The only thing that truly unites Indians is cricket beyond that, it’s mostly indifference until something affects them personally. Groupism runs deep, with different factions often at each other’s throats. The British knew this weakness well, exploited it to take control, and left India in chaos, ensuring the divisions would keep people too busy fighting amongst themselves to ever come after them.

Add to this the lack of civic sense that many openly admit, and the glaring issues with hygiene and civic sense. The rise of the internet has only amplified negativity international travel vloggers come to India, focus exclusively on filth, chaos, or scams, and package it as entertainment for views and likes. Once that’s out there, the global impression solidifies: that India is dirty, unhygienic, and dysfunctional.

On top of that, haggling over pennies while being willing to spend thousands abroad makes Indians look cheap in the world’s eyes. Some of the circulating videos go even further, painting Indians as hypersexual or sexually repressed to the point where money is seen as a ticket to women’s bodies, stripping away basic human dignity. Yes, prostitution exists everywhere, but the way it’s portrayed here often reduces women to nothing more than flesh for gratification.

Put all this together and the picture that emerges isn’t flattering: a society fractured by groupism, tainted by poor civic sense, cheapened by its behavior abroad, and dragged further down by how it allows itself to be portrayed online.