You have probably seen the memes by now, or the jokes on Twitter about how the world’s countries tend to have priorities that are radically different from India’s. I recall one in particular: an image of athletes at a starting block leaning into the track while the only one looking the other way happens to be Indian. I couldn’t figure out why so many people loved it, until a friend helpfully informed me of riots in some parts of Maharashtra over the remains of an emperor who died a little over three centuries ago.

I don’t want to discuss the emperor in question, because I am not a historian, have no interest in contributing to op-eds on the subject, and can’t be bothered with propaganda. What I do want to highlight is that people laughing at the government for its obsession with the past are missing the point entirely. It is only a highly evolved group of people aware of exactly what they’re doing who will gently nudge a nation towards what has already happened rather than what is going on. If you get angry about someone who died a century ago, for instance, you will have no time for the eight farmers who allegedly kill themselves daily, even if those suicides also occur in Maharashtra.