I read this article at NDTV.com, I am absolutely incensed with the comments made by the author and I am amazed that the editors of NDTV have allowed this to be published. Perhaps, they also believe in the same concepts that the author presents in this article.
Absolutely tragic!! So much for value based journalism.
I think that one must try to stick to one’s core competencies; therefore I believe the author should stick to writing columns on defense and allied fields rather than comment on the socio-political crisis that besiege our country. Let’s leave that to the experts. Secondly, being a columnist requires a high degree of objectivity and neutrality. This column somehow gives the reader an impression about the author’s personal bias rather than his objectivity.
I tried to post my comments on website but I guess they don’t like me or the maybe my comment is too huge for the website. Anyways, I am posting my comments on this article here.
“The migrant from UP and Bihar is different, part of it is his socio-economic makeup, the way he behaves in a small group and his behaviour when he has the numbers are completely different” – It seems as if describing an insect on discovery channel.
“The UP Bihari migrants, many say, are hard working, a subtle way of saying that Maharashtrians are not. It isn't so simple, the migrants are hardworking sure they are, but the reason why they are making the most of lower end jobs, lets say in Haryana, is because the average Haryanvi enjoys a better standard of living, education and thus expectations than your migrant. ” – I am impressed with the egotistical and yet egalitarian standards. Just because Haryana is rich doesn’t mean that local people there have a right to not do work and then crib about other folks who are not as privileged as them coming in and taking their jobs. Its business, this concept works across the world, ask the IT services head honchos who are making their millions on this concept.
“Tamil Nadu has a population of 42 million, its birth rate is 1.2 per cent, it is acknowledged as a well governed part of the country, UP has a population in excess of 200 million! its birth rate is double that of Tamil Nadu , and doesn't look as if its slowing down anytime soon.” – so is this a proposition to do a “Sanjay Gandhi” on UP and Bihar? Yes, why not? In the author’s scheme of things the underprivileged and poor are expendable. Maybe that way the rich people of Haryana, Punjab, and Maharashtra would have more space to live in. While the rest of the intelligentsia is worried sick about the balkanization of India, the author seems to be already talking about ethnic cleansing.
“In poured millions of migrants from India, they were welcomed as the men who had led the struggle for a separate Muslim homeland, but the resentment from the local Sindhi's soon boiled over, the Muhajirs soon cornered all the government jobs because they had an advantage” – So the author compares these poor migrants to refugees that moved to Pakistan because of their faith demanded it. It doesn’t dawn on the author that these migrants are currently refugees in their own country. That’s a thing to be embarrassed about and a time for action not apathy.
In a democratic society, each one has the rights to express and exert his or her political views and the numbers count in democracy. It’s the same situation in all democracies including India. So if there are numbers in Mumbai, Haryana or Punjab, those numbers will hold sway and will let their presence be known. That’s democracy; let’s learn to live with it.
The people of Indian origins are fighting to be recognized in other parts of the world as well. So, maybe other countries should stop any more of their “kind” to enter. I wonder what would happen to the Punjabis in Canada, UK, and NZ who celebrate their lohri and baisakhi with equal fervor. I wonder what would happen to Tamils in Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
These “migrants” are the same people like us with hopes, aspiration, and dreams of a better life but maybe with far lesser capabilities or resources to achieve them. Just because we are better off, it doesn’t give us the right to make fun, humiliate, isolate, or brow-beat them.
Today it’s UP and Bihar, tomorrow it could be your community or state.
To read the complete post, click here...
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Death of a Nation-State - Elegy for Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday said that her party favored division of the state into three parts… (15 Jan 2008, Press Trust of India).
Uttar Pradesh (UP) has been the one of the jewels in India’s crown for a long time. Apart from the historical and religious hotspots that dot this land, it’s also been center stage for national politics, independence related activism, education and intellectualism. The important phases of the Indian
and this sub-continent’s history can be traced back to this state/region. Some of the most influential and gifted statesmen/stateswomen, authors, poets, scientists, educationist, intellectuals, and celebrities have their roots or moorings in this state.
Located in the northern part of India, UP is one of the largest Indian states with a population of over 180+ million. By this qualification itself it becomes one of the most populous states in India and one of the most populous country sub-division in the world. Had it been an independent nation, it would have been the world’s sixth biggest country in terms of population. Geographically, it is one the most fertile regions of the country with abundance of water and cultivable land, thus making it a major contributor to the national foodgrain stock and also the home of almost 80% of India’s livestock population.
But this rich and powerful state has fallen on hard times lately. This is my elegy to a once proud region of India.
Present day UP doesn’t find any mention in the ancient text of India. However, there is documented evidence of “Madhya Desh” which roughly covers the regions that constitute the present state and sections of adjoining states. It has thus been from ancient times the cradle of Hindu, Buddhist, Jainism and the Indo-Islamic culture.
With such a huge population and 80 seats that it provides the Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian Parliament), UP has been the political lab of India. It represents the most important province of India as far as political supremacy is concerned and in some ways dictates who holds the power at the center in India’s form of governance.
Although UP has been the front-runner in the national politics, its own political history has hardly ever been stable. Right from ancient times, this region has been rocked by battles between rival kingdoms fighting each other for the sake of ego or for a bigger share of the pie. Since then till date the state has always been divided in one way or the other. I can safely say that the only time the state stood united politically as one, was when India fought its First War of Independence against the British in 1857. Incidentally, after the war the English reorganized the state and gave it the name “United Province (UP)”, an ironic abbreviation that it carries till date.
From 1947 till the early 90s, the political scene of India had been dominated by the Congress, which carried its pre-independence halo of being the savior of India and the party with which Mahatma Gandhi and other stalwarts were associated. This formula worked like a charm as the party held on to the government with unrivaled supremacy. However the Mandal Commission recommendations of 1990 brought the Congress juggernaut to almost a halt and changed the political landscape of India forever.
For selfish political interests, myopic politicians opened this Pandora’s box without giving an ounce of thought on correct implementation strategy. And so, rather than alleviate the deprived sections of Indian society, this move ripped apart the fragile, delicately intertwined socio-political structure of the entire nation and created gaping abyssical fault lines in its society.
UP became one the worst hit states of the Indian union from the resulting backlash from the Mandal Commission and has never recovered from it. The final nail in its coffin came in the form of the extreme Hindu movement which further fragmented the society. Famed for its multilingual, multiethnic, multi-denominational character, the state that prided itself on its unique brand of socio-cultural distinctness now stands as a divided house. Because of this fracturing of its social structure, the state since the 90s has been repeatedly raped and plundered by all political parties in order to gain power to dominate central politics. The 80 Lok Sabha seats that UP brings to center – the reason for its erstwhile political clout – is now the cross of misfortune that it carries.
As mentioned earlier, this region has been from ancient times the land where most of the Indian civilization has concentrated and it has been more than hospitable. As wave upon wave of humanity settled in and grew, this region in one way became the microcosm of India. Over the centuries the people of different communities, religions, and caste had learnt to accept each other’s difference and live cordially if not totally peacefully. This cordiality was directly reflected in the electoral mandate that the people of the state provided to the then dominant party – Congress. In hindsight, not all blame can be put on Mandal Commission, as the seeds of fragmentation were initially sowed by the Congress itself – an act for which it has been paying dearly till date but doesn’t seem to learn.
From the 1990s the people have been voting more based on caste than on any issues. UP still has a vast majority of its population which lives in poverty or sub-standard living. A good percentage of the electorate of this state is uneducated and ill-informed about the outside world. This has been used by political agents to the hilt – fanning communalism and caste-ism to insanely high levels. So the outcome of the division of the electorate, the inculcation of community, caste based hatred and fear has been that an erstwhile wrestler who claims to be socialist becoming a leader of one political party and a dalit schoolteacher of humble origins becoming a leader of another. Both of them make no bones about their inclinations to absolute power, wealth, and autocracy.
