At my event last week, I talked to people about the Philippines connection with India. After talking about shared words like Guro, Diwata and topics like the Visayas, it made sense to them but wondered why we don’t acknowledge or know about it. Is it our own discrimination or just a lack of education? Perhaps both?
This morning, an article came out on the Bangalore Mirror about the work of Graphologist Rajul Shah. She showcased some of the long forgotten Indian scripts, from which several South Asian languages have originated – including Baybayin.
Not much was said in the article about Baybayin but it was good to see the connection made from the Indian side.
Kristian Kabuay 
I wonder if it’s sort of a lingering effect of colonization, that admitting that yet another facet of our diverse culture came from somewhere else “diminishes” us, even though Indian culture permeated almost all of mainland and insular South East Asia.
I was born and raised Ilokano, now a practicing Tibetan Buddhist, and I can see our nation’s connection to India. In my Buddhist practice, I study a bit of Sanskrit and Tibetan languages and scripts. Some Ilokano words like “rupa” (“face”) came from Sanskrit, which means “form” or “physical representation.” It makes perfect sense! “Karma” is another Sanskrit word (that means “action”) that ended up becoming part of the Ilokano language. There’s a few more, but I can’t remember them from the top of my head.
I personally think that it’s both lack of education and discrimination.