Re: Elitism

["MV" <maxv@vsnl.com>]

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 >  <<but can we really leave the law making process to unlettered people
 > who do  not respect the law in the first place? Does it make any sense
 > that  while we have such a rigorous selection process for those who
 > implement
 >   the law, we let just any "lallu-panju" (no pun intended) frame those
 >  very laws. If this is democracy, God help us!  >>
 > There are lot of points in the above 'logic' which I dont share.
 > 1. Why this contempt towards 'unlettered' people? Who has kept them
 > unlettered over generations? By our combined failure to live upto the
 > ideals of the Constitution of India (I dont see any relevance of any new
 > manifesto or vision or mission documents as the constitution of india is
 > very clear in its objectives and manifesto, as a clear cut statement is
 > found in its part IV, from articles 36 to 51) all of us have some
 > contribution, whether direct or indirect in the general mess around and
 > in particular, on the high levels of illiteracy we have in this country.
 > Why have contempt or hatred towards illiterates? What are several of the
 > highly "brilliant" people of this country doing after they migrate? How
 > does that help this country any more than the daily toil which most
 > 'unlettered' people in this country put in?


Very valid point.

Look at the class of people who are migrating to US in droves, they are
mostly the ruling "class" who were in administrative position, irrespective
of which "emperor, king, or company" ruled India this class of people are
spread across all religious, social groups. One identifying factor is, they
were "literate" while the masses were forcibly kept "illiterate". In fact we
can say this elite class were the real rulers of India for past 4000 years,
since they could influence the administrative policies easily due to their
proximity to rulers.

Now let us see what this so called "brilliant" people has achieved in
the past 4000 years? I know there are lot of tall claims of our ancient
literature. Let us burst that bubble, if we look closely most of it is
distorted pseudo scientific writing.  Which clearly points to the fact that
people who wrote these were not the people who "developed" or "practiced"
the technology described in those literature.

A single visit to most Indian villages (I have traveled through 18 of the
Indian states, UT) will prove this point look at "who" practices technology
in these villages, it is the - Black Smith (Mechanical Engineering) Mason,
Carpenter (Civil Engineering) Gold Smith, Potter and people who make wide
range of highly decorative Handicrafts. To make this things requires
"technical skills" and "high creativity". By the way all these technology
were developed and practiced by "illiterate" people.

Now some of you  will ask, if India had all those creative techno savvy
people why is India still technologically backward and poor.  The answer is
"Caste System" which kept the "real creative people" illiterate and allowed
"mediocre" people to masquerade as "brilliant people" and rule over them.

Now let us see how the "illiteracy" factor slowed down the technological
advancement. India was technologically on par with other nations of the
world, until printing and literacy for "all class of people" came into
effect in Western world.  Printing and literacy allowed western people to
"store" existing knowledge base and incrementally add to the existing
knowledge base much faster.

There is a specific reason for this, human intelligence is  uniformly
distributed irrespective of class, race, religion or social factors
and follows the "bell curve", means that, a small number of people in any
population will be highly intelligent, most of the people will be of average
intelligence and small number may be below average. The incidence of high
intelligence is not hereditary, but very random.

In India due to the forced "illiteracy" among the people who practiced
technology by caste system, incremental addition to knowledge base remained
slow. Technological innovation made by one person could only be passed to
the children who may not have the same level of "intellectual" prowess as
the parent who made the innovation, this meant children may not "pass on"
the innovation to their children. This is like taking one step forward and
two backward and substantially slowed down the incremental additions to
technology. This was fine till the western world introduced printing and
literacy for all people, which accelerated the incremental addition
totechnology. Each innovation in technology was now recorded and  passed on
to next generation of brilliant people who further innovated and added to
the existing technology. This started the explosive growth of technology in
the western world and There is no way India can catch up with this until the
caste system is abolished.

Now some of you may ask didn't we abolish the caste system? theoretically
yes and practically no. When the social caste system was abolished it was
re-introduced in a more "potent" version in educational system.

So we now have different "caste" of schools, ICSE, CBSE and the English
Medium Schools for the "Elite's" and the Vernacular Medium schools for the
"ordinary" people. All the "elite" bureaucrats and "education" experts say
education should be in "Mother Tongue"  but send their own children to
"English Medium" schools and All the "higher education" is in English
medium. Isn't this caste system in a more potent version than the social
caste system???

Now let us look at the effect of Reservation system combined with the
Educational caste system. We have seen many people in this forum suggest
Reservation system should be abolished. Let us look at who really benefits
from the Reservation system. Now suppose if there is 50% reservation for the
poor sections of the society in Education, Govt. jobs, because of the caste
system in the Education (elite's children studying in English Medium and all
the Higher education being in English Medium give them undue advantage) this
50% Reservation for poorer section of the society in practice means 50%
reservation in Education and Govt. jobs for the "Elite's" who consists just
15% of the population of India. So who is reservation "really" for?

The reservation system should be immediately abolished, and simultaneously
the "caste system in education" should also be removed and uniform education
syllabus introduced all over India. If English Medium education is good for
the "elite's" it is good for the ordinary people of India also. If uniform
education system is introduced let's see how many of the so called elite's
will be able to compete with the "really brilliant" ordinary people.

If for the past 4000 years the so called Indian "elite" were not able to do
much for the development of India, what can we expect from them in just 53
years or till they are the ruling class of India. After democracy has been
introduced in India, the elite ruling classes know that their days as the
ruling class is numbered, they are doing their best to delay the transition
of power to the "ordinary people" by manipulating the education system. But
these tactics can only succeed for limited time, they know that very well.
No wonder large number of "elite's"  are migrating to US. It is intereting
to note that these elite classes never migrated when Mughals or the British
ruled India, but are migrating in droves once Democracy is introduced in
India.

The brain drain is actually "brain gain" since it gives more opertunity for
people who really care for development of India. So let us encourage "brain
drain", at least it may avoid a civil war or will it....?

MV.

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