Jnana - pure knowledge

Suddenly everyone seems to know everything about Jogi. The collections it made in box-office, the rush for the tickets, the unheard 2000 rupees black tickets, countless liters of tears of the viewers, its Tamil interpretation, popularity of songs at Ganesha pendals, stars coming flocking to see the movie – everything is making daily headlines. The hype it generated made the viewing a bit tiring since there was too much to except. But nevertheless it remained what it was claimed to be – a complete director’s movie.

The testimony for this appeared in the very beginning. The Hero Shivrajkumar was reduced to embracing his star parents. His name appeared as a passé on the screen. Contrary to this the name of Prem appeared with all grandeur stamping his authority. It also looked like the producer also stole the limelight more than the hero. This feat was accomplished by one Sandesh Nagraj. We could see his smiling face on posters with an emblem “national award winner”.

The movie offered a right of everything except comedy. It looks like Prem is not interested in having comedy tracks in his movies. He relies more on the right mixture of rowdism and sentiments to make movies. In fact there will be more sentiments than you can imagine. He is notorious for making people cry. This time he takes on the mother-son relationship which provides him ample opportunity to make people cry.

Somehow Prem seems to have an obsession with searching. In his previous movie also someone was searching for love. Here also a mother-son duo is searching for each other. A good screen-play which makes searchers pass each other unknowingly is the theme repeated by him in last two movies. Here it reaches new heights. These kinds of repeated scenes with a soulful music in background are enough to stir anyone’s emotions. No wonder Prem has mastered this to perfection.

What went unnoticed in the movie amidst the euphoria was the language used in the movie. The local tongue used by the people in interiors of Chamrajpet has surely added to the overall effect. Perhaps it may be the first time this lingo was heard in Kannada cinema throughout in a feature film. Prem should be credited for achieving this unique feat. It is quite tough for anyone to speak this fast paced lingo and everyone in the film have spoken it convincingly.

The climax of the movie can be debated at any length. But it is true that it is that sequence that has contributed immensely to the success of the film. We can argue what would have happened if mother had not died or what if he had seen the face of his mother for that one last time. But those will be only for academic interests. The strength of the director comes into full display in this scene. People seem to have strange love for tragedies. Certain films have reached iconic status because they end in a sour note.

At the end, one has to completely agree with the catch line of the movie “ a feel that never ends…..” Prem has once again proved that there need not be any greater hero in the movie than the script itself. In the success of Jogi, one can see the victory of a exemplary screen-play and high-quality direction. This movie should make it to all-time classic list of Kannada movies only because of a phenomenon called Prem.

The case of Imrana, a Muslim woman who was raped by her father-in-law (f-i-l) made headlines for various reasons. For one it again raised the issue of Uniform Civil Code which is one of the main demands of BJP. But now somehow the debate is closed and everyone has moved on. Some serious questions still lay unanswered and this is an attempt to put them again to forefront.

The case history reads like this. Imrana, a mother of 5 children was raped by her f-i-l. The local panchayat decided that she should live with her rapist and treat her husband as son. This was supposed to be in accordance with the Islamic laws. This issue generated huge controversy with everyone criticizing the religious diktat. When this issue was put forward to Darul Uloom Deoband Seminary, it issued a fatwa regarding this.

In this fatwa, Imrana was not supposed to live with her husband. Also she was not supposed to live with her f-i-l. The 5 children would still be treated as the children of their real father and mother. In that fatwa, nothing was said about her re-marriage. Although some media reported that she was independent to marry anyone else, the fatwa did not make any mention regarding this issue. Maybe we can assume that this silence is their acceptance for re-marriage.

But their silence regarding the punishment is not understandable. The victim is taken care, but what about the guilty? The village panchayat had decided to take the guilty to court. There were reports that he was denied the bail. So can we be at ease thinking that law will take its own course? Why didn’t the fatwa speak out the punishment for the guilty? If it does not have the power to deal with it at least it could dictate the compensation to be provided for the victim. Unfortunately it did not do even this.

More cruel was the interpretation some people gave to this fatwa. In the article “Imrana case and Islamic verdicts” written by Shuaibullah Khan in Islamic monthly (Aug 2005, page 19-29), there is no sympathy for the victim. The author compares the act of rape with that of administering poison. He argues that poison will kill the person even though he is innocent. Killing is integral part of that act. Similarly, the punishment mooted to Imrana is the integral part of the act of raping. Such illogical statement does not prove anything but the ideological emptiness of some religious scholars.

Islamic Scholars are divided over the issue of the fatwa. Some like Dr. Mustafa Kamal Sherwani (President, All India Muslim Forum,Presently Dean, and faculty of Law and Shariah,University of Zanzibar, Tanzania) criticized the fatwa. What was important in this case was the opinion of the lady herself. Even though there were initial reports that she wanted to stay with her husband, the later reports said she was ready to accept the fatwa. Even the UP chief minister agreed with the clerics.

Is this a good reason enough to push forward the demand for Uniform Civil Code? Our politicians are busy with calculating numbers rather than discussing these sensitive issues. The need for constitution and its applicability to all Indians is repeatedly questioned by these fatwas. The starting words in our constitution that extends to scope to all by saying “We the people…….” remains only on papers.

The recent controversy regarding the issue of stewardship of BCCI has raised a new set of issues regarding right to rule the sporting bodies. Ruling BCCI is more than the prestige issue because of the huge amount of money it generates in this cricket obsessed country. Naturally, the contenders for the coveted post of President of BCCI include not only businessmen but also seasoned politicians. Somehow the political class seems to believe that they divine right to rule anything under the sun.

