Friday, December 29, 2006
Happy New Year to Numbabloggers
Wishing all Numbablog members and visitors a very happy & prosperous New Year;
Monday, December 18, 2006
High IQ link to being vegetarian
High IQ link to being vegetarian
Vegetarianism has been linked to better heart health
Intelligent children are more likely to become vegetarians later in life, a study says. A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10.
Researchers said it could explain why people with higher IQ were healthier as a vegetarian diet was linked to lower heart disease and obesity rates.
The study of 8,179 was reported in the British Medical Journal.
Twenty years after the IQ tests were carried out in 1970, 366 of the participants said they were vegetarian - although more than 100 reported eating either fish or chicken.
Men who were vegetarian had an IQ score of 106, compared with 101 for non-vegetarians; while female vegetarians averaged 104, compared with 99 for non-vegetarians.
We've always known that vegetarianism is an intelligent, compassionate choice benefiting animals, people and the environment
Liz O'Neill, of The Vegetarian Society
There was no difference in IQ score between strict vegetarians and those who said they were vegetarian but who reported eating fish or chicken.
Researchers said the findings were partly related to better education and higher occupational social class, but it remained statistically significant after adjusting for these factors.
Vegetarians were more likely to be female, to be of higher occupational social class and to have higher academic or vocational qualifications than non-vegetarians.
However, these differences were not reflected in their annual income, which was similar to that of non-vegetarians.
Lead researcher Catharine Gale said: "The finding that children with greater intelligence are more likely to report being vegetarian as adults, together with the evidence on the potential benefits of a vegetarian diet on heart health, may help to explain why higher IQ in childhood or adolescence is linked with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease in adult life."
Intelligence
However, she added the link may be merely an example of many other lifestyle preferences that might be expected to vary with intelligence, such as choice of newspaper, but which may or may not have implications for health.
Liz O'Neill, of the Vegetarian Society, said: "We've always known that vegetarianism is an intelligent, compassionate choice benefiting animals, people and the environment.
"Now we've got the scientific evidence to prove it. Maybe that explains why many meat-reducers are keen to call themselves vegetarians when even they must know that vegetarians don't eat chicken, turkey or fish."
But Dr Frankie Phillips, of the British Dietetic Association, said: "It is like the chicken and the egg. Do people become vegetarian because they have a very high IQ or is it just that they tend to be more aware of health issues?"
Monday, December 11, 2006
Resource Allocation For the Poor - The Manmohanomics Algorithm!
Resource Allocation For the Poor
The Manmohanomics Algorithm!
by Naagesh Padmanaban
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent remarks at the National Development Council do not come as a surprise. Apparently, he wants the Muslims of India to have the first claim on the country's resources. This is the latest in UPA’s appeasement politics. To contain the fall out, his spin doctors have gotten into action. They have made sincere efforts to inform fellow countrymen that it is the opposition BJP that is twisting his statements out of context!
Manmohan Singh is apparently so far removed from the ground reality in India that I guess he is either oblivious or no longer concerned about his sinking image. Such a remark from the Prime Minister and the subsequent face-saving efforts are indeed so amateurish that now even Indians are beginning to ignore this high political office. Fellow academia has long given up on the good doctor. Nevertheless, such a statement from an economist and a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, only adds to the agony of the nation.
Resource allocation, if I may respectfully remind the Prime Minister, must be prioritized to reach the neediest segments of society. In a country which houses most of the world’s poor, it should automatically begin at the bottom of the economic spectrum. Poverty in India, like elsewhere, does not favor religion, caste or place of birth. Muslims are not the only have-nots in India. It has afflicted whole regions and generations of Indians. The sufferings among the poor in India is uniform be it the Muslims or Hindus or any other religion.
Mr. Singh informs India that he wants to ”devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development”. The learned economist pompously declares that “they must have the first claim on resources”. That grandiloquence is naked word smithy to tier India’s pathetic poor by religion and thus polarize the nation. He has however, with great gumption, not informed us why the Muslim poor need the ”first claim on resources”. In India, the Prime Minister, by force of precedent, is not obliged to tell the nation why.
If you stop to reflect on his statement, it shows how callous and nonchalant he is towards the Hindu or a non-Muslim poor. The reality as we all know, is that most of India’s poor - in absolute numbers - are Hindus. Secondly, he has in effect proclaimed to the world outside India that the Hindu poor do not need urgent resource allocation. This must indeed be a new variety of Nehruvian economics with an Oxford flavor. See the subtle shift and value additions in Manmohanomics version 2.0 that is geared for minority compatibility.
The Manmohanomics algorithm still does not tell us how a Hindu poor mitigates his hardships and hence deserves less attention while the Muslim poor cannot and so requires priority. Probably, it must be the Hindu’s past karma that makes him less eligible for ”resource allocation”, whatever that means. But is it not the constitutional obligation, moral responsibility and the country’s minimum expectation of the government to seek the holistic implementation of anti poverty programs to all needy sections of India? It now appears that if you are born a non-Muslim and poor in Manmohan’s India, then the government stands relieved of such aforesaid obligations and responsibilities whatsoever. The legal pundits can quibble over the breach of the Prime Minister’s solemn oath to uphold the constitution and serve all people of India. This is but one more addition to their list.
India’s polity today is all topsy-turvy. Unthinkables have happened and continue to happen. The root cause, as many distinguished Indians have noted, is the continued erosion of the people’s faith in the political class and a consequent fragile polity. Every election fetches the political parties less and less of popular support and a wafer thin edge over their rivals. To keep the diminishing constituents happy, the gambles are getting more desperate. Hence you find an otherwise reputed economist turned PM devising an allocation methodology that would appear to defy logic. Yet, that does not give him the excuse to abdicate his responsibility to ensure equal treatment and unity of the country.
This new resource allocation priority is yet another vehicle cunningly drafted to circumvent and subvert the Constitution and the unalienable right to equality. Of course, the constitution clearly seeks to prohibit any discrimination based on sex, caste, class or religion. The Supreme Court of India has clearly spelt out on multiple occasions that reservation per se is unconstitutional and strikes at the very heart of the principles of equality and natural justice. That progressive judges have played no small part to undo this right guaranteed to each and every Indian has been well documented by Arun Shourie in his book - Falling Over Backwards and is beyond the scope of this essay.
Some may dismiss this as a ploy born out of political expediency. But it is noteworthy to remind the Prime Minister that it nevertheless amounts to playing with fire. In his quest to stay on in power, another weak predecessor had set the country on fire over reservations. V.P Singh is living to see that the people have not forgotten his attempts to undo India in his desperate clutches at power. But more dangerous, as many have pointed out, is the fact that this is an ominous reminder of the tragic religious polarization that led to India’s partition in 1947. India’s destiny is above the immediacy of staying in office for a full term. It would be far more honorable to resign than destroy India in the long term. Manmohanomics ver 2.0 may have passed the expediency test, but still fails to impress the nation.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Not many know the Indian past he had discovered!
Not many know the Indian past he had discovered!
Thursday November 16 2006 09:31 IST
S Gurumurthy
"What is it that keeps the country down", asked the speaker. A young man in the audience replied unhesitatingly: "Undoubtedly the institution of caste that kept the majority low castes and the society backward" and added "it continues".
The speaker replied, "May be". But, pausing for a moment, he added, "May not be". Shocked, the young man angrily asked him to explain his "may-not-be" theory.
The speaker calmly mentioned just one fact that clinched the debate. He said, "Before the British rule in India, over two-thirds - yes, two-thirds - of the Indian kings belonged to what is today known as the Other Backward Castes (OBCs).
"It is the British," he said, "who robbed the OBCs - the ruling class running all socio-economic institutions - of their power, wealth and status." So it was not the upper caste which usurped the OBCs of their due position in the society?
The speaker’s assertion that it was not so was founded on his study - unbelievably painstaking study for years and decades in the archives in India, England and Germany. He could not be maligned as a ‘saffron’ ideologue and what he said could not be dismissed thus. He was Dharampal, a Gandhian in ceaseless search of truth like his preceptor Gandhi himself was, but a Gandhian with a difference. He ran no ashram on state aid to do ‘Gandhigiri’.
Admitting that "he and those like him do not know much about our own society", the young man who questioned Dharampal - Banwari is his name - became his student. By meticulous research of the British sources over decades, Dharampal demolished the myth that India was backward educationally or economically when the British entered. Citing the Christian missionary William Adam’s report on indigenous education in Bengal and Bihar in 1835 and 1838, Dharampal established that at that time there were 100,000 schools in Bengal, one school for about 500 boys; that the indigenous medical system that included inoculation against small-pox.
He also proved by reference to other materials that Adam’s record was ‘no legend’. He relied on Sir Thomas Munroe’s report to the Governor at about the same time to prove similar statistics about schools in Madras. He also found that the education system in the Punjab during the Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule was equally extensive. He estimated that the literary rate in India before the British was higher than that in England.
