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It has nothing to do with religion IMO. Education is given a lot of importance in southern India, that could have helped a tiny bit, but apart from that I don't see how it is relevant.

Dr Abdul Kalam is widely revered in India for his contributions to rocket propulsion, pretty sure he was good at math & physics as well.

I always thought it's due to parental/societal pressure to excel

Vishy Anand inspired the up and coming indian chess players.

VIshwanath Anand is a Hindu

Come from the same region as these folks. There is no correlation to religion in a lot of this. I studied in Govt. institutions where no one cared about a lot of religion , it was just race to the top.

I understand there is a lot more polarity now , trust me this does not have a thing!. The most inspirational engineer all of us looked to was Dr. APJ. Peer groups matter