the illustrations that argue subash kak's case in this article lift it above the usual fare dished out by rediff. the article successfully breaks new ground in the art of presentation of a story that's imbued with reseach and not overwhlemed by it. The questions he raises simultaneously tease and point to answers buried in the text, subtext and context. Regrettably the space constraints stop his article from an ultra microscopic investigation of symptoms that encumber indian psyche labelled low self-esteem by one of kak's readers. He even indulges my favorite question, however remotely, about an average Indian citizen's responsibility in executing policies handed down by policy honchos. And the question is buried in kak's assumption that indian scholars "internalize" western "constructs" because they are confined within their own cultural and linguistic mileu. By implication, if the west embraces their scholarship their intellectual loyalty too gets embraced. is one language the answer? is the indian citizen willing to make the sacrifice. the hi-octane combustion of michael jackson's thriller will keep chinese, indians and russians rockin' n rollin for a bit. salud...mr. kak
I beg to differ with on of your comments in the article about how IIMs do not teach abt the history of Indian business.
I have studied in one of the IIMs and I can assure that we learn a lot more abt Indian business than you would know. As part of subjects like 'Business Environment' we were taught in detail how the Indian culture, values, caste system, etc. shaped the way Business has been done over the centuries and how it affects the day-to-day decision makings. One examples, which i can still recall was the discussion abt, "Manmohan Singh's Policy decisions in 1991 - and if it was solely driven by our value system of never defaulting on a debt." The point in discussion was how we are culturally different, from those of US who are perennial under debt. There were other courses as well, where we learnt 'what Vedas can teach us on Indian work-ethics'(I still have my class room notes in soft copy, if you are interested), The Indian concept of Leadership and how it is different from that of Japanes, and the US.
YOU SHOULD NOT MAKE SUCH OFF-THE-CUFF REMARKS IN AN ARTICLE WITHOU DOING A THOROUGH RESEARCH.
RE:One small disagreement (IIMs are nothing great)
by Anonymous on Nov 05, 2004 07:47 PM
"YOU SHOULD NOT MAKE SUCH OFF-THE-CUFF REMARKS IN AN ARTICLE WITHOU DOING A THOROUGH RESEARCH"
I Think The Above Applies To You Also--Your statements are very shallow, based on generalizations.
I think you learnt "business environment" but failed to learn the Environment in which author was expressing himself. Focusing on one statement made by the author you lost the context of the article and started justifying.
This article and philosophy, though cheered by all the posters, is a bit reactionary. Although, Kak thinks that he is promoting self respect, there is a sense of inferiority complex in his way of thinking. In other words, it is defensive.
although, it is always good to learn from history, getting bogged down withit may not lead the country anywhere as well. the situation in the world is very different now from the days of British Raj, although one needs to be always suspicious of the multinationals and the richer nations.
It is to india's advantage to join the global world, and take them on on their own grounds, and let the market decide which culture is better. Of course, you may say that the multinationals are forcing their culture down the indian's throats, these kinds of things are inevitable, and one has to live with it -- if the indians were or are smart, they would know what to do.
I say, lets take them on. Once you are a dominant player in the world, then you can set your own rules. But dont expect to play by your rules and get anywhere, considering the country is so economically poor. Get some wealth (it is much fairer now than in the british days).
the impact of globalization on educational sector is disastrous.we must fight to save our cultural ethos and articles of this kind will always be an eye opener to the perils of globalization .congratulations on such a well written article.
Subhash Kak must be comlimented for his outright views. India needs viable TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT- with Knowledge Expansion. I have pointed out 3 types of traps-economic,bureaucratic and Technology TRAPS- during last decade. A trapped Society has less future. Get organised or Perish. vidyardhi nanduri Hyderabad 500038
I like the way subhash put,"America sees itself as the city, with countries such as China and India that do labour intensive jobs as provinces".It is so true as all these countries do the labour and the outcome of the product is exported to these superpowernations,that is there policy of success.Thats a part of trick in capitalist system.All these lead or poisonous creating metal and stuff are created here and US gets the "clean product".That is another reason for why US has control over (less pollution) its POLLUTION SYSTEM and HEALTH CARE.As well as it gets a good profit.Why more people who work in these areas in India suffer from work related injuries more and death? US will never install something like this in there country,very few.Its the dominating nation and will do anything to stay there.
Unless we learn to accept that Globalisation means not only " taking " but " giving " as well, we are going to remain where we are, compared to our competing countries. Recognition was hard to come by for many of us, and over a period of time we developed inferiority complex. We, even to believe in ourselves, needed someone to say we are good; if it was US, better.Unless we recognise our inner strengths and set our own standards like most of the ASEAN countries, progress would be hard to achieve. We have today achieved a high degree of consumerism, comparatively, and most of us are mistaking it for development. No doubt in today's context, consumersim leads to development.Its high time we stopped crowing about our achievements and keep on working hard; earlier we could overtake our comepting countries.
I've followed Kak's writings for about 5 years now from the time I read his book (co-authored by Frawley & Feuerstein), "The Cradle of Civilization". I normally look forward to his columns on rediff and on sulekha.com. The only thing I'd like to see him change is to try to adopt is a slightly different writing style. His presentations are, almost always, a little difficult to follow. Simpler sentence construction with a little more directness will allow him to reach more readers (with both his message and the noble causes he advocates).
