[Assam] Eyes, Ears And Minds Closed
Ram Sarangapani
assamrs at gmail.com
Thu Jun 1 13:52:58 PDT 2006
Mukul da,
>Do we want*Education * to enable produce better/faster/simpler so that
humans improve their >living condition and Nature gets a chance to survive
in Synergy---. Should not everybody >Purposefully, Continuously, be highly
Educated in Science/optimisation/disease-free life/-->
While this is a noble desire and a good goal for a country, the reality is
that that it would be next to impossible to get all citizens at the same
educational level of excellence you demand.
Further, as humans, we all have only certain areas that may be we could
possibly shine. Even advanced countries like the US and UK have not been
able to do this. The most countries can expect is facilitate opportunities
for those students who have shown some degree of excellence in the past.
Some concessions could be made for students who do not come from the best
environments, and yet have done well. But to institute a blanket concession
to all lower castes (just because they belong to one) without regard to
their accumen or lack thereof is IMHO not the correct way.
>Why zero in only on meaningless IIT/IIM/AIIMS only?What have they done to
the life of >1000+million ?
If that is true, I wonder why everyone is clamoring over the seats in these
intitutions. Also why are the western countries so enamooured with the IITs
and IIMs. Do you think that the Indians got educationists and employers the
world over, fooled?
>Maths was not discovered by Hindu India-Nor anything at all of Science.
Arjun is only a His >Master's Voice. Docs fear reduced earnings if there are
more parallels competing.
Where did the Mahabharata come in from? I am confused.
--Ram
On 5/31/06, mc mahant <mikemahant at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> *Given all the reasons you give, tell me something. *
> **
> *Should a someone who is barely passing in math and science be allowed
> admissions to an IIT or to any of the engineering colleges?*
>
>
> Let's get fundas right.
>
> Do we want*Education * to enable produce better/faster/simpler so that
> humans improve their living condition and Nature gets a chance to survive in
> Synergy---. Should not everybody Purposefully, Continuously, be highly
> Educated in Science/optimisation/disease-free life/--at home, in the Tea
> Garden,in the ricefield,while walkig ,while reading newspaper, while
> watching Indian Idol----.Why zero in only on meaningless IIT/IIM/AIIMS
> only?What have they done to the life of 1000+million ?
>
> *Or do we want Education for some Castes so that the good word spreads and
> they become psychlogically indebted to Gandhi Clan and vote them back to
> power for ever. *
>
> Maths was not discovered by Hindu India-Nor anything at all of Science.
> Arjun is only a His Master's Voice. Docs fear reduced earnings if there are
> more parallels competing.
>
> All confused
>
> And the leadership too.
>
> Otherwise IIM would have published a *Long -term impact or otherwise due
> to 27% Reservation*
>
> *Let Confusion Prevail. *
>
> *Additional % Growth to India's *Economy !!
>
> mm
>
>
>
>
>
> .
>
> ------------------------------
>
> From: *umesh sharma <jaipurschool at yahoo.com>*
> Reply-To: *umesh.sh05 at post.harvard.edu*
> To: *Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com>, Chan Mahanta <
> cmahanta at charter.net>*
> CC: *Dilip/Dil Deka <dilipdeka at yahoo.com>, ASSAMNET <assam at assamnet.org>*
> Subject: *Re: [Assam] Eyes, Ears And Minds Closed*
> Date: *Wed, 31 May 2006 19:18:10 +0100 (BST)*
>
>
>
> There are hundreds of private engg and medical schools all over the
> country which are still waiting to fill their seats. Even if they have
> excellent faculty and seats - they still need the students. Who can pay for
> the costlier private education --- the more privelaged upper caste
> students!! Simple.
>
> Take admission and join.
>
> Umesh
>
> *Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
>
> C'da
>
> >> Merit is important too. Those who are not, regardless of their
> >>caste have no business in getting into the "Ivy League schools".
>
> >*** This is a poorly deliberated statement. It gives the appearance
> >that MERIT is a genetic attribute, born in the image of the caste
> >system.
>
> Could have been a poor statement, but not delibrate.
>
> Given all the reasons you give, tell me something.
>
> Should a someone who is barely passing in math and science be allowed
> admissions to an IIT or to any of the engineering colleges?
>
> I am NOT saying Brahmins who are poor ought to be allowed BUT NOT OBCs
> in similar circumstances.
>
> >It so happens that so called 'merit' ( read an ability to write
> exams well, do good >math etc.) is developed, with the help of a host of
> special advantages:
>
> > ** Able and educated parents
> > ** Schools that do their job of educating
> > ** An environment of learning and where the pupils are
> challenged.
> > ** Availability of schools where ALL students get a fair shot
> at
> > being taught, including those 'gadha' ones.