And where has this left the people? Well, the once famous “hindi heartland” is now called the “cow-belt” with a predominant negative connotation. Life continues in sub-standard living conditions and abject poverty. The society has been so polarized and antagonized against each other that they are absolutely oblivious to the fact that the rest of the nation develops at breakneck speed. What was once the textile and educational mainstay of India is now many years behind other developing states. The health and infrastructure condition continues to deteriorate to no end. With the fractured mandate and elected governments been ushered out at an alarming fast frequency, the administration machinery of the state has completely collapsed leading to spiraling crime, terrorist activities, mis-governance, mafia-rule, the rise of political vendetta and witch-hunting.
The state’s universities that once produced the maximum number of Indian administrative officials across India now lie in ruins. Allahabad University that was called “The Oxford of the East” and prided itself to have luminaries such Dr. Meghnad Saha, Dr. A.N. Jha, Dr.G.N Jha, Sir Sundar Lal, Sir P.C.Bannerji as its professors, is now a place where country made bombs and handguns are made/carried/used within its hallowed grounds. These high seats of learning have not been spared by the prevailing political winds, and have become the breeding grounds of criminals and political aspirants, thus completely removing the cherished ideals of education that were once enshrined in them.
The fortunate people of the state send their children to other states to gain education with a silent prayer that they never have to return to their homelands. The less fortunate send their children to become migrant labors in other states, where they are butchered (like in Assam) or live with fear as second grade citizens in their own country (like in Mumbai). Both these class of migrants, “strangers in a strange land” live in their adopted homes with self-denied shame and ignominy. They try to hide (or avoid) where they come from, lest some people make caustic and crude comments about their place of origin- which invariably they do. The people who fall through the cracks between the “fortunate” and “less-fortunate” have resigned to their fate and have accepted the inevitable - to rot to extinction just like the state that they live in.
I don’t believe that just because a state is large it can’t be governed efficiently and developed. Texas in the USA is a large state - they don’t seem to have any problems. Closer home, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh are also not that small. However, I do agree that India has not reached the high stage of governance efficiency and transparency as the US has. I also agree that the other “developed” Indian states have high levels of literacy and awareness. But the problems that plague UP are complexly dove-tailed into one another thus creating a vicious cycle. It is only through some drastic measures that these problems can be eradicated and the state’s fast decent into anarchy can be broken.
I believe that the trifurcation of UP would only benefit it from one angle and that is the reduction of seats that it provides the Lok Sabha as a single entity and hence make it less important for political piranhas. This way it will get away from the eyes of power thirsty and wealth hungry corrupt politicians and maybe…just maybe the people will have a chance for a better tomorrow.
In any case, it will be the death of a Nation-state. More than rejoicing it is a time for mourning.
To read the complete post, click here...
Uttar Pradesh (UP) has been the one of the jewels in India’s crown for a long time. Apart from the historical and religious hotspots that dot this land, it’s also been center stage for national politics, independence related activism, education and intellectualism. The important phases of the Indian
and this sub-continent’s history can be traced back to this state/region. Some of the most influential and gifted statesmen/stateswomen, authors, poets, scientists, educationist, intellectuals, and celebrities have their roots or moorings in this state.
Located in the northern part of India, UP is one of the largest Indian states with a population of over 180+ million. By this qualification itself it becomes one of the most populous states in India and one of the most populous country sub-division in the world. Had it been an independent nation, it would have been the world’s sixth biggest country in terms of population. Geographically, it is one the most fertile regions of the country with abundance of water and cultivable land, thus making it a major contributor to the national foodgrain stock and also the home of almost 80% of India’s livestock population.
But this rich and powerful state has fallen on hard times lately. This is my elegy to a once proud region of India.
Present day UP doesn’t find any mention in the ancient text of India. However, there is documented evidence of “Madhya Desh” which roughly covers the regions that constitute the present state and sections of adjoining states. It has thus been from ancient times the cradle of Hindu, Buddhist, Jainism and the Indo-Islamic culture.
With such a huge population and 80 seats that it provides the Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian Parliament), UP has been the political lab of India. It represents the most important province of India as far as political supremacy is concerned and in some ways dictates who holds the power at the center in India’s form of governance.
Although UP has been the front-runner in the national politics, its own political history has hardly ever been stable. Right from ancient times, this region has been rocked by battles between rival kingdoms fighting each other for the sake of ego or for a bigger share of the pie. Since then till date the state has always been divided in one way or the other. I can safely say that the only time the state stood united politically as one, was when India fought its First War of Independence against the British in 1857. Incidentally, after the war the English reorganized the state and gave it the name “United Province (UP)”, an ironic abbreviation that it carries till date.
From 1947 till the early 90s, the political scene of India had been dominated by the Congress, which carried its pre-independence halo of being the savior of India and the party with which Mahatma Gandhi and other stalwarts were associated. This formula worked like a charm as the party held on to the government with unrivaled supremacy. However the Mandal Commission recommendations of 1990 brought the Congress juggernaut to almost a halt and changed the political landscape of India forever.
For selfish political interests, myopic politicians opened this Pandora’s box without giving an ounce of thought on correct implementation strategy. And so, rather than alleviate the deprived sections of Indian society, this move ripped apart the fragile, delicately intertwined socio-political structure of the entire nation and created gaping abyssical fault lines in its society.
UP became one the worst hit states of the Indian union from the resulting backlash from the Mandal Commission and has never recovered from it. The final nail in its coffin came in the form of the extreme Hindu movement which further fragmented the society. Famed for its multilingual, multiethnic, multi-denominational character, the state that prided itself on its unique brand of socio-cultural distinctness now stands as a divided house. Because of this fracturing of its social structure, the state since the 90s has been repeatedly raped and plundered by all political parties in order to gain power to dominate central politics. The 80 Lok Sabha seats that UP brings to center – the reason for its erstwhile political clout – is now the cross of misfortune that it carries.
As mentioned earlier, this region has been from ancient times the land where most of the Indian civilization has concentrated and it has been more than hospitable. As wave upon wave of humanity settled in and grew, this region in one way became the microcosm of India. Over the centuries the people of different communities, religions, and caste had learnt to accept each other’s difference and live cordially if not totally peacefully. This cordiality was directly reflected in the electoral mandate that the people of the state provided to the then dominant party – Congress. In hindsight, not all blame can be put on Mandal Commission, as the seeds of fragmentation were initially sowed by the Congress itself – an act for which it has been paying dearly till date but doesn’t seem to learn.
From the 1990s the people have been voting more based on caste than on any issues. UP still has a vast majority of its population which lives in poverty or sub-standard living. A good percentage of the electorate of this state is uneducated and ill-informed about the outside world. This has been used by political agents to the hilt – fanning communalism and caste-ism to insanely high levels. So the outcome of the division of the electorate, the inculcation of community, caste based hatred and fear has been that an erstwhile wrestler who claims to be socialist becoming a leader of one political party and a dalit schoolteacher of humble origins becoming a leader of another. Both of them make no bones about their inclinations to absolute power, wealth, and autocracy.
And where has this left the people? Well, the once famous “hindi heartland” is now called the “cow-belt” with a predominant negative connotation. Life continues in sub-standard living conditions and abject poverty. The society has been so polarized and antagonized against each other that they are absolutely oblivious to the fact that the rest of the nation develops at breakneck speed. What was once the textile and educational mainstay of India is now many years behind other developing states. The health and infrastructure condition continues to deteriorate to no end. With the fractured mandate and elected governments been ushered out at an alarming fast frequency, the administration machinery of the state has completely collapsed leading to spiraling crime, terrorist activities, mis-governance, mafia-rule, the rise of political vendetta and witch-hunting.
The state’s universities that once produced the maximum number of Indian administrative officials across India now lie in ruins. Allahabad University that was called “The Oxford of the East” and prided itself to have luminaries such Dr. Meghnad Saha, Dr. A.N. Jha, Dr.G.N Jha, Sir Sundar Lal, Sir P.C.Bannerji as its professors, is now a place where country made bombs and handguns are made/carried/used within its hallowed grounds. These high seats of learning have not been spared by the prevailing political winds, and have become the breeding grounds of criminals and political aspirants, thus completely removing the cherished ideals of education that were once enshrined in them.
