Ashoka killed 18000 Ajivikas of Pundrahvardhana and eradicated the entire Ajivika faith. He also enforced vegetarianism and perscuted whoever did not follow that dictat. This destroyed livelihoods of many classes whose profession was tied to hunting, fisheries and animal byproducts. But he is considered 'The Great'. This is is what called propaganda. Here actions do not matter but affiliation is everything. This is the main peril of monotheistic religions.

Sharamanic faiths emerged in eastern gangetic plains as a reaction to Vedic Religion. Their main objection was Animal sacrifice in rituals and meat-eating, ban on moneylending and interests, restriction of the power of propertied classes and private property in general. It is the Shramanic religions that banned cowslaughter as Cow was an important animal in both agriculture and trade. Yet this crucial history is supressed to hide the true knowledge about how everything came into existence.

When Vedic religion died, their old followers also took on these Shramanic ethos.

Buddhism is one of the pioneer of state-sponsored theocracy, religious persecution and violence. It was from Kushans Buddhism started to become more evolved and humane.

Is it surprising that the narratives of monotheist reactionaries and indian state always converges or there is some deeper links?

Despite all the noise around India’s chance to leverage the China-plus one strategy, India’s share of global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows fell from 3.5 per cent in the first nine months of 2022 to 2.19 per cent in the same period in 2023, according to OECD data.

The sharp drop of 54 per cent is much steeper than the overall global FDI inflow decline of 26 per cent in the first nine months.

FDI inflows to China have fallen dramatically from a share of 12.5 per cent in the first nine months of 2022 to only 1.7 per cent in the same period in 2023.

The US is in the top gainer with a 29.4 per cent share of global FDI inflows in the first nine months of CY 2023, up from 24 per cent in the previous year.

This is understandable given the semiconductor and electronics investments that are coming up (such as TSMC’s mega fabrication plants) and the total approved FDI from Taiwan in 2023 of $11. 25 billion.

What has helped are government schemes under the CHIPS Act that have set aside $52 billion for the semiconductor industry in subsidies.

What’s more, the geopolitical tensions between the US and China have drawn many companies from Taiwan and South Korea and other locations to set up manufacturing operations in the US to reduce their dependence on China.

The situation has been summed up by a report by Kotak Institutional Equities: "India is still to see a meaningful pick up in FDI investment despite the China +1 narrative and significant reforms,”

And, on the other hand, the US and a select set of developed markets and emerging markets seem to have benefited from the sharp decline of FDI inflows in China.

Apart from the US, Canada has gained a fair bit.

Its global share of FDI inflows rose from 2.9 per cent to 4.6 per cent in the period under review.

Mexico, which has the advantage of supplying to its big neighbour, has also seen its share go up from 2.8 per cent to 3.6 per cent.

Germany’s share rose to 2 per cent, a sharp rise from 0.4 per cent for the same period.