>
> C'da, while I sincerely empathize with your cause, all these you list
> are symptoms of a poor country and yes there are problems. But the first
> casualty cannot be quality education. A country cannot and should not
> sideline brilliant students just because they are rich or poor or because
> some may have brilliant parents and have all the goodies in life.
> The system can charge an equitable higher fees for these "rich brats"
> and charge none whatsoever for the poor (but brilliant).
> College admissions can also take into account if a poor student has done
> "very well" given the circumstances of their background of poverty and
> because of the resources that were not available to them.
>
> >*** This is a poorly deliberated statement. It gives the appearance
> >that MERIT is a genetic attribute, born in the image of the caste >system.
>
> I did no such thing. I know enough upper and lower caste people who dot
> all the points in the economic and intelligence graph.
>
> If there are some states or regions, then those could be allocated some
> "quota" under strict guidelines. I knew a number of my friends who availed
> the Assam Quota. One of them got into a big name school. I did not think he
> was the most deserving. But then his dad was a hoo haa in the Board of
> Education, Assam.
>
> --Ram
>
>
>
>
> On 5/30/06, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
> >
> > So many things to attend to, but so little time to do it :-).
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > But:
> >
> >
> > > Merit is important too. Those who are not, regardless of their
> > caste have no business in getting into the "Ivy League schools".
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > *** This is a poorly deliberated statement. It gives the
> > appearance that MERIT is a genetic attribute, born in the image of the caste
> > system.
> >
> >
> > It so happens that so called 'merit' ( read an ability to write exams
> > well, do good math etc.) is developed, with the help of a host of special
> > advantages:
> >
> >
> > ** Able and educated parents
> > ** Schools that do their job of educating
> > ** An environment of learning and where the pupils are
> > challenged.
> > ** Availability of schools where ALL students get a fair shot
> > at
> > being taught, including those 'gadha' ones.
> >
> >
> > There are many more. But I hope one gets the point.
> >
> >
> > Therefore, where public resources are used to establish those 'elite'
> > institutions, graduating from which ensures a comfortable life (
> > never mind what they produce thereafter), entry to them must be made
> > equitable.
> >
> >
> > And that generator of 'MERIT',the institutions supported with public
> > resources, must too be made available equitably, before MERIT could be held
> > up as a fair and equitable measure with which to judge who is eligible to
> > attend those 'elite' institutions.
> >
> >
> > Therefore the impression all these sanctimonious devotees of
> > desi-meritocracy attempt to create; that MERIT is earned by SPECIAL people
> > all on their own, is, yet another myth, a blatant falsehood!
> >
> >
> > This weekend I had the opportunity to chat about this with a highly
> > regarded desi professor, retired dean of Washington U. Social Work program (
> > Dilip knows him too). A very polite and soft spoken man, he may not say so
> > in my words, but he agreed as much.
> >
>
>
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> At 1:22 PM -0500 5/30/06, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
>
>
> That was an interesting article.
>
>
>
> But would like to add my 2 cents to the following:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "Doubtless, there are many infirmities in the proposal to allot 27 per
> cent seats to OBCs. The percentage may be too high, some wrong people may
> avail of the benefit, a few genuinely deserving might be unfairly penalised,
> implementation could throw up anomalies. It will not be painless. But you
> have to live in a
> state of permanent denial, you have to keep your eyes, ears and mind
> closed to avoid the fact that poverty and extreme poverty in India are
> closely linked to caste, closely linked to historical discrimination"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I don't think people would be opposed to the quota system if it is
> forwarded right.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> If the system were based on economic need (and combined with academic
> merit) it would work. A points system could be designed for being poor and
> meritorious. If the backward castes are poor as many undoubtly are, they too
> would make strides in such a system, and if the upper castes as many claim
> are rich (or middle class) then they would not be as eligible, specially
> with no merit. Merit is important too. Those who are not, regardless of
> their caste have no business in
> getting into the "Ivy League schools". But those who show merit, but are
> not able to get into prestigeous schools ought to be inducted regardless of
> caste or religion (as in Andhra Pradesh - which has intituted quotas for
> Muslims).
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> This whole thing spearheaded by the UPA is nothing but trying to appease
> to a voting block with entitlements.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Incidently, the Supreme Court has asked the GOI to give valid reasons as
> to how the GOI came up with the 27% number for OBCs.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Prediction: The GOI will win the battle of the 27% quota, and the country
> will loose its best minds.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --Ram
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 5/30/06,* Dilip/Dil Deka* <dilipdeka at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> When I visited Outlook India today, I walked around some and saw the
> following article. Isn't this the same fear of Maoism that India's prime
> minister was talking about just a few weeks ago?
>
>
>
> It will make an interesting study to see how many of the poor 900 million
> are ready to benefit from the quota system and what plays in the minds of
> the 899 million when 1 million of the 900 make it to the middle class rank.
