common sense to a “Guru” who tells us to do things that are clearly irrational.
We have been trained for centuries to be “Subjects.” We learned that the easiest way to stay safe is to Obey.
Path 3 requires a Decoupling of Respect from Obedience. You can be polite to a person’s “Position,” but you must remain ruthless with their “Logic.” If the man in the chair tells you something that contradicts the data, the data wins every time.
The “Sovereign Mind” doesn’t care about the badge; it cares about the Proof.
In-Group Bias: The “Apna Aadmi” Syndrome
The most powerful force in Indian society is Tribalism.
We are hard-wired to favor “Our Kind.” Whether it’s our Caste, our Religion, our Language group, or even our College alumni network—we instinctively trust the “In-Group” and suspect the “Out-Group.”
This is In-Group Bias. It is the psychological root of Corruption.
When a manager hires a less-qualified cousin over a brilliant outsider, he doesn’t think he’s being “corrupt.” He thinks he’s being “loyal.” He thinks he’s fulfilling his “duty to his tribe.”
This bias destroys our institutions. It turns our companies into “Lala” shops and our government into a “Patronage Network.” It ensures that “Who you know” is always more important than “What you know.”
A sovereign individual recognizes this “Apna Aadmi” reflex and fights it. You must learn to build a Meritocratic Filter. You must learn to trust people based on their Values and Results, not their “Blood and Birth.”
The Karma Fallacy: The Just-World Hypothesis
The most dangerous bias in the Indian mind is the belief that “People get what they deserve.”
Psychologists call this the “Just-World Hypothesis.” In India, we call it Karma.
It is a comforting thought. It makes us feel that the universe is orderly and fair. But it has a dark side: It kills Empathy.
When we see a child begging on the street, or a laborer living in squalor, or a victim of a crime—the “Karma Fallacy” tells us that they must have done something to “deserve” it. It allows us to walk past suffering without feeling the need to fix the system.
It is the “Great Alibi” for systemic injustice. It allows the rich to feel “Naturally superior” and the poor to feel “Naturally guilty.”
Path 3 requires us to see the world as it is: Chaotic, Unfair, and Random. Success is often a result of luck and privilege. Poverty is often a result of systemic failure and bad geography. Once you stop blaming “Karma,” you can start demanding Justice.
Status Quo Bias: “It has always been done this way”
In India, Tradition is often used as a synonym for Inertia.
We do things—rituals, weddings, business processes, dietary habits—simply because “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” We are terrified of the “new” because the “old” feels safe.
This is Status Quo Bias. It is the logical fallacy that “Old = Good.”
We forget that many of our “Traditions” were just “Solutions” to problems that no longer exist.
- We eat high-carb diets because our ancestors were manual farmers. (We are desk workers).
- We have 3-day weddings because it used to be the only way to unite a village. (We have WhatsApp).
- We seek government jobs because the private sector didn’t exist in 1960. (The world has changed).
The Sovereign Indian treats tradition like a Reference Book, not a Rule Book. You take what works and you ruthlessly discard the rest.
The Halo Effect of “Vishwa Guru”
Finally, we have the bias of Arrogance to hide Insecurity.
We take one small success (like a moon mission) and we spread its “Halo” over our entire civilization. We think, “Because ISRO is great, our ancient history must be great, our culture must be great, and our current leaders must be great.”
This is the Halo Effect. It prevents us from doing a “Forensic Audit” of our failures. It allows us to ignore the garbage on the street because we are looking at the stars.
A sovereign individual doesn’t need “Halos.” You must be willing to admit that you can be “Great in X” and “Terrible in Y.” You must look at the Data of Despair from Volume I with the same intensity that you look at the “Glory of ISRO.”
The Verdict
Your brain is a biased machine. You cannot “delete” your biases, but you can “Audit” them.
You must learn to slow down your thinking. Every time you feel a surge of “Tribal Pride,” or “Respect for Authority,” or “Judgement of a Victim”—stop. Ask yourself: “Is this the Truth, or is this just my Software Bugs speaking?”
Once you clear the biases, you can start looking at History. Not as a family album of heroes and villains, but as a “Crime Scene” of data.
Let us look at History as Data.