A casual look at the sporting bodies across the country throws some interesting facts. Almost all central and state level governing bodies of all major sports have some politician as its president. Cricketing bodies always have a political heavy weight as their president. This trend can be seen even in other sports. Major exception can be K P S Gill, who heads hockey federation. But again Gill is no stranger to power play.

The question which is often asked is whether the right to govern a particular sports body should reside with the players themselves. Politicians may not agree. After all they are ruling the country, so why not an organization? The argument may be that the experience they have gained in administration is far superior to others. So, they claim the right to rule. But the fact is it is the rich money bags these bodies have which attract politicians and other powerful people.

Whoever may be the president of BCCI, it is Jagmohan Dalmiya who runs the show. His profile tells that he had played cricket at University level. So you cannot blame him for controlling the show. But what about Lalu Prasad Yadav who heads Bihar Cricket Association? We do not know whether he plays cricket. His relation with cricket seems to be his son, who we know plays cricket. Lalu may argue that this is good enough reason for him to be the president of BCA!

Take Suresh Kamadi, the president of Indian Olympic Association. His profile does not include any reference to his sporting capabilities. But he heads IOA from long time. S M Krishna heads the Karnataka State Tennis Association. We have seen pictures of him playing tennis so we can’t grumble much. But Yashwant Sinha heads the All India Tennis Association. His profile does not include anything remotely associated with tennis. Still he is its president from 2000.

The list of presidents of Indian Olympic association does not include any name who have excelled in sports. Same is the case of AITA. We can only find kings, queens, businessmen and politicians in the lists. Much efforts to find the presidents list of BCCI has failed since BCCI does not seem to have a website of its own! But it can be safely assumed that there may not have been illustrious cricketers as its president.

Can players become good administrators? We cannot generalize. But it is a valid demand that the people paying a game are better equipped to understand the needs of the players and the game. The responsibility, if any, for a sporting body is to nurture the talent. Identifying budding players, providing high quality and representing their interests should be its top priority. But unfortunately, these people are busy counting the money they receive from television rights. In fact it appears that bargaining the telecast rights is the only job these people have. Its high time sportspersons take the responsibility of administration into their own hands.

In a recent article published in Businessworld, Rashmi Bansal (editor of Jammag) takes an important topic of faculties in B-schools. Though the article limits itself to the thorny issue of finding “good” faculty in top rung Indian B-schools, the issues raised by her can be applied even to Technological institutes. Finding good faculty is a challenge for any institute and finding someone to blame is not that easy. In this article, Rashmi once again questions the credibility of faculty community which is already plagued by various problems.

“If you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. In this case very intelligent monkeys….” She says referring to the quality of teachers. It is known to everyone here that teaching is not a profession that pays well. But as she herself says “anyone who's gone down the academic road swears by its cerebral charm…” Sadly this charm does not translate into big money and so “there's always a wish-it-paid-more wistfulness in the B-school prof's voice”

So what are teachers supposed to do? Do they quit their professions and start practicing in industry? If every teacher thinks so, what will be the plight of the education system? The society has always seen the teachers with a different attitude. There is a sense of oh-you-don’t-have-money kind of attitude when people talk to teachers. But does anyone care how teachers cope up with this?

“…very students these professors teach for less than 18 months get average salary packages that exceed their own annual earnings!” Great! But does anyone see how a teacher reacts when a student tells this to him? A teacher in a leading school can have other sources of income like consulting, sponsored research, in-house companies etc. But teaches in lesser known T-schools and B-schools do not get that opportunity. So what do they do? Fortunately or otherwise in India, they have an option- private tuitions.

Whoever condemns this practice of tuitions should see this aspect also. The circumstances that make this possible are much beyond any teacher’s control. Over crowded classrooms where teachers cannot focus on individuals, different learning scales of students, ever increasing demand to excel in examination and shortage of experts in certain crucial topics- all have forced certain faculty to engage in this activity which is often described as a menace to education system.

In the article, Rashmi takes up one more interesting question. In her own words “But for an academic, what is the real measure of greatness? Popularity among students or stature among peers? Number of papers published or days spent consulting with companies?” A true blue teacher will reply that none of the above is the true measure of the greatness of a teacher. A teacher’s greatness does not lie in numbers of any kind. It is a complex phenomenon which goes much beyond science of measurement.

In the previous part we have seen how there will can be conflicting interests among various cultural identities we adopt. We had also seen that considering these dilemmas with respect to language can be a good way of understanding the issues. Further we concluded that this problem is associated with the question of self-identity in these times of cultural pluralism. We had started our journey of understanding different isms in order to appreciate these problems better.

Fulfilling self-interest ahead of serving interests of a particular group we belong to is not considered as a morally right step. Egoism is not considered to be a valid moral choice. But ideal ethical egoism in its purest of forms does not look to be so bad. The scope of this ideal egoism ends in satisfying ones need. The moral principle here is very simple “I want to be happy”. This single statement guides all the decision making process. So all our activities will be determined to bring happiness to self.

So what is the problem? Imagine a case where everyone in this world embraces this philosophy. Now ideally everyone will work to make themselves happy. This should give us a society where everyone is happy. If happiness of all is our greatest goal, then nothing seem to achieve that better than idealist egoism. But it rarely happens so. Close observation reveals that this philosophy has no regards for others happiness. So everyone tries to fulfill their desire at someone’s cost. The resulting situation will be the one filled with utter chaos where everyone tries to overstep others domain in order to make themselves happier.

