Migrate Freely: Breaking the Brain Drain Myth!

This is an important post for everyone, but particularly so for students about to graduate soon from Indian universities and young professionals in India. I wish more numbers of us spoke this truth to our students and children:

If necessary for your professional fulfilment and career growth, you *must* migrate to other parts of the world (and the world is bigger than just the USA - if they don't want us, we'll go elsewhere). "Desh Bhakti" is a two-way street - you love the country and the country loves you back. Right now, the latter is simply not true. I explain in detail why I say this below.

There are two parts to this post and I request your attention on both:

Part 1:

We've had caste/class based reservations in education and employment in our country for over one-third of a century. As I often remark caste is an inherently shit concept, an evil weapon that was used to oppress and exploit. And backwardness created consciously needed to be combatted consciously at one point.

However, when a strategy goes wrong it is important to realize (and honestly accept) it. I start this post by giving two concrete examples to illustrate why I believe our present system of caste/class based reservations is causing more harm than good. Then I explain why this is inherently linked to the phenomenon of brain drain in Part 2 - and emphasize that you are not to worry about it - it is the government's job to create conditions that enable you to have a fulfilling professional and personal life; if they fail in this, you are under no obligation to stay here and waste your life.

Example 1: The cut-off for Mathematics PhD admissions at Delhi University in 2017 was set at 0% for SC/ST candidates. 0%. (Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/education/du-admission-2017-phd-mathematics-cut-off-for-sc-st-at-zero-du-ac-in-shocked-students-take-to-twitter-4780086/)

For General Category: 94%.

For OBC: 84%.

For SC/ST: 0%.

You are free to check the cut-offs for the last 8 years. Whether they have again gone all the way down to 0% or not, I can give you a guarantee sitting right here that you will continue finding SC/ST cut-offs to be unjustifiably low at every level: Bachelors, Masters, PhD.

And since we have reservations in faculty positions as well, those securing admissions with such low marks (in their PhD programs - after having gone through 5+ years of higher education already!) will also become professors and teach our children (teach what?).

Example 2. "The minimum marks required to qualify JEE Advanced are 35% for the general category, 31.5% for OBC-NCL/EWS, and 17.5% for SC/ST/PwD candidates." (Source: https://engineering.careers360.com/articles/jee-advanced-cutoff/)

17.5%! And I don't believe SC/ST/PwD even have a Creamy Layer - Non Creamy Layer distinction!

17.5%! What does it even mean to get into IITs/NITs/Etc. with 17.5% marks?

This is not "affirmative action". This is simply politicians selling out for votes and power.

And it's everywhere: doctors, engineers, teachers, professors, scientists...

All this is happening simply because SC/ST folks have been reduced to a vote bank to be milked by politicians (of all parties). This has nothing to do with "affirmative action" or anyone's "upliftment".

If we go on this way, then forget development. Simply forget about it. Instead, anticipate collapse. When a society agrees to become intellectually dishonest to suit its politics, it collapses.

I now explain why the above is inherently linked to brain drain - and emphasize that you are not to worry about it - it is the government's job to create conditions that enable you to have a fulfilling professional and personal life; if they fail in this, you are under no obligation to stay here and waste your life.

Part 2:

The level of caste/class based reservation is extremely high (and there are political pressures to increase it further!). So if you belong to the general category, there is a very high likelihood of doors not opening for you (and your children) no matter how good you are (many of you have already experienced it during college admissions) or how much the country might benefit from your presence. "What's best for the country?" is not a high priority question with the political leadership in any party. Everyone is simply consolidating vote banks to milk and stay in power - some based on caste, some based on religion. (My views on combatting backwardness are here: https://strike-a-pause.blogspot.com/2022/10/a-four-point-algorithm-to-combat.html )

Be sharp. Stay sensible. If a better life unfolds for you elsewhere, go. By all means, argue for change from wherever you are and hopefully come back if and when the situation improves. But meanwhile, do not screw yourself in the name of "preventing brain drain". When brain starts getting valued here, it will stop getting drained quite naturally. Till such a time, this appeal is just a manipulative strategy.

And if anyone tries to guilt trip you about relocating out of the country,  just stay calm and refer them to this article. I've spoken the truth, and truth has a way of persevering even if it takes a while sometimes.

Peace! Wish you the best!

Academic Productivity: A Misnomer

Please give this careful thought:

The concept of "productivity" applies to factories. It makes sense to ask questions such as "how many cars or pencils or cell phones or condoms does a factory produce in a year?"

In contrast, the right questions to ask in academia are: What has a researcher discovered? What questions has he asked? Which longstanding questions might he or she have answered? How has a field of knowledge moved forward or how has the human condition improved owing to someone's research? And when we have something significant to share along any of these directions, we publish a paper or patent an invention. That's what it is about if we are honest with ourselves and others - not the meaningless "numbers game" being played today.

The concept of "productivity" is best left to factories. Academics must stay introspective, deep, searching.

