Spencer Pratt Says India Has Produced ‘Zero Mozarts,’ Ro Khanna Pushes Back
India-West News Desk
WASHINGTON, DC -A social media exchange over Jeff Bezos’ vision of a future with a trillion humans living in the solar system sparked a broader argument over India, cultural achievement, immigration and what makes America exceptional.
The exchange began after a post highlighted comments by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos about why he wants to see a trillion humans living in the solar system. Bezos said such a population would mean having, at any given time, “1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins,” arguing that the solar system could support a civilization of that size with its resources.
That drew a response from Spencer Pratt, the Republican who lost the Los Angeles Mayor primary to Nithya Raman.
“Yeah that’s not how greatness works, Jeff,” Pratt wrote. “India has 2X more people than the entire earth did in Mozart’s time and they’ve produced precisely zero Mozarts. Numbers don’t produce greatness, cultures do.” He added, “It’s baffling how such smart people think and say the stupidest things.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, (D-CA) who has frequently spoken about the contributions of Indian Americans, pushed back against Pratt.
“You don’t have to run other people down to lift us up,” Khanna responded. “Time literally called A.R Rahman the Mozart of Madras and Tyagaraja was a melodic genius.”
“What makes America exceptional is an embrace of the best traditions of the world, not an ignorant rejection of them,” Khanna added.
And as it always is in social media, the exchange moved into a broader argument over immigration and national allegiance. While some sided with Khanna there were others like
America First Tech who accused him of having divided loyalties. “You’ve made your allegiance to India clear,” the account wrote. “If that is where your loyalty lies, take your talents back home and help make India great again.”
It said U.S. immigration and visa system is broken and singled out the H-1B visa program, claiming that Indians account for roughly 70% of H-1B visas. The post further criticized benefits available to foreign workers and their families and raised national security concerns over foreign workers in STEM fields. “They view the U.S. as an economic opportunity zone while still holding allegiance to their country of birth,” the account said.
Sam
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Too boring!!!
August 18, 2026Watch Bollywood.
Sam
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I guess colonial mindset is setting in. Destroy the culture and heritage. Loot the gold and wealth and say you have nothing.
OK, we have nothing.
Tell Trump he does not want the trade deal with India. Indians have nothing.
August 18, 2026Mouli
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Spencer Pratt @$$%%# was, is and will be just a has been, wannabe and that’s about it. Responding to his garbage is waste of time. What spills out of his orifice is just gutter slime.
August 18, 2026Subhash Garg
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To America West Tech:
LOL, you people deserve to have your tech stolen and your freedoms abused by a totalitaran China that’s eating your lunch and dinner. Indians at least are helping you – but their brown skin makes you so mad that you’re happy to give China a free pass.
August 18, 2026Dr.Nat Subramonian
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As much as I admire modern day India I have to agree with Spencer Pratt that historically India despite her enormous population has not accomplished as much as Europe and America in Arts and Science. Just calling someone like A.R.Rahman Mozart of Madras is an insult to Mozart and does not prove India has produced a Mozart! It will also be safe for any US Congressman not to rush to defend country of his heritage!
August 18, 2026S.N. Sridhar
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The entire discussion is circular, if not vacuous. A truly educated person, by that I mean not just someone with an Oxford or Harvard education but someone with interest in and desire to learn from all parts of the universe – Africa or Latin America, Asia or Europe — would find that there are many kinds of greatness . Mozart is indeed great but there are many kinds of greatness in music. Tyagaraja, as Ro Khanna correctly said, is a towering genius in music composition, but in Carnatic (South Indian) Classical Indian music, not in Western Classical music. The problem is, as with any classical learning, it takes long years of discipline, dedication, and practice to learn to appreciate Carnatic music, just like it does to appreciate Western or any other music. It is easy to dismiss one or the other, but it is a sign of a truly catholic temperament and universal aptitude to appreciate different kinds of music. To say that India has not produced many Mozarts is as meaningles as to say the U.S. has not produced many Tyagarajas. You are comparing apples and oranges. I suggest we drop this whole discussion as to which culture is greater in terms of how many Mozarts or Nobel Prize winners or Einsteins a culture has produced. Cultural studies of the last seventy years or so has amply demonstrated how relative these estimations and valuations are. Everyone know how politicized all these prize determinations are, and more important, how the standards themselves have been determined by decades of elements in power, whether in terms of gender, race, class, caste, religion, politics, or money.
August 18, 2026