Absolutely Teertha...what a balanced piece. The invaders and imperialists did their bit. But in independent India there was a decided diffidence about our culture and history.
Forget political narratives, right from Indus Valley https://twitter.com/ManiTeertha/status/1319558526855909381

Civilization interpretation of foreign scholars was considered more apt. Aryan invasion theory has been debunked only last year on the basis of genetics. Anything Western was considered superior & that was primarily where Nehru played a major role as he wanted to make India

Liberal and modern as he did think and rightly so that some of our rituals and practices were indeed orthodox. But a nation's progress does not happen by junking all the good along with the bad. We know more about Sartre and Jung but not about Jiddu Krishnamuti.

There was no pride in speaking Hindi in the cow belt as English medium became aspirational. Thanks to the South the respect and pride in local languages remained. But Southern kings, freedom fighters, philosophers were not given due importance.

Even the political sciences don't discuss the merits and demerits of various ideologies. Our constitution was a copy paste of England's. We have more than 120 amendments and we are just 70 plus years old. American Constitution has seen less than 50 and they are 200 years old.

But again in a way I am saying that West is better than us...but my point is we should take the good things of all the countries, regions, ideologies and junk the bad. What I don't understand is why we perceive the two major parties as either all good or all bad.

There were good ideas initiated by either regime. And there are bad and corrupt guys on both sides. Loyalty to nation's cultural and economic progress rather than to a party who we vote for - that would be when we become a mature democracy