If Indians and India were so great in ancient times and were making unbelievable discoveries, what went wrong that it's not the same in the 21st century?

如果印度人和印度在古代曾经那么伟大，曾有令人难以置信的发现，那么是哪里出了问题，他们在21世纪已不复辉煌了？

以下是Quora读者的评论：

Swapnesh Wagh, Curious...!!

Yes, in Vedic times India was the center of education for the world. We had established and sought after universities like Nalanda and Takshashila, where people from all over the world would come to learn at. At that time, India was reach in intellect, many Indians (rishi-muni) spent their time on discovering and discussing about various aspects of life and universe. Educated people were given utmost respect; even the kings treated learned sages and their disciples specially. This is known as the Golden Age of India (during the Gupta Empire).

是的，在吠陀时代，印度曾是世界教育的中心。我们建立了那烂陀寺大学和得叉始罗大学，世界各地的人们都来这里学习。在那个时候，印度人的智力已经达到了一定的水平，许多印度人把时间花在探索和讨论生命和宇宙的各个方面。受过教育的人受到最高的礼遇，就连国王也对有学问的圣贤和他们的门徒另眼相待。这就是众所周知的印度黄金时代(笈多王朝时期)。

After the fall of the Gupta empire, invaders from mid Asia started attacking Indian subcontinent. Although the Indian kings fought back, yet their temples and ashrams were destroyed (which were the invaders' main target) and the knowledge and culture of education were lost along with them.

笈多王朝覆灭后，来自中亚的侵略者开始入侵印度次大陆。虽然印度国王进行了反击，但寺庙和道场还是被摧毁了(这是入侵者的主要目标)，知识和教育文化也随之消失。

Then came the Mughals who started acquiring as much part of India as they could for them main aim was to conquer and rule as much land as they could. They couldn't care less about the Indian culture. More temples were destroyed, Hindus were converted into Islam forcefully. Mughals believed in power and did everything to remain in power. Though Akbar tried to conserve Indian culture, the essence was lost.

后来莫卧儿人开始鲸吞印度的大部分地区，他们的主要目标是征服和统治尽可能多的土地。他们一点也不关心印度文化。越来越多的寺庙被摧毁，印度教徒被强制皈依为ysl教徒。莫卧儿人只信奉权力，为了继续掌权不惜一切代价。尽管阿克巴试图保护印度文化，但其精髓还是遗失了。

Mughals spent most of their energy on acquiring and maintaining power, so in that period, local people too spent most of their energy on defending their homes and staying alive. No one paid attention towards their intellectual development.

莫卧儿人把大部分精力花在攫取和维持权力上，所以在那个时期，当地人也把大部分精力花在保家卫国、好好活命上。没人有精力关注知识的传承发展。

Then came the British. They introduced Indians to the outside world, brought lots of developments like roads and trains. Under the British rule Indians started learning new technologies and became aware of new developments that had been happening elsewhere in the world. Many Indians started educating themselves and their families. A few went abroad to learn.

然后英国人来了。他们让印度人跟外面的世界有了接触，带来了很多发展，比如道路和火车。在英国统治下，印度人开始学习新技术，并意识到世界其他地方正在发生的新的进步。许多印度人开始自学、教导家人。一些人则去到国外学习。

As the British brought these developments to India, they also brought western culture. To the Indians, it was a new and curious thing. They were attracted towards western culture. Lots of Indians who went abroad for studies liked the western culture and tried to inculcate it in the Indian society.

英国人在把这些进步带到印度的同时，也带来了西方文化。对印度人来说，这是一件新奇的事。他们被西方文化吸引。许多出国留学的印度人喜欢西方文化，并试图将其引入印度社会。

Years after achieving independence, we are still attracted to western culture; hence many students, after graduation, try to get jobs abroad.

独立多年后，我们仍然被西方文化所吸引；因此，许多学生毕业后都想在国外工作。

Indians are still intelligent. We are still making lots of new discoveries and advancements in technology (the latest Mars Mission serves as a live example). What we lack is the use of Indian intellect for India. As many of our students are attracted towards western culture and the smooth life that western countries offer, our intellect isn't being used for the development of India. Whatever inventions/discoveries we make are not hel India as much as they would if they happened in India.

印度人还是很聪明。我们现在也还有许多新的发现和技术进步(最新的火星任务就是一个活生生的例子)。我们缺少的是把印度人的智慧用在印度身上。我们的许多学生被西方文化和西方国家提供的舒适生活所吸引，我们的智慧没有用于印度的发展。无论我们有着什么样的发明/发现，对印度的帮助都不会像直接发生在印度境内那么大。

Though NRIs contribute a lot to India's GDP, its not only money that India needs but also their intellect. If all Indians contributed their intellect towards develo India, there could still be another Golden age for India.