That is the reason why egoism is given last preference in the list of our identities. Does that mean we have to look at the other extreme of the spectrum? Should we stick on to altruism? Does other form of group egoisms like nationalism, regionalism, and racism a form of altruism? It does not look so. Take nationalism – it is not a completely altruist philosophy. Altruism in its ideal form downplays the individual happiness. In fact it goes to such extremes in saying that one should sacrifice his joy for the larger good. But same sentiment is not echoed by group egoism philosophies.

If we take nationalism, we consider self as a part of larger group. So when we say something is good in nationalism, it applies that self is included in that group. All group egoisms are generalized form of self egoism. Or in other words we can say that it is nothing but egoism extended to a defined set of people. Though the concept of self vanishes in these theories, somewhere we can find its traces. Nationalism. Racism, Regionalism – cannot have altruistic outlook. They represent hidden personal interests and are aimed at establishment of supremacy of a particular group.

Humanism (and later speciesism) will always clash with the interests of group egoism theories like nationalism. You cannot at once satisfy the requirements of both. But humanism can be considered as the greatest ideal for humans. After all the statement that “all humans are equal” is the pinnacle of moral principles all humans adhere to. So in our list of moral choices humanism always gets top position. Other group egoism theories follow it. We place egoism at the bottom of the pyramid. This placing should be the basis for all our moral decision making preferences. Also this is the list we can look up for prioritizing our multiple cultural identities.

An article by Jayaram K Udupa looks into the concept of self and its generalization into various plural forms with great detail. Though there are many questions raised in that article, we will attempt here to look at one crucial question. He explains the emergence of “egoism” and explains how it grows further to represent interests of different groups. These extended theories give rise to various isms like- group egoism, nationalism, racism, humanism and speciesism.

We will never be the members of exclusive group. We will have affiliations to various groups. The question now is can we satisfy the requirement of every group to which we belong without losing anything? Precisely, the question here is- whether there are no conflicting interests for these groups? Can we satisfy the interests of each group without compromising on the values of other? If there is trade-off’s between values, which should be given preference?

When I am speaking Tulu at home and live in Coorg where Coorgi is the language spoken by majority which one shall I promote? There is Kannada which is the state language, Hindi which is my national tongue and of course English. This problem of multiple cultural identities is very common in today’s society. Language being an important aspect of culture makes it a good candidate for these discussions. Since using all languages at all times is practically impossible, there should be a definite solution for this.

The simple solution, many may argue, is to promote use of local tongue among people of same group and use a common bridge language to communicate with other groups. This appealing solution has limited application. Considering the fact that there are hundreds of languages in this world, the choice of bridge language becomes difficult. Today it is accepted that English is the language preferred for global communication. But the amount of stress this development puts on local language is understandable.

We cannot go ahead by falsely assuming that every language will survive. We have seen the slow death of many tongues when they go out of use. No amount of rich literature can save any language unless it is actively used in everyday life. In a kind of plural society that we live in, often we encounter situations where we have to choose one over other. The clashes between different interests come into play during these times.

The question again boils down to the question of self-identity. When we have multiple identities, which facet of it is more important over other? Is self-interest more important than nationality? Is humanism more crucial than nationalism? Why do we limit ourselves to humans when there are other species whose interests are also important? So should we every time think at the broadest possible sense and never satisfy self interest?

Answering these questions requires detailed study of the origin and scope of different theories that define different isms. The broad framework for this is discussed here. We shall see the different isms in detail in the following articles.

Indian advertising scene is long dominated by 3 male superstars – Sachin, Amitab and Sharukh Khan (SRK). This golden trio accounts to the bulk of star endorsement deals here. But given the fact that Sachin is no more the part of present Indian cricket team and Amitab is in the other side of age, it is SRK who seems to be the first choice of many companies. Even his die-hard fans may have lost count about the number of products he endorses.

But his latest move to appear in the Lux commercial has certainly raised the eye brows of many. A male super star in beauty soap ad! It even sounds ridiculous. Skeptics may dismiss this incident as one more attempt by him to garner huge amount of money. Others say they saw it coming. Whatever the reasons may be, this first by SRK is a good reason for us to analyze the changing definition of masculinity.

We had already witnessed a sea change in the way males are projected in cinema and commercials. The best example can be the Raymond’s ads. The famed Raymond man who once defined the ideal man has definitely changed. Today he may be in business suit but he takes care of his babies and even his puppies. The emotional side of man has been given importance in all commercials. No more can you find stiff-faced man in ads. He is a loving husband, caring father and even ventures into kitchen to make tea for his wife!

It again goes to the credit of SRK for changing the definition of hero in Bollywood. He may still beat the goons, run behind leading ladies and do all those things that define his macho image. But he is equally at ease displaying his emotions. He has made crying an ok thing for men. In fact it looks like there is a direct relation between SRK’s tears and film’s success; more he cries better the success. His exploits seems to have inspired new age directors to permanently change the image of the hero in recent movies.

SRK has also translated his on-screen success to do something more. He is open about his stand that he will endorse anything if they pay him his fees. This brute honesty by such superstar should not be interpreted as a sign of arrogance but his straightforwardness about his way of life. The message he tries to send out is clear- I do not have problems in saying I want more money. This along with his image on screen surely defines the term ‘metro sexual man’ in Indian context.