Citing British public records he established, on the contrary, that ‘British had no tradition of education or scholarship or philosophy from 16th to early 18th century, despite Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Newton, etc’. Till then education and scholarship in the UK was limited to select elite. He cited Alexander Walker’s Note on Indian education to assert that it was the monitorial system of education borrowed from India that helped Britain to improve, in later years, school attendance which was just 40, 000, yes just that, in 1792. He then compared the educated people’s levels in India and England around 1800. The population of Madras Presidency then was 125 lakhs and that of England in 1811 was 95 lakhs. Dharampal found that during 1822-25 the number of those in ordinary schools in Madras Presidency was around 1.5 lakhs and this was after great decay under a century of British intervention.
As against this, the number attending schools in England was half - yes just half - of Madras Presidency’s, namely a mere 75,000. And here to with more than half of it attending only Sunday schools for 2-3 hours! Dharampal also established that in Britain ‘elementary system of education at people’s level remained unknown commodity’ till about 1800! Again he exploded the popularly held belief that most of those attending schools must have belonged to the upper castes particularly Brahmins and, again with reference to the British records, proved that the truth was the other way round.
During 1822-25 the share of the Brahmin students in the indigenous schools in Tamil-speaking areas accounted for 13 per cent in South Arcot to some 23 per cent in Madras while the backward castes accounted for 70 per cent in Salem and Tirunelveli and 84 per cent in South Arcot.
The situation was almost similar in Malayalam, Oriya and Kannada-speaking areas, with the backward castes dominating the schools in absolute numbers. Only in the Telugu-speaking areas the share of the Brahmins was higher and varied from 24 to 46 per cent. Dharampal’s work proved Mahatma Gandhi’s statement at Chatham House in London on October 20, 1931 that "India today is more illiterate than it was fifty or hundred years ago" completely right.
Not many know of Dharampal or of his work because they have still not heard of the Indian past he had discovered. After, long after, Dharampal had established that pre-British India was not backward a Harvard University Research in the year 2005 (India’s Deindustrialisation in the 18th and 19th Centuries by David Clingingsmith and Jeffrey G Williamson) among others affirmed that "while India produced about 25 percent of world industrial output in 1750, this figure had fallen to only 2 percent by 1900." The Harvard University Economic Research also established that the Industrial employment in India also declined from about 30 to 8.5 per cent between 1809-13 and 1900, thus turning the Indian society backward.
PS: This great warrior who established the truth - the truth that was least known - that India was not backward when the British came, but became backward only after they came, is no more. He passed away two weeks ago on October 26, 2006, at Sevagram at Warda.
Thursday November 16 2006 09:31 IST
S Gurumurthy
"What is it that keeps the country down", asked the speaker. A young man in the audience replied unhesitatingly: "Undoubtedly the institution of caste that kept the majority low castes and the society backward" and added "it continues".
The speaker replied, "May be". But, pausing for a moment, he added, "May not be". Shocked, the young man angrily asked him to explain his "may-not-be" theory.
The speaker calmly mentioned just one fact that clinched the debate. He said, "Before the British rule in India, over two-thirds - yes, two-thirds - of the Indian kings belonged to what is today known as the Other Backward Castes (OBCs).
"It is the British," he said, "who robbed the OBCs - the ruling class running all socio-economic institutions - of their power, wealth and status." So it was not the upper caste which usurped the OBCs of their due position in the society?
The speaker’s assertion that it was not so was founded on his study - unbelievably painstaking study for years and decades in the archives in India, England and Germany. He could not be maligned as a ‘saffron’ ideologue and what he said could not be dismissed thus. He was Dharampal, a Gandhian in ceaseless search of truth like his preceptor Gandhi himself was, but a Gandhian with a difference. He ran no ashram on state aid to do ‘Gandhigiri’.
Admitting that "he and those like him do not know much about our own society", the young man who questioned Dharampal - Banwari is his name - became his student. By meticulous research of the British sources over decades, Dharampal demolished the myth that India was backward educationally or economically when the British entered. Citing the Christian missionary William Adam’s report on indigenous education in Bengal and Bihar in 1835 and 1838, Dharampal established that at that time there were 100,000 schools in Bengal, one school for about 500 boys; that the indigenous medical system that included inoculation against small-pox.
He also proved by reference to other materials that Adam’s record was ‘no legend’. He relied on Sir Thomas Munroe’s report to the Governor at about the same time to prove similar statistics about schools in Madras. He also found that the education system in the Punjab during the Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule was equally extensive. He estimated that the literary rate in India before the British was higher than that in England.
Citing British public records he established, on the contrary, that ‘British had no tradition of education or scholarship or philosophy from 16th to early 18th century, despite Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Newton, etc’. Till then education and scholarship in the UK was limited to select elite. He cited Alexander Walker’s Note on Indian education to assert that it was the monitorial system of education borrowed from India that helped Britain to improve, in later years, school attendance which was just 40, 000, yes just that, in 1792. He then compared the educated people’s levels in India and England around 1800. The population of Madras Presidency then was 125 lakhs and that of England in 1811 was 95 lakhs. Dharampal found that during 1822-25 the number of those in ordinary schools in Madras Presidency was around 1.5 lakhs and this was after great decay under a century of British intervention.
As against this, the number attending schools in England was half - yes just half - of Madras Presidency’s, namely a mere 75,000. And here to with more than half of it attending only Sunday schools for 2-3 hours! Dharampal also established that in Britain ‘elementary system of education at people’s level remained unknown commodity’ till about 1800! Again he exploded the popularly held belief that most of those attending schools must have belonged to the upper castes particularly Brahmins and, again with reference to the British records, proved that the truth was the other way round.
During 1822-25 the share of the Brahmin students in the indigenous schools in Tamil-speaking areas accounted for 13 per cent in South Arcot to some 23 per cent in Madras while the backward castes accounted for 70 per cent in Salem and Tirunelveli and 84 per cent in South Arcot.
The situation was almost similar in Malayalam, Oriya and Kannada-speaking areas, with the backward castes dominating the schools in absolute numbers. Only in the Telugu-speaking areas the share of the Brahmins was higher and varied from 24 to 46 per cent. Dharampal’s work proved Mahatma Gandhi’s statement at Chatham House in London on October 20, 1931 that "India today is more illiterate than it was fifty or hundred years ago" completely right.
Not many know of Dharampal or of his work because they have still not heard of the Indian past he had discovered. After, long after, Dharampal had established that pre-British India was not backward a Harvard University Research in the year 2005 (India’s Deindustrialisation in the 18th and 19th Centuries by David Clingingsmith and Jeffrey G Williamson) among others affirmed that "while India produced about 25 percent of world industrial output in 1750, this figure had fallen to only 2 percent by 1900." The Harvard University Economic Research also established that the Industrial employment in India also declined from about 30 to 8.5 per cent between 1809-13 and 1900, thus turning the Indian society backward.
PS: This great warrior who established the truth - the truth that was least known - that India was not backward when the British came, but became backward only after they came, is no more. He passed away two weeks ago on October 26, 2006, at Sevagram at Warda.
Separation of Powers : The Myth and the Reality
Separation of Powers : The Myth and the Reality
Excellent speech by Bimal Jalan on why the Indian Judiciary should have the last word on the law of the land; I found this speech important for 2 reasons;
a) It is a well researched, timely and thoughtful article/speech. From its data content / academic views it is a must read.
b) In the current political climate in India, we are witness to a progressively fractured polity. Each party has a smaller and smaller size of the electorate. Given wafer thin backing of constituents, the parties are indulging in absurd and anti-India gambles. For example, the UPA now wants reservations on religious basis. The Constitution clearly prohibits reservation even on caste basis. This is a dangerous trend ; India was partitioned in 1947 because of such narrow religious demands. I think it is time for every nationalist Indian to stand up and speak against a polity that seeks to inflict long term damage to India. Bimal Jalan is one such pioneer in current India to speak up against a diseased political class. More and more Indians should speak up an stand up for a united India.
Excellent speech by Bimal Jalan on why the Indian Judiciary should have the last word on the law of the land; I found this speech important for 2 reasons;
a) It is a well researched, timely and thoughtful article/speech. From its data content / academic views it is a must read.
b) In the current political climate in India, we are witness to a progressively fractured polity. Each party has a smaller and smaller size of the electorate. Given wafer thin backing of constituents, the parties are indulging in absurd and anti-India gambles. For example, the UPA now wants reservations on religious basis. The Constitution clearly prohibits reservation even on caste basis. This is a dangerous trend ; India was partitioned in 1947 because of such narrow religious demands. I think it is time for every nationalist Indian to stand up and speak against a polity that seeks to inflict long term damage to India. Bimal Jalan is one such pioneer in current India to speak up against a diseased political class. More and more Indians should speak up an stand up for a united India.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Prana of Gayatri is Life-affirming
Prana of Gayatri is Life-affirming
Indian culture is founded on the principles of Gayatri, protector of prana and the goddess of wisdom and pure intelligence and Yajna, noble deed. Gayatri is revered as the mother and Yajna the father of Indian culture.