虽然印度的海外侨胞对印度的GDP贡献很大，但印度需要的不仅是钱，还有他们的智慧。如果所有印度人都为发展印度贡献自己的智慧，印度也许还能迎来又一个黄金时代。

Anonymous

Consider all the things that have happened to India so far.

Start with the prediction that evil will rule in Kalki.

想想迄今为止发生在印度的所有事情。

先从恶魔将统治卡尔基的预言开始。

Follow it up with a sustained attack of over 2000 years. The incredulous fact of this planet is - India as a country is the only place on this planet which retains continuity of its traditions for thousands of years. Europe was overcome by Christianity and the Middle East by Mohammedan religion.

接下来是持续2000多年的入侵。这个星球令人难以置信的事实是——印度这个国家是这个星球上唯一一个保持了数千年传统的地方。欧洲被基督教所征服，中东被伊 斯兰教所征服。

These religions have spent over 2 millennia trying to change it’s nature. But India still stands. Broken, hurt, struggling sometimes. But it still stands strong.

这些宗教花了2000多年的时间试图改变印度。但印度仍然屹立不倒。虽然有些时候毁损，受伤，挣扎，但仍然屹立不倒。

Look at various sections of development. Indians are still doing many things inspite of 1600 years of constant Islamic aggression and 300 years of British overlording.

看看印度的种种发展。尽管经历了1600年不断的ysl侵略和300年的英国殖民统治，印度人仍然有很多进展。

Look at the various incorrect allegations of Dalit etc which the foreigners are trying to use to divide India. Everytime someone talks of Dalit atrocity, ask them when it happened. Because the so called upper class themselves fighting foreign rulers atrocities. Still India is fine.

看看达利特等各种不实的指控，外国人试图利用这些指控来分裂印度。每当有人谈论达利特暴行时，问问他们是什么时候发生的。因为所谓的上层阶级自己就在反抗外国统治者的暴行。印度还是很好的。

And today we have many people of these religion accepting that

If this is not proof of resilience and capabilities, then there cannot be any other.

今天我们有很多信仰这些宗教的人接受了这一点。

如果这不是抗逆力和能力的证明，那别的也都不算了。

Anonymous

Yes in ancient times India was like US rich, best opportunities for education , businesses, anything, the entire world came to India for studies and they wanted to do business with India just like US today, since India had the best scholars and lots of resources, it made remarkable progress in all fields of science

是的，在古代，印度就像美国一样富有，有最好的教育机会，商贸活动发达等等，全世界的人都来印度学习，他们想和印度做生意，就像今天的美国一样，因为印度有最好的学者和大量的资源，它在所有科学领域取得了显著进展。

However we fail to understand that just like US of today India was also the biggest military power in ancient times, Indian steel was of the highest quality in ancient times and Indian metallurgy was world famous, to compliment this India was a self sufficient land protected by Himalayas, (also like US which is protected by oceans )

然而我们无法理解，就像今天的美国一样，印度也是古代最大的军事力量，古代的印度钢铁是质量最好的，印度冶金世界文明，印度是一个喜马拉雅山脉守护的自给自足的国家(像美国一样受到海洋的保护)。

But like any great thing , be it any company (nokia) or civilization we need to evolve with time , as India did not Change with times , India became vulnerable to outside attacks and fell to foreign rule , and economic and social development comes after security....

但就像所有伟大的事情一样，不管是公司(诺基亚)还是文明，我们都需要与时俱进。印度没有随着时代的变迁而进步，所以容易受到外来入侵并落入外国统治，经济和社会发展只能落在国家安全之后了。

Faizan Sheikh, works at Tata Consultancy Services

Hedonism happened.

因为享乐主义。

In ancient times, Indians were more talented as their keen focus was on their work. Exquisite workmanship and devotion were unfazed by external distractions (as there were were hardly any). This was the reason behind eminent contribution to society in various fields and led to abundant discoveries and inventions.

古代印度人更有才华，因为他们专注于自己的研究领域。精湛的工艺和奉献精神没有受到外部干扰。这就是他们在各个领域对社会做出了杰出贡献的原因，造就了大量的发现和发明。

By the begng of this century, a myriad of resources were introduced which though indicate the expansion of technology and world wide connectivity, also did harm to a great sector of society which misinterpreted the modernization with westernization. For instance, a many people started exploring internet in heedless pursuits of pleasure and entertainment rather than using it for more productive purposes like research and innovation.

到本世纪初，大量资源的引进虽然标志着技术的发展和世界范围内的互联互通，但也给社会造成了很大的危害，社会上很多人对现代化的理解被西化了。例如，许多人开始在互联网上探索，只顾着享乐，没有把网络用于更富有成效的用途，如研究和创新。

Social media became popular among youngsters for posting their pictures and as chit-chat zones. They started wasting their time in these frivolous activities and underestimated the significance of utilizing the same time in develo essential skills that would help them in contributing to various technical and non-technical areas.