The definition of metro sexual man runs as follows “an urban male with a strong aesthetic sense, who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle.” So visiting beauty saloons is not the exclusive domain of ladies. Saif was shown spending time in such saloon in the movie “kal ho na ho”. But the point is does anyone really care? Apart from all these media persons does any real person on street worry whether he is macho, metro sexual or retro sexual?

No, the world is too busy to take a note about these definitions. But the preconceived notions, the prejudices that arise from that makes an interesting case for a curious observer. Was Lux never used by males? There is no proof for it. But there is every reason to be sure that they were using it. So what is the fuss all about SRK endorsing it? Is this the classic case of insecurity of males about losing macho image? Or is it time for us to tell Sharukh to stop this?

If anyone is interested in studying the impact of Bollywood on Indian society, they need not go beyond Indian marriages. Bollywood and its small screen counterparts have permanently changed the way Indian marriages are conducted. In fact studying marriage ceremonies can be a good starting point for understanding the changing cultural face of any society. It is because marriage is the pinnacle of all ceremonies any culture celebrates.

Not so long ago, marriages were considered to be a platform for many to display their project management skills. The elaborate planning processes that preceded the ceremony were nothing short to large scale project management. Usually the main sub-activities in this plan were- selecting venue, sarees and jewels. Selecting various service providers like pundits, cooks, pendalwala and videowala was nothing short than the exercise of selecting contractors and sub-contractors in project execution. As in every project here too we could find last minute glitches and a mad-rush to see everything works fine.

Of course the important activity of selecting the partner precedes this activity. That part of the story is not covered here. Anyone who involves in the process of saree selection actively is sure to get his quota of lessons in human psychology. The pursuing capabilities of shop owners can be a good lesson for any management guy. Shopkeepers will teach us how green saree worn by Soundarya in Aptamitra is popular. The same applies even to the choice of jewels. Except for mangal-sutra every other ornament will be a replica of some model made famous by some star.

The menu in the marriage ceremony was once dominated by local dishes. In fact the “success” of marriage ceremony is decided by the variety and taste of menu. The catering guy seems to have divine knowledge of which dish is fad and which is dud. Some exotic dishes have made their way even into this otherwise traditional domain. Change in food choices often best reflects changing cultural values. Even though we cannot find sholay-e-sambar or kusum-de-halwa kind of dishes, the platter in marriages certainly has undergone a change.

The ceremony itself has changed and will be tailored to your needs, all thanks to accommodating pundits. Though it is a norm, if you don’t want to sit bare-chested in marriage, alternatives will be invented. If you are allergic to smoke coming from all those homa’s, pundit will shorten it. More video-friendly procedures will be introduced. If your video guy is not satisfied with mangal-sutra tying procedure properly, no problem; Pundit will allow you to repeat that once again.

The concept of ‘sangeet’ was never there in south-indian communities. Thanks to Bollywood, we are enlightened that it is the important step preceding the actual ceremony. But people here are confused lot as to how to implement the famous “joote chori” (hiding the slippers of bridegroom) procedure which was made famous in the movie HAHK. In this part of world no ones wears slippers during marriage ceremonies so implementing this popular feat becomes impossible.

Nevertheless the marriage ceremonies here have maintained at least few procedures. It is other thing that many do not know the reason behind these procedures. But even blindly following someone can sometimes lead us to our destination. In this case the cultural identity is retained by these procedures which may look meaningless sometimes.

The ultimate passing of Information Act 2005 on June 15, 2005 should be considered as a red-letter day in India’s history. This long cherished dream is finally realized after 50 years of independence. There are reasons to be happy after reading the act. For the first time the citizens now feel really empowered. In times where the validity of democracy as a system of governance is questioned, this act gives enough reason to say why still democracy is the best.

As it is rightly noted in the objective of this act – “…democracy requires informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to be governed…..”. So the scope of this act should span to providing information to citizens, help contain corruption and make Government and its allied machinery accountable.

The act accomplishes the first goal i.e. creating informed citizenry quite efficiently. The kinds of information citizens can avail are broad and includes almost all kinds of records stored in all possible formats (manual and electronic). The “right” to citizens includes right to– inspection of work, documents and records, taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents, taking certified sample of materials and obtaining information in digital way (in floppy, CD etc) or take printouts.

For people who grumble about the long bureaucratic processes involved in obtaining information from Government agency there is a solution. This process is simplified and looks efficient (at least on paper). If you say many in India are illiterate and cannot write the requests, there is a provision to accept verbal requests also. All in this entire act appears to be a dream come true for establishing a information rich society.

But let us look beyond this. Why do people need information? Of course obtaining information is not an end in itself. It is a means for some larger goal. Sadly that part is still neglected. Even if we accept that we will get information in fly about all crucial issues, the way in which we can use it is still limited. The only use can be to put the information into public domain. Access to classified information which journalists considered as their privilege now becomes a powerful tool in everyone’s hand.

Imagine you finding out large scale corruption in any deal through the information that is collected using this act. What options do you have? You have to go through same mundane judicial processes which have turned inefficient due to time constraints. We have seen scores of bureaucrats being caught by vigilance officers for corruption. Do we know their fate? How many of them really get the punishment under law?

The point of the matter is- it is not enough to have a strong information procurement act. Fast judicial procedures and efficient accountability laws are crucial in determining the success of such act. Otherwise we will create a society which is rich with information but not knowing what to do with it. This inability to put information to good use may deter people from using that facility at all. Nevertheless the first goal of this act will be accomplished if this act is implemented in true spirit. We will hope that the subsequent goals i.e. reducing corruption and increased accountability will also be accomplished through other supporting laws.

