Saw another post now.
'IIT grad quits high paying job to help poor village blah blah '.
How much longer do we need to play these tunes ?
Tunes of implicit hierarchies we celebrate ?
In what way is an IIT grad moving to a village superior to anyone else moving to a village ?
In what way does the IIT studies equip him or her to work in villages ?
How do we assume that he will 'help a village. And not the other way around ?
In our very language is embedded the superior arrogance of aeons. And the sense of the Saviour descending on Helpless Masses.
Unless those lies are called out.
Unless we realise that IITs of the world mean little. For the world.
Unless we realise that it is the village, the village skills, the village wisdom that may yet save us. Not the other way around.
All we will do is reinforce existing hierarchies. Whether we stay in a city. Or move to a village.
Prakash Thangavel
12th grade moving to help in a vllage would be considered jobless where as IIT guy would be considered as one who sacrificed..
Ramanjaneyulu GV very true....this is also creating an atmosphere as if today villagers are poor and unable to do farming because they are not capable and THE 'learned' people are able to earn millions from the same farming...
this line of stories are creating harm in two ways..one ignoring the structural anamolies and putting blame on individuals for their fate, second, creating a hype which makes people follow similar things without proper understanding, planning and support.
i know many failed stories of these initiatives, no one speaks about them. ...
Aparna Krishnan Agree completely.
This new world hype around urban superiority in the alternate world, activist world, is again got very problematic.
That in all this structural issues get missed is a tragedy.
Aparna Krishnan That farmers need to 'be taught farming' is the most laughable proposition, rooted in hubris.
Yes, we can walk a mile with them, sharing some few learnings from outside with them, even as we learn continously from them ...
Ramanjaneyulu GV Aparna Krishnan yea...always there wud be something to learn...while thinking that farmers doesn't know anything is wrong... too much romanticising that farmers know everything is also equally wrong
Aparna Krishnan The farmer knows best about his world. Like the theoritical mathematician knows best about his world. This whole game of picturing the villager as a ignoramus has gone on too long. The so called modern activist does it as much as the mainstream er. With some be exceptions.
Anirudhra Boganadham Ramanjaneyulu GV Very true, the very reason is many I've seen has just lost their roots especially wrt natural/ancient methods but they are very keen & interested to learn as well.
Srinivas Chekuri IITians teach farming and Irmans teach rural development this notion has been constructed deliberately to create a job market for them. Farming is a way of life, it is to be lived rathan than taught so as RD it is to be indulged and felt being part of the process.
Vijay Krishnan There is also another perspective: an IITian has decided to opted out of the 24 by 7 drudgery to call her/his life her/his own. Why can't we be more charitable in our views of others?
Aparna Krishnan 1. Why say IIT ian. The point you are making holds for anyone. A scientist, a shopkeeper, a mechanic, a nuse, an architect, a sweeper.
2. I also opted out in my twenties. I learnt infinitely from a village. Lets leave it there. None of my engineering training was of any use to 'help villages'. I learnt anew from scratch. All that was needed.
'IITian goes to help villages' is flawed on many counts. Apart from the implication that it refers to a special breed.
Vijay Krishnan Aparna Krishnan well, human beings being what they are, hierarchy/gender/ social standing , nothing is going to disappear, they only take on more subtle avatars because of political correctness.
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Krishna Mohan Very well written.
I remember seeing a panel discussion where the late Gnani had participated. He was of the opinion that we had got the whole education system wrong by introducing a hierarchy into it. His argument was how is the math, science stream superior to the rest? Everything depends on what one wants to do. A villagers knowledge of the trees, plants and farming is far more important to any other knowledge in a village. The same knowledge could be of less importance in another environment.
Who is to judge and rank this?
PS: Can anyone tell me why a doctor is valued more than a veterinarian? I thought a vet job would be more difficult wrt diagnosis.
Aparna Krishnan A whole society has bought into these hierarchies so totally and mindlessly. Those at the top of these hierarchies , and those at the bottom.
Subramani Reddy IITians start NGOs and CSR funds are utilizes to save villages!
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