The Aitareya Brahmna defines Gayatri as that which protects prana. Prana means the source of liveliness, consciousness and vitality. The element within us that grants us the ability to move, work, think and possess wisdom and life is called prana.
It is the presence of prana that keeps us alive. When prana leaves the body, a person dies and the body becomes useless. Prana is the soul residing in our body. Due to the presence of prana, living organisms are called prani.
A person who is full of prana lives in a different world. He is enthusiastic, determined, courageous, patient, hopeful and active. Human strength is derived from prana, not from bones and muscles.
A person whose prana is strong and protected from becoming deple-ted becomes powerful and hardworking and achieve happiness in the external world mate-rialistic happiness and of the inner self, spiritual happiness.
The essence of life is prana because it controls physical capabilities. God has provided this prana in plenty to us; its infinite store is present all around us.
We can acquire prana from this store as per our determination and worthiness. Aitareya Brahmna provides a solution on how to prevent the waste of prana and preserve it, by invoking the grace of Gayatri.
According to Adi Shankara, righteous intelligence through which that Being, that reality, can be known, is Gayatri. Ritum-bhara prajna is that aspect of the brain that enables us to discriminate between truth and untruth, fame and notoriety, good and bad, and right and wrong.
The decision-making ability conferred by ritumbhara prajna is based on divine inspiration. It is a powerful attribute; no other power in the world is as bene-ficial as ritumbhara prajna.
Gayatri inspires the brain to remain saturated with divine, virtuous qualities, which in turn inspires man onto the path of true well-being.
Cultivating noble thoughts and practising righteous deeds safeguards and increases our strength. With every act, we become stronger. On the other hand, thoughts and actions ins-pired by impure intelligence decrease the power of prana day by day.
True wisdom keeps your lifestyle satvika pure and austere by maintaining control over the senses like wilful avoidance of tasty food, practising celibacy, simple and natural daily routine, hardworking attitude. These qualities keep life energetic, preserve our strength and increase lifespan.
Normally an individual is trapped in maya due to which he remains attached to constricting elements in life. He experiences pain and suffering and ends up having led a purposeless life. This happens because of the lack of righteous knowledge.
Gayatri acts as a bright, divine light, a message of hope for people caught in the darkness of ignorance. It opens up the door to material, spiritual and mental bliss.
It grants us a third eye; the eye of wisdom through which we can look at the world prudently and attain the aim of life, self-awakening. This is the philosophy of Gayatri.
The writer is Chancellor of Dev-sansakriti Vishwa Vidyalaya, Hardwar.
Indian culture is founded on the principles of Gayatri, protector of prana and the goddess of wisdom and pure intelligence and Yajna, noble deed. Gayatri is revered as the mother and Yajna the father of Indian culture.
The Aitareya Brahmna defines Gayatri as that which protects prana. Prana means the source of liveliness, consciousness and vitality. The element within us that grants us the ability to move, work, think and possess wisdom and life is called prana.
It is the presence of prana that keeps us alive. When prana leaves the body, a person dies and the body becomes useless. Prana is the soul residing in our body. Due to the presence of prana, living organisms are called prani.
A person who is full of prana lives in a different world. He is enthusiastic, determined, courageous, patient, hopeful and active. Human strength is derived from prana, not from bones and muscles.
A person whose prana is strong and protected from becoming deple-ted becomes powerful and hardworking and achieve happiness in the external world mate-rialistic happiness and of the inner self, spiritual happiness.
The essence of life is prana because it controls physical capabilities. God has provided this prana in plenty to us; its infinite store is present all around us.
We can acquire prana from this store as per our determination and worthiness. Aitareya Brahmna provides a solution on how to prevent the waste of prana and preserve it, by invoking the grace of Gayatri.
According to Adi Shankara, righteous intelligence through which that Being, that reality, can be known, is Gayatri. Ritum-bhara prajna is that aspect of the brain that enables us to discriminate between truth and untruth, fame and notoriety, good and bad, and right and wrong.
The decision-making ability conferred by ritumbhara prajna is based on divine inspiration. It is a powerful attribute; no other power in the world is as bene-ficial as ritumbhara prajna.
Gayatri inspires the brain to remain saturated with divine, virtuous qualities, which in turn inspires man onto the path of true well-being.
Cultivating noble thoughts and practising righteous deeds safeguards and increases our strength. With every act, we become stronger. On the other hand, thoughts and actions ins-pired by impure intelligence decrease the power of prana day by day.
True wisdom keeps your lifestyle satvika pure and austere by maintaining control over the senses like wilful avoidance of tasty food, practising celibacy, simple and natural daily routine, hardworking attitude. These qualities keep life energetic, preserve our strength and increase lifespan.
Normally an individual is trapped in maya due to which he remains attached to constricting elements in life. He experiences pain and suffering and ends up having led a purposeless life. This happens because of the lack of righteous knowledge.
Gayatri acts as a bright, divine light, a message of hope for people caught in the darkness of ignorance. It opens up the door to material, spiritual and mental bliss.
It grants us a third eye; the eye of wisdom through which we can look at the world prudently and attain the aim of life, self-awakening. This is the philosophy of Gayatri.
The writer is Chancellor of Dev-sansakriti Vishwa Vidyalaya, Hardwar.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Seats vacant in tech schools amid quota cry
Seats vacant in tech schools amid quota cry
Sanjay Singh NEW DELHI, Oct. 3: While the Centre is attempting to increase the number of seats in higher educational institutions to ensure smooth implementation of OBC reservation, many states have not filled up vacant seats in their technical institutions, thus depriving students of valuable opportunities. The states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Kerala have an approved intake of 1,26,198 seats per year. However, they have been able to fill only a total of 1,18,031 seats, leaving 8,167 seats vacant. A senior official of the Union HRD ministry told The Statesman that for the past eight years, the position of vacant seats has remained the same. This adds up to as many as 65,336 vacant seats till date. Of these vacant seats, 30 per cent are in Meghalaya, 18 per cent in Kerala and over five and six per cent in Karnataka and Maharashtra respectively. Other states have not furnished figures of vacant seats in technical institutions so far. While state governments have cited various reasons for their inability to fill up vacant seats, according to AICTE guidelines, a technical institution is given seats as per its infrastructure. If senior AICTE officials are to be believed, funds and aid through government agencies and other sources are taken on behalf of these vacant seats too which adds to the institutions’ coffers. State governments, too, are largely indifferent about sorting out the issue of vacant seats in these technical institutions. The dual control of UGC and the AICTE over institutions conducting management courses has compounded the situation. Consensus eludes UPA: PMOn Board PM’s Special Flight, Oct. 3: A consensus on how to handle the ‘‘creamy layer’’ concept in reservations continues to elude the ruling UPA coalition, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh admitted today. Some elements of the coalition – Left parties and the CPI-M in particular – had stated that the “creamy layer” should be excluded, he said while talking to reporters on board his special aircraft while returning from Johannesburg to New Delhi. n PTI
Sanjay Singh NEW DELHI, Oct. 3: While the Centre is attempting to increase the number of seats in higher educational institutions to ensure smooth implementation of OBC reservation, many states have not filled up vacant seats in their technical institutions, thus depriving students of valuable opportunities. The states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Kerala have an approved intake of 1,26,198 seats per year. However, they have been able to fill only a total of 1,18,031 seats, leaving 8,167 seats vacant. A senior official of the Union HRD ministry told The Statesman that for the past eight years, the position of vacant seats has remained the same. This adds up to as many as 65,336 vacant seats till date. Of these vacant seats, 30 per cent are in Meghalaya, 18 per cent in Kerala and over five and six per cent in Karnataka and Maharashtra respectively. Other states have not furnished figures of vacant seats in technical institutions so far. While state governments have cited various reasons for their inability to fill up vacant seats, according to AICTE guidelines, a technical institution is given seats as per its infrastructure. If senior AICTE officials are to be believed, funds and aid through government agencies and other sources are taken on behalf of these vacant seats too which adds to the institutions’ coffers. State governments, too, are largely indifferent about sorting out the issue of vacant seats in these technical institutions. The dual control of UGC and the AICTE over institutions conducting management courses has compounded the situation. Consensus eludes UPA: PMOn Board PM’s Special Flight, Oct. 3: A consensus on how to handle the ‘‘creamy layer’’ concept in reservations continues to elude the ruling UPA coalition, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh admitted today. Some elements of the coalition – Left parties and the CPI-M in particular – had stated that the “creamy layer” should be excluded, he said while talking to reporters on board his special aircraft while returning from Johannesburg to New Delhi. n PTI
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
The danger of anti-brahminism
The danger of anti-brahminism
http://nandakumarchandran.sulekha.com/blogs/blogdisplay.aspx?cid=63349
by: Nandakumar Chandran on Jun 21 2006 3:20PM in Indology comments rss:
The problem with anti-brahminism is not so much that it is restricted only to antagonism against brahmins. There are much deeper implications and consequences to it.