The lanky Shankar slowly walks into the room of his father with heavy steps. His mother is in the bedside while his bhabi walks in. After a long period of silence he slows breaks the news – “mein Vishnu bhaiyya ko maar diya” (I have killed my elder brother Vishnu). Amidst the silence, you can feel the pain in everyone’s face. His father then slowly asks “aage?” (What next?)

That one word signals the dawn of a new era. The famed strongman “Sarkar” has decided to shift the baton to his younger son Shankar. That one word by him captures all emotions. It shows his helplessness, it demonstrates his trust on his son and it shows who the boss is. Regime change depicted by one word; power equations changed in a moment. What else do you need to gauge the genius?

In the contemporary cinema, it is difficult to find a director who can match the creative power of Ram Gopal Varma. This director shines in parts of Sarkar as a technical genius. Varma seems to have developed a hatred for long dialogs, which were at once an important part of Hindi cinema. Even today people recall most of the dialogues in Sholay. Famous dialogues from movies become part of folklore. But in recent Varma movies, you find minimal but powerful dialogues.

Many people have tried to adapt the classic “Godfather” in Indian celluloid. Mani Rathnam’s famed “Nayagan” was a cult movie in this genre. The performance of Kamal Hasan in this movie still stands as greatest testimony for his acting skills. Kamal in this movie was far better than Amitab in Sarkar. One reason may be that Kamal’s character traced the life time journey of a don whereas Sarkar limits itself to the regime change episode.

Varma’s movies changed their language after “Company”. Though many consider “Satya” as his career high point, his language did not change much in this movie. In technical aspects, it was “Company” which heralded a major change. Slick editing, unusual camera angles, unique background score – which have now become the hallmark of his films stated with “Company”. It was only after this movie that the movies from his “factory” began to carry that stamp with them.

What Varma has achieved in these years is nothing short to a miracle. He has transformed the whole language of Hindi cinema. His influence was so wide that even the coffee-toffee Karan made “Kaal” (although a disastrous attempt). Perhaps it was the film “Bhoot” which took this experiment into new heights. The technical aspects of this movie are amazing. There may be only a couple of shots in this movie where camera was placed in conventional angle. Otherwise it was placed either close to ground level or so near to ceiling. The result of this peculiar placement of camera was breath taking visuals of the apartment which played significant role in the success of the movie.

Varma continues this experiment even in Sarkar. There are hospital scenes where camera is placed below the stretcher, right above to Amitab’s face who is lying on bed etc. These kind of small issues make significant contribution to the overall impact of movie. What Varma has given to his audience is the cinemas which look different and speak a unique technical language. With the right mix of various cinematic values he has made watching cinema an enjoyable experience.

The question of whether one’s health should be considered as a fundamental right can be raised now. The reason is the judgment given the High court of Karnataka which decided that having HIV is not a reason for denying job for anyone. Though this is seen as a victory for the rights of HIV patients, here we attempt to look this development from a different angle.

Health is not considered as a fundamental right in our constitution. If today we decide that it should be considered as a right, the implications are many. The meaning and scope of considering health as a universal right should be first defined. Let us start from there. From the above stated judgment can we infer that health of person should not be a discriminating factor for employment? It looks so.

If that is the case, then disclosing the health status also becomes optional. That implies that companies which ask for medical checks of its employees before joining them becomes gross violation of this right. On this basis of this judgment it can be argued that since health status cannot be a basis for employment, disclosing that is not compulsory. So companies may have to stop this exercise.

The second implication can be the stand by individuals that they have every ‘right’ to their health. That means they can argue that they will be independent to hook on any practices that are deemed “injurious to health”. Using the status of health as their fundamental right they can argue that it is their choice to smoke, drink, take drugs or do anything that can “spoil” their health. So Government will be in back foot in implementing the ban against these things.

In this case there seems to be a conflict between individual rights and overall social responsibility. Whenever there is such a clash, the later always wins. So people cannot take it for granted that even when health is considered as a fundamental right, they can do anything to their health. This is a classic example for conflict of fundamental rights and duties of Governments in a democratic society.

There is one more serious implication of this notion. If health is considered as a right then invariably life should also be considered as a fundamental right. This is a thorny issue in our country because considering life as a right will have far reaching implications. The scope of this right will spill to even to death. Then the topic of right to death will also come into picture.

This topic of right to death has already created controversy throughout the world. Many countries have responded to this by legalizing euthanasia. But in countries like India, this issue is still unresolved. By granting fundamental right status to health, the Government will be forced to take a stand on this issue also. So this issue is untouched even today.

By seeing the implications of this judgment, it should be clear that health cannot be considered as a fundamental right. It can only have a limited scope. It can make the disclosure of health status optional. Also it will make selection based on health status illegal. Its scope ends there.

We have already seen that the allegation against IT industry that it is insensitive towards the societal needs is not true. As a defense against this allegation it was said that it was the changing needs of the workforce that has created such an environment. Previously during the days of a manufacturing industry opening up its centre in a small town the needs were different. Since most of the people working in shop floor were unskilled labor getting paltry salary, it became the responsibility of the industry to provide supporting facilities.

In contrast, the workforce in the IT industry is high skilled professionals. The kind of infrastructure and other support facilities they demand will be different from the traditional unskilled workforce. This puts enormous pressure on the companies because their role in providing them is limited. They can provide excellent facilities at workplace but civic amenities should still be provided by the Government. So it is natural that they demand same sophisticated infrastructure outside the workplace.