社交媒体在年轻人中变得流行起来，因为他们可以把自己的照片发到网上或者聊天。他们开始把时间浪费在这些琐碎的事情上，低估了利用这些时间提升基本技能的重要性，这些技能将有助于他们在各种技术和非技术领域作出贡献。

The gist of the context is that Indians must retain their intellectual status by properly utilizing the available resources for better reasons than just entertaining themselves. They should  rivet their souls and energies for the cardinal purpose of strengthening their adeptness and bringing to epicenter what is consequential.

这篇文章的主旨是，印度人必须通过合理利用现有资源来保持他们的智力水平，而不是仅仅为了娱乐自己。他们应该专注于他们的灵魂和精力，加强他们的技能。

Chandramani Swain,

well in ancient times we had our indigenous methods of teaching,we were champ in math,science(astronomy),but the gradual influence of mughals ruined our society.The luxurious kings of mughals did pay a little attention giving patronage to the field of science,education.And gradually superstition,ill beliefs came to our society.and it reached to its Nadir during british.English education helped us to liberate but it came with a price. We lost all our glorious past.Forever we became a follower of a align culture.The present generation has the scope,look at the indian diaspora getting excellent recognition every were ,but not in india.We are handicapped with limited opportunities,bottle neck policies.We have crores of money to spent on elephants,but nothing for research.so making something brilliant we need a conducive atmosphere,and sorry to say we are light years away from it

在古代我们有自己的教学方法，我们是数学、科学(天文学)领域的冠军，但是莫卧儿人的影响力逐步摧毁了我们的社会。奢华的莫卧儿国王们确实对科学和教育领域给予了些许关注。但渐渐地，迷信和不良的信仰进入了我们的社会。这在英国统治期间跌至谷底。英语教育帮助我们得到了解放，但也付出了代价。我们失去了所有辉煌的历史。现在的一代有这样的视野，看看印度移民获得的卓越认可吧，每个人都是，但不是在印度。我们被有限的机会和瓶颈政策所限制。我们把数千百万的钱花在大象身上，但没有用于研究。因此，我们需要营造出一种有益的氛围，很抱歉，我们离这种氛围还有数光年之遥。

Rajnish Kumar, works at Indian Software Industry

Huns destroyed takshashila university.

Bakhtiyar Khilzi destroyed Vikramsila University and Nalanda University.

匈奴人摧毁了得叉始罗大学。

Bakhtiyar Khilzi摧毁了Vikramsila大学和那烂陀寺大学。

Invaders kept on invading and destroying India.

侵略者继续入侵并摧毁印度。

India was very good at trade through sea. But Mughals were not having good exposure to sea trade so during this period trade through sea declined.

印度曾经非常擅长海上贸易。但是莫卧儿人对海上贸易不太感冒，所以在这一时期，海上贸易额衰退了。

Then came Britishers who looted India since recently.

然后近代洗劫印度的英国人又来了。

Vikas Siddam, mbbs from NTR University of Health Sciences (2015)

people now are just fond of employment tat makes their life settled in way to lead a sucessful life in the society...but they are not taking chances to explore the science and development tat can be done..tat is only done when every citizen has security to basic needs and strong place in the society..actually it depends on the government to take care of basic needs and educate people about necessity of development of reasearch skills...atleast now u can educate ur children and make them think every small things in their life in a great angle (how,why,or else)..that may make india reach same hieghts where our ancient intellectualls left...so its our turn to change

人们现在只是喜欢就业，可以令他们的生活安定下来，过上成功的生活。但是他们没有抓住机会去探索科学和发展。只有当每个公民都有基本需求和社会地位的保障时，社会才会进步。事实上，它依赖于政府照顾基本需求，并教育人们发展研究技能的必要性…至少现在你可以教育你的孩子，让他们从一个伟大的角度思考生活中的每一件小事(怎么做，为什么，或者其他)。这可能会让印度重归我们古代知识分子达到的高度……轮到我们改变了。

Ajay Pal Singh, Ex DRDO Scientist, Entrepreneur working in Eldercare

Indian kings narrow mindedness, feeling of supremacy, not thinking about adopting new technology, a society which did not adapt with time, and the internal fights, rather than working together to grow India as a whole.

British had a huge role in screwing India but then we gave them all the opportunities to do that.

印度国王思想狭隘，很有优越感，没有考虑引进新技术，社会没有与时俱进，内部斗争不断，没有共同努力把印度作为整体来发展。

英国在搅浑印度这件事上发挥了巨大作用，但正是我们自己给了他们这些机会。

Sarosh Mohammad, lives in India

We missed that train called the Industrial Revolution.

我们错过了那趟叫做工业革命的列车。