The fortunate people of the state send their children to other states to gain education with a silent prayer that they never have to return to their homelands. The less fortunate send their children to become migrant labors in other states, where they are butchered (like in Assam) or live with fear as second grade citizens in their own country (like in Mumbai). Both these class of migrants, “strangers in a strange land” live in their adopted homes with self-denied shame and ignominy. They try to hide (or avoid) where they come from, lest some people make caustic and crude comments about their place of origin- which invariably they do. The people who fall through the cracks between the “fortunate” and “less-fortunate” have resigned to their fate and have accepted the inevitable - to rot to extinction just like the state that they live in.
I don’t believe that just because a state is large it can’t be governed efficiently and developed. Texas in the USA is a large state - they don’t seem to have any problems. Closer home, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh are also not that small. However, I do agree that India has not reached the high stage of governance efficiency and transparency as the US has. I also agree that the other “developed” Indian states have high levels of literacy and awareness. But the problems that plague UP are complexly dove-tailed into one another thus creating a vicious cycle. It is only through some drastic measures that these problems can be eradicated and the state’s fast decent into anarchy can be broken.
I believe that the trifurcation of UP would only benefit it from one angle and that is the reduction of seats that it provides the Lok Sabha as a single entity and hence make it less important for political piranhas. This way it will get away from the eyes of power thirsty and wealth hungry corrupt politicians and maybe…just maybe the people will have a chance for a better tomorrow.
In any case, it will be the death of a Nation-state. More than rejoicing it is a time for mourning.
To read the complete post, click here...
Sania Mirza & the Indian Tri-color
A local court in Bhopal issued summons to tennis star Sania Mirza for allegedly disrespecting the national flag during a function some time back. The summons was issued by following up on a case filed by social worker under the Prevention of Insult to the National Honor Act (1971).It is alleged that Mirza disrespected the national tricolor by sitting in a manner so that her feet pointed at the flag, which the social worker felt was derogatory and had hurt him (Press Trust of India – January 9th 2008).
I chanced upon this news snippet in a national daily and it got me thinking about India and our Indian-ism (If I may say so).
I have had the opportunity of living away from my home country (India) for a while. One of the good things about this has been that I get to see India from an outside perspective. It also gives me an opportunity to be more objective in my viewpoint rather than being in the middle and loosing orientation. And being a self-professed Indophile, what I see doesn’t always make me happy. These are my thoughts about this.
In the last decade or so, India has been going through silent yet powerful transformations. All though the changes are not fully in place, but they do show their brilliant face time and time again in different arenas. Be it the forceful yet diplomatically impeccable take-over of Corus or Arcelor, the Nano which humbly snubbed all the auto-giants’ noses into the ground, the fiery and defiant altercation of the Indian team with the foul-mouthed Australians and a nation rallying in their support. This country has moved a long way from the “turn-the-other-cheek” policy of yesteryears. There is a renewed pride attached with us about our country, our achievements, and our Indian-ism. Unlike the olden days, we don’t say that we are Indians and become a wallflower in one corner of a social gathering. Instead we get onto the middle of the dance floor, party like there is no tomorrow, and let people know that we are Indians and we have arrived. I love these heady days and pray for many more to come.
Yet, all is not well. There is fine line between nationalism based on honest appreciation of one’s country and self-deceiving images of national pride. Wikipedia defines patriotism as “Patriotism denotes positive and supportive attitudes to a 'fatherland' (or 'motherland'), by individuals and groups. The 'fatherland' (or 'motherland') can be a region or a city. Patriotism covers such attitudes as: pride in its achievements and culture, the desire to preserve its character and the basis of the culture, and identification with other members of the nation.”
Recently, a fellow colleague sent a couple of links which lead to the online version of the Indian Constitution. It is the longest written constitution of any independent nation in the world, containing 395 articles and 12 schedules for a total of 117,369 words in its English language version. Constitutional scholar Granville Austin states that “probably no other nation's constitution has provided so much impetus toward changing and rebuilding society for the common good”. One of the key features of the Indian constitution is its liberal borrowing from the “Bill of Rights” of the US Constitution. This is known as the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This charter is the sanity check to ensure that our society remains equal and open in all respects, and has become the bedrock of India’s democratic set-up.
With all its drawbacks, I can still say with pride that we live in an amazing country. I know it’s hard to believe this – with the traffic, the open corruption, lack of infrastructure, the crime-ridden society – yet we still should count our blessing to be Indians. Barkha Dutt, the journalist par excellence, recounts her experiences of traveling in Pakistan after the recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Her story is filled with sadness and grief and at the same time extols the virtues of our society. I am quoting a few lines from her article:
“After a week of traveling through Pakistan, I got the sense that four bitter wars with us later, its people have finally conceded the battle to the ‘idea of India’.”
“…being in Pakistan underscores what we don’t realize often enough — with all its warts, our democracy and secularism are what has kept us sane”
I could go on praising and comparing our nation with others of the world, but then I would be digressing.
What I want to say is that, freedom doesn’t come easy. People who believe that gaining freedom is the difficult part tend to forget that even more arduous than achieving freedom is to maintain that freedom. If you don’t believe me, you can look at our neighboring countries. Their sorry state will surely drive the point home. Similarly, democracy doesn’t come easy either. It’s seen generally that the noble ideal of freedom of speech and expression are good as long as they are in our favor. But the true meaning of democracy is that we take it in the right spirit when another person derides the principles/thoughts that we presumably cherish. And although his speech or expression makes us go into a fit of rage; yet we still accept his fundamental rights and acknowledge his actions. That is true freedom of speech and expression and it’s the sublime goal of any democracy.
For an inch of land, for a shred of a flag, a soldier performs the supreme sacrifice and lays down his life. But the idea here is not to miss the woods from the trees. The symbol of a free and democratic country can’t be just a flag; it should be also be the act of a citizen of the country exercising his right of freedom of expression, his freedom of religion, etc. The flag is the symbol of those ideals and it’s for the protection of those ideals that countless of our soldiers have bravely faced hell and high waters and have died doing so. It’s for those ideals that your and my forefathers have faced bullets and lathi charges so that we can live to see this day and enjoy the fruits of the tree that they have tended with their sweat and blood. The flag just happens to be there but is of no consequence if the ideals that it embodies are forgotten. I don’t propose that we should wear tri-colored slippers because the law of the land is insurmountable and that we should be proud of our nation and its symbol(s).
However, I do propose that we should try to refrain from heeding to false hedonistic national euphoria. Patriotic jingoism is the first step in the direction of “self-deceiving images of national pride”. This false patriotic fervor is used by unscrupulous elements to gain popularity by cannibalizing on another person’s fame. Or is used to make a citizen bask in the false glory of his nation, and then frighten him that if he/she doesn’t do something, then that glory will be lost. In both cases it’s detrimental to the individual and society as it tends to put power in the hands of few. This by very definition is the anti-thesis of Democracy which condemns the idea of the accumulation of power in the hands of few!!
I believe that India is not a country! Because as a country it’s divided by “narrow domestic walls” of language, religion, caste, regions, etc. I believe that India is an Idea. An idea so grand and yet so humble, so rich and yet filled with humility, an idea 5000 years old and yet so new that it seems timeless. India is so multi-faceted and complex that it would take much more research just to view its different faces, let alone understand them. It’s so abstract and yet so insanely rational and concrete. India is perpetually in chaos, but there is strong and powerful method to its madness. And that method is the acceptance of disparity, the ideal of being free, fair, kind, and true to human spirit. It’s this idea of progress and betterment that tightly binds the “country” India’s many discrepancies and contradictions and makes a nation.
I don’t say that we are without malaise. After all we too are humans and we have our short comings. But who doesn’t? What I say is that India is poised, it’s shinning and it’s ready to move on to the world’s center stage. And we are a blessed generation to witness this transition. However, we are also a generation with the heaviest responsibilities on our shoulders as we stand at a crucial juncture. On one end is the great nation we all want. A nation based on progress, intellectual and financial wealth, and freedom. On the other end we have the same old society we so desperately want to forget. Therefore, we should remember not to succumb to the lure of political, nationalistic, religious, linguistic, or caste-based jingoism that rears its head sporadically across the country.