The second allegation that IT is the root cause for all problems we face in Bangalore is not completely right. Skeptics blame the sky-rising land prices, emergence of plush restaurants, starting of expensive amusement centers and increase in vehicular traffic all on IT. They blame that the cash rich IT professionals take all things to their side. Their ability to ‘throw’ money is considered to the centre of the problem where today everything has become expensive.

This development is a natural phenomenon in any new economy. With the emergence of new economic order there are bound to be certain drastic changes. These are fallouts of the knowledge revolution which we have accepted with open arms. The grumbles against this should have been anticipated beforehand. But it is now high time to reverse this process and society should learn to accept these changes graciously.

There are certain misconceptions about the salaries paid in the IT industry. Indian economy which was dominated by agriculture previously opened up to industrialization only in Nehruvian period. The establishment of large PSUs, nationalized banks and insurance sector along with Governmental organizations were the primary employers during the later stage. Though there was a presence of private companies their scope was limited. The employment opportunities for professionals were few and that can explain the large scale migration of these classes to other shores until late 1980’s.

With the liberalization of economy and favorable policies in 90’s saw the emergence of new industry. The emergence of IT industry as a main economy driver and employer makes interesting story to study. What changed in the country was the mindset of people regarding private companies. The earlier generation which craved for a ‘secure’ Government jobs woke up to the realities of present world. Competition, expertise, high pay – all became the order of the day. In a liberalized and open economy, this is a natural development.

Even though the IT industry mainly employs professionals, its impact on other areas is significant. Studies say that every job in IT creates 2 jobs in transport and catering. IT impacts 16% of hotel biz, 7% of real estate and 16% of air travel industry. It is clear that from these figures that IT alone is not eating the fruits of this revolution but is helping other areas also significantly.

The recent floods in North Karnataka have had its effects on IT industry also. No, it didn’t quite affect the productivity of IT industry since almost all are based in Bangalore. It brought a new wave of criticism on the industry. Pioneering this attack on the industry was none other than the Deputy CM Mr. M P Prakash himself. He was critical about the non-responsiveness of the industry towards this calamity. Not wanting to miss this golden opportunity to bash the IT industry, Ravi Belagere also wrote an article condemning the behavior of the IT industry. Suddenly IT industry which was darling of everyone has turned into a villain.

The complaints made against the industry are 2 twofold. One is the constant grumble that they do not respond to the needs of the state and second is the allegation that they are responsible for all evils that Bangalore is facing today. Somehow IT industry always becomes the easy prey for people who want someone to blame for all their woes. These allegations usually are never be backed by facts and it appears like few people use these kinds of opportunities to level personal scores.

Let us look at the first allegation that IT industry is insensitive to the social needs. Before anything we should remember that the IT like any other business is interested in profits. Running an IT industry is demanding in these days of cost-cutting and increasing opposition against outsourcing. Charity is not the primary objective of any industry. It is only a desired activity and no body has a right to demand charity from any organization.

IT industry becomes a prime target for many because of the public perception that lots of money is involved in this industry. The kind of turnovers these industries disclose, the amount of salaries professionals draw here sends a wrong message to people that IT industry has surplus money. But money in this industry is nothing compared to the other sectors like petroleum, steel or even diamond industry in India. People only know that IT has money and they demand a share in that.

Karnataka Government alleges that the IT industry demands too much infrastructure for its own sake. It says the industry captains threaten to move out of the city if their demands are not met. Why not? When IT industry has given so much to boost the economy of the state they have every right to demand the basic infrastructure. We still think it is the responsibility of the Government to provide that. When every state is trying to woo these people, it is natural for them to be demanding. Remember that it was the favorable policies of the then state government that enabled the IT industry to grow here.

The demand that IT industry has not done much for the people here is also not true. The example of TATA, who always made it a point to build townships, is given in this regard. But we have to note the difference between the economies of these industries. IT industry is knowledge based one unlike manufacturing which depends largely on unskilled labor. The needs and aspirations of the workforce in these industries will be different. The IT industry tries to cater the needs of its up market workforce which is techno-savvy.

Now that we know the reason behind the changed priorities of IT industry, it is easy for us to understand why IT industries demand more sophisticated infrastructure. It is only to cater the needs of its ever demanding work force. With attrition rate being so high, this is valid demand by them. We shall see the validity of second allegation in next part.

The problems with the misuse of Technology are already discussed earlier. If one tries to see the reason behind these problems, one will know that this is not an isolated problem, but a minuscule of a larger problem. The problem, as we will see here, lies not in the misuse of a technology but with the nature of technology itself.

Science and Technology both have same goal. It may sound like a cliché but it is true that both strive for the upliftment of mankind. In this course, both face some problems. But it appears like the problems of Science are much simpler than the one faced by Technology. Science is unperturbed by the various market forces. Though today some areas of Science have commercial interests, it is generally agreed that the basic science research is unconcerned to market demands.

Science has the ultimate goal of identifying the truth. It is the job of scientists to seek this truth through their own methodologies which is termed as ‘scientific’. We should note that though major scientific discoveries have profound influence on mankind, science is not interested in propagating the truth which it has discovered. In fact, it does not matter to science whether people accept that truth or not.

The people once believed that earth was flat. Science told them that it was spherical. This was not accepted by all for a long time. Had this made any difference to the scientific community? No, because Science is least bothered about this. It believes that one day the truth will be accepted by all. With this optimism, it continues its journey of finding truth.

