India is imitator. Since the Britishers came here, we have become first-class imitator. When the 1914, the war was going on, so it is understood that in high court, Calcutta high court, there is leisure hour, tiffin hour. So all the judges were sitting. So one English judge, he asked Sir Asutosh Mukherji, “Mr. Mukherji, now the Germans are coming, and if so, what you are going to do?” Mr. Mukherji, Sir Asutosh Mukherji, he replied, “Yes, as soon as the Germans will come, we shall offer our respect in this way, ‘Come on, sir.’ ” “So you’ll not counteract? Why?” “You have taught us to make like this, so we shall do that. Because you have simply taught us this, how to obey your orders. So anyone who will come, we shall do this.” The idea is the slave mentality… The Englishmen, in an organized way, they taught the Indians how to become servant of the Englishmen. We have seen. It is Gandhi’s movement that he dismantled this idea of white prestige. Otherwise, we were taught like that. Formerly, in our childhood, it was the advancement of civilization if one could imitate the English fashion.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.7.38–39 — September 30, 1976, Vrndavana

*Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma) was born on October 2, 1869