During those debates of Anti-reservations last year, there was a joke circulating in the internet.
Imagining an Indian Cricket team based on reservations….
We should have 10% reservation for minorities, 30% for
Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player. The 4 hit by an OBC player should be considered as a 6 and a 6 hit by an OBC player should be counted as 8 runs.
An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century. We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kmph to an OBC player.
This joke was copied to all and sundry in a work environment in IT industry of
Many lower caste Hindus that I met in IT industry seem to be ambivalent about this topic. They are shy from taking a stand, are diffident in expressing their opinions, and even if they do speak out, they end up voicing certain reservations against reservations-based-on-caste. They do not like to be seen supporting such reservations.
Elite lower caste do NOT support reservations
This is not very different from elite Blacks in US who do not wish to be seen as ‘those who got help’ from affirmative action. Once you have made it, you don’t want to extend any help to others of your kind with a pure selfish interest – 'not to be seen as incompetent by your peers'. Any such support to such affirmative policies is seen as ‘lack of competence’ by others.
The elite lower castes of
Here’s an example from recent news wherein some OBCs made it to IIT in ‘open-category’ [emphasis mine].
"When there are so many OBC students who are doing well naturally, why set aside seats for them and demoralise them?" asked an OBC student who joined IIT
Here, an OBC student who made it to IIT in open category believes that reservations actually demoralize the students. I don’t know if village women feel the same when they are given reserved seats in buses.
When I started supporting reservations-based-on-caste on this blog, people assumed that somehow I lack the competence, that I wasn’t smart enough to make it to those premier institutes, that I am a loser in my life, that I make up for those inadequacies by leaning on reservations.
Can’t one support a cause just because he believes in it? Can’t I fight for Muslims without being a Muslim? Can I fight for poor of
Many elite lower caste Indians shy away from supporting reservations-based-on-caste because they do not want to be seen as admitting incapability. It’s hard for many Indians to admit they are incapable of something, especially the elite of
‘I will never say I-don’t-know’ Syndrome
I have seen many engineers in
This syndrome starts quite early in most Indians, where scores (or marks) are everything. One gets high scores only when he mugs up things, learns by rote, remembers by heart, reproduces exactly what is in the text book, all verbatim. Therefore, a ‘smart’ guy is the one who has mastered this excellent ability to spew forth his knowledge verbatim, without taking a breath, in one spurt of outburst. A small pause, a gasp or slight hesitation is a sure sign of incompetence. Trying to put the idea in your own words is also sure sign of incompetence.
And how do these elite kids get into top schools when they grow up? By cramming up lot of exercises in a short period of time- doing the same exercise again and again till you get it right! [The fact that just two or three institutes of Hyderabad produce nearly 20% of IIT rankers should tell you how this cramming exercise is done these days]. In most engineering schools of India, remembering an old, arcane and completely useless formula is a sure sign of intelligence. How does one use it in real life? That’s of no concern to anyone. No wonder you see such pathetic roads in
Most IT companies inbreed engineers who constantly keep losing their creativity. They are NOT supposed to think for themselves. They are NOT supposed to be original. They are NOT supposed to be creative. They are supposed to just FOLLOW the guidelines given to them by their client who invariably happens to be an American or a European. They are just supposed to DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD. What use is their esteemed degree from an esteemed institute when all they can do for self-gratification is indulge in bouts of ‘seemingly intelligent’ conversations over coffee trying to outwit the other by remembering old and arcane formulae they learnt many years ago?
When every one is doing a mediocre job, the only way you can outshine the other is sounding technical and pedantic. Even a VP has to do it to get the attention and respect from his team members. After sometime, you don’t know why everyone, including the VP and Senior Director are discussing the age old Physics formula or syntax in C.
In Indian IT industry, competence is about ‘sounding’ competent, not actually doing it. So, you see that even the lower caste IT engineers, who should have stood by their own kind coming from villages, do NOT support these reservations, lest they be seen as incompetent.
Additional Links:
No Reservation, Only Merit Based Employment in Wipro : Azim Premji
Sujai said:
ReplyDeleteIn most engineering schools of India, remembering an old, arcane and completely useless formula is a sure sign of intelligence. How does one use it in real life? That�s of no concern to anyone. No wonder you see such pathetic roads in India. What do you expect from those engineers who passed their exams by learning their stuff by rote? They have no clue why and how and where that knowledge should be used.