>
>
>
> Dilip
>
>
>
> ===========================================================
>
>
>
> *Eyes, Ears And Minds Closed** Why is India's middle class so hostile to
> the empowerment of the poor? *VINOD MEHTA<http://www.outlookindia.com/author.asp?name=Vinod+Mehta>
>
>
>
> | e-mail | one page format | feedback: send - read<http://www.outlookindia.com/rantsmag.asp?fodname=20060605&fname=Col+Vinod+(F)&sid=1>
> |
>
>
>
> This column is not being written to defend Arjun Singh, nor the new quota
> regime, nor any formula/mechanism to implement reservations. That debate has
> been so polarised and distorted that any intervention
> which does not take one or the other side is destined to fall on deaf
> ears. No. My purpose is to point out that the passion-charged street power
> and the virulent rhetoric against reservations should be seen as part of a
> larger, disturbing pattern. India's smug, selfish, self-centred, satiated
> middle class, fattened on the fruits of the booming economy, is positively
> hostile to any policy which sets out to empower the poor. Over 900 million
> of our citizens live on less than Rs 90 a day. Of this, 300 million live on
> less than Rs 45 a day. Meanwhile, 200 million privileged have decided that
> these citizens must remain roughly where they are-or wait till the enormous
> wealth the rich, the ultra rich and the nouveau rich are accumulating
> trickles down. This is an obscenity. No fancy economic formulation can hide
> this appalling reality of India 2006.
>
> Take the employment guarantee scheme or selling cheap grain to BPL
> card-holders or the Right to Information Act (which
> allows the marginalised to check corruption in moneys spent in their name)
> or increasing subsidies for essential commodities used by the aam aadmi. You
> need to jog your memory only lightly to recollect the outrage of the haves
> at these schemes. They said India would be ruined, the finances of the
> nation would collapse if "utopian" proposals were implemented. The poor are
> poor because they are lazy, worthless, unenterprising, incapable of availing
> existing opportunities. Of course, I caricature the argument and the
> mentality. But only slightly.
>
> One understands India is an economic superpower challenging China, it is
> experiencing unprecedented growth rates, its middle class can buy Danish
> bacon and Spanish olives at the neighbourhood store. Conspicuous consumption
> reigns. But nine hundred million people must wait for market forces to
> somehow touch their lives. Sheer callousness apart, these 900 million people
> have something called the vote. And they use it extremely
> craftily. In 2004, they threw out a government which considered itself
> invincible. Forget the ethics, forget conscience, any political party which
> panders to the prejudices of India's fickle middle class is committing
> electoral suicide.
>
> Remember, the poor will not go away. You cannot tuck them away in
> Kalahandi or Bastar. They will haunt India's affluent in Mumbai, Delhi,
> Bangalore and Chennai at traffic lights, in unregulated slums, in shopping
> malls, outside five-star hotels. They will join Maoists and threaten the
> Indian state while slitting the throats of rich farmers. The 'Red Corridor'
> is an ominous development. Any moderately sane middle-class person must ask
> himself why the wretched of the earth increasingly decide to take up arms
> against a vastly better-armed and organised force in a war they know they
> are bound to lose. Better to die fighting than to die of hunger.
>
> Doubtless, there are many infirmities in the proposal to allot 27 per cent
> seats to
> OBCs. The percentage may be too high, some wrong people may avail of the
> benefit, a few genuinely deserving might be unfairly penalised,
> implementation could throw up anomalies. It will not be painless. But you
> have to live in a state of permanent denial, you have to keep your eyes,
> ears and mind closed to avoid the fact that poverty and extreme poverty in
> India are closely linked to caste, closely linked to historical
> discrimination.
>
> Let us take the crux of the reservation rejectionist's thesis. We're told
> that quotas and academic excellence are fundamentally incompatible. You
> can't have both.Added to the above is the rider that corporate India's
> "global competitive edge" will vanish. In other words, there is the firm
> assumption that affirmative action (AA), which in India takes the form of
> quotas (voluntary or mandatory), will produce second-class students.
>
>
>
>
> In the hysteria generated, with assistance
> from a conflict-hungry media, this assumption has become gospel truth with
> the honourable but publicity-smart members of the Knowledge Commission
> lending their weight to the flawed thesis. In Harvard, Princeton and Yale,
> institutions at whose altar the rejectionists worship, the experience of AA
> has been hugely positive with no dilution of academic standards (see *
> Outlook* cover story *Two Faces of Reservation* , May 29).
>
> Consider the story of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala
> where mandatory quotas ranging from 69.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent have been
> in place since decades without social turbulence. Are we to assume that
> engineers, doctors, mbas from these southern states are substandard?
>
> If notions of compassion and
> equity are alien to the rejectionists, perhaps the spectre of Maoists
> rampaging through pockets of urban India might help focus minds on the
> grotesquely unjust society superpower India is spawning. It could be the
> fire next time!
> <http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060529&fname=Cover+Story+(F)&sid=1>
>
>
>
>
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> Umesh Sharma
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