Probably when history looks back it wouldn’t know our names but it will know that we lived in the times of Ambanis, Mittals, Tatas, Murthys, Tendulkars, Vishwanathan Anands, Jaspal Ranas, and Bhaichung Bhutias. That we co-existed with the Kalams, Amartya Sens, MF Hussains, and Manmohan Singhs. People who have labored hard and through talent, perseverance and at times sheer grit in the face of great odds have beaten the best in their games within their rules. These people and many like them don’t wear the tri-color on their body as it shines through their personality and achievements.
Therefore, we shouldn’t cry murder if Tendulkar accidentally cuts a tri-color cake or Mirza inadvertently shows her feet to the national flag. Their achievements and accomplishments prove beyond doubt their patriotism and nationalism. Of course their action should be reprimanded because it’s against the law. But sometimes the media and unscrupulous elements use these incidents for their vested interests. However we the people should not patronize these emotions, or succumb to mass hysteria, or get into a witch hunt. This approach is the only way for true democracy and freedom; the alternative is anarchy and disintegration. The choice is ours because the future is ours too!!
To read the complete post, click here...
I chanced upon this news snippet in a national daily and it got me thinking about India and our Indian-ism (If I may say so).
I have had the opportunity of living away from my home country (India) for a while. One of the good things about this has been that I get to see India from an outside perspective. It also gives me an opportunity to be more objective in my viewpoint rather than being in the middle and loosing orientation. And being a self-professed Indophile, what I see doesn’t always make me happy. These are my thoughts about this.
In the last decade or so, India has been going through silent yet powerful transformations. All though the changes are not fully in place, but they do show their brilliant face time and time again in different arenas. Be it the forceful yet diplomatically impeccable take-over of Corus or Arcelor, the Nano which humbly snubbed all the auto-giants’ noses into the ground, the fiery and defiant altercation of the Indian team with the foul-mouthed Australians and a nation rallying in their support. This country has moved a long way from the “turn-the-other-cheek” policy of yesteryears. There is a renewed pride attached with us about our country, our achievements, and our Indian-ism. Unlike the olden days, we don’t say that we are Indians and become a wallflower in one corner of a social gathering. Instead we get onto the middle of the dance floor, party like there is no tomorrow, and let people know that we are Indians and we have arrived. I love these heady days and pray for many more to come.
Yet, all is not well. There is fine line between nationalism based on honest appreciation of one’s country and self-deceiving images of national pride. Wikipedia defines patriotism as “Patriotism denotes positive and supportive attitudes to a 'fatherland' (or 'motherland'), by individuals and groups. The 'fatherland' (or 'motherland') can be a region or a city. Patriotism covers such attitudes as: pride in its achievements and culture, the desire to preserve its character and the basis of the culture, and identification with other members of the nation.”
Recently, a fellow colleague sent a couple of links which lead to the online version of the Indian Constitution. It is the longest written constitution of any independent nation in the world, containing 395 articles and 12 schedules for a total of 117,369 words in its English language version. Constitutional scholar Granville Austin states that “probably no other nation's constitution has provided so much impetus toward changing and rebuilding society for the common good”. One of the key features of the Indian constitution is its liberal borrowing from the “Bill of Rights” of the US Constitution. This is known as the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This charter is the sanity check to ensure that our society remains equal and open in all respects, and has become the bedrock of India’s democratic set-up.
With all its drawbacks, I can still say with pride that we live in an amazing country. I know it’s hard to believe this – with the traffic, the open corruption, lack of infrastructure, the crime-ridden society – yet we still should count our blessing to be Indians. Barkha Dutt, the journalist par excellence, recounts her experiences of traveling in Pakistan after the recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Her story is filled with sadness and grief and at the same time extols the virtues of our society. I am quoting a few lines from her article:
“After a week of traveling through Pakistan, I got the sense that four bitter wars with us later, its people have finally conceded the battle to the ‘idea of India’.”
“…being in Pakistan underscores what we don’t realize often enough — with all its warts, our democracy and secularism are what has kept us sane”
I could go on praising and comparing our nation with others of the world, but then I would be digressing.
What I want to say is that, freedom doesn’t come easy. People who believe that gaining freedom is the difficult part tend to forget that even more arduous than achieving freedom is to maintain that freedom. If you don’t believe me, you can look at our neighboring countries. Their sorry state will surely drive the point home. Similarly, democracy doesn’t come easy either. It’s seen generally that the noble ideal of freedom of speech and expression are good as long as they are in our favor. But the true meaning of democracy is that we take it in the right spirit when another person derides the principles/thoughts that we presumably cherish. And although his speech or expression makes us go into a fit of rage; yet we still accept his fundamental rights and acknowledge his actions. That is true freedom of speech and expression and it’s the sublime goal of any democracy.
For an inch of land, for a shred of a flag, a soldier performs the supreme sacrifice and lays down his life. But the idea here is not to miss the woods from the trees. The symbol of a free and democratic country can’t be just a flag; it should be also be the act of a citizen of the country exercising his right of freedom of expression, his freedom of religion, etc. The flag is the symbol of those ideals and it’s for the protection of those ideals that countless of our soldiers have bravely faced hell and high waters and have died doing so. It’s for those ideals that your and my forefathers have faced bullets and lathi charges so that we can live to see this day and enjoy the fruits of the tree that they have tended with their sweat and blood. The flag just happens to be there but is of no consequence if the ideals that it embodies are forgotten. I don’t propose that we should wear tri-colored slippers because the law of the land is insurmountable and that we should be proud of our nation and its symbol(s).
However, I do propose that we should try to refrain from heeding to false hedonistic national euphoria. Patriotic jingoism is the first step in the direction of “self-deceiving images of national pride”. This false patriotic fervor is used by unscrupulous elements to gain popularity by cannibalizing on another person’s fame. Or is used to make a citizen bask in the false glory of his nation, and then frighten him that if he/she doesn’t do something, then that glory will be lost. In both cases it’s detrimental to the individual and society as it tends to put power in the hands of few. This by very definition is the anti-thesis of Democracy which condemns the idea of the accumulation of power in the hands of few!!
I believe that India is not a country! Because as a country it’s divided by “narrow domestic walls” of language, religion, caste, regions, etc. I believe that India is an Idea. An idea so grand and yet so humble, so rich and yet filled with humility, an idea 5000 years old and yet so new that it seems timeless. India is so multi-faceted and complex that it would take much more research just to view its different faces, let alone understand them. It’s so abstract and yet so insanely rational and concrete. India is perpetually in chaos, but there is strong and powerful method to its madness. And that method is the acceptance of disparity, the ideal of being free, fair, kind, and true to human spirit. It’s this idea of progress and betterment that tightly binds the “country” India’s many discrepancies and contradictions and makes a nation.
I don’t say that we are without malaise. After all we too are humans and we have our short comings. But who doesn’t? What I say is that India is poised, it’s shinning and it’s ready to move on to the world’s center stage. And we are a blessed generation to witness this transition. However, we are also a generation with the heaviest responsibilities on our shoulders as we stand at a crucial juncture. On one end is the great nation we all want. A nation based on progress, intellectual and financial wealth, and freedom. On the other end we have the same old society we so desperately want to forget. Therefore, we should remember not to succumb to the lure of political, nationalistic, religious, linguistic, or caste-based jingoism that rears its head sporadically across the country.
Probably when history looks back it wouldn’t know our names but it will know that we lived in the times of Ambanis, Mittals, Tatas, Murthys, Tendulkars, Vishwanathan Anands, Jaspal Ranas, and Bhaichung Bhutias. That we co-existed with the Kalams, Amartya Sens, MF Hussains, and Manmohan Singhs. People who have labored hard and through talent, perseverance and at times sheer grit in the face of great odds have beaten the best in their games within their rules. These people and many like them don’t wear the tri-color on their body as it shines through their personality and achievements.
