English Bias

Our human brain is very powerful, boss. Supercomputer type. But even supercomputers have bugs, no? In psychology, we call these bugs "Biases" or "Fallacies." This blog is about a special kind of confusion a mix of bias and logical error—that I call the English Bias.

Basically, it is the habit of taking one small problem and zooming in on it so much that the whole picture looks bad.

Let us understand this with three simple scenarios.

Scenario 1: The Wedding & The Angry Uncle (Simple)

Imagine you organize a grand wedding at home. 2,000 guests come. The decoration is first-class, the music is rocking, and the Biryani is tasty. 99% of the function is a super success.

But, there is always that one "Distant Uncle." Maybe you forgot to serve him Gulab Jamun, or the AC was not working near his chair. He gets full angry.

Now, your friend meets this Uncle later. Friend: "How was the wedding?" Uncle: "Arre! It was a disaster! No food, no AC, total waste of money."

The Result: Your friend now thinks your function was a flop. This is called the "Misinformation Effect." Even though the function was 99% successful, the 1% error became the headline. The friend cannot see the big picture; he only sees the Uncle’s complaint.

Scenario 2: The Breaking News Trap (Slightly Complex)

Now, apply this logic to our country.

Government brings a new policy. It helps 1 Crore people. But obviously, in a big country, maybe 100 people face some genuine problem because of it.

Now, enters the Media. They want "Sensationalism" (Masala news) and "Agenda Setting" (Deciding what you should think about).

They won't interview the 1 Crore happy people. They will find those 10 angry people and run their video on loop, 24/7. Breaking News: Policy Disaster! Public in Tears!

Watching this, you sitting at home will think, "Oh God, this policy is a total failure." You are not seeing the millions who benefited. You are only seeing the breaking news ticker. This is how we get a wrong impression of success vs. failure.

Scenario 3: The "English Bias" (The Real Cultural Trap)

Now, let us come to the main point—why I call this English Bias. This is exactly what happened to Indian Culture under British rule.

Indian culture is 10,000+ years old. Like any huge system, it had some faults and bad practices (like Sati or caste discrimination). These were the "Black Dots" on a big white shirt.

When the British came, they wanted to rule us. To rule us, they needed to prove that we were "uncivilized" and they were "saviors." So, what did they do? They took these specific faults (like Sati) and highlighted them again and again.

• They didn't talk about our astronomy.

• They didn't talk about Ayurveda or Yoga.

• They only said: "Look! You burn widows! You are backward! You need us to civilize you."

The Tragedy: They repeated this so much that even today, young Indians feel ashamed of their own culture. We learned to judge our entire 10,000-year history based on 5-6 bad practices. It created deep Self-Doubt. We started thinking the whole shirt is dirty just because of one spot.

Conclusion: Don't Throw the Baby with the Bathwater

So, what is the lesson here?

English Bias is the trick of using a small, local fault to label the entire system as "Bad."

How to deal with it?

1. Acknowledge the fault: Yes, Sati was bad. It needed to go.

2. Don't Generalize: Just because Sati was bad, doesn't mean the Vedas are bad. Just because the AC didn't work for Uncle, doesn't mean the wedding was a flop.

We must fix the problems in our culture, definitely. But we shouldn't hate our roots because of them. Always look at the big picture before judging.

Even now people talk about caste and untouchability to conclude Sanatan dharma has to go away. It is not dharma that needs to go, it is untouchability and caste as birth right that needs to go.

Don't let the "Black Dot" hide the White Shirt.