Do Indians Just Like Memorizing Stuff?

Here`s a curious op-ed by Ashok Mitra in the Calcutta Telegraph that makes me fear I missed the point of “Slumdog Millionaire.” I assumed that “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” was just a passing fancy in India like it was in America. But, I should have noticed by the fanaticism with which Indians in America approach things like spelling bees that something deeper was going on.

Parlous times, unless well-versed in the culture built around â€?quizâ€™ programmes, one would hardly be considered civilized. In one such programme, participants are grilled on their knowledge of the exact length of La Manche, otherwise known as the English Channel: is it 563 or 564 or 565 kilometres? Another â€?quizâ€™ wants participants to pick the number of children Queen Victoria bore: six, eleven, or whatever. Yet another demands to know whether the Gettysburg Address was delivered on March 25, 1865 or on February 28, 1860 or on November 1, 1863.

A multiple choice test on the date of the Gettysburg Address is reasonable because you can work it out from the concurrent date of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Fall of Vicksburg, which famously hit the newspapers on July 4, 1863. Of course, that`s a reasonable question for Americans, not for Indians.





Okay, but maybe Indians just like memorizing stuff. Maybe they`re just good at it … Remember how well Indian children did on that Wechsler Digit Span test of working memory? You don`t? Well, then you probably aren`t Indian.


I mean, here`s a paragraph from Wikipedia on the origin of the Gupta Empire:

The origins of the Guptas are shrouded in obscurity. The Chinese traveler Yijing(see also Xuanzang) provides the first evidence of the Gupta kingdom in Magadha. He came to north India in 672 CE and heard of Maharaja Sri-Gupta, who built a temple for Chinese pilgrims near Mrigasikhavana who lost their lives in epic battle . I-tsing gives the date for this event merely as `500 years before`. This does not match with other sources and hence we can assume that I-tsing`s computation was a mere guess. Very recently a few scholars have linked Guptas with rulers mentioned in Bhagwatam; however, these things are largely disputed and the idea seems politically motivated and to promote the sale of books written and promoted by some entities.[1]

What the hell kind of trivia questions can you make up out of that? “What year did that Chinese guy visit India who first heard of something or other having to do with the Gupta Empire that was built “500 years before”?”