The Academic Imperialism and the IIT : Part 2

But the students of IIT are not the only people who are stakeholders in the IIT hegemony. There are many. Non-IITians who keep seeking internships, campus exposure, participation in the petty tech-fests are much more responsible hegemonists of IIT. There are some who introduce themselves as IITians to strangers too after doing petty trainings at IIT. But what it clearly shows the imperialism that IIT has already established in the academic world. And how much it effects the mind of both kinds of people : those who make it, and those who dont. IIT has nothing to pay back to the middle class of this country which has been "hegemony"sing it since the last 50 years. It is this hegemony, which has lead to more easy loans for IITians, and a separate column for IIT graduates in matrimonial columns of newspapers.

The measure of "negative hegemony" of an academic institute can only be done through its influence in changing the career tracks of the people away from their interests. Whereas the top brands in the world have allowed space to their graduates to look for their own interests. IIT may be the only institute in the world where departments choose people rather people choose departments. Certainly, Indians in 21st century are experimenting less with their careers and playing a risk-free game compared to their ancestors in 60s-70s who explored their careers rising beyond the rat-races that may existed at that time. Though there are examples of academic brands that have developed worldwide. Be it Harvards in US, LSE in UK, Peking in china, HEC in france , Todai in Japan and SKY in korea, but nowhere else in the world, an academic institute has penetrated so much in the social aspects of the people's lives to an extent that it influenced the people's goals, careers , interests and aspirations and emerged as solution to the desperate's money hunger.

Four days past, I am now free from this imperialism. But pity the middle class which is killing itself and its interests by its own aspirations.

The above piece is my feedback as Gurudakshina to IIT on the end of its golden jubilee year. Comments and Criticisms are welcome.

The Academic Imperialism and the IIT : Part 1

It has been four days since I graduated out of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,and when I look back my life these 4 years and see how it contrasts with my own aspirations and expectations of the middle class of this country who have only one way of exit from the hell they believe they are living in : to clear the Joint Entrance Examination and pursue a career at the IITs. I see the people who are just graduates and have a great confidence to take over the poor non-IITians in every company they will invade in, where not only they will be most listened to, but also more susceptible for promotions and perks. There is clear evidence of the existence of the IIT hegemony where the name sole helps the ease of the work for graduates, atleast they believe it helps and others believe that the name gives undue advantage.

In the humanities course of Science, Technology and Society, professor Vignesh has his favourite topic to lecture to the future beneficiaries of what is called as the Matthew effect. It is the effect where the nobel laureate gets a higher probability of getting published for a second grade research compared to the high end research by a non nobel laureate. It is evident that same goes for IITians and non-IITians also. Nobel laurates is just an example, the "rat race" following country that we live in, where generations have the habit of grading and degrading others on basis of castes, creeds and religion, had to do this with academics some day, partly because of the growing concern over education among the flourishing middle class, and partly because people believe in degrading each other. Sometimes I feel, India does not have brands, it only has negative-brands. IITian is not that big a brand, as the negative one "non-IITian" is.

But most of the middle class concerns over their "academic ego" comes more from the matrimonial market aspects in India, rather than the "employer market". India being the land of Matrimonial problems, (both post and pre-matrimonial problems), the stakeholders of a child's education rarely work to teach their child greatness, they rather work for increasing his credibility among indian employers which gradually increments his/her "matrimonial credibility". The leadership education in the country is suppressed, because matrimony is all about getting approved from others. So much that this mentality has penetrated deep inside the Indian DNA, that I doubt even any generation in the past which has ever thought of coming out of societal shackles and do something for its greatness. The one which did, is presently running the pseudo-monarchy of Indian Democracy.

So IIT is more or less, like, they take an exam which test the "algorithmicity" of the mind, and take in the people, who are best suited to follow the algorithms of success which is defined by every professor at the start of the course. The middle class with the aspirations of battling each other and make the way to the corporate success, gets in IIT. Then the professors with very unsatisfied life and salaries get in their hand the students desperate to do whatever required for what they define as success. The 4 year of "divide and rule" type of assignments and projects are given to the middle class students who are running the 4 years of pig race with the meat of hefty packages at the end. The students learn to compete, overcede and the one who is least harmed, wins the race of lasting confidence. At the end of the day, the great nation with the great taxpayers who paid in hope for more opportunity creation, ended up with people who competed for opportunities, rather than creating some. The argument that some ended up as entrepreneur triggers the debate on entrepreneurship itself. The credit of India being the land of entrepreneurs, goes more to the bad "bosses" and bad employee satisfaction rates in the country, which boosted the forced entrepreneurship. The kind of entrepreneurs emerging out of IIT include only those who are not satisfied with the job offers (read: meat) they got at the end of the pig race. The very word entrepreneur in India is different from the one you use in United States where people left the job more out of passion rather than self-or autre-approvals. Also the post IIT entrepreneurship is more effected by the changing admission eligibilities at the top US business schools, where entrepreneurial experiences increases the credibility in the Admission Committees.

continued to part 2 ...