It is often difficult for people to change the path which they have walked for long. It is difficult for them to change their opinion which they have developed over years. Change, whether in thinking or in deeds, will be opposed. To change is not natural to humans; but is natural to science. Change is the fundamental characteristic of science. The challenge before science is to convince people to change. To make them understand the validity of truths which it discovered. The challenge before science is to take people along the path which it has covered.

But as mentioned earlier, this is easier said than done. Fortunately for Science this change need not be drastic. Science is ready to wait for people to accept the changes. As said before, it is this positive attitude that has led to the progress of science.

Technology, on the other hand, cannot take such chances. The main problem in technology is that unlike science it has commercial interests. So it cannot be silent to the opinions of people. It has to respond to their needs. Technology is not a process of discovering truth like science; it is a commercial endeavor. This commercial angle puts tremendous pressure on technology. It has to achieve dual goals- one to satisfy commercial interests and second to help the progress of mankind. Maintaining this delicate balance between two conflicting interests is the main problem of technology.

When technology fails to resolve this conflict between its two interests, we see problems with technology. When the balance tilts more towards satisfying commercial interests we get technology which lacks social concern. A socially sensitive technology may not be commercially viable. It becomes the sole responsibility of Technologists to resolve this conflict in an amicable way so that we get technologies that are both socially useful and economically viable.

Today’s newspapers carried the photo of VTU V-C Dr.Balvir Reddy with more than 300 mobiles which were confiscated from students and faculties of Engineering Colleges in Bangalore. Though the use of mobile phones was banned in colleges no one was serious about it. This act by the V-C has sent a clear message to all – we are serious about the ban.

This episode is interesting from various aspects. One is that unlike other Universities, VTU is solely a technical university. The students and faculty here are engaged in technological studies. It may look like a cliché but the aim of technology, we agree, is to improve the lives of people. So University seems to tell us that we can study technology but not use it.

The point, many may argue, is the correct use of technology. No one knows the right reason behind the latest ban on mobiles in campus. Surely the episode in DPS involving mobiles with camera must have had its share in this decision. Whatever may the reasons, applying a blanket ban on the usage of anything is not right. But the lists of banned activities in campus are on an all time high.

We should not see this case in isolation. Banning mobiles in campus may have its own merits but we should see this episode in a wider perspective. As mentioned earlier, this must be seen as an attempt to resist the influx of technology into social sphere. Lack of understanding about the social impact of technology is the main reason for all these problems.

Technology, we should remember, cannot be discussed in isolation. The social impact of technology has been long neglected in engineering studies. Students continue to learn the design issues without giving a look at social sensitiveness. This lack of sensitivity continues even at work place and we get designers who fail to understand the impact of devices they build.

The core of the argument here is that it is the designers who are responsible for all problems. Technology is malleable; it is shaped by the thoughts of the designer. The designer cannot escape by saying that he has no role in deciding the usage of a technology. It is his primary responsibility to foresee the impact of the technology he is designing. When he fails to do so, we get technologies which are abused by public.

This misuse of technology leads many to argue that technology itself should be banned. Past experiences have proven that this is impossible. With the march of technology being so fast, the designers have to take on more responsibilities. They have to be more focused towards the social aspects and try to be sensitive to various issues. Otherwise we will continue to witness the resistance to new technology from public.

The role of teachers in today’s society is fast changing. Gone are the days where teachers were considered as the only source of information. The proliferation of sophisticated technologies which help people to access and share information has added tremendous burden on a modern day teacher. As the need for classroom is questioned, the place of teachers is also under threat.

One major challenge for a teacher is to constantly upgrade himself about all developments in his field. With the changes happening so fast, it is a daunting task for anyone. But with the expectation of student group ever increasing, the modern day teacher cannot sit undaunted by the developments. The need to explore newer possibilities while sticking to the basics is definitely difficult for him.

The increased expectation from a teacher is also due to the change in the way we see education. Today education is a commercial activity like any other service sector. With the competition ever increasing among the institutions to provide better education, it is the teachers, who have to take the brunt. The idea of considering education as ‘commercial service’ somehow does not seem to go well with our tradition.

In modern day lingo, students are the ‘customers’ of an institution. The teachers have to don the role of the ‘service provider’. In this situation the width of the term ‘customer satisfaction’ will be interesting to explore. Should teachers teach so that their students are satisfied? How long should they go to ‘satisfy’ their students? Aren’t teachers guided by their own ethics in terms of handling their students? Well, in a commercial society these questions have remained unanswered.

In this kind of a situation, the teachers have to be performers. That whether teaching can be considered as a form of performing art is debatable. But sometimes it appears that teachers are in a way forced to perform in the class. Their performance is directed in a way to ‘satisfy’ their students. It is an unfortunate development that teachers are made to ‘perform’ in the class. Instead of giving the academic liberty, the money-thirsty managements are increasingly pressuring the teachers to be ‘performers’ rather than allowing them to be what they are – ‘teachers’.

Academic autonomy alone can be the solution for the problems education sector is facing today. In present scenario one group will set the syllabus, other group will teach it in class and the third group will set papers and evaluate. This idea of having 3 different players in curriculum setup should go. A teacher should be given all these rights viz. to set his own syllabus, teach and evaluate his students.

In the absence of this faith on teachers, the society has no right in condemning the plight of education system. Education, which forms the most important sector in the development of a country, has never got its due respect here. The tendency to blame teachers without understanding the ground realities should go.

