India is so big that, you can not claim this for everyone in India. Counterexamples:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subrahmanyan_Chandrasekhar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._V._Raman
Glory of the past doesn't exempt the incompetence of the culture present now.
As an Indian, I really wish if this were true...
To see first hand how this "Do not question authority" plays out, see this every day meeting [1] at one of the largest banks in India. Disclaimer, this video is not AI generated. Sadly it is not even satire.
Organisational (mis)behaviour---corporate and government---is simply a product of our widespread and deeply rooted feudal-bureaucratic mindset. One that both fosters and then feeds on the divisive complexities crafted from exploiting age-status, patriarchal conventions, and class and caste and religious and ethnic identities.
We are a sublimely chaotic heterogenous people. The best of us have---through the ages---been finding ways to cooperate and co-exist without giving up what they cherish most about their ways of life. The worst of us manage to always fault someone else for all their troubles, and then further incite others to do the same.
India is largely a cargo cult. Not to the same extent of removedness from reality, but much more widespread and commoditized.