Brahmins historically have been the backbone of the dharma. The great majority of the religious literature that makes up the religion and culture of the land has been developed by them. Even those which were not penned by Brahmin hands are still preserved and sustained by them. Simply put they are the custodians of the traditions.
So anti-brahminism indirectly is an attack on the traditions that they represent and preserve. To damn Brahmins is to indirectly damn the validity of the traditions they sustain and propagate.
The masses might practice the traditions. But it is the Brahmins who sustain it in its purest form. It is historically they who understand its meaning by living the dharma. Traditions can be sustained only by Brahmins like the shankaraachaaryas or the traditional ones who give their lives to live the dharma.
There’s subversion going on at various levels today often in the guise of righting past wrongs. At the root of such actions is the attitude of negativity which accepts that “there’s something wrong somewhere”. And often this wrong is focused on the culture – especially the caste system and Brahmins. And based on this root the solution to the perceived problems spirals into other linked aspects of the culture – religion, ethics, economics etc.
The powers that rule the world today want to shape Bharat in a particular way. Bharat will soon be probably the richest country in the world. So the powers want to control the way Bharat thinks and acts. They want to shape the culture in such a way that it is conducive to their own interests.
Traditional culture which gives Bharat its uniqueness represents the number one block in their plans. So they employ all the means at their disposal to subvert traditional culture and those who preserve it.
Besides this there are also those who don’t want Bharat to realize her potential. So aided by their internal collaborators they instigate conflicts amongst all sections of the society to subvert its progress – caste against caste, women against men, young against the old, rich against the poor, literate against the illiterate, liberals against the conservatives, modernists against traditionalists, etc. Anti-brahminism is an essential and the most important part of this psy-war. It is the root at which the rest derive their basis.
Anti-brahminism propaganda has succeeded in brainwashing the average educated Indian so much that today most Indians react against the caste system or Brahmins on instinct rather than on reason. The traditional argument that Brahmins and their varna system divided the society and thus enfeebled the country leading to invasions and conquest by foreign forces is not really justified by historical facts. Almost half the world fell to the armies of the prophet and the British empire – most of these societies had neither Brahmins nor the varna system. And it is only Bharat whose culture has survived the onslaught of these predatory forces. Indians should look to the positives of their experiences than being led by their noses by vested interests to look only at the negatives.
Anti-brahminism is not aimed at Brahmins per se – but rather at the traditions that they represent. In contrast to other world religions which are at best facades for imperialistic interests, Brahmins whatever their faults have historically been sincere in their chosen profession and developed a religious culture which comfortably accommodates worldly life, is open minded and substantial. Hindus should be careful not to dig their own grave by indulging in anti-brahminism for the sake of convenience. Once the subvertors achieve their goal of discrediting brahmins (in which they've largely succeeded till now), they'll next turn their attention to subverting the other traditions - the recent fiasco in the Sabarimala temple is a case in point.
Hinduism sans the dharmic fervor of traditional Brahmins will be lead to a situation like the Times of India where pornography co-exists with spirituality – which will only mean misery for the society and its destruction in the long run. If anti-brahminism succeeds in its goal, then Hindus will find Brahmins replaced with autocratic and intolerant powers at their necks fully bent on erasing their native culture and religion.
http://nandakumarchandran.sulekha.com/blogs/blogdisplay.aspx?cid=63349
by: Nandakumar Chandran on Jun 21 2006 3:20PM in Indology comments rss:
The problem with anti-brahminism is not so much that it is restricted only to antagonism against brahmins. There are much deeper implications and consequences to it.
Brahmins historically have been the backbone of the dharma. The great majority of the religious literature that makes up the religion and culture of the land has been developed by them. Even those which were not penned by Brahmin hands are still preserved and sustained by them. Simply put they are the custodians of the traditions.
So anti-brahminism indirectly is an attack on the traditions that they represent and preserve. To damn Brahmins is to indirectly damn the validity of the traditions they sustain and propagate.
The masses might practice the traditions. But it is the Brahmins who sustain it in its purest form. It is historically they who understand its meaning by living the dharma. Traditions can be sustained only by Brahmins like the shankaraachaaryas or the traditional ones who give their lives to live the dharma.
There’s subversion going on at various levels today often in the guise of righting past wrongs. At the root of such actions is the attitude of negativity which accepts that “there’s something wrong somewhere”. And often this wrong is focused on the culture – especially the caste system and Brahmins. And based on this root the solution to the perceived problems spirals into other linked aspects of the culture – religion, ethics, economics etc.
The powers that rule the world today want to shape Bharat in a particular way. Bharat will soon be probably the richest country in the world. So the powers want to control the way Bharat thinks and acts. They want to shape the culture in such a way that it is conducive to their own interests.
Traditional culture which gives Bharat its uniqueness represents the number one block in their plans. So they employ all the means at their disposal to subvert traditional culture and those who preserve it.
Besides this there are also those who don’t want Bharat to realize her potential. So aided by their internal collaborators they instigate conflicts amongst all sections of the society to subvert its progress – caste against caste, women against men, young against the old, rich against the poor, literate against the illiterate, liberals against the conservatives, modernists against traditionalists, etc. Anti-brahminism is an essential and the most important part of this psy-war. It is the root at which the rest derive their basis.
Anti-brahminism propaganda has succeeded in brainwashing the average educated Indian so much that today most Indians react against the caste system or Brahmins on instinct rather than on reason. The traditional argument that Brahmins and their varna system divided the society and thus enfeebled the country leading to invasions and conquest by foreign forces is not really justified by historical facts. Almost half the world fell to the armies of the prophet and the British empire – most of these societies had neither Brahmins nor the varna system. And it is only Bharat whose culture has survived the onslaught of these predatory forces. Indians should look to the positives of their experiences than being led by their noses by vested interests to look only at the negatives.
Anti-brahminism is not aimed at Brahmins per se – but rather at the traditions that they represent. In contrast to other world religions which are at best facades for imperialistic interests, Brahmins whatever their faults have historically been sincere in their chosen profession and developed a religious culture which comfortably accommodates worldly life, is open minded and substantial. Hindus should be careful not to dig their own grave by indulging in anti-brahminism for the sake of convenience. Once the subvertors achieve their goal of discrediting brahmins (in which they've largely succeeded till now), they'll next turn their attention to subverting the other traditions - the recent fiasco in the Sabarimala temple is a case in point.
Hinduism sans the dharmic fervor of traditional Brahmins will be lead to a situation like the Times of India where pornography co-exists with spirituality – which will only mean misery for the society and its destruction in the long run. If anti-brahminism succeeds in its goal, then Hindus will find Brahmins replaced with autocratic and intolerant powers at their necks fully bent on erasing their native culture and religion.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Arjun Singh’s quota bluff
Rajiv Desai Tuesday, May 16, 2006 22:08 IST
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1029662&CatID=19
In the 1980s, when Sam Pitroda was pushing to take India’s telecom digital from its analog antiquity, Arjun Singh was the telecom minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government. As a person who was intimately involved with Rajiv’s thrust to modernisation, I know that Singh tried to put a spoke in Pitroda’s plans. I can remember a meeting at the Akbar Hotel in Chanakyapuri, where Singh sat in attendance with Pitroda and his team. He said nothing at all then but went off and spoke to various journalists, questioning the whole exercise.
I first set eyes on Arjun Singh in November 1981 at Rajiv Gandhi’s office on Akbar Road. He was sitting in the outer office along with his fellow Thakur, VP Singh or Weepy, my friend Jug Suraiya’s name for him. Well, Weepy, who eventually slimed his way to the prime minister’s office, was then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh while Arjun Singh was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. Like Weepy, who set the nation aflame by championing the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, Arjun Singh has touched off civil violence by championing quotas for other backward castes. I did not know either of them until Rajiv told me who they were. He also made observations about the two Thakurs that are best left unquoted; suffice it to say Rajiv did not think that either of them took after Mahatma Gandhi.
Weepy is pretty much irrelevant today but his fellow feudal Arjun Singh is playing the slime game in the hope that Sonia Gandhi will dismiss Manmohan Singh and name him prime minister. Singh’s grandiose fantasy has as much chance of coming to fruition as a snowball has of surviving in Hell. But the feudal lord bashes on regardless.
There is violence spreading across major cities and towns in the country, and health services are paralysed. But Arjun Singh remains unfazed. He has done precious little to make his human resource development ministry useful; done nothing to stem the corruption and sloth within it. But on the OBC issue, he has come alive. His intemperate attacks on Pitroda and the knowledge commission; his wily attempt to provoke a backward caste backlash against the protesters and his Machiavellian reference to the 104th amendment…all smack of low cunning masquerading as political savvy.