The one concept that has caused perhaps the most damage to academia is the concept of tenure tracking based on "productivity".

Academics will be far better served if we base tenure decisions on: a) Quality of classroom teaching, b) Quality of undergraduate project mentoring, c) Quality of Masters theses guidance and d) Quality of PhD theses guidance. This will bring the focus back to who universities were established for in the first place: Students! Alongside, encourage faculty members to work on really challenging problems and give them awards/promotions when significant breakthroughs come. And till someone's research moves forward appreciably, simply don't promote them. This in itself is incentive enough for academics to pursue their research with intent. Who would like to stay an assistant or associate professor forever? (This, of course, after ensuring a teaching-research balance! I invite you to read: Striking a Balance Between Teaching and Research)

Undervaluing quality teaching and quality project/thesis guidance while emphasizing "produce something somehow" by pressing the "tenure gun" against someone's head and threatening their livelihood is self defeating, it weakens academics. Do you see what I'm saying?

The question of course is: Can qualitative judgments be made and trusted?

My response: If we trust our students and peers enough to talk in detail with them, take their feedback, and then apply our mind to ensure that everyone is above board and the feedback being received is genuinely academic, I don't see why not.

We need to (very urgently) bring back a culture of introspection, depth and intellectual rigor in our universities and make them what they were mean to be: Centers of Education. The very nature of the society we are creating depends on that. And if you just step back and watch carefully, you will see that things are falling apart really fast.

[I also invite you to read: Strike a Pause: Introducing Tenure Track In Indian Academia: A Case Study In Insincerity (strike-a-pause.blogspot.com)]

The Good Life

Think about this deeply:

Today, as a society we have linked "the good life" exclusively to how much money one has. Living in a good neighbourhood in a decent house, having decent amenities at home, wearing good clothes, sending one's children to decent schools, being able to go to a good hospital when sick: everything is simply linked to one's bank balance. This has resulted in a society that encourages making money quickly in whichever way possible. In some sections of our society this has taken things to the extreme that parents cut short their children's education and engage them in earning money - the thought process being "what's the point of education if one can earn money without it"?

Now this is deeply unhealthy! Undervaluing knowledge and education will result in a society with substandard doctors, engineers, scientists, lawyers, judges, teachers, professors, police officers, administrators, writers, musicians, painters, and so on, very very quickly. In fact, can you sense that this is already happening? Worse, societies that undervalue knowledge and education also have a higher crime rate as people start engaging in criminal activities: theft, drug dealing, prostitution, etc.

A society bereft of knowledge is not only a low quality society, it's also guaranteed to become a society dependent on foreign powers. Nations that lead are also nations that invest in keeping their societies knowledgeable. This has always been true. And it will always be true. Self sufficiency depends very strongly on how knowledgeable a society and country are.

We need to bring a shift and figure out ways to guarantee a good life to the following three sets of people:

1) People who have put themselves through an advanced level of education and are committed to using their knowledge for the society's benefit.

2) People who may not have been able to go through traditional education due to personal or family reasons but have developed a skill or an art form on their own to an advanced level and are committed to using their skill and art for the society's benefit.

3) People who engage in social work and dedicate their lives to serving the poor, the destitute, the orphaned, the abandoned.

We have to stop expecting the studious, the scholarly, the learned, the artistic, the skilled, the compassionate, the caring, the servers, to "be good" on their own expense while we give a comfortable life only to those who somehow run around and make money.

This will bring back balance in our society.

Are you able to see what I'm getting at?

Nalanda University: A Brief History Lesson and Some Homework

A brief history lesson and then some homework:

I. Brief History Lesson:

Nalanda University was attacked three times:

First attack: Mihirakula (Huns)

Second attack: Shashanka (Gauda Dynasty, Brahmin)

Third attack: Bhakhtyar Khilji (Muslim)

II. Homework:

1. Read about Mihirakula and Shashanka. Where were they from? Which religions did they subscribe to? Which form of God did they worship?

2. Ask yourself: Why is it that we are only taught about Bhakhtyar Khilji but not Mihirakula and Shashanka? What's the agenda?

Be sharp, very sharp! Know that whenever history is taught to us with distortions and omissions, there is a "Divide and Rule" political agenda behind it.

The truth is simply this: History is full of wars, violence and destruction by people of ALL faiths, ALL sects. And the only sensible way forward is this: QUIT FIGHTING! LIVE TOGETHER! LIVE AND LET LIVE!

Progress and Development is possible ONLY if we stop wasting our time and energy in fighting with each other and work together to take the nation forward. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. Period.

(Note: As you reflect on the post above, bear in mind that I have supported the present government every time they acted to cancel minority appeasement freebies (Haj Allowance, PM Iftar Parties, Triple Talaaq). But from 2019 to 2024 their speeches and IT Cell actively spread hatred against ordinary Muslim citizens. Not only can this not be allowed, it is fundamentally nonsensical. To understand this better, I invite you to read: Strike a Pause: Why Push Away Muslims? (strike-a-pause.blogspot.com))