Row over Sabeer Bhatia saying India should ‘appreciate its history’, Sridhar Vembu responds

An online fight between two billionaires over how India should view its past has stirred a row on social media, with Indian-origin tech entrepreneurs Sabeer Bhatia and Sridhar Vembu clashing after Vembu compared Bhatia’s remarks to asking Jews to “appreciate” the Holocaust.The row began after Bhatia, the Indian-American co-founder of Hotmail, posted a message urging Indians to acknowledge both the positive and negative parts of the country’s history rather than remain “trapped in endless battles over the past”.“India should be able to appreciate every chapter of its history without feeling threatened by it. The Mughals left behind magnificent architecture, art, cuisine, language, and culture. The British left institutions, infrastructure, and the English language, which opened doors for millions, including me. I would not have achieved what I have without mastering English,” Bhatia wrote on X.“A mature civilization acknowledges both the achievements and the mistakes of its past. Yet today, too much energy is spent hating what came before us instead of building on it. We should be grateful to the generations that laid the foundations we inherited, learn from history, and focus our attention on creating a better future,” he added.He also said: “The future is full of opportunity. Let’s embrace it rather than remain trapped in endless battles over the past.”Some users agreed that India should take a balanced view of history, while others accused Bhatia of downplaying the suffering caused during foreign invasions and colonial rule.A hardline response came from Vembu, the billionaire co-founder of Zoho Corporation, who rejected the idea that painful periods of history should simply be “appreciated”.“Will Sabeer Bhatia advise the Jews to “appreciate” the Holocaust chapter of their history?” Vembu wrote in response.Vembu said: “As a matter of fact, only because the Jews remember the history and said “Never again”, have they been able to build Israel and all its technological prowess and they have also revived the Hebrew language.”He added: “Bharat will do all of it. We will rebuild our great civilization, we will remember our history (Never again!) and honor the memory of our ancestors, and we will also revive our great languages.”Bhatia is one of Silicon Valley’s earliest Indian-origin technology pioneers and was born in Chandigarh and raised in Bengaluru. He co-founded Hotmail in 1996 before it was acquired by Microsoft two years later. He has often spoken about how learning English helped shape his career.Vembu was born in Tamil Nadu and founded Zoho Corporation in 1996 after studying at IIT Madras and Princeton University. In recent years, he has become known for advocating rural development, Indian languages and decentralised growth in the technology sector.Sridhar Vembu has previously said Indian professionals need not move to US for opportunities and should build careers in India. He advocates “reverse migration” of skilled workers and supports developing technology and jobs within India, including in smaller towns and rural areas.