To study in India, and then to quit the country

I saw a mail about how the upper castes had to 'flee' the country because reservations ensued that their 95% was weighed against an SC's 65%.

How many times I have heard this, and in my own community and extended family. They studied in IITs at governent expense, subsidised by each of the poorest in this country. And then moved to live and work abroad in greener paustures. The moral integrity to repay this infinite debt to a country that diverted its limited resources painfully needed elsewhere towards them and their education was not taught or learnt.

Over time, for this reason, my respect for the purported intelligence of IIT graduates fell. Intelligence is a far vaster concept than doing fourier transforms quickly. It means the mental capability and integrity to understand vast responsibilities, and to have the courage to own them up and live by them.

Aparna Krishnan A 60% mark with a sense of social responsibility , emotional and moral integrity, and a courage to live my convictions, is far superior to a self serving 100%. But that is not what is taught in schools to the children ! And then we have the world we have.

Palanivelu Rangasamy To my understanding, most of the so called premier institutions bring out the worst kind of parasites. Sometimes back we had a JNU alumni meet in chennai. I was appaled by the way they have become absolutely self-centred devoid of any kind of concern for the society in which they are part. Rather any such broader concern is looked up and down.

Rajesh Pandey The earlier we understood that "Higher Education is Private Property", the better it will be for the society to allocate its scarce resources equitably.

Aparna Krishnan The issue is vaster. the rich in a country are supported by the poor in a million ways. The debt is infinite. The choice to repay is one's own.

Sahana Singh Not every upper caste person gets into IITs. There are plenty who struggle to get into regular engg colleges with 95%.

Pattu Raj And responsibility are taught only at home. Selfish people cannot impart social responsibilities to next generation

Aparna Krishnan It does not matter Sahana Singh. The rich in any poor country have been supported by the toiling people. Their debt is inifinite, and needs to be repaid on the ground, with matching toil. That is dharmam, and the contrary choice is adharmam.

Sahana Singh Yes but the rich are not all upper caste. It is a myth that the upper castes are rich. It is the vaishyas who have always been rich but for some reason, the brahmins were assumed to be in that position.

Aparna Krishnan I am simply talking of the moral responsibility of the rich, in a poor country. They have been supported in a million overt and covert ways by the poor. To skip away from repayment of that debt is cheating. Anyway what is the norm gets normalised and legalised. (This is vaster than the reservation issue - and i am now talking in a larger sense.)

Sahana Singh So let's talk about the responsibility of the rich, which is fine with me. Let's not equate upper castes with the rich because that is a false equivalence and Brahmins have suffered on account of this wrong belief. Today, it is being posited that Brahmins are the new Dalits. In my opinion, Brahmins have been poor since times immemorial. And yes, in modern times, they have had to flee to places where reservations did not hurt them as much. My aunt could not get admission into a medical college in Bangalore despite her high marks and had to move to Banaras, where she toiled day and night to graduate in an unfamiliar atmosphere. So many South Indians (especially Kannadigas) have used up all their savings to migrate to the US simply because getting a decent education in a quota-based college system was near-impossible.

Aparna Krishnan I am talking of the responsibilities of the rich. Ihe post itself was about those who studied in India and skipped away.

Aparna Krishnan Somehow I dislike the word IITians, as I have begun to dislike many words these days. It seems to imply an elite club (in a way, Balijas and Vaddars does not - the simply indicate a club). I do not think there is anything elite about it. The only eliteness I would ever grant is to people I have known with a deep social commitment bordering on complete self negation. Such as people in my village who give to every begger when their own food is uncertian. But these people are beyond desiring any credit anyway, and so I watch, and salute in my own heart.

Pattu Raj Rich is the upper caste now

Karthikeya Sivasenapathy Lovely thought it requires a good heart to say this

Aparna Krishnan No, it needs anger.

Rajiv Ramnath The right response to this is: "Can a few years of affirmative action make up for several centuries of discrimination, with much of the discrimination still ongoing?"

Of COURSE, affirmative action laws discriminate against the classes that are not included. But the question that should be asked is whether they somewhat level the playing field or whether they have completely tilted it in the other direction to the point where the more privileged classes have no opportunities to succeed. This question cannot be answered by anecdotes of reverse discrimination (like in the Patel story in the NYT, wonder if folks saw that) but rather by larger scale economic analyses of the different classes and how their members are progressing over time.

I believe we will find that positions of power and wealth in India are still disproportionately held by people from the privileged classes, and this power and wealth translates to disproportional opportunities for their kids. Essentially, affirmative action has not done enough, and we might need many years more of it.

Aparna Krishnan Agree. We need a lot more of it. And we also need the privileged to understand the deep debt they owe to the poor of the country. If the poor man paid one rupee as his share of taxes towards higher education in the country, it would proportionally translate to 10,000/-. And factoring in other mornal and ethical concerns it would translate to far more ... the debt we owe him will take this lifetime (and more) imo.

Vipin Sharma The IITans and IT professionals who move to the greener pastures do keep their link with the motherland and how can you generalize them, how do you know that they do not contribute to the growth of the nation and repay their debts in various ways.

Aparna Krishnan Still, there are some essential possibilities that get addressed only when one is on board the country. Leaving the country is definately a compromise.

Prabha Krishnan It was always about the 1% by the 1% of the 1%. Always will be. Every communist regime was really rule by the 1%. When those states collapsed the true state of affairs become apparent

Sunil Kapoor As an IITan I entirely agree with you.
 The country spent approx Rs 4 lac per annum per undergraduate during my tenure in the eightees while our tuition fee was Rs. 300/- per annum.

So I feel a IITan must be a job creator in India, and not a job seeker.

Many of us are aware of this and have moulded our lives accordingly.

Aparna Krishnan Yes, and to at all times be aware that our action and work is of benefit to the last man. Who has the first claim on us as the 1/- tax he paid was the dearest tax.

Sunil Kapoor True.
Innumerable IITans are contributing to nation building with the above in mind.

Aparna Krishnan I am sure. Many many people are. The poor and the rich. The farmer first of all.

Naveen Manikandan Periasamy "I saw a mail about how the upper castes had to 'flee' the country because reservations ensued that their 95% was weighed against an SC's 65%. How many times I have heard this, and in my own community and extended family. They studied in IITs at governent expense, subsidised by each of the poorest in this country." - valid point.

Rahul Banerjee Across the world and not just in India, selfishness and accumulation of wealth and power have been valorised and systematised. Those who oppose this dominant worldview are ruthlessly crushed. So it is unrealistic to expect individuals to behave altruistically in large enough numbers to usher in a more equitable socio-economic and sustainable ecological dispensation. Nature will in the fullness of time reply fittingly to our cumulative perfidies. Until then it would be better to do what one can instead of wasting time venting our spleen on the rich and powerful!! The wise have done so through the millennia concerning themselves with the eternal verities and ignoring the mundane human frailties.

Aparna Krishnan These are systemic problems and one needs to seek systemic answers. That is my concern. Because in smaller, closely knit and simpler communities I see a sense of co-operation, certianly less 'value' placed on the richer person (a hut and a bigger cement house exists as neighbours asnd equals and friends in a way unthinkable in a city), and greater perspective of ethics. These spaces/ villages need to be protected and re-created.