Have you ever wondered why despite being a part of Asia, India, and East Asian countries to be specific couldn't develop greater connections than just being involved in the trade? 

India is in itself a world with diversity that is hardly found in any other country. If one looks at other Asian countries like Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, or Taiwan they have a distinct culture and history of their own, and hence they are separate countries. Considering the culture and history of India, though we might look like a single country on the outside when one actually gets in India, they'll find that northeast India reflects a distinct culture that is more likely to resemble other east Asian countries like Myanmar, China. In the southern part, we have a different culture which is also sometimes considered as India's real history or true Indians. In North, we have Kashmir which has again a very distinct culture and language. We have huge differences in physical features, languages, eating habits, and dressing, and traveling from one state to another is nothing less than traveling in another country. Just like when you travel to Japan you need to learn a tiny bit of Japanese, and Indian traveling in India needs to learn the language of the state he is traveling to. 

The East Asian countries though smaller than India in terms of human resources as well as natural resources have managed to have an economy better than that of India. This aspect needs to be considered and analyzed to understand where did India lack. 

Also, these countries have managed to preserve their culture and values until now at the same time progressing in technology and innovation and marking their own presence in the world. India has on the other hand significantly acquired the western culture as can be inferred from the data that it has become the second-largest English-speaking country in the world and is expected to become the first in the next 20-30 years. 

Since we lacked a common culture that we all could preserve we had let that slip off our hands and all we know at present is what the West serves us and we happily consume. The definition of progress in India is all about being able to adapt to western culture whereas in countries like Japan Korea has managed to stick to their cultural values at the same time progressing and giving a tough competition to the west without running towards the west for validation. It's this mentality that I think made them what they are balanced and progressive nations. Children in these countries still are taught in their native language and not many people speak English, yet they are well educated and technologically innovative.

Privileged has always been taught in English and it was only the people in the lower strata of society on whom the burden lay of preserving culture and that was unfair. Consequently today in India parents even in the lower rungs of society look for schools that focus only on English. This fight of being original and progressive actually lies on the privileged one and not the poor because it's privileged who are responsible for the erosion of our culture and values because they romanticized the west.

Time to rethink what we actually need to focus on - being original and creating something for the world- the creators; or being just the consumers of what others created. The first one is the life of a human and the second is what our domestic animals do they just eat what is served.

Interesting facts -

Do you know the words we use in Hindi such as Kaptan(Captain), Mahavidhyalaya(University), Gulab (Rose),  It(brick), Kunji( Key) are used to mean the same things in Thailand.

Also Korean and Tamil have words that are also meant and used in the same sense - Bambu denoting a snake, in Tamil, is Bambu-beam in Korean. Santhosham (happiness) in Tamil is Shantutham in Korean.

Let's be the creators and help India rise to new heights in Asia. we also need to stop our obsession with the west because our Asian friends are already world influencers.