If the country has to progress, there should be 2 important changes that should happen. One is to stop treating education as a “commercial service activity” and second is to give all teachers the level of academic autonomy which they deserve. Only then the teachers can do what they are expected to do and stop being “performers”.

One of the main problems which have plagued the political parties for long is the absence of proper democratic values within the party. Rarely can we see any political party which conducts elections at grass root levels for the administration of party. This lack of democratic ethos in running the party can be seen with all major political parties thought the country. Being functional in a democratic state, this behavior by the parties is regrettable.

Somehow the concept of unanimous selection of candidates to the administrative bodies within the party does not seem to go well with the democratic values. The lack of opposition for a particular person’s nomination may be viewed as a sign of solidarity within the party. But as mentioned earlier, this lack of opposition can also be considered as a kind of monopoly. The efforts by the party bosses to convince others to withdraw from election so as to facilitate unopposed election can be viewed as high-handedness of elite in the party.

The role is party presidents is increasingly becoming powerful in all parties. That criticizing the party president for genuine reason should itself be considered as a valid reason to dismiss someone from the party is not in accordance with democratic spirit. But this incident is being repeated in all parties across the nation. To consider that party presidents should be above all criticism means breaking the fundamental rule of democracy.

There is a precise reason for this episode to repeat for frequently these days. A close observation will tell us that almost all political parties today are considered to be the private asset of a person. In most cases they will the founding persons of that party. This gives them the sense of unquestioned authority over the party. Their image and personal appeal will be much higher than the party. This leads to a situation where a political party remains someone’s private property rather than being a democratic institution.

To expect that democracy will exist in these parties will be foolish. The party elections will just be an eye-wash and every time we will see the same person being selected as party president. The funniest aspect with these parties is that during the time of important decision making they will ‘unanimously empower’ the party president to take appropriate action. Can there be any better example to show how undemocratic these parties are?

It looks like in Independent India we were successful in removing the monopolistic rulers but established monarchy of other type. The ruling rights are becoming hereditary in almost all parties. It is ironic that these parties declare themselves as democratic, draft party constitution and still depend on one person to do everything. Any dissident will be expelled from the party. That person goes on to build his own party. Oh! This is nothing different from those raja-maharaja days where one would build their own empires.

Somebody has truly said that democracy is not in the blood of Indians. We seem to be more comfortable with displaying jee-huzoor type obedience towards rulers. Yesterday it was kings today there are netas. Nothing else has changed from those days. CPI and other left parties may be little democratic in functioning but all others are monopolistic.

The political scene of India was long dominated by Congress party. Though Gandhi had suggested that the party be dismantled after achieving the goal of Independence no one seemed to be interested then. What followed thereafter was the establishment of dynastic rule which is opposed in democratic society. With the charisma of Nehru-Gandhi family ever growing, a section of people began their search for alternative political options.

The emergence of regional parties in India has its roots in the division of states based on linguistic terms. The southern states first seized the opportunity of growing intolerance towards imposition of Hindi to build political parties which claimed to make regional identity as a political force. Subsequent developments in other states to give a voice to the backward classes and dalits gave rise to parties which made caste identity as a political issue.

It should be noted that these parties had a small impact outside their territory. Perhaps there was no real alternative national party to Congress until BJP emerged. Even though the efforts of making Janata Dal (now in its various versions) a true national party was successful temporarily, it could not sustain the momentum. It is surprising to note that there has been no attempt to create a true national party with secular credentials which can be an alternate to Congress.

The regional parties have the single aim to protecting the local interests. It is alarming to see that certain regional parties (like Shiv Sena) had taken this issue of regional identity to the extreme. Their efforts to “purify” their land from settlers, who again were Indian citizens, through use of force do not go well with the spirit of nationality. Similar efforts by caste and group based parties which try to establish the superiority of their clan by suppressing other groups is also regrettable.

These parties which had limited play-field are now trying to enter other states. How will they fair in the neighboring states will be interesting to watch. The entry of Pramod Mutalik into Shiv Sena is an example for this development. How will Shiv Sena be relevant in Karnataka when its main goal is to establish a “marata state”? Similarly the relevance of regional parties like AIADMK in state like Karnataka can also be questioned. Can any one think how TDP can make its impact here?

These regional parties who have had bitter fights with their neighboring states in the past are now trying to vow the same. Their claims can better be rejected as opportunistic. In an effort to go national they are forgetting the very basis of their existence. What will the stand of Karnataka branch of AIADMK be during Cauvery water crisis? Will they support the claims of Karnataka or will they be in the side of Tamil Nadu? Will Shiv Sena give up its demand for Belgaum when it grows strong in Karnataka?

These questions never seem to bother the party bosses when they try to enter alien territories. Part of the problem can be attributed to the lack of ideological base for these political parties. Always driven by the hunger for power, these parties will do anything to satisfy that. Ideology and identity is the last thing that any party will worry. That is the reason why we cannot distinguish one party from other in India. At the most we identify the party through its leaders. But with party-hopping so rampant, even this distinction is fast vanishing.

The solution, it may seem, is to curb these regional parties and encourage only the national parties. But with the growth of coalition politics, the chances to do this look dim. The dependency of national parties on these small regional parties has worsened the problem. A party having a handful of MP’s will be in a position to dictate the future of the country. This increased importance boosts the morale of these regional parties and encourage them to expand their base. The resulting situation will the one filled with opportunistic politics, ideological emptiness and political chaos.