Therefore, we shouldn’t cry murder if Tendulkar accidentally cuts a tri-color cake or Mirza inadvertently shows her feet to the national flag. Their achievements and accomplishments prove beyond doubt their patriotism and nationalism. Of course their action should be reprimanded because it’s against the law. But sometimes the media and unscrupulous elements use these incidents for their vested interests. However we the people should not patronize these emotions, or succumb to mass hysteria, or get into a witch hunt. This approach is the only way for true democracy and freedom; the alternative is anarchy and disintegration. The choice is ours because the future is ours too!!
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Indian IT Industry & The dumbing down of an Indian!!
The emergence of Indian IT Industry– The dumbing down of an Indian!!
My nephew wants to be like me when he grows up. All fancy high-tech gadgets, flying around the world, comparatively richer and all that pizzazz. How I wish he wouldn’t be like me!!
Who am I? I am a software engineer in the Indian IT Industry. Yes, you read it right, a “Software Engineer”, the folks who are currently perceived in India, with the world at their feet and a halo around their heads. It’s not my nephew’s fault as almost everybody sees the glitz and glamour associated with my profession. I (personally), see my state and the state of things around me. I see a future, which to be honest; I don’t like and don’t want to see either.
I grew up admiring those who were intellectuals and those who were rich. So, when the time came to decide what I wanted to be when I grow up – I decided I wanted to be intellectual and wealthy (I&W). During the early nineties when I got into engineering school I opted for electronics as my specialization, because I heard that it was the toughest (making me an intellectual) and had the best prospects for the future (making me wealthy). Perfect plan!
Oblivious to me, the world was going through what is now called the IT Revolution, and some magicians of the business world were setting shops which later on would become the hallowed grounds for today’s Indians. However, for me life couldn’t have been more beautiful. Each time I told new acquaintances that I was studying electronics; they would roll their eyes in awe. The plan was perfect and I couldn’t have been happier.
But then, life is a mystery bigger than anything else. So, eventually I found myself out of school and out of a job too.
I believed that I would land with a decent job that would fulfill my dreams of being I&W. But, what I realized the hard way was, that companies that actually needed electronics design engineer were few and far in between. And, the ones that did work in electronics employed folks from premier institutes, I guess with the limited openings that they had, their hunger was satiated with the flock coming from “A” grade institutes or were crème-de-la-crème. I was good, but didn’t fit in either of the two.
They asked for experience, but there wasn’t any place to work let alone get experience. The stuff that was taught in college was obsolete. Nobody was asking or talking about it. There were very little hands-on design classes. Most of the information was intended to be learnt by rote just to get good grades and never use again. The professors that taught these subjects were as old as the books themselves, they had hardened over the period of time to become more dogmatic and closed in their approach. They didn’t learn or explore anything new and hence didn’t have anything to pass on to the students, apart from what was in the books and their own pessimistic view of the life ahead. Maybe, they too had given up, just like I would do in the future.
At that moment in time, however, I didn’t loose hope and continued with my quest for that elusive design or research job. I left my resume with doormen positioned at huge glass entrances of organizations; they wouldn’t even wait for me to turn around before they dumped my CV into the waste paper basket at their feet. But it was only after months of futile searching, no money in my pocket, and the tremendous pressure to live up to the expectations of friends & family, that I realized that my perfect plan was a perfect failure. My focus changed from the “future – perfect job” to the “present- money to survive”.
It was during this period, that a well wisher of mine told me about the dot-com boom. He told me about how companies were hiring in droves, and that maybe I took could get a job. I planned (as usual), that I could take up a software job just to sustain myself and keep looking for that dream opening in Research & Development (R&D) in the meanwhile. So with this intention in mind, I jumped on to the IT band wagon. It’s been ten years since.
So who am I? I am a software engineer. And what do I do? That information I will dispense now.
I am an individual contributor in a software services company. I am one of the faces in the sea of humanity (1.3 Million as of year 2006) that calls itself the Indian IT industry. If there is any revolution, apart from the Green Revolution (post independence) and the White Revolution (the 70s), that has everybody enthralled, the government smiling, the business bosses laughing their way to the bank, and the ordinary Indian jumping with joy in sort of drug-induced ecstasy and shouting “India Shining !” – It’s the IT Revolution.
If the media frenzy is to be believed, this juggernaut seems so big, so beautiful, so awe-inspiring, so triumphant, and so invincible that somehow I get this strange feeling of an apocalypse just round the corner. I hope to God that I am wrong, but the current situation does portend it.
You can say that, in this short career of 10 years, I have played (or witnessed) all the rolls that are possible.
- The low-lying software apprentice learning the tricks of the trade (and game) from masters.
- The software developer who has books on software programming on one side and technical specs of the application to be built on the other– coding away to eternity.
- The guy on the phone trouble-shooting applications owned by people who I don’t know and will never know.
- The guy who sitting here in India sells software on the phone to customers across the world, because English speaking talent pool is more here in India and less expensive.
- The guy who files the taxes and pays the bill for other people because they don’t have the time to do it themselves and have other worthwhile activities to perform.
- The guy who as a manager has hardened and given-up (just like the professors he had years ago), who is so addicted to the money and false glory that the only difference between his lie and his life is the “f” in between.
The guy who keeps repeating to himself that this is the game and that if he stops for lunch, he will become lunch, and hence he starves as he runs with break neck speed to an ever receding finishing line. The guy who is afraid to look at the guy he was ten years ago.
They say if you have seen it all, then your soul is ready for nirvana. I am sure as hell that my soul is. But I digress.
By this time if you are a true Indian or Indophile, I am sure you would be considering me as failure, who could not achieve much, and is lamenting his life and cursing the environment for his current state. You might think that I am the person who couldn’t stand up to the pressure, or gave up when the going got tough. And if you are kind-hearted you might think of me as an unfortunate soul. I might be all these and more. But I would like to bring to light some points.
According to the NASSCOM Strategic Review -2007 report, Indian IT industry is growing by 28% this year (2007). The total revenue generated from this industry is in the tune of $ 48 billion and direct employment is likely to cross 1.6 million. Services and software are the key bread earners in this industry and NASSCOM estimates that IT Services export which accounts to around 60% of the total export is growing at an estimated 36 percent and is expected to reach $ 18 billion in 2007. All these statistics sound fantastic and beguile a person in believing that all is well. I am a realist and I take good news with a pinch of salt.
Numbers are a double edged sword. If used in one way they can help in discerning the tree from the woods, the other way around they can camouflage the tree entirely within the woods. If you don’t believe me ask the statisticians and CPAs who have been doing this for ages. So at times it’s important to use a healthy mix of statistics with ground realities and other related news. This I believe gives a clearer picture of things.
I once heard a joke on IT professionals, which goes like this: What is the similarity between an IT professional and railway porter? – The both ask “what platform do you work on?” when the meet another of their kind. In a humorous way there is a very important concept being put across here. And that is stagnation. Every IT engineer worth his salt knows that it’s always good to learn a technology different from the one he is working on. In the realm of job openings, it’s called marketability and cross-platform knowledge. In the world of fables it means don’t put all your eggs in one basket. However, this is exactly what the IT industry is doing – they are putting all their eggs in one basket. I call this the IT Services Vicious Cycle.
IT Services Vicious Cycle
Any self styled software company looks for money/market share/people utilization; which requires more projects; this puts pressure on the sales/management to find new revenue sources; the sales department under pressure then focuses on low-hanging fruits and easy money; in the current market scenario of outsourcing, services are easy money and so the sales/management gun for it; with projects comes demand for more people, the organizations hires more people; this increases the bench strength, all businesses look for profit and it doesn’t make sense to have people on the bench (that’s not profit); hence the pressure on making money, increase market share and improve utilization. And the cycle repeats itself.
As of now, there are enough services out there that can keep a lot of cash registers ringing and a lot of people on the payrolls. The NASSCOM report quoted above proves this. But believe me things wont remain like this forever. There are new kids on the block who mean serious business and are building steadily the same core competencies that has kept us Indians singing, dancing and basking in the IT outsourcing sun.
Some of the harmful effects of the IT Services Vicious Cycle are:
- The organization is predominantly focused on one thing. This can be because of greed, competition, battle for market supremacy, etc. It creates the famous rat race, which not only plagues the organization but permeates down its ranks and also within the society.
