Has any Indian invented anything of utility value in this world?

Question

We in India keep bragging of our greatness, our past heritage, our culture, our ancient knowledge, etc. You will find that India only romanticizes the past. I was looking around my house trying to identify any single thing that we use in our daily life that was invented by an Indian: NOTHING! No safety pin, no clothes, no processed food, no furniture, no glass, no gas, no fridge, no electricity, no fan, no light bulb, no TV, no footwear, no toilet, no plumbing, no plastic, no anti-biotics, NOTHING FOR GOD'S SAKE! I am an Indian and NOT very proud to admit that we have not contributed much to the modern world. Even now it is not too late ... we should STOP being proud of COPYCAT achievements of our software 'greats' and business tycoons such as Narayanmurthy, Aziz Premji, Vijay Mallya, Ambanis, etc. These people have only created wealth out of second-hand ideas. THE NEXT GEN INDIANS SHOULD FOCUS ON "RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT" AND BECOME INVENTORS - NOT BOASTFUL COPYCATS!

Answer 1

You have created some of the best doctors and engineers in USA and UK, that are saving peoples lives.

Your Institute of Technology educates the finest.

Yoga is enjoyed by people all over the world, and there are excellent Indian restaurants with dishes like Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Tikka Masala.

I love a good Indian buffet.

Don't be so hard on your people.

Answer 2

Well, sir, maybe you should consider that the basis of much of modern knowledge was actually contributed from India's historical acheivements. Yes, you have acknowledged this, but you have not credited it enough.

Not to mention--many of the things you have named and identified come from Indian manufacturers. Clothes made in India come from millions of people who are helplessly employed in sweatshops, many of whom work 16+ hours per day and yet still could not earn what is considered a minimum wage here in the United States.

Consider the fact that it has always been the ancient contributions of the land which have allowed mankind to progress as far as it has today, or else there would have been no 'modernity'.

Answer 3

Having gone through most of the answers above,I find them typically Indian ie evasive,repetitive,glorified past,emptily boastful and as usual circuitous.To a straight question ,the answers have next to nothing to offer.Yes,let us accept that we have invented almost nothing of any utility value in the real-time 0r the present world.On the other side we are the forerunner in manufacture of 'PLATITUDES'[dictionary meaning:-A trite or banal expression,lack of originality]like 'Mera Bharat Mahan',India Shining,Garibi Hatao and what not.We still have the time,talent and the means to do it but for that we should first get out of the present mind set.Threre are very few countries in the world as gifted and talented as India and now the TIME is also on our side as we march towards all round development and progress.Our greatest asset is the most youthful population,who is raring to GO.

Answer 4

I know in Punjab they have converted a washing machine into
a lassi machine. They make lassi in a washing machine. Why do you think Indians go abroad and make money. They positively are inventors. They have invented karlela, lusun, neem and their medicinal properties.Meditation, yoga, Indian dance etc. why cant these things be under the category of invention?
Such a great country like India with so much diversity is still a democracy and survives, in spite of powerful sharks. These things make "Mera Bharath Mahan."

Answer 5

hmmm... you obviously havent looked deep enough into our history have ya? The first radio was invented by J.C.Bose but he wasnt supported enough therefore Marconi came out with it a year later. the first rockets were developed under the funding of one of India's famous kings, Tipu Sultan, 200 years before the british figured it out. by god, our greatest invention, the number zero, how can you forget that? . Aryabhatta, Indian mathematician and astronomer, AD 476 - 550, figured out the the solar system had the sun at its center long before copernicus. there's still a lot more like this... its just that we just arent popular or shunned aside by the largely dominant western world time and time again. there are a lot of things indians are wrong about, like ignorance of foreign culture, racism is some cases, but not in knowledge.

Answer 6

bollywood!!! I think that is well worth bragging about...

oooh and achar...yum yum..

seriously though check out this link:
http://www.kuttyjapan.com/india/india-achivements.asp

excerpts:
"before the British arrived, Indians had a system of inoculation against smallpox; year-old live smallpox matter was used, and it was very effective."
"India's technology was flourishing before the British. It has been estimated that India's share of world trade in 1800 was about 20 percent (equal to America's share of world trade in 2000). The historian Ruttonjee Wadia says that ships built at Mumbai in its heyday were 'vastly superior to anything built anywhere else in the world.' According to Dharampal, there were 10,000 iron and steel furnaces operating in the eighteenth century India. "

Answer 7

1. We have not invented anything of utility value. But our ancient Indians have already given all the basic ideas of the modern inventions.For Example,In Mahabaratha,Sanchaya will be commentating the scenes of the great Mahabaratha war to Dhirudhirashta- which becomes the basic idea of live telecast nowadays,When Devaki was carrying Balarama, her husband's friend Nandha and his wife Yasodha would meet them in the jail. There Devaki was able to transfer her egg to the womb of Yasodha- this is the basic idea of surrogatory mother,Rishis were able to vanish in one place and appear in another place because they were knowing the technic of seperating the atoms of their body and travelling like a cloud/wind of atoms and deseperating the atoms to again form a body- this concept is the main story line of the hollywood movie-Matrices or Matrix.

2. Indians were moving in a right path.But something happened inbetween like continuous battles and wars which could have possibly stopped research programmes. Men were brought up mainly for the purpose of fighting and women -you know-were suppressed totally.

3. Nowadays all Indians love to undergo English way of studying. When you learn anything in your mother-tongue that would be more understood than when you study anything in foriegn language. If anyone scolds you as fool in your mother-tongue you will be irritated much but if samething told in English you will take it easily. That is the effect of mother language. It is better to understand the basic concepts of life in mother language so that more scientists would be formed naturally. Example: Chinese and their inventions & developments

Answer 8

Don't be so hard on yourself. The greatness of India is embodied in the Ahimsa of Ghandi and the physics of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar I came up with those without thinking. If you were not so bitter you could think of more than me.

Answer 9

The food gives me the runs but it's tasty when it goes down. As for technological advances, I don't know...

Answer 10

Good Question..I'll let you know if I think of something!