We are far removed from the storm raging in the US universities – or are we? We are unfortunately too connected in today’s world to dismiss it as someone else’s problem. Forces of politics that are contributing to the storm – left fascism and its control over academia, Islamist jihadist ideologies that manifest as antisemitism in USA and anti-Hindu hate in India & double standards on such hate are very much things we deal with on daily basis.
Just look at the uncanny similarities with which the Wire honchos handled the FB saga and how Ms. Claudine Gay’s responded. Brazen it out, blame others, play victim card, continue to occupy cushy perches, collect more awards and rewards.
Look at how deftly the woke media diverts attention – from the fact that Ms. Gay only wrote like 10 or so papers – a record that won’t even get her a teaching job in a low-ranking university, let alone Harvard, let alone as President. And even they were substantially plagiarised!
To understand the linkages with India, the problem we uniquely face and what’s the way forward let us take a few steps backwards.
There is an interesting dialogue by late Sivaji Ganesan in the old hit movie on Kattabomman who was ruler of a small province that took on the British. In one of the most famous scenes, which can be quoted word for word by Sivaji fans, he asks the British representative, who is demanding taxes, if they ploughed the fields, planted seedlings or did any of the various other farming tasks. He ends it with a question on whether the British at least prepared the turmeric paste used by Tamil women. You can imagine the whistles & claps in the theatres. That will be true even if it were screened today.
The reason I am mentioning this dialogue is that, just like the British colonials, the present cabal that has taken control of US academia and demands compliance taxes on everyone did nothing for the universities or to bring them to their position of glory and reputation. The Ivy league as well as other top universities built their reputation on the blood and toil and sweat, to repeat Sivaji’s dialogue, of numerous professors, administrators, philanthropists, and officials, not to speak of brilliant students, long before the woke fringe left walked in like a Corleone on Moe Greene and took over. It has been a downhill ride since then.
I am not going into the racist, colonial and other negative aspects of this nice story. That had student groups toppling statues and changing names. Read up on Cecil Rhodes. That is for another day. I neither condone it nor reduce its significance. It is just not the main point of this article. I will return to this aspect of the problem but in a different context later in this article.
This sky-high reputation is now in tatters and needs to be rebuilt. Before any rebuilding can start the destruction has to stop. We are not even there yet. The left is, as some observers point out, ‘circling the wagons’ and will defend their lucrative possession to the last man. Depending on which study or anecdote you believe, the woke left controls anywhere up to 95% of the teaching and administrative positions. It’s not going to be easy to reform.
In the meantime, Corporate America will quietly come to its own conclusion on the value of the degrees. Some are already announcing that they will reducing hiring of graduates.
But my point is this: US universities have such a long and fantastic track record and so much money in their kitty to rebuild, they can afford a few Claudine Gays. India and Indians cannot.
The number of Indian universities whose degrees are respected in the wider world can be counted in fingers and they too face enormous challenges. Our technical institutes, like IITs, not to speak of JNUs and others, have long had so-called “humanities” and social “sciences” departments given the influence of left in academia right from Nehru days. But that was before left morphed into the monster it is today. Before it signed an all-weather, sweeter than honey alliance with jihadist fundamentalism and violence.
Academics and administrators from these pseudo sciences now exercise massive influence on the entire education sector, and politics, not just in their own departments or specialisations. They pretend their pseudoscience is science, they are the experts and you need their license to talk about anything or you are “WhatsApp graduate”.
These institutions have become factories that produce hard wired and pre-programmed robotic warriors of one particular, violent ideology that has produced the likes of Stalin, Mao and Kim Jong Un. Armed with degrees in “sociology” or doctorates in African gender studies or some such topic, they seek to run India – to the ground. To get these doctorates, you write papers (after taking your own sweet time at public cost) that the left will find it impossible to refuse because they tick the boxes they setup. Who can refuse to sign off on a paper that discusses ‘decolonisation in South Africa’ or “intersectionality and structural inequality?! Especially if you come with impeccable references from the Politburo? You want to be tarred for life as a bigot and cancelled?!
No sane businessman will employ any of them for any productive job. Unless it is for compliance to stuff like CSR that is forced on them. If they are not busy cloning more of them in teaching jobs, they try other ways to keep the kitchen fires burning. Activism, NGOs, propaganda journalism, promoting dynastic loot, throwing spokes in the wheel of projects that affect the import lobby or China’s hegemony, you get the drift. Add the billions thrown at India by the likes of Soros and Ford for such “activism”, you have a concoction that is deadly to say the least. None of our ASEAN or Asian competitors have this problem. Pakistan certainly doesn’t.
Remember you heard it first from me – as and when Pakistan unites behind one version of Islamist ideology, not competing versions, it’s economy will start doing better, lot better than even us – because they have gotten rid of their leftists long back. There’s nothing to hold them. Their JNU – Jinnah University has a Department for Islamic studies. I doubt if it produces any Kanhaiyas or Kavitas.
To end this rant, the suggestion from me is that BJP, if it returns to power in May 2024, must make academic reform a top priority. We simply cannot afford to have our education sector destroyed by leftist cabal. Our future is at stake. What is a mere skin wound for America or Australia is almost fatal to India given where we are in the development cycle.
I even have a radical suggestion – which I know won’t get done. Even if Modiji returns with 500 seats. Separate genuine science like Maths, Physics, Statistics, Chemistry, Engineering etc., from pseudo-sciences like political “science” by removing them from all technical institutions like IIT. They can be in a separate dedicated “woke” university, hopefully not publicly funded. May be Soros can be asked to chip in.
Now, let me come back to the point I made about race and racism earlier. Ms. Gay is widely perceived as a beneficiary of the “diversity hire” program in these universities. Those perceptions seem true based on her sparse academic record of publishing. It is not just President level appointments, there are numerous other positions in most US universities that are of this sort. They are often given to groups that were disadvantaged or excluded earlier – blacks, women and so on. Obviously if done right, this is good. But the left has again gamed this to suit its agendas.
This brings us to the most bizarre and perverse aspect of the situation in India and Indian academia. The leftist cabal is entirely dominated by upper class / caste Hindus who have practically cornered the “subaltern” market. Since these academics are often hired by US and Western universities as part of their newfound diversity focus, they have come to occupy practically all lucrative gigs in many US institutions. To keep their perches, they embrace radical leftist ideologies and pander to the stereotypes of woke left.
The recent statement by Asutosh Varshney, one of the political ‘science’ gurus exported to US from here, that Muslims (about 200 million of them) will lose their right to vote if Modi returns is a good example. Guess Modi forgot to do that in first two terms. Yet another, Priyamvada Gopal did even better – tweeted that Hindus (other than Polpotists and Stalinists that have certificate from the Politburo perhaps) must not be allowed into the West! She went on to “clarify” that she meant “Hindutva” – a clever trick left has mastered to hide bigotry and hate.
This is where BJP’s strategy of genuine empowerment of the deprived classes by offering real positions of power comes in. This must be brought to the academic space as well. That will ensure diversity as well as some level of sanity.