- This obsession leads to a very narrow outlook towards the market, which basically blinds the organization from other profitable sectors and business initiatives. Other areas where the organization can invest, think creatively in collective sense are completely diminished or erased.
- The race to get better services professional leads to phenomena of poaching, which is not a good practice. It also makes the individual proud and he creates a larger than life picture of himself. It increases the wage structure which has direct effect in the market. This becomes another silent factor in the IT Services Vicious Cycle.
- It creates a self sustaining system where each new employee although learns/masters the trade but more from a services angle. This kills the creativity and innovation inherent in him. He gets into a comfort zone and after a period of time resists moving out from it. Extreme cases he banishes completely the thought of ever moving out from his comfort zone.
I see this all around me. I see folks who complain about the redundant and un-inspiring work that they have been doing but don’t dare move out from it. This is because they are so hooked to it. Their social and financial standing are moored to the job that they do. This system is becoming more like a vacuum cleaner that is sucking in talent and all that you get at the other hand is garbage.
Let me explain this, for new college graduate joining an IT Company, he is too insecure and wouldn’t dare but toe the line. He is impressionable and will pick up what all is being taught to him or what he sees his colleagues and supervisors doing.
For mid level and senior professional, that game is all different. They have a settled life and the money keeps flowing in. For them unless they have a brilliant idea which can wean them away, there is nothing that can convince them to not toe the line. It’s far too big a gamble and too risky to do that. Hence they continue doing what all is supposed to be done.
The song and dance sequence about the Indian Software Industry by the media, the Indian players and their foreign sympathizers is just a smoke screen to hide the biggest reality of our time. Those companies are pulling in immense talent and making them do low-caliber work rewarding them with perks and luxuries which they couldn’t have imagined. At the end of the day, we have people who are hooked on to a false life, self-esteem and are burnt out and disgruntled. Employee turn-over is more than 18% in the industry. 55%-60% of the time a person quotes “moving to better opportunities” in the exit interview from his current organization. This “better opportunities” should not be just taken as “better money”, but intrinsically the person is tired of what he is doing and that inner urge to do something worthwhile kicks-in from time to time. In his illusion that the next company will give him that opportunity, he moves on finding the same story repeating itself in a different setting. The IT Services Vicious Cycle!!
The great man of the Indian IT scene – Professor Sadagopan says – “…the very nature of software services, much of the employment is focused on skills, mostly related to the tools of software engineering. Since most of the Indian software workforce consists of engineers, it will be nice that we make use of the knowledge of engineering.
Engineering by its very nature is a creative profession (unlike legal or accounting profession). It can be very satisfying too. I do expect that the next stage of Indian IT industry will be that of engineering software; use software engineering to create great engineering marvels.
…the software engineers have an unusually exciting opportunity to go beyond software engineering to engineering software.”
As, has been summed up by the esteemed professor, the real satisfaction and profit doesn’t lie in doing some low-caliber work, but in actually being involved in innovation and creating new product lines and creating new technologies.
I am paraphrasing some important observations made by Hari Sud, an investment strategy analyst and international relations manager. India has high intellectual capabilities since the beginning of time. The holy text and sacred books so revered by Indians (Upanishads & Vedas) could not have been written by people who had low intellectual strengths. The concept of zero traces it’s origins from India. The science of astronomy was literally born in India and that couldn’t have been possible without powerful and deep insights into geometry and calculus. Almost 60% of the 64 million college/university graduates hold degrees in science out which 9.6 million hold post graduate degrees.
If intellectualism is considered a power, than India is a powerhouse. But how much of that power are we actually using? It is said that, when the British colonized India, the implemented an education system that ensured that they got good quality clerks. I am not a dooms day prophet but isn’t there a similar kind of colonization right now. The only difference is that we are colonizing ourselves. We are reaching out to the easy money and low-hanging fruits and with scant regard for what could be the situation in the future.
Although, the application of IT is wide-spread across the world now days, but the making of computers, the designing of micro-chips is more a “family affair” still. The family in these case are the few organizations that actually do the real R&D and are located not in India (by comparison) but more in the west.
To drive my point home, let me take the case of IT Hardware. Arun Shourie (The Union Minister for Disinvestment, Communications and Information Technology) recently while delivering a speech at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) gave some really strange statistics about the IT Industry– which is – The total output by the Indian Industry for this sector was 85% and was focused to serve external customers while 85% of India’s closest rival China’s total output in this sector was focused internally. Mr. Shourie himself says the Indian Hardware is doing rather poorly which directly means that R&D activities, which can be one of the important ingredients of the IT Hardware industry, are slowly dwindling and dieing.
IT can be a harbinger of prosperity, but if the nation’s entire focus is outwards then there is little that IT can do. This situation can be really grave in India where there is an ever increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots and where the gap in meeting basic needs is enormous.
IT is an amalgamation of three categories – hardware, human, software. India is already touted as the software superpower (for how long – only God knows). We have attained critical mass in human resources (which means good quality English speaking labor) and the acute knowledge of software. Based on this we claim that we have rapid all round developments in each sphere; the economy is booming, the money is coming into the country, ISRO is launching satellites into space, etc. However, this seems too good to be true. The state of Hardware is awful and that of R&D is even more tragic. According to research, India can’t even develop high quality basic components, let alone ICs, chips and computer processors. Which means that all the high-tech capabilities that we so proudly flaunt are built on components that we import from outside. This implies that our capabilities are all propped by external agencies which help us build what we want to build.
Every second person you meet in Bangalore knows C++ or Java or .NET or what not. He or she will know some or the other software development tool. This is by rote and by repeated use of the tool and technology. This is because the industry demands of it. The industry also pays for it, and that’s why we come across news items that many scientists are leaving ISRO and DRDO to join IT MNCs.
It’s a similar case in Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, and probably Gurgaon. But, How many of them can actually create something from the scratch rather than just creatively write software? How many can actually create IP? How many have the environment to create IP? These are statistics that I would really like to know about.
There are just a few IT organization (including the one that I work for right now) that actually are making serious attempts at Knowledge Management and IP Creation.
Kiran Karnik (President, NASSCOM) says – “Indians are merely going for software programming: it is like a car mechanic repairing cars, which is a tremendous ability. But while we can repair cars, we cannot design them! We are merely roadside mechanics.” I believe Mr. Karnik is asking us to zoom out from our current hype and obsession and look at the big picture. I believe that he too has seen this picture himself, and I guess he isn’t sleeping easy either.
Without out adding my own boring drivel, I will quote Mr. Karnik again – “...compare India with China, there is a huge gap. China is today the factory of the world as it produces 50 per cent of the world's refrigerators and television sets and about 30 per cent of the world's washing machines. India accounts for just 3 per cent. Although we have a good share of the services business, in manufacturing and products business, India needs to go a long way to become a leading player. ”
Along with that China develops its own missiles which can shoot satellites out of space. I believe the Chinese are bright folks and I really have great respect for them. In my opinion, they understood the point long before Indians even dreamt about it. They knew that they had to build a solid base in the R&D and manufacturing world. They built expertise in science and technologies, by focused approach in R&D. Chinese capability in R&D has come to such a level that they can go on their own even without world support. And now that they have that corner covered, there is strong thrust to make sure that the Chinese population becomes conversant in English as it’s the de facto language of the world. No points for guessing why the Chinese want to achieve this.
Unlike India the Chinese have a strong acumen towards sales and marketing and they know how to hustle in the world market. The Chinese have the financial muscle to leave India many miles behind. They can pressurize MNCs to set up R&D shops in China in lieu of financial incentives elsewhere. And it’s not only the western MNCs that are recognizing the power of China; if we go by recent events even Indian giants are in the know. That’s why Infosys has set up shop in Beijing!!