Consider the 104th Amendment. It was passed in December last year with huge majorities in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. That to Arjun Singh’s feudal mind is representative of the people’s will; but we all know that the 104th amendment like the 23rd, 45th, 62nd and 79th Amendments before it, represent a failure of political will. Our founding fathers included quotas in educational institutions under Article 334 with a view to “righting a historical wrong”. The provision was to remain in force for 20 years after which such quotas were to be abolished. However, politicians resorted to rank populism and extended the quota regime to hide their ineptitude and perpetuate their feudal hold over narrow constituencies.
In persisting with the quota regime, the political class admitted to its failure to address the issues of poverty and prejudice. Today, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team have pushed economic growth to a level that the world holds in awe, feudal lords like Arjun Singh and Natwar Singh have banded together with Leftists and Luddites in a futile bid to depose the prime minister. They keep muttering about the need for equitable distribution. But poverty and prejudice are not new in India; what is new is the economic resurgence. Feudal politics is on notice. When Article 334 comes up for review in 2010, the feudal overlords will not have the clout to extend the quota regime.
In harping on 104th Amendment, Arjun Singh made some gratuitous remarks about Sam Pitroda. He should have known better. Sam is one of the pioneers of India’s opening to the world. He comes from a tribal area in Orissa and made his career by the sheer dint of effort and integrity, values that obviously Singh does not understand. Sam knows more about poverty and prejudice than the HRD minister; he succeeded in the highly competitive global arena where Singh has failed even in his narrow world of cunning politics. Mr HRD minister, Sam Pitroda is a friend of mine and let me tell you, he is a man of ideas. His efforts from the 1980s onwards have made a significant dent in India’s poverty. All you have managed to do is to divide our country along caste lines.
Email: rdesai@comma.in
Rajiv Desai Tuesday, May 16, 2006 22:08 IST
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1029662&CatID=19
In the 1980s, when Sam Pitroda was pushing to take India’s telecom digital from its analog antiquity, Arjun Singh was the telecom minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government. As a person who was intimately involved with Rajiv’s thrust to modernisation, I know that Singh tried to put a spoke in Pitroda’s plans. I can remember a meeting at the Akbar Hotel in Chanakyapuri, where Singh sat in attendance with Pitroda and his team. He said nothing at all then but went off and spoke to various journalists, questioning the whole exercise.
I first set eyes on Arjun Singh in November 1981 at Rajiv Gandhi’s office on Akbar Road. He was sitting in the outer office along with his fellow Thakur, VP Singh or Weepy, my friend Jug Suraiya’s name for him. Well, Weepy, who eventually slimed his way to the prime minister’s office, was then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh while Arjun Singh was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. Like Weepy, who set the nation aflame by championing the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, Arjun Singh has touched off civil violence by championing quotas for other backward castes. I did not know either of them until Rajiv told me who they were. He also made observations about the two Thakurs that are best left unquoted; suffice it to say Rajiv did not think that either of them took after Mahatma Gandhi.
Weepy is pretty much irrelevant today but his fellow feudal Arjun Singh is playing the slime game in the hope that Sonia Gandhi will dismiss Manmohan Singh and name him prime minister. Singh’s grandiose fantasy has as much chance of coming to fruition as a snowball has of surviving in Hell. But the feudal lord bashes on regardless.
There is violence spreading across major cities and towns in the country, and health services are paralysed. But Arjun Singh remains unfazed. He has done precious little to make his human resource development ministry useful; done nothing to stem the corruption and sloth within it. But on the OBC issue, he has come alive. His intemperate attacks on Pitroda and the knowledge commission; his wily attempt to provoke a backward caste backlash against the protesters and his Machiavellian reference to the 104th amendment…all smack of low cunning masquerading as political savvy.
Consider the 104th Amendment. It was passed in December last year with huge majorities in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. That to Arjun Singh’s feudal mind is representative of the people’s will; but we all know that the 104th amendment like the 23rd, 45th, 62nd and 79th Amendments before it, represent a failure of political will. Our founding fathers included quotas in educational institutions under Article 334 with a view to “righting a historical wrong”. The provision was to remain in force for 20 years after which such quotas were to be abolished. However, politicians resorted to rank populism and extended the quota regime to hide their ineptitude and perpetuate their feudal hold over narrow constituencies.
In persisting with the quota regime, the political class admitted to its failure to address the issues of poverty and prejudice. Today, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team have pushed economic growth to a level that the world holds in awe, feudal lords like Arjun Singh and Natwar Singh have banded together with Leftists and Luddites in a futile bid to depose the prime minister. They keep muttering about the need for equitable distribution. But poverty and prejudice are not new in India; what is new is the economic resurgence. Feudal politics is on notice. When Article 334 comes up for review in 2010, the feudal overlords will not have the clout to extend the quota regime.
In harping on 104th Amendment, Arjun Singh made some gratuitous remarks about Sam Pitroda. He should have known better. Sam is one of the pioneers of India’s opening to the world. He comes from a tribal area in Orissa and made his career by the sheer dint of effort and integrity, values that obviously Singh does not understand. Sam knows more about poverty and prejudice than the HRD minister; he succeeded in the highly competitive global arena where Singh has failed even in his narrow world of cunning politics. Mr HRD minister, Sam Pitroda is a friend of mine and let me tell you, he is a man of ideas. His efforts from the 1980s onwards have made a significant dent in India’s poverty. All you have managed to do is to divide our country along caste lines.
Email: rdesai@comma.in
Monday, May 15, 2006
The price of reservation
The price of reservation
P. V. Indiresan
For every transaction, there has to be entries on both sides of the ledger. A price has to be paid for the gains made by reservation. What is the price the beneficiaries of reservation pay? One price they have paid is lowered quality of education in state-run schools, inferior opportunities to learn; in consequence, endemic poverty too. Is that price worth paying, wonders P. V. INDIRESAN.
Usually, media memory is short. Most stories are forgotten at the end of the day; few last a week. Unusually, interest in the reservation controversy has not died down even after two months. Evidently, this controversy touches a raw nerve; people cannot get over their hurt easily.
Considering the degree of interest in the topic, there is surprisingly few hard facts known about the issue. IITs have had reservation for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes for over 30 years. There is no public information of how the beneficiaries have fared, or how well they have performed in the profession compared to regular students, or compared to SC/ST students from other less prestigious colleges.
Tamil Nadu experience
Tamil Nadu has the longest experience with reservation. With almost 80 per cent admissions and posts reserved, it has the most extensive application of that device. The Tamil Nadu experience can be described both as a success and as a failure. It is a success because backward castes have wrested the leadership — both in the academic and administrative spheres — apart from acquiring total command of the political space. Not only have the backward castes taken command, they have also made Tamil Nadu one of the most successful States.
Reservation in Tamil Nadu can also be declared as a failure on two counts: Even after three-quarters of a century, the backward castes are unwilling to compete openly. There are third, even fourth generation beneficiaries of reservation who are unable to get over their dependence on the handicaps reservation provides for them. It appears, reservation is a crutch, not a remedy.
The success of backward castes in Tamil Nadu appears to be partly due to emigration of upper castes: There are few Brahmins, Mudaliars, Naidus, Pillais or Chettiars to contend with; quite a few have migrated out of the State. There is no analysis how far the loss of so much human capital has hurt (or helped) the State.
Yet, it would be incorrect to conclude that backward castes can never stand up to competition. Once again, we have no hard data to rely on. However, anecdotal evidence points to the view that competent persons among the backward castes never flaunt their caste badge; they want to be known and respected for what they achieve — they stand tall. On the other hand, weaker but ambitious persons make their caste a fetish. They make noise louder and frequently; they get noticed more often.
Consider the visibility of capable students in the job market. They know what they want. They get selected promptly and vanish from the scene after no more than one or two job interviews. The least competitive ones are unsure of where they can succeed. They try again and again only to be rejected. They are noticeable everywhere. Particularly when they wear the caste badge, they will be shortlisted even when not well qualified.
Fooled by noise
With competent students appearing but few times, the less competent ones appearing frequently, the latter appear to be far larger in numbers than they actually are. Logically, the proportion of competent backward castes must be several times higher than what they appear to be in selection committees. That is like the case of a farmer who ruefully remarked after promising to supply a thousand frogs "the noise sure fooled me!"
There is yet another reason why backward students under-perform. As a natural corollary of the Reservation Principle, teaching posts have been reserved on caste basis. That is a cardinal error. What poor students need most are the best teachers available, not the least qualified. Dr Sowell, a distinguished professor from Stanford, was once asked on his visit to Madras (as it was then) whether he would prefer Black teachers to teach Black students (Prof Sowell is Black.) His answer was, "I do not care whether the teacher is White, Black or Blue; I want the best!"
Quality teaching, the key
Unfortunately, this basic principle has been discarded by our policymakers, who have grossly under-estimated the importance of teaching quality. In the process, they have run down state-run schools. In the past fifty years, the population of Chennai has increased almost ten times. Yet, many schools run by the City Corporation have been closed for "want of students". In truth, it cannot be that the students, but the quality of teachers selected that was found wanting.
