Hinduism: An Open Source religion

Hinduism stands apart from the three organized, monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam and other major religions - Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism etc, as a weird sort of religion. All these other religions have a central defining entity. Judaism, Christianity and Islam have their prophets and their sacred books. Sikhism and Jainism have a line of sacred religious teachers but one or a few among them are considered most sacred. Buddhism has its founder - Gautama Buddha. Hinduism is a bit quirky. There are many books which can be considered sacred texts, the Vedas, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Geeta being the main ones. There are many Gods and Goddesses to worship. There are many schools of thought and traditions to follow. In fact, variety seems to be the single and most important defining quality of Hinduism. Hinduism is adaptable, versatile and most importantly it is an 'open source' religion. You can choose a flavor of Hinduism that suits your taste.

Let me just elaborate on the 'open source' bit. The Linux operating system is an open source operating system. The 'kernel' or the central component of the operating system is an open source component released under GNU-GPL for any developer to modify and re-distribute. Similarly the 'kernel' of the Hindu spiritual thought, the central idea of Hinduism, in my opinion, is a state of consciousness which can be experienced and freely interpreted by any human being. It is a spiritual experience. I am using the word spiritual a bit casually here. By spiritual, I do not mean to hint at something supernatural; although most traditional interpretations have a supernatural component. By spiritual I mean something relating to one's subjective consciousness, an experience that is available to oneself alone. This state of consciousness may correlate with a certain state or states of the human brain. This spiritual experience is termed variously as samadhi, awakening, enlightenment, nirvana etc. For brevity, I will here forth address this state as the 'samadhi'.

We know this for sure - in ancient India there were many people who followed a variety of contemplative traditions. Many people must have experienced samadhi in the course of the numerous mental and physical regimens they undertook as a part of their meditative practice and probably even under the influence of hallucinogenic substances (such as the mythical Soma) . Even though they experienced it, they were not in a position to know the neurological basis of it. All of the information we have about the nature of samadhi is from the descriptions of it, by people who at one time or another experienced it. Since samadhi is a state of consciousness accessible only to the individual experiencing it, we have no way of verifying that the experience indeed took place. But many, if not all, of the people claiming to experience samadhi seem like stand-up guys and gals. So we can safely say that some of them were indeed telling the truth. The numerous descriptions of samadhi have some common and recurring themes such as:

1. The experience of a complete dissolution of the 'ego' (an 'I' separate from the external world),
2. A perception of oneness with the external world
3. A sense of profound bliss.
   

Most people who claim to have experienced samadhi describe it as a life changing experience, something that arouses the feelings of love, empathy and compassion in them changing their world-view in a radical way. I believe that it's this unique state of consciousness that is the kernel - the central concept - of the religion that was later on termed as Hinduism.

Like Linux, there are many distributions built around this kernel. By different 'distributions', I mean the different interpretations by different people, applying a combination of logic and metaphysical conceptions, to explain the various aspects of the samadhi experience. I think there were two important reasons for the emergence of such a variety of interpretations. In ancient India there was no single religious authority or single dominant school of religious thought. Differing ideas and debate between different schools of thought was often welcomed and promoted by rulers and elite in the society. Secondly, samadhi is a purely subjective experience. Even today we can only image and record in some detail the state of the brain of a person who is undergoing a meditative experience. As of yet there is no way to externally induce such an experience reliably. So the people who experience samadhi lacked the tools for understanding the physical and neurological basis of the experience. That combined with intense and profound nature of the experience, as judged from the lofty descriptions, must have evoked the idea that there must be something mystical behind it. The Hindu interpretations are not the only one which try to explain samadhi. Both Jainism and Buddhism arose as a result of prolonged contemplative practice and the experience of samadhi by their teachers. The distributions which broadly fall under the label Hinduism interpret the samadhi state in one particular way.These 'distributions' form the various schools of thought in Hindu philosophy.

The people who composed the Vedas believed that there is a soul (the Atman) that animates our bodies and that survives the death of our bodies. They also believed that natural phenomena were imbibed with souls as well. Hence a plethora of naturalistic gods and goddesses such as Agni (the god of fire), Varuna (the god of rain), Usha (the goddess of dawn) etc. When some of the Vedic philosophers experienced samadhi, they interpreted it thus - they ascribed the feeling of oneness experienced in the samadhi to the merging of their personal soul with the soul that pervades all of nature. They termed this soul that pervades all of nature as the 'Brahman'. This metaphysical idea of a Brahman is an important part of the 'Vedantic' interpretation of samadhi.

Contemporary Hinduism is a giddy mixture of this particular interpretation of that unique state of consciousness, along with a bunch of other baggage such as:

• Other metaphysical hypotheses such as the laws of karma, rebirth of the soul etc.
• A number of creation myths.
• Belief in an amazingly large number of of gods and goddesses, each with their own rich and colorful mythology.
• An equally huge number of rituals, rites and superstitions.

The reason I call Hinduism an 'open source' religion is because its central idea, the interpretation of the samadhi, is not controlled by any central authority. One is free to re-interpret to one's own liking. One is free to promote one's own interpretation. One is free to label one's interpretation as the most authoritative, most logical, most perfect interpretation. The history of Hindu philosophy reveals a number of such individuals and groups who chose to interpret the samadhi state in their own peculiar way. They squabbled, they argued, they constructed complicated logical arguments to refute the interpretations of the 'other' groups and establish the authority of their own interpretation. The Samkhya, Dvait (dualist), Advait (non-dualist), Vishistha-Advait (qualified non-dualist)... all these different schools are nothing but elaborate logical and metaphysical expositions of the samadhi state. Adi Shankaracharya's treatise on the Brahmasutras for example provides refutation of many different schools of thought and promotes Shankaracharya's own interpretation of Samadhi, the nature of Brahman, Atman, etc. All the schools of thought that are broadly termed 'Hindu' agree on the point that samadhi is the 'joining' of the Atman with the Brahman. Their disagreements stem from their ideas about the nature of Brahman and Atman.

How, one may ask, can one achieve this state? How can one achieve samadhi? There are many ways of doing this as well. One may follow any one of the many paths towards experiencing the samadhi state. Since samadhi is the joining or the yoking of the Atman to the Brahman, the Sanskrit word 'yoga' which means yoking is used to describe the various paths. One may follow the path of devotion (Bhakti Yoga), the path of asceticism (Raj Yoga), the path of knowledge (Jnana Yoga), the path of action (Karma Yoga) - each with it's own prescription for achieving the supreme union of the Atman and the Brahman. There is never a dearth of mystics, sages, god-men and god-women in India, each claiming to have experienced the samadhi and giving their own for achieving it. New age paths like Siddha Samadhi Yoga, Art