What is the USP of our IT Business - We provide qualified workforce at lower rates. We can do any kind of work for cheaper rates. IBM was the first company that actually began the software revolution way back in the 1960s. TCS became the first company, which began the Indian IT software industry by sending out Indian labor to the United States in 1974. Software by itself brings together innovation and human knowledge. The real value of software lies in the fact that it can be created and sold (thus making money) but even then it remains the property of the creator. The creator of the software can then reap more benefits by upgrading it, adding more features to it, etc. In contrast, Indian IT industry does nothing of that sort. The focus is more on doing low grade work at low rates. There is hardly ever an impetus by the IT giants (baring a just a few) on Indian soil to ever get into the high grade high paying segment of the IT industry. One of the possible reasons for this could be the lure of immediate profits and the strong desire to maintain sustainability – which by itself is again focused towards making more profits.
The high grade & high paying work is to develop software products which can be sold to many customers. However, the focus of the Indian industry is to not to tap into the immense talent pool this country has to offer to create such products but rather to suck the talent pool in order to help others build their products. This is more like a standardized approach to ensure that the expertise and innovation that is available is used to fill the kitty of an external entity. If the creation of new software products is the Real McCoy then India’s export of labor and services is almost equivalent to low paying and dead end masonry work.
The process of developing new branded software requires understanding market needs, interacting with potential end customers, and a heavy dose of creativity. Indian IT industry entirely banks on the export of cheap Indian labor to onsite locations or relocating of mundane, repetitive work to off-shore locations. This is the basic business model of every other IT company operating on Indian soil. This work entirely focuses on writing and testing software which has already been analyzed and designed. The customers of such IT companies can maintain a constant vigil on the software being created to ensure the software being developed is matching to the set ideals. With the advancement of telecommunications and internet this is relatively easy. And all this can be obtained for such low prices. It’s similar to designing a formula 1 car and then asking the highly trained “road side mechanics” to build it. The mechanics don’t learn anything either from the process because the work entirely involves the fixing of nuts & bolts, performing safety checks, and painting the exteriors of car based on the specifications provided. In the end the mechanics are stuck in their dead-end jobs just making a few dollars while the creator of the car goes on to mint millions.
The English colonizers used the Indian lands under their control to grow Indigo which was an important component in the cotton clothes industry. This Indigo grown in India was shipped to England and was used to dye the cotton clothes which were then sold back in Indian markets. Though Indigo cultivation yielded benefits to the British Colonizers, a few years of Indigo cultivation would render the subsoil entirely devoid of nutrients thereby effectively ruining any further cultivation of any kind. In my opinion this is the alarming parallel between the current Indian IT industry scene and the Indigo Cultivation in British India.
The frightening fact is that in the current scenario, it’s not the sub-soil that will be rendered unfit for cultivation but entire generations of well educated, highly creative, and intellectual Indians. India can tide over the loss of cultivatable land somehow, but will suffer beyond comprehension due to loss of cultivable minds. The development of software will probably plateau off in the next two to three decades. It’s imperative the people of today realize this fact, and begin looking ahead. Only then we can expect a brighter tomorrow. Until then the Indian IT industry will continue on its implosive trajectory fueled by its own self-professed zeal and lure of money, and the intellectual/creative Indian will continue to be dumbed down into stupidity.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Unsolicited Calls - The Other Side of the Story
There has been enough ranting on the phenomena of unsolicited calls, I guess nowadays it is mostly a vogue to make fun, curse, and abuse it. And anybody who is anybody can be seen displaying these emotions and bemoaning what a curse this is to way we live our lives. Enough said!! I will try to take this from another angle. But, before I begin, let us do some background study.
What is the economics?
A call center is a physical place where customer and other telephone calls are handled by an organization, usually with some amount of computer automation. Call centers are used by mail-order catalog organizations, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks, and any large organization that uses the telephone to sell or service products and services.
With sweeping economic changes across the country in particular and the world in general, organizations have been devising new methods which can help them increase/maintain their market share. There is a lot of money floating out there and with the ever increasing middle class and earning people, any company worth its salt wants to tap into this market. This brings about new lines of products and services.
Organizations now had the daunting task to educate and inform potential customers about their products and services in a cost effective manner. Direct mail and advertising have been the traditional tools in this approach but can be extremely expensive and not always on target. Telemarketing is a much more economical way to reach customers, educate them on products, and better respond to their feedback. Necessity they say is the mother of invention.
Enough of the macro & micro economics lets head to the next question:
Are we being elitist?
Indians love to have uniformity and order. Contrary to this, the Indian society is always in a state of flux and chaos. Hence we invariable try to create categories and orders within this complete “Brownian Motion”. We do it on psychological as well as societal planes. We are the land of the world infamous caste system, and although those traditional boundaries are now swiftly been broken down we are quickly replacing them with stronger and higher walls based on money and “so called” intellectual superiority (which also includes the job profile of an individual). This makes me think - Are we being elitist? Are we somehow displaying the same emotions that some western people display to people handling calls from third world countries? When we receive unsolicited phone calls, I wonder whether hidden deep below that annoyance and irritation is a sense of superiority. I would be a hypocrite if I denied that I have not seen the face of self conceit lurking somewhere in shadows of my mind. And this makes me ask my next question:
What is the psychological angle to this?
The Indian telemarketing scene and our perception to it are more based on the negative image that it carries and our own subtle sense of being a Boston Brahmin. Not that I am advocating for these calls, they are no doubt annoyances to our work and private life schedules but the way we approach these callers is based on our perception of their business image, their work environment, and to some extent on our own sense of superiority.
Telemarketing in general and call centers in particular have gained the public perception of being centers of scams & con tricks, hedonistic lifestyles, and debauchery. At the same time we continuously hear stories about people being hounded by a telemarketer, or of people being duped into buying something which was not of their expectations and then being dogged to buy more (Suckers List), or of morally wrong lifestyles etc. However, I believe these are more the exceptions rather than the rule. But a negative image is far more difficult to remove and hence these horror stories keep doing the rounds and strangely get more spiced up each time they come back to us. I believe the way we respond to these unsolicited calls is more based on this perception rather than the annoyance/irritation factor.
So, what is the telemarketer’s side of the story?
Far from the general perception, the telemarketer lives an extremely stressful and tense life. With ever increasing sales targets which invariably are linked to the incentives and hence his/her paycheck, the telemarketing centers have earned the industry nickname of the “The Boiler Room”. Telemarketing organizations have also been severely criticized for unethical business practice. There have been reports of telemarketing organizations providing below standard working conditions to its employees and also forcing them to use high pressure sales tactics to achieve targets.
Telemarketing has been seen as the “Sunshine Sector” across the industrial world and particularly in India. The NASSCOM McKinsey report estimated that 30,000 people worked in call centers in 2001 which was three times the figure in 2000. By 2008, this industry is expected to generate a turnover in the region of Rs. 200 billion.
This industry is supposed to be the new haven of educated or semi educated youths, the place where there is big money to make/answer a few(?) phone calls. However, the reality is far more disturbing. Reports after reports have been published about the serious “health and psycho-social disorders” faced by employees of such organizations. Cases have been registered about psychological exploitations, such as (I am quoting here):
“The call centre's revenue model is based on sales performance. And that is why the call centre industry focuses on women - they assume that the male buyer would most probably buy if a female executive sweet-talked him into doing so. It is more difficult for the male psyche to rebuff a nicely cultured female voice at the other end of the line!”
“Psychologically, it is seen that women have a natural advantage in their ability to deal with customers who are sometimes short-tempered and use abusive language.” – (Does this sound familiar?)
Since all organizations are performance based, the telemarketers also have their metrics. This includes number of calls made, quality of services, dealing with irate customers and most importantly achieving the target before or on the stipulated time. It puts immense pressure on them leading to early burn-outs or stress. Extreme stress (and at times ungodly hours of working) bars them from leading a normal social life. Listening to abusive, irate, and humiliating language in the most part of their work leaves them with deep psychological scars which cannot be treated instantly.
Chetan Bhagat's “One Night at the Call Center” is one of India's biggest bestseller. Here he has compared the call center to a sweatshop where the stakes are high and the losses are even higher. The V.V. Giri National Labor Institute Report equated call centers to Roman slave galleys. However even with all these reports, everybody is out there to exploit and make money. Regulations, rules, physical & mental health and stress be damned!!
