That analogy is a terrible one for the historical situation we're talking about. The numeral system is a concept that was vastly changed as it passed through different cultures over time. The current system in use is, demonstrably, not the one used in the ancient Indian subcontinent. It is indeed a Hindu-Arabic system because the form we use today arose among Arab scholars who had adapted the older Indian symbols.
It's nationalistic nonsense to fight against both the historical reality and the natural flow of ideas over millennia, and does indeed smack of an inferiority complex. It's not a slight or a slur to acknowledge the complexity of the historical reality, and the achievements of ancient Indian peoples are no less impressive, anymore than the Greek adaptation and expansion of older Babylonian geometric concepts diminishes those.
It's nationalistic nonsense to fight against both the historical reality and the natural flow of ideas over millennia, and does indeed smack of an inferiority complex. It's not a slight or a slur to acknowledge the complexity of the historical reality, and the achievements of ancient Indian peoples are no less impressive, anymore than the Greek adaptation and expansion of older Babylonian geometric concepts diminishes those.