About pagan India before the English:

"cursed from one end to the other by the vice, the ignorance, the oppression, the despotism, the barbarous and cruel customs that have been the growth of ages under every description of Asiatic misrule."

James Mill, History of British India, 1818.

Don't be pagan. Nor an atheist. Orwell and internet are full of good quotes about atheists.