Why are Indians Super Dumb?

India’s average IQ is 82 [IQbyCountry], which means super-stupid or borderline braindead [the chart below, unlike me, is too goddamn politically correct]. As it’s the average, it means that more than half of the population [700 million people] is super-duper stupid or medically braindead.

I’ve profoundly thought about what makes someone spectacularly stupid. After decades of philosophical thinking [mostly while drinking adulterated whiskey with morgue-ice & contaminated water], here is my indisputable thesis:

“You are not stupid if you’re stupid - You are stupid if you are stupid but are too stupid to recognize that you are stupid.”

Alright, if some of you were bamboozled by the wordplay there, it doesn’t mean that you’re stupid. I will explain with an example.

At present, my IQ hovers between 127 & 133 [depending on which IQ test I take]. As per the IQ chart, I fall into the ‘Very Superior’ category. Statistically, it means I’m smarter than at least 90% of the humans in the world & at least 98% of Indians. How on Earth did that happen when I was born in a country that has one of the lowest IQs in the world?

Here’s how:

Growing up, my mother was intelligent [academically]. She got admitted to a Top college in Delhi University: LSR [Lady Shri Ram College]. After college, she picked up a full-time job in a Corporation [this was rare in the ‘70s for women in India]. Though my dad did not have great academics, he did begin his independent small business from scratch. My dad’s brother quickly became a high-ranked, highly-paid employee in Delhi - even though he was born & raised in a village in Garhwal. This was no chamatkaar [miracle]. My dad & his brother belonged to the highest caste [Thakur] in their village. Higher Caste means more Privileges & Money. 

I was born in 1981.

It will be reasonable & scientific to state that part of the IQ is inherited. IQ may not be race/caste-related, but it’s undoubtedly related to the parents’ IQ.
P.S. You can be born with much lower or much higher IQ than your parents’ too - but those scenarios occur less often. 

In short, due to my privileged background, I had a head-start. From the onset, I had an above-average IQ [more than 82]. Both my parents worked full-time but didn’t make enough money to put me in creche/day-care. By age 2, I often found myself alone at home throughout the sunlight hours. This meant I had to manage independently. This adversity became an opportunity for my brain to get activated much before a child is supposed to make decisions & think for himself. Looking back, I’ve no doubt this kickstarted my cognitive abilities: the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.

My scores in primary school were amongst the best. 

Over the next few years, the atmosphere at home - which was mostly not great due to my father’s excessive drinking, which led to constant verbal & physical fights - partially contributed to my scores falling by double-digits with each passing year. 

My final percentages were:

4th Grade/Class: 75%

5th Grade: 65%

6th Grade: 55%

7th Grade: 45%

At the end of 7th Grade, my parents knew it was time for a change. They sent me to a boarding school in the boarding school capital: Dehradun.

This was an example of my parents realizing that I’m [getting] stupider by the year & taking action to address that bigfat problem. They knew it wasn’t that the school I was studying in was terrible but a combination of ‘ordinary school & home environment’. Point to Note: My parents were smart enough to realize that I was becoming stupider. That’s why they strived to fix the problem before it became unfixable.  

Once I was in the boarding school, I met students who had higher IQ & were far superior than me in almost every aspect except Cricket & Mathematics. 

Initially, my scores fell further. I scored 37% in my mid-year exams in 8th Grade. After that my scores began to move up gradually. In 11th Grade, I topped my Class with 89.4% [ISC Board in 1998 didn’t give inflated/astronomical scores that CBSE gives now].

I did not score greatly in 12th Boards [75.75%]. As I couldn’t even imagine getting admission in Delhi University, I asked my mother to send me to Australia [Aus Average IQ: 98]. I spent the next six years in Adelaide/Melbourne. Overall, I spent my formative years - between ages 12 & 24, in a fine boarding school & Australia studying in top-notch universities, working part-time & living independently. 

The privileges I got are afforded by a maximum of 2% of the people born in India. So when my present IQ [127-133] is higher than 98% of the Indians, it’s no surprise but is exactly the result of the privileges I’ve grown up with in my life. 

In simple words, anyone else born & raised under the privileges I have had should have exactly the same IQ as I do. I don’t deserve to have a better IQ than 1.3 billion Indians. And the 1.3 billion Indians do not deserve to have a lower IQ than I do. 

I’ve simply been luckier to have parents [primarily my mom], who were educated, working professionals, thinking humans & also had money to send me to a boarding school & then to a first-world country with a 16 point higher average IQ than my home country. 

The ridiculously high inequality in India is the reason India is ranked 8th on the billionaires’ list & 120th on GDP per capita. 

Having an IQ higher than 98% of the Indians doesn’t make me feel amazing, it makes me realize that I got much more than I deserved & instead of spending my life giving birth to more humans [that’s why I don’t have kids] & keep fueling the unfair game, I must, every day, do everything that’s in my capacity to bridge the gap. I must admit that I, mostly, feel helpless & fail to bring any sustainable change whatsoever, but I try. And I don’t intend to give up. 

Final Note: Low IQ is the primary reason for India’s poverty but the reason India has such a low IQ is because most of the people are poor. It’s a vicious cycle. 

Rich people [with higher IQs] are giving birth to fewer kids & Poor people [with lower IQs] are giving birth to more kids. This trend is unlikely to change in the next few decades. This means India will rise further up in the Billionaires’ rankings & fall further in the GDP per capita rankings. This means millions of more people will suffer indefinitely, and unlike God suffering is ‘real’ & curable, but only if we all gave a little damn.

But the hard reality is that the Poor are too stupid to fix their problems & the Rich are too smart to not fix the Poor’s problems - as it keeps them Rich.

I don’t see how that scenario is ever going to change in India. I really don’t.