Curse the sin not the sinner
Coming back to “We, the Indians”, all I can say is that there is a public outcry not only in India but across the world because of the nuisance that is caused by the telemarketing phone calls. Most developed nations are putting in regulations and implementing strong laws to make sure that such nuisances are either stopped or greatly reduced. But at the same time they also have to ensure that the livelihoods of people employed in this industry is not completely finished or damaged beyond repair. But the losses are going to be high and are imminent. It is true that the organizations (of which many are in India) whose entire business model is based on such cold calling techniques will suffer greatly. But these are the organizations that have given telemarketing such a bad name in the first place. Governments invariable work slow and so all we can do is wait patiently for such changes to come in and be assured that they will.
In the meantime, what we can do for a change is to look at the telemarketer through patient eyes. Every Job is a good job, and that is what these telemarketers are doing – their job. They are the same people like us with hopes, aspiration, and dreams of a better life but maybe with far lesser capabilities or resources to achieve them. They do what they are told to do, and mostly their annoying activities are not coming from them personally but are the manifestations of the pressures and environment that they work in. The lure of a better life and quick buck induces these sometimes semi-educated individuals to gravitate to these sweatshops while we the Boston Brahmins gravitate towards bigger and better opportunities. I believe that does not give us the right to make fun or humiliate them.
Indian tradition has always preached the path of compassion, understanding, peaceful co-existence, and dignity of labor. Although these principles are fading in recent times, we can make an effort to follow them. After all that is what our tradition and DNA is all about. So next time when Pooja from XYZ Company calls, we can be firm and say no to her for whatever she is soliciting to us but, we should remember that she is doing her job just like we do ours. So let us try to be polite and keep our karmas clean.
To read the complete post, click here...
What is the economics?
A call center is a physical place where customer and other telephone calls are handled by an organization, usually with some amount of computer automation. Call centers are used by mail-order catalog organizations, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks, and any large organization that uses the telephone to sell or service products and services.
With sweeping economic changes across the country in particular and the world in general, organizations have been devising new methods which can help them increase/maintain their market share. There is a lot of money floating out there and with the ever increasing middle class and earning people, any company worth its salt wants to tap into this market. This brings about new lines of products and services.
Organizations now had the daunting task to educate and inform potential customers about their products and services in a cost effective manner. Direct mail and advertising have been the traditional tools in this approach but can be extremely expensive and not always on target. Telemarketing is a much more economical way to reach customers, educate them on products, and better respond to their feedback. Necessity they say is the mother of invention.
Enough of the macro & micro economics lets head to the next question:
Are we being elitist?
Indians love to have uniformity and order. Contrary to this, the Indian society is always in a state of flux and chaos. Hence we invariable try to create categories and orders within this complete “Brownian Motion”. We do it on psychological as well as societal planes. We are the land of the world infamous caste system, and although those traditional boundaries are now swiftly been broken down we are quickly replacing them with stronger and higher walls based on money and “so called” intellectual superiority (which also includes the job profile of an individual). This makes me think - Are we being elitist? Are we somehow displaying the same emotions that some western people display to people handling calls from third world countries? When we receive unsolicited phone calls, I wonder whether hidden deep below that annoyance and irritation is a sense of superiority. I would be a hypocrite if I denied that I have not seen the face of self conceit lurking somewhere in shadows of my mind. And this makes me ask my next question:
What is the psychological angle to this?
The Indian telemarketing scene and our perception to it are more based on the negative image that it carries and our own subtle sense of being a Boston Brahmin. Not that I am advocating for these calls, they are no doubt annoyances to our work and private life schedules but the way we approach these callers is based on our perception of their business image, their work environment, and to some extent on our own sense of superiority.
Telemarketing in general and call centers in particular have gained the public perception of being centers of scams & con tricks, hedonistic lifestyles, and debauchery. At the same time we continuously hear stories about people being hounded by a telemarketer, or of people being duped into buying something which was not of their expectations and then being dogged to buy more (Suckers List), or of morally wrong lifestyles etc. However, I believe these are more the exceptions rather than the rule. But a negative image is far more difficult to remove and hence these horror stories keep doing the rounds and strangely get more spiced up each time they come back to us. I believe the way we respond to these unsolicited calls is more based on this perception rather than the annoyance/irritation factor.
So, what is the telemarketer’s side of the story?
Far from the general perception, the telemarketer lives an extremely stressful and tense life. With ever increasing sales targets which invariably are linked to the incentives and hence his/her paycheck, the telemarketing centers have earned the industry nickname of the “The Boiler Room”. Telemarketing organizations have also been severely criticized for unethical business practice. There have been reports of telemarketing organizations providing below standard working conditions to its employees and also forcing them to use high pressure sales tactics to achieve targets.
Telemarketing has been seen as the “Sunshine Sector” across the industrial world and particularly in India. The NASSCOM McKinsey report estimated that 30,000 people worked in call centers in 2001 which was three times the figure in 2000. By 2008, this industry is expected to generate a turnover in the region of Rs. 200 billion.
This industry is supposed to be the new haven of educated or semi educated youths, the place where there is big money to make/answer a few(?) phone calls. However, the reality is far more disturbing. Reports after reports have been published about the serious “health and psycho-social disorders” faced by employees of such organizations. Cases have been registered about psychological exploitations, such as (I am quoting here):
“The call centre's revenue model is based on sales performance. And that is why the call centre industry focuses on women - they assume that the male buyer would most probably buy if a female executive sweet-talked him into doing so. It is more difficult for the male psyche to rebuff a nicely cultured female voice at the other end of the line!”
“Psychologically, it is seen that women have a natural advantage in their ability to deal with customers who are sometimes short-tempered and use abusive language.” – (Does this sound familiar?)
Since all organizations are performance based, the telemarketers also have their metrics. This includes number of calls made, quality of services, dealing with irate customers and most importantly achieving the target before or on the stipulated time. It puts immense pressure on them leading to early burn-outs or stress. Extreme stress (and at times ungodly hours of working) bars them from leading a normal social life. Listening to abusive, irate, and humiliating language in the most part of their work leaves them with deep psychological scars which cannot be treated instantly.
Chetan Bhagat's “One Night at the Call Center” is one of India's biggest bestseller. Here he has compared the call center to a sweatshop where the stakes are high and the losses are even higher. The V.V. Giri National Labor Institute Report equated call centers to Roman slave galleys. However even with all these reports, everybody is out there to exploit and make money. Regulations, rules, physical & mental health and stress be damned!!
Curse the sin not the sinner
Coming back to “We, the Indians”, all I can say is that there is a public outcry not only in India but across the world because of the nuisance that is caused by the telemarketing phone calls. Most developed nations are putting in regulations and implementing strong laws to make sure that such nuisances are either stopped or greatly reduced. But at the same time they also have to ensure that the livelihoods of people employed in this industry is not completely finished or damaged beyond repair. But the losses are going to be high and are imminent. It is true that the organizations (of which many are in India) whose entire business model is based on such cold calling techniques will suffer greatly. But these are the organizations that have given telemarketing such a bad name in the first place. Governments invariable work slow and so all we can do is wait patiently for such changes to come in and be assured that they will.
In the meantime, what we can do for a change is to look at the telemarketer through patient eyes. Every Job is a good job, and that is what these telemarketers are doing – their job. They are the same people like us with hopes, aspiration, and dreams of a better life but maybe with far lesser capabilities or resources to achieve them. They do what they are told to do, and mostly their annoying activities are not coming from them personally but are the manifestations of the pressures and environment that they work in. The lure of a better life and quick buck induces these sometimes semi-educated individuals to gravitate to these sweatshops while we the Boston Brahmins gravitate towards bigger and better opportunities. I believe that does not give us the right to make fun or humiliate them.
Indian tradition has always preached the path of compassion, understanding, peaceful co-existence, and dignity of labor. Although these principles are fading in recent times, we can make an effort to follow them. After all that is what our tradition and DNA is all about. So next time when Pooja from XYZ Company calls, we can be firm and say no to her for whatever she is soliciting to us but, we should remember that she is doing her job just like we do ours. So let us try to be polite and keep our karmas clean.
To read the complete post, click here...
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