It is a recorded fact that discipline among school teachers has come down. Across the country, half the time teachers are not attending to class work at all. It is a fact that most students in Delhi's Corporation schools cannot do simple arithmetic — multiply two-digit numbers — even after five years of education. Yet, as one NIIT experiment has shown, given a chance, they can pick up computer skills on their own.
In the prevailing ethos of reservation, a person can get the benefits of reservation without making any payment in return. That contravenes a natural law that is colloquially described as "there is no free lunch". In engineering, such systems are known as "perpetual-motion" machines, machines that run forever without any input. For every transaction, there has to be entries on both sides of the ledger. A price has to be paid for the gains made by reservation. There is no escape from that law. Then, what is the price the beneficiaries of reservation pay for the benefit they get? One price they have paid is lowered quality of education in state-run schools, inferior opportunities to learn; in consequence, endemic poverty too. Is that price worth paying?
As one correspondent has pointed out, reservation is like declaring a boundary scored in a cricket game as a six if hit by a backward caste player. Such artificial boost appears beneficial. It may not be. As one SC student remarked: "I won a degree in the IIT but lost my self-image." How many students would have done better with their lives if they had been exposed to what they can master, instead of being subjected to a difficult drill for which they were not trained, we do not know.
How far has the Reservation Policy has helped the poor, has reduced the rich-poor gap? The average family income of SC students in IIM Ahmedabad is twice that of the others. Is that an exception, or is it true of other institutions too? That is the problem: We have no data on which to base reasoned decisions. Our political masters are unwilling to generate much needed information on this issue, nor or they willing to consider any alternative. At the same time, they have acquired the power to declare as constitutionally illegal any institution that operates on a caste-free basis.
Friend or foe?
Is everyone who promotes reservation a friend of the backward castes? Is everyone who questions reservation at university level an enemy of backward castes?
Who hurts backward castes more: Those who deny good school education or those who want well-run schools?
A proposal to identify and give special education to talented backward caste students has been before the government for over 25 years, and still finds no support. Strange are the ways of our democracy, of government of some people, by some people for themselves.
(The author is a former Director of IIT Madras. Response may be sent to: indiresan@gmail.com)
P. V. Indiresan
For every transaction, there has to be entries on both sides of the ledger. A price has to be paid for the gains made by reservation. What is the price the beneficiaries of reservation pay? One price they have paid is lowered quality of education in state-run schools, inferior opportunities to learn; in consequence, endemic poverty too. Is that price worth paying, wonders P. V. INDIRESAN.
Usually, media memory is short. Most stories are forgotten at the end of the day; few last a week. Unusually, interest in the reservation controversy has not died down even after two months. Evidently, this controversy touches a raw nerve; people cannot get over their hurt easily.
Considering the degree of interest in the topic, there is surprisingly few hard facts known about the issue. IITs have had reservation for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes for over 30 years. There is no public information of how the beneficiaries have fared, or how well they have performed in the profession compared to regular students, or compared to SC/ST students from other less prestigious colleges.
Tamil Nadu experience
Tamil Nadu has the longest experience with reservation. With almost 80 per cent admissions and posts reserved, it has the most extensive application of that device. The Tamil Nadu experience can be described both as a success and as a failure. It is a success because backward castes have wrested the leadership — both in the academic and administrative spheres — apart from acquiring total command of the political space. Not only have the backward castes taken command, they have also made Tamil Nadu one of the most successful States.
Reservation in Tamil Nadu can also be declared as a failure on two counts: Even after three-quarters of a century, the backward castes are unwilling to compete openly. There are third, even fourth generation beneficiaries of reservation who are unable to get over their dependence on the handicaps reservation provides for them. It appears, reservation is a crutch, not a remedy.
The success of backward castes in Tamil Nadu appears to be partly due to emigration of upper castes: There are few Brahmins, Mudaliars, Naidus, Pillais or Chettiars to contend with; quite a few have migrated out of the State. There is no analysis how far the loss of so much human capital has hurt (or helped) the State.
Yet, it would be incorrect to conclude that backward castes can never stand up to competition. Once again, we have no hard data to rely on. However, anecdotal evidence points to the view that competent persons among the backward castes never flaunt their caste badge; they want to be known and respected for what they achieve — they stand tall. On the other hand, weaker but ambitious persons make their caste a fetish. They make noise louder and frequently; they get noticed more often.
Consider the visibility of capable students in the job market. They know what they want. They get selected promptly and vanish from the scene after no more than one or two job interviews. The least competitive ones are unsure of where they can succeed. They try again and again only to be rejected. They are noticeable everywhere. Particularly when they wear the caste badge, they will be shortlisted even when not well qualified.
Fooled by noise
With competent students appearing but few times, the less competent ones appearing frequently, the latter appear to be far larger in numbers than they actually are. Logically, the proportion of competent backward castes must be several times higher than what they appear to be in selection committees. That is like the case of a farmer who ruefully remarked after promising to supply a thousand frogs "the noise sure fooled me!"
There is yet another reason why backward students under-perform. As a natural corollary of the Reservation Principle, teaching posts have been reserved on caste basis. That is a cardinal error. What poor students need most are the best teachers available, not the least qualified. Dr Sowell, a distinguished professor from Stanford, was once asked on his visit to Madras (as it was then) whether he would prefer Black teachers to teach Black students (Prof Sowell is Black.) His answer was, "I do not care whether the teacher is White, Black or Blue; I want the best!"
Quality teaching, the key
Unfortunately, this basic principle has been discarded by our policymakers, who have grossly under-estimated the importance of teaching quality. In the process, they have run down state-run schools. In the past fifty years, the population of Chennai has increased almost ten times. Yet, many schools run by the City Corporation have been closed for "want of students". In truth, it cannot be that the students, but the quality of teachers selected that was found wanting.
It is a recorded fact that discipline among school teachers has come down. Across the country, half the time teachers are not attending to class work at all. It is a fact that most students in Delhi's Corporation schools cannot do simple arithmetic — multiply two-digit numbers — even after five years of education. Yet, as one NIIT experiment has shown, given a chance, they can pick up computer skills on their own.
In the prevailing ethos of reservation, a person can get the benefits of reservation without making any payment in return. That contravenes a natural law that is colloquially described as "there is no free lunch". In engineering, such systems are known as "perpetual-motion" machines, machines that run forever without any input. For every transaction, there has to be entries on both sides of the ledger. A price has to be paid for the gains made by reservation. There is no escape from that law. Then, what is the price the beneficiaries of reservation pay for the benefit they get? One price they have paid is lowered quality of education in state-run schools, inferior opportunities to learn; in consequence, endemic poverty too. Is that price worth paying?
As one correspondent has pointed out, reservation is like declaring a boundary scored in a cricket game as a six if hit by a backward caste player. Such artificial boost appears beneficial. It may not be. As one SC student remarked: "I won a degree in the IIT but lost my self-image." How many students would have done better with their lives if they had been exposed to what they can master, instead of being subjected to a difficult drill for which they were not trained, we do not know.
How far has the Reservation Policy has helped the poor, has reduced the rich-poor gap? The average family income of SC students in IIM Ahmedabad is twice that of the others. Is that an exception, or is it true of other institutions too? That is the problem: We have no data on which to base reasoned decisions. Our political masters are unwilling to generate much needed information on this issue, nor or they willing to consider any alternative. At the same time, they have acquired the power to declare as constitutionally illegal any institution that operates on a caste-free basis.
Friend or foe?
Is everyone who promotes reservation a friend of the backward castes? Is everyone who questions reservation at university level an enemy of backward castes?
Who hurts backward castes more: Those who deny good school education or those who want well-run schools?
A proposal to identify and give special education to talented backward caste students has been before the government for over 25 years, and still finds no support. Strange are the ways of our democracy, of government of some people, by some people for themselves.
(The author is a former Director of IIT Madras. Response may be sent to: indiresan@gmail.com)
Friday, May 05, 2006
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=EDITS&file_name=edit1%2Etxt&counter_img=1
Put him down
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Arjun Singh must be tamed, now ---- Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has an innate ability to unleash furious storms and he is invariably in the eye of each one of them. Indeed, that is how he keeps himself in the news; in his twisted wisdom, he believes this also fetches him importance both within the Congress and in the Government. His previous innings in Congress Governments at the Centre have been as controversy-ridden as his current assignment in the UPA Government.
Immediately on taking charge as HRD Minister, he set about undoing every initiative of his predecessor, BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi. He described it as his "detoxification campaign" in the cause of 'secularism'; in reality, it was nothing more than a contemptible effort to indulge in crude vote-bank politics of the variety that, in the first place, propelled politicians like him into prominence. Mr Singh, for all his pretentious pronouncements, is totally out of sync with today's India and is entirely clueless about the aspirations of its youth.
It's a monumental tragedy that someone so unsuitable like him should occupy an important portfolio like Human Resource Development Minister - the country's human resource deserves far better. Surely Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are aware of this simple, incontrovertible fact. Yet, that he has so far had his way - beginning with 'detoxification' of syllabus and textbooks, followed by questionable appointments to equally questionable forums floated by the HRD Ministry under his tutelage, and ending with his hare-brained scheme to unilaterally introduce caste based quotas in institutions of excellence, including medical, engineering and management colleges - speaks volumes about his survival instincts as well as the inability of Congress's leaders to bring him to heel.
Wallowing in self-importance, Mr Singh sees himself as a Minister who is not answerable to the Cabinet and as a politician who is not bound by his party's collective decision-making process. He believes in neither consultation nor consensus. It is not surprising that his latest endeavour to demolish the reputation of internationally acclaimed institutions of higher learning in India has ruffled feathers in the Congress; that it has also left students and parents across the country angry and fuming is of no consequence to a man so steeped in arrogance and self-righteousness.
It would be unfair to expect Mr Manmohan Singh to tame his HRD Minister and force him to give up his antediluvian politics that have no place in a modern nation aspiring for a global profile in the 21st century. The Prime Minister may not believe in crippling engineering, medical and management institutions by imposing caste based quotas on them, but he lacks the courage of conviction to rein in wayward Ministers like Mr Singh. That places the onus on Ms Gandhi: She should step in to stop the eruption of mass social disquiet. Not to do so could have catastrophic consequences.
It is believed that many senior Ministers and Congress functionaries are upset with Mr Singh's agenda of fomenting conflict in the guise of 'progressive policies'. They have reason to be worried and alarmed. Mr Singh is not only imperilling India's future, but also theirs.
Put him down
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Arjun Singh must be tamed, now ---- Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has an innate ability to unleash furious storms and he is invariably in the eye of each one of them. Indeed, that is how he keeps himself in the news; in his twisted wisdom, he believes this also fetches him importance both within the Congress and in the Government. His previous innings in Congress Governments at the Centre have been as controversy-ridden as his current assignment in the UPA Government.
Immediately on taking charge as HRD Minister, he set about undoing every initiative of his predecessor, BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi. He described it as his "detoxification campaign" in the cause of 'secularism'; in reality, it was nothing more than a contemptible effort to indulge in crude vote-bank politics of the variety that, in the first place, propelled politicians like him into prominence. Mr Singh, for all his pretentious pronouncements, is totally out of sync with today's India and is entirely clueless about the aspirations of its youth.
It's a monumental tragedy that someone so unsuitable like him should occupy an important portfolio like Human Resource Development Minister - the country's human resource deserves far better. Surely Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are aware of this simple, incontrovertible fact. Yet, that he has so far had his way - beginning with 'detoxification' of syllabus and textbooks, followed by questionable appointments to equally questionable forums floated by the HRD Ministry under his tutelage, and ending with his hare-brained scheme to unilaterally introduce caste based quotas in institutions of excellence, including medical, engineering and management colleges - speaks volumes about his survival instincts as well as the inability of Congress's leaders to bring him to heel.
Wallowing in self-importance, Mr Singh sees himself as a Minister who is not answerable to the Cabinet and as a politician who is not bound by his party's collective decision-making process. He believes in neither consultation nor consensus. It is not surprising that his latest endeavour to demolish the reputation of internationally acclaimed institutions of higher learning in India has ruffled feathers in the Congress; that it has also left students and parents across the country angry and fuming is of no consequence to a man so steeped in arrogance and self-righteousness.
It would be unfair to expect Mr Manmohan Singh to tame his HRD Minister and force him to give up his antediluvian politics that have no place in a modern nation aspiring for a global profile in the 21st century. The Prime Minister may not believe in crippling engineering, medical and management institutions by imposing caste based quotas on them, but he lacks the courage of conviction to rein in wayward Ministers like Mr Singh. That places the onus on Ms Gandhi: She should step in to stop the eruption of mass social disquiet. Not to do so could have catastrophic consequences.
It is believed that many senior Ministers and Congress functionaries are upset with Mr Singh's agenda of fomenting conflict in the guise of 'progressive policies'. They have reason to be worried and alarmed. Mr Singh is not only imperilling India's future, but also theirs.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Karthik - the youngest Indian Physics Olympiad Participant!!
The youngest participant of the Olympiad
11-year-old Karthik Ganapathy, from India, prepared to the APhO, his first serious competition, very carefully. When the great competition for the participation in the Olympiad among students of high-school was held in his country Karthik nominated him for selection and won. His candidature met all the strict requirements. — Karthik, how could you master the physics curriculum of high-school? — It was difficult but I tried to master it by Internet. I downloaded formulas and material from the global area network and studied them on my own. Internet helped me very much. — You are not interesting in studying physics at school, are you? — However I know physics I have to go to school. In any case I can't understand all things and my teachers will explain them to me very clear. Any knowledge is useful. — What do you do in your free time? — I like play the computer games, I am often in Internet where I try to find some material for school classes and also I collect marks and coins. — What are your impressions of the Olympiad in Kazakhstan? — I think that there are all comfortable conditions for our incentive to study physics here. I consider that Olympiad assists to develop international relations and friendship between different people. |  |
Copyright © 2005 Republican scientific-practical centre “Daryn”
More Links for 7th Asian Physics Olympiad http://apho2006.apho.org/diary/day-6.html
Monday, April 24, 2006
Witzel takes his Aryan Invasion to PakistanCalifornia textbook controversy
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=128&page=10
By N.S. Rajaram
A few months ago, California education authorities accepted recommendations to make changes to the depiction of Hinduism and India in textbooks to be used in the state. Uninvited, Harvard Sanskrit Professor Michael Witzel went on a lobbying spree to stop the proposed changes. But here is a curious fact: while he seemed to be campaigning against what he called ‘Hindutva-inspired changes’ his real agenda was to save his pet Aryan invasion theory from being axed.
Michael Witzel and a small group of his followers, mainly Europeans and the usual Indian hangers-on like Romila Thapar, are almost the last holdouts for the foreign origin theory of the Vedas and Sanskrit as products of the Aryan invasion. Their academic reputation, what is left of it, rests on the survival of their Aryan theories.
Though largely ignored by the Indian media, two major developments have sounded the death knell of the Aryan invasion theory. These are: (1) genetic evidence showing that the Indian population is almost entirely indigenous with negligible input from outsiders going back to the last Ice Age (more than 10,000 years); and (2) British admission that the Aryan invasion theory was concocted to serve imperial interests, because, “it gave a historical precedent to justify the role and status of the British Raj, who could argue that they were transforming India for the better in the same way that the Aryans had done thousands of years earlier.”
In 1929, the British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin stated in the House of Commons: “Now, after ages, …the two branches of the great Aryan ancestry have again been brought together by Providence… By establishing British rule in India, God said to the British, I have brought you and the Indians together after a long separation, …it is your duty to raise them to their own level as quickly as possible …brothers as you are…” Need we say more?
Disgraced at Harvard
It is obvious that these revelations are devastating to Witzel’s academic reputation. This goes to explain his desperate lobbying in California schools, begging education authorities to keep his Aryan theories in the books. He made several trips, spending hours waiting in the outer offices of California bureaucrats and arguing with his opponents. This is not the kind of undignified behavior that one expects from an elderly professor at a prestigious university like Harvard.
Even before the California scandal, Witzel’s reputation had taken a severe beating at Harvard. Recently, he had started an Internet e-group called Indo-Eurasian Research that was little more than a hate group that repeatedly attacked those who disagreed with him in violent and abusive language. This was brought to the notice of Harvard authorities.
Ten years ago, Witzel had to step down as chairman of the Sanskrit Department because of professional irregularities and personal misconduct. He was charged with misusing his position to bring unqualified people to Harvard and also threatening one of his students (possibly more) with a lawsuit for disagreeing with him.
One of his favorites, Enrica Garzelli, was expelled by Harvard and sued the university. His latest favorite is one Steve Farmer who claims that DNA research discrediting Witzel’s theories is an international conspiracy! So far Witzel’s troubles had been confined to Harvard. Thanks to his political meddling, what was Harvard’s embarrassment is now an international scandal.
Looking for money in Pakistan
There also seems to be a mercenary angle to his campaign. Even before the California controversy could be resolved, Witzel, along with Romila Thapar, Emeritus Professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, announced the formation of The Academic Indology Advisory Council, and Indian American Public Education Council.
According to Witzel and Thapar, their goal in forming these is “to counteract this threat to the integrity of the material taught to our children,” to which end their group “will offer its expertise to any school boards and publishers who may call on it, as a service to the field of Indian Studies.” (“Our children” sounds a bit strained since neither Thapar nor Witzel is an American, much less parents of school-going children in California.)