Sujai, no doubt you are an engineer.
If you have only hammer in your hand, no wonder all problems look like nails. Only an engineer can conclude that cause of pot holes in our roads lies in lack of some kind of proper technical expertise.
For a change, how about looking for the cause in our economic policies, which alas have been framed by our social justice brigade since independence?
Vivek:
ReplyDeleteOf course I am an engineer. Having said that, I am many other things besides just an engineer!
And only an engineer would know why potholes reappear after every monsoon season in India! even if a new road is laid every year!
;-)
Only an engineer would know why we need an extra lane (which seems to be always missing) for making a U-turn on highways.
But, even a non-engineer with common sense would know these! (But again, common sense is so uncommon these days)
>>In Indian IT industry, competence is about ‘sounding’ competent, not actually doing it. So, you see that even the lower caste IT engineers, who should have stood by their own kind coming from villages, do NOT support these reservations, lest they be seen as incompetent
ReplyDeleteSujai, though I get the point you are making, the analogy is not coming through to the extent that you are trying to. As I see it, it is going to the extent that there is a lot of pressure to appear in a certain way which influences the stand that people take. But I believe you were trying to make the nalogy more telling and that I didn't get it. In fact, I thought that there were two articles in this one article.
~ Vinod
"For a change, how about looking for the cause in our economic policies, which alas have been framed by our social justice brigade since independence?"
ReplyDeleteDude, do you really understand why there is social inequality? Don't tell me you are a scientist. I hope you are an economist after reading the above statement.
"I have seen many engineers in India who are NOT ready to admit that they do NOT know something."
ReplyDeleteSpeaking without factual information is an art form in India. It's a cultural trait. We should learn to say NO when we don't know something.
I am African American & Dominican and yes you are right the same problems exist no one wants to admit when they don't know some thing for fear of looking incompetent. Yes we the middle class and elite of African American resist the urge to admit quotas are necessary because we do not want to appear inadequate (when many are really being selfish and self promoting. GOOD BLOG! Especially with Obama in office due to fear of looking like we are trying to excel to scare other races even when we are still victims of racism everyday (look at how the white house (Under Obama) during the Sherrod Affair quickly fired a woman without reading all the facts not to appear racist)
ReplyDeleteJAY USA
This post shows the morality of a generous human mind! I like to leave some of my commands. I need not make reference to the old system of our education in India, because all intellectuals know that education was denied to almost 80% of the Indias population citing caste as reason. The whole country was walking on the heads of the working class for centuries. Their bloods, sweat, and their innocence harvested by the elite group Indian population for their luxury life. I need not elaborate here more; this situation was carefully maintained till the British invasion. British broken the barricades and eased the situation by making equal and education as common for all, but it was partial due to manuvadis relentless efforts. I doubt the freedom struggle because, most of the freedom fighters were from elite group, their worries was, white should vacate India before the brings awareness to the masses of bottom most Indian society, they archived it! What left to the rationalists of that time is little reservation, democracy and secular india. Does the reservation properly reach the deserved people? The answer is not fully! There are number of power centric bureaucrats doing their best to cheat the masses by some sort or mean. Finally this is my finishing point: India cannot be a super power until a poor low caste relieved of his unfit condition, and surely they are the real technologist and scientist their absence only makes India an unachievable country!!!
ReplyDeleteread Kaliyuga purana by Astrologer pandit Promod BSC,AMIE(E&T),AMIE(Mech),AMIE(Met),AMIInd Eng).It Explains VEDA PURANOPANISHED's fully on the basis of modern science. go to http://www.wix.com/astrologerpromod/pn
ReplyDeletep.n.pramod!
ReplyDeleteOk your veda has all! then why did the veda follower half naked, retarded and even worst slaved for century? All fake claims! why don't they make the veda lines into realistic? why should they hide it in the name of divine languages? All lies! flattery poem! by mistake or by spontaneously slippery words refers new invention. It must be a advantageous translation to suit this equivalent time! If at all the invention not happened the translation would be of some other sense! OK I like to give few veda truths like saras chase by brahma, sivas loot at ashram, krishna loots, birth secret of all major gods. if you go deeply into it, it will be more stinking! the translation is a claim of truth Out of 100 lies!