Happy Birthday, India

Today, 15 August, is India's 61st independence day. An ancient land but a young political entity. Is this one any different from any of the earlier ones? Not really...except that this is the first since I started my blog! I thought I should commemorate this fact in some way, like placing a flag or a marker as one passes. So here is that marker. As it happens, last evening, we went to see a two act one man play 'Mahadevbhai' by Ramu Ramanathan, acted out as a monologue by Jaimini Pathak. Mahadev Desai was Gandhiji's secretary but he was also much more than that. He was the Mahatma's friend, his translator, his diarist, his Boswell. It is to Mahadevbhai that we owe a debt for the detailed descriptions he left behind of the days of Gandhiji's life and hence of the nitty-gritty of the freedom struggle. The play bases itself loosely on Mahadev Desai's diary to take us through the crucial years of the freedom struggle, ending on 15 August 1942, the day Mahadev Desai died with Gandhi next to him. Many of the famous names of the freedom struggle -- Patel, Nehru, Bose, Tagore flit in and out of the diary and hence of the play, giving us a glimpse of the march to Dandi, the irony of the meeting on communal harmony in Godra, the Champaran and Bardoli Satyagraha and even many apparently ordinary day to day events in the life of the Mahatma. As we remember some of those men and women who gave us our freedom, one can do no better, to commemorate 15th of August, than to quote some of the lesser known passages of Nehru's Tryst with Destiny speech, whose first few sentences are mechanically taught to most school children in this country. However, that speech has some resounding cadences which have an echo even in today's India. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.... The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman. We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full... All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

You can't do it

"This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can invade its neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it. Things have changed." - CONDOLEEZZA RICE, secretary of state Yeah, right! Only we can do it, in Iraq and wherever we feel is good for us. It doesn't even have to be a neighbour.

Science in Muslim countries

Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria has a guest editorial in a recent issue of Science Magazine, on the problems of science in Muslim countries. Despite our Muslim forefathers who first held up the torch of rationality, tolerance, and the advancement of knowledge throughout the dark ages of medieval Europe, he points out that increasingly intolerant social milieu that is driven by self-appointed guardians of religious correctness, who inject their narrow interpretation of religion into all public debates. Rejecting rationality or evidentiary approaches, they increasingly force dissenting voices into silence and conformity with what they consider acceptable behavior. Of course the Muslim world is not alone in this. Even in the technologically most advanced nation in the world, the US, there are battles over creationism vs. evolution and, in fact, though he doesn't say so, over stem cell research, contraception and so on. He stresses the need for a commitment to fight for the values of science and to reject obscurantism, fanaticism, and xenophobia. I can't help thinking that while we in India are lucky not to have to fight over evolution and creationism, we are no slouches when it comes to obscurantist behaviour and attitudes. Belief in Ram as a real person with a well-defined birthplace, and the bridge he constructed, or even arguing in the Supreme Court over which version of the Ramayan is correct to decide the fate of the Ramar Sethu, modifying recorded history, geography and geology to insist that Hindu civilisation has existed for a 100,000 years (or is it a million?) does not speak well of our rationalist attitudes. (I am not even mentioning astrology, which even many of our distinguished scientists believe in). Let me quote Serageldin again when he says we need to liberate minds from the tyranny of intolerance, bigotry, and fear, and opening the doors to free inquiry, tolerance, and imagination. Here is a personal plug: if you seriously believe in a rationalist view of the universe (let me stress that this need not be equivalent to atheism) please do click on the Brights link on the right hand column near the top of the page and join the Brights movement.

What does Kashmir have to do with the Dalai Lama?

In a recent Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, who specialises in reporting from some of the most dangerous places in the world including Darfur, has presented a new set of proposals to the Chinese Government regarding Tibet, which he says has the sanction of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. While reading it, I couldn't help feeling an odd sense of familiarity with the proposal. To take just a few examples (these are quotes from the article)

• The Dalai Lama would dial back to some degree on demands for political autonomy for Tibet, while the Chinese government would offer more cultural and religious freedoms - no "one country two systems" like Hong Kong.
• create a Regional Authority for Tibetan Affairs that would administer key aspects of life in all Tibetan areas, particularly education, culture and religion
• ...restrict migration into all Tibetan areas, inside and outside the “autonomous region,” through China’s existing system of residence permits. The Chinese authorities would stop issuing resident permits, known as hukou, to non-Tibetans for any Tibetan area, and would grant temporary residence permits, or zhanzhuzheng, only when no Tibetan is available to take a job. This would halt the flood of Han Chinese into Tibetan areas.
• The Tibetan language would... be used in government offices in all Tibetan areas, alongside Chinese, and there would be a new push (as there was in the 1980s) to increase the proportion of ethnic Tibetans holding government and party positions.
• The upshot would be a Tibet that remains politically under the control of the Communist Party.... it would be able to preserve its character indefinitely as a distinctly Tibetan and Buddhist region, both inside and outside the formal Tibet Autonomous Region.

And then the penny dropped! Some of these proposals (of course, allowing for the distinct cultural, political and ethnic differences in the two cases) are almost reminiscent of the policies that the Indian Government tries to follow in the Kashmir valley! Complete with issues like autonomy, preserving the demographic character of Kashmir, Article 370 and so on. Not very surprising, considering his Holiness has spent the better part of half a century next to the Kashmir valley. Curiously the West does not seem to think much of similar Indian policies in Kashmir (exacerbated by India's own heavy handed actions in the valley, in trying to solve the Kashmir problem). So one wonders why they feel this is a worthwhile act for the Chinese Government to follow. Moreover, one might argue that years of molly coddling the valley at the expense of Jammu, has not helped in bringing peace to the Kashmir. So why would this work in Tibet? I think, there at least, the answer is simple. To all intents and purposes, there are no external forces aiding and abetting the local 'freedom fighters'. This is not the case in Kashmir where the insurgency is, for the most part funded and fomented from across the border. There is, therefore greater likelihood for the plan to succeed if only the Chinese Government were to show some long term vision in this matter. They are lucky in having as an interlocutor, a person of the distinction, grace and standing as the Dalai Lama, unlike India which has to deal with a bunch of opportunistic thugs in the pay of a neighbouring country, whatever be the genuineness of the Kashmiri demands.

Freedom from the keyboard

This time when I visited Singapore (see the previous post) I went without my laptop. It turns out that this is the first time in some two years that I have been away from a keyboard for as long as four days. If there is one place which is a paradise for the internet junkey it's Singapore - everywhere starting from Changi airport to the hotels, internet is ubiquitous and it's all free and fast. And therefore all the more reason to avoid if you not planning to spend your vacation hunched over the keyboard. And....I survived (and so did the world)!! I had thought the withdrawal symptoms of not connecting to the net sometime at least during the day would start affecting my nerves to the extent that my feet would start moving inexorably towards the nearest internet cafe. But I hardly missed it and just for that, as Henry Higgins says 'I should be given a medal or even made a knight'. Perhaps it helped that this was mostly the weekend but at the end of it all, there were just 64 messages waiting to be answered (or not answered) not counting spam which took me just about an hour to get through. All in all, a valuable lesson learnt - to use a cliche, take time off to smell the roses (more like orchids in this case but the idea is the same). And there's always the TV in the room to catch up with who is killing whom in the world. My friend Omar (he who is not AMOK) says I have begun to use the perpendicular pronoun once too often like some others who shall remain anonymous. Alas, this post is guilty of more of the same. Perhaps I can think of some weighty matters not referring to me to discourse upon next. Continue watching this space....

I have seen my first live Penguin!

In Singapore. On a short visit recently to the city state, I found these wonderful creatures in a special enclosure built, we were told, at a cost of a million Singapore dollars. Having only seen photos and movies of penguins on the vast scale-less expanse of the Antartica, I had not realised that they were quite small - just about waist-height. And the waddling walk with their chest thrust out of the patriarch tailed by a bunch of youngsters is vividly reminiscent of our pot-bellied politicians with their retinue of hangers-on. Here, for example is a bunch of them having a conclave: And so to Singapore. What can I say of this place that has not already been said before by a thousand, nay a million visitors before me? Its roads and sidewalks are so clean you could eat your dinner off it. None of the 'great' cities of Europe or of the US, Paris, Rome, London, New York can match it in organisation and cleanliness. Not the smallest piece of paper, not a wisp of a plastic wrap sullies its fair face. It helps of course, in this almost police state, to have severe penalties for littering (S$500), for eating in the subway (S$500), smoking in the subway and restricted public spaces (S$1000). Clearly nobody dreams of breaking the law, it seems. In fact even leaves which I noticed one afternoon on the sidewalk had been swept clean by the evening. How often do they clean the streets? Its excellent public transport is another great boon for tourists and locals alike. Singpapore is, of course, a tourists' delight and not just for shopping which is what most Indians seem to come for. (Out of sheer perversity we decided to avoid Little India and the phenomenally popular Mustafa Mall). Their innovative tourists attractions are fascinating for young and old alike -- Night Safari at the zoo, Tram Ride at the Jurong Bird Park where I saw the penguins, live shows with animals in both places, visit to Sentosa Island, keep people in thrall and holidays are for fun-filled family outings and picnics. Its Botanical Gardens and the Orchidarium is truly out of this world. Beats dragging a five year old around the Taj Mahal expecting it to develop an appreciation for Islamic architecture. Singapore is also a foodie's delight, though personally I found the food to be very indifferent at the innumerable Food Courts dotting the city. It's generally better to go to a reasonable restaurant though it's unnecessary to visit five star level places to get good food. The Government (or the People's Action Party which is the same thing) clearly believes that if you keep the citizens happy and content with enough money and things to do, they won't clamour too much for pesky little ideas like multi party democracy. However, one cannot but help admire the fact that the Government provides subsidised housing to all its citizens. As a result every Singaporean has a roof over his or her head. This is not only useful but absolutely necessary. Singapore being a city state has very limited land area available for construction, and so land prices are astronomical and beyond the reach of most middle level citizens. Some private plots in the suburbs are available for the rich and famous and it is here that foreigners are also encouraged to build their houses. We asked one of the guides whether there are poor people and beggars since we hadn't seen any. We were told that if there are, they are usually 'rounded up'. Nobody seemed to have the heart to pursue this line of enquiry any further and find out what eventually happened to the 'roundees'. One particularly remarkable fact that struck me was that in all the days we were there, one saw not a single policeman or a police car ever on the road nor did we ever hear the blare of sirens. This would be unheard of anywhere else. I cannot recall any other city I have been to (and I think I have been to quite a few) which had such a complete absence of the constabulary. How do they maintain the peace - in this high-tech city do they just sit inside their offices observing the citizenry through video cameras? Unfortunately I couldn't find even one in any of the open areas so here is a mystery. A police state without the police!! Or is it that once you have put the fear of god and hefty fines in people, they police themselves! What a great idea! Tailpiece: Singapore has much Indian influence as everyone knows. Here is a Metro Station which is particularly evocative of that fact!

No exit -- neither graceful nor partial

The title of this post borrows from my friend and colleague Sunil Mukhi's recent post about an attempt to bridge the gap or dichotomy between universities and research institutes resulting in an artificial separation of teaching and research. It's impossible for me to summarise this discussion with its 60 odd comments so do read it if you feel strongly about this issue. In order to provide yet another forum for people to take potshots at, and to submit my take on this issue, here is a proposal that tries to unify the idea of a university department and the research institutes. The main criticism has always been that this has created in Indian science a set of 'haves' and 'have not' - people who have excellent facilities, whether they work or not and those who have precious little and have to work really hard in difficult and deprived circumstances to do their research. My proposal to close this gap is the following: (please note that this is not a 'finished product' and the point of this post is to get constructive comments to flesh out whatever lacunae may exist in these suggestions) I offer the following proposal that combines the strengths of both the university departments and the research institutes, keeping in view the fact that, as the system exists today, nobody can be fired -- i.e every faculty member is tenured. Every research institute must be part of one or more university departments. Thus a purely physics institute or the physics part of a larger institute would be part of a physics department of some university. Every member of the institute would be a member of the physics department, but, and here is the crucial part, not vice versa . Members of the institute would typically have slight lower teaching responsibilities -- say one course every alternate semester instead of one every semester. (These numbers can be fine-tuned later). Institute affiliation would typically be given to those members of the department who are young active researchers, in order to provide a kind of "breathing space" during which to consolidate their research output and hence their standing in their field. In a few years, typically not more than five, the faculty member would revert to the department and would be expected to participate in whatever teaching and non teaching duties the head of the department assigns. In extremely rare cases, for truly brilliant scientists, the five year limit would be relaxed. However, the very fact that the person is substantially above average would, if anything, be cause to 'expose' him/her to the students in the department and therefore such extensions of the 5 year tenure should be few and far between, if at all. The research institute could (in fact should) continue to be funded by agencies other than UGC as it is now -- say DAE, DoS, etc. However the facilities like the library and computer labs would be available to all members of the department. What are the advantages to the department? There are many. The addition of a reasonably large number of faculty members working in the institute would substantially reduce the teaching load of all members of the department, even if the institute members teach half as much the department members. The facilities of the institute would be fully available to the department members and they would not have to depend on the usually poorly funded and managed central libraries and computer infrastructure of the whole university. Since the department as a whole would now have young active scientists on its payroll, it would over the years develop a significantly high scientific profile. Finally, and most important of all, the existence of an 'upper class' and 'lower class' of scientists (those who have every possible facility and those who have next to nothing) that have bedeviled relations between institutes and universities would be a thing of the past. Any member of the department who is reasonably active would have the possibility of spending upto 5 years in the institute in order to do some unfettered research without the strains of teaching and administrative duties.(Something like a long term sabbatical in the same place). However eventually all members of the institute would revert back to the department thus removing any possibility of creating haves and have-nots. The fact that the institute would be funded by an external agency like the DAE instead of UGC would guarantee to a certain extent that basic facilities for library and computers and laboratories are reasonably well funded. Since all members of the department would be eligible to use these facilities (other than personal laboratories of faculty members) basic support structures for the whole department would be guaranteed. This is very different from the situation existing now in many university departments where even such basic needs for research are not fulfilled. The advantages to institute members are also multi-fold. By virtue of being part of a full-fledged department, the institute members would have access to a larger and more diverse pool of students to choose from. Being part of a university system would allow them a fuller and richer intellectual atmosphere where they would also interact with faculty and students from disciplines far removed from their own. Even in their own department they would be able to interact with people in sub-disciplines very different from their own. Such interactions automatically have the advantage of broadening one's physics perspective. Classes they teach would have say 20-30 students rather than 4-5 which is common in research institutes, leading to a more vigorous discussion of ideas and concepts. They would also have access to a vast array of ancillary facilities that are common in most universities -- playing fields, tennis courts, swimming pool, theatre workshops and other such entertainment options, things which are not viable for smaller establishments like institutes. One issue that usually crops up is whether people in the institutes should get higher salaries. This has always been a sticky issue in India where it is considered 'dashed bad form' to conflate research and other intellectual activities with sordid issues like money. I think this is plain hypocritical. The institutes should offer substantially higher salaries to attract the best minds not only from here but from abroad. Needless to say, the salary will drop when they revert back to the department but I don't see any problem with that. One can look upon it like having spent a sabbatical abroad for some time where invariably one gets paid more than the Indian salary but one eventually returns to one's old job back home with a rupee salary. The point I want to stress here again is that anyone in the department can aspire to this position within the department provided their research output is of high caliber (in fact this would act as an incentive to higher performance). Thus, one has, in one fell swoop demolished the 'caste system' that is believed to permanently confine university and research institutes members to different levels.