In other words, it is a consulting outfit that hopes to benefit from the unprecedented media coverage that the controversy received. Given his record, it is not surprising that Witzel’s newfound business venture has failed to takeoff. Publishers are avoiding him like the plague, having incurred delay and losses due to his meddling in California school curriculum. Some are facing lawsuits, as is the California State Board of Education, for violating the civil rights of Hindu children.
His failure to attract money in America is what seems to have sent Witzel to Pakistan looking for business as an anti-Hindu lobbyist. In the March 12 issue of the Karachi newspaper Dawn (Internet edition), Witzel proudly proclaimed Defeat for Hindutva revisionists, thanks to his lobbying efforts in California.
The interesting thing about this advertisement masquerading as an article on education is Witzel’s identification of himself as “Professor of South Asia Studies at Harvard.” This conceals his real position as Professor of Sanskrit. He no doubt sensed that Sanskrit is closely associated with Hindu religion and culture. “South Asia Studies” may sell better than Sanskrit in Pakistan.
While it is too early to say what all drove Witzel’s plunge into California school politics and form his business venture, it is hard to take at face value his claim that it was to help school boards and publishers maintain integrity in the field of Indian studies. Saving his reputation and making some money to cover his growing legal and other costs seems a more likely explanation.
All this places Witzel and his colleagues in their true place—not as heroic fighters or larger than life demons, but pathetic figures trying desperately to save themselves and their discredited discipline from collapse.(The writer is a former U.S. academic and historian of science. His book Sarasvati River and the Vedic Civilization: History, Science and Politics will be released this year.)
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=128&page=10
By N.S. Rajaram
A few months ago, California education authorities accepted recommendations to make changes to the depiction of Hinduism and India in textbooks to be used in the state. Uninvited, Harvard Sanskrit Professor Michael Witzel went on a lobbying spree to stop the proposed changes. But here is a curious fact: while he seemed to be campaigning against what he called ‘Hindutva-inspired changes’ his real agenda was to save his pet Aryan invasion theory from being axed.
Michael Witzel and a small group of his followers, mainly Europeans and the usual Indian hangers-on like Romila Thapar, are almost the last holdouts for the foreign origin theory of the Vedas and Sanskrit as products of the Aryan invasion. Their academic reputation, what is left of it, rests on the survival of their Aryan theories.
Though largely ignored by the Indian media, two major developments have sounded the death knell of the Aryan invasion theory. These are: (1) genetic evidence showing that the Indian population is almost entirely indigenous with negligible input from outsiders going back to the last Ice Age (more than 10,000 years); and (2) British admission that the Aryan invasion theory was concocted to serve imperial interests, because, “it gave a historical precedent to justify the role and status of the British Raj, who could argue that they were transforming India for the better in the same way that the Aryans had done thousands of years earlier.”
In 1929, the British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin stated in the House of Commons: “Now, after ages, …the two branches of the great Aryan ancestry have again been brought together by Providence… By establishing British rule in India, God said to the British, I have brought you and the Indians together after a long separation, …it is your duty to raise them to their own level as quickly as possible …brothers as you are…” Need we say more?
Disgraced at Harvard
It is obvious that these revelations are devastating to Witzel’s academic reputation. This goes to explain his desperate lobbying in California schools, begging education authorities to keep his Aryan theories in the books. He made several trips, spending hours waiting in the outer offices of California bureaucrats and arguing with his opponents. This is not the kind of undignified behavior that one expects from an elderly professor at a prestigious university like Harvard.
Even before the California scandal, Witzel’s reputation had taken a severe beating at Harvard. Recently, he had started an Internet e-group called Indo-Eurasian Research that was little more than a hate group that repeatedly attacked those who disagreed with him in violent and abusive language. This was brought to the notice of Harvard authorities.
Ten years ago, Witzel had to step down as chairman of the Sanskrit Department because of professional irregularities and personal misconduct. He was charged with misusing his position to bring unqualified people to Harvard and also threatening one of his students (possibly more) with a lawsuit for disagreeing with him.
One of his favorites, Enrica Garzelli, was expelled by Harvard and sued the university. His latest favorite is one Steve Farmer who claims that DNA research discrediting Witzel’s theories is an international conspiracy! So far Witzel’s troubles had been confined to Harvard. Thanks to his political meddling, what was Harvard’s embarrassment is now an international scandal.
Looking for money in Pakistan
There also seems to be a mercenary angle to his campaign. Even before the California controversy could be resolved, Witzel, along with Romila Thapar, Emeritus Professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, announced the formation of The Academic Indology Advisory Council, and Indian American Public Education Council.
According to Witzel and Thapar, their goal in forming these is “to counteract this threat to the integrity of the material taught to our children,” to which end their group “will offer its expertise to any school boards and publishers who may call on it, as a service to the field of Indian Studies.” (“Our children” sounds a bit strained since neither Thapar nor Witzel is an American, much less parents of school-going children in California.)
In other words, it is a consulting outfit that hopes to benefit from the unprecedented media coverage that the controversy received. Given his record, it is not surprising that Witzel’s newfound business venture has failed to takeoff. Publishers are avoiding him like the plague, having incurred delay and losses due to his meddling in California school curriculum. Some are facing lawsuits, as is the California State Board of Education, for violating the civil rights of Hindu children.
His failure to attract money in America is what seems to have sent Witzel to Pakistan looking for business as an anti-Hindu lobbyist. In the March 12 issue of the Karachi newspaper Dawn (Internet edition), Witzel proudly proclaimed Defeat for Hindutva revisionists, thanks to his lobbying efforts in California.
The interesting thing about this advertisement masquerading as an article on education is Witzel’s identification of himself as “Professor of South Asia Studies at Harvard.” This conceals his real position as Professor of Sanskrit. He no doubt sensed that Sanskrit is closely associated with Hindu religion and culture. “South Asia Studies” may sell better than Sanskrit in Pakistan.
While it is too early to say what all drove Witzel’s plunge into California school politics and form his business venture, it is hard to take at face value his claim that it was to help school boards and publishers maintain integrity in the field of Indian studies. Saving his reputation and making some money to cover his growing legal and other costs seems a more likely explanation.
All this places Witzel and his colleagues in their true place—not as heroic fighters or larger than life demons, but pathetic figures trying desperately to save themselves and their discredited discipline from collapse.(The writer is a former U.S. academic and historian of science. His book Sarasvati River and the Vedic Civilization: History, Science and Politics will be released this year.)
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Ex-Chief Justice: quota Bill illegal, so is amendment
R VENKATARAMAN
Posted online: Friday, April 14, 2006 at 0000 hrs
NEW DELHI, April 13: Former Chief Justice of India Justice R C Lahoti, who presided over the seven-judge Supreme Court bench in the Inamdar case and ruled against quotas in private colleges, has broken his silence to slam HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s move to bring a Bill for 27% OBC quotas in Central institutions.
“The proposed law will violate the Constitution and the principles laid down (in a series of Supreme Court rulings),” Justice Lahoti told The Indian Express today. Asked about the Constitutional amendment, Article 15(5), which was passed this January to enable the Government to impose quotas, he said: “Maybe that itself will be struck down. The ball will be in the court’s court now.”
This is an echo of what another former Chief Justice of India, Justice V N Khare had told The Indian Express last week. Justice Khare had presided over the bench in the Pai and the Islamic Academy cases on quotas for minority institutions. The proposed bill is based on that amendment which gives the state the power to make any special provision, “by law” for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens. Justice Lahoti’s bench was set up to explain what Justice Khare’s 11-judge bench had ruled in the TMA Pai Foundation case (October 31, 2002) and his five-judge bench in the Islamic Academy case (August 14, 2003).
R VENKATARAMAN
Posted online: Friday, April 14, 2006 at 0000 hrs
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/2412.html
27% OBC QUOTAS Justice Lahoti, whose 7-judge bench ruled against quotas in pvt colleges, says Art 15(5) could be struck down
NEW DELHI, April 13: Former Chief Justice of India Justice R C Lahoti, who presided over the seven-judge Supreme Court bench in the Inamdar case and ruled against quotas in private colleges, has broken his silence to slam HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s move to bring a Bill for 27% OBC quotas in Central institutions.
“The proposed law will violate the Constitution and the principles laid down (in a series of Supreme Court rulings),” Justice Lahoti told The Indian Express today. Asked about the Constitutional amendment, Article 15(5), which was passed this January to enable the Government to impose quotas, he said: “Maybe that itself will be struck down. The ball will be in the court’s court now.”
This is an echo of what another former Chief Justice of India, Justice V N Khare had told The Indian Express last week. Justice Khare had presided over the bench in the Pai and the Islamic Academy cases on quotas for minority institutions. The proposed bill is based on that amendment which gives the state the power to make any special provision, “by law” for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens. Justice Lahoti’s bench was set up to explain what Justice Khare’s 11-judge bench had ruled in the TMA Pai Foundation case (October 31, 2002) and his five-judge bench in the Islamic Academy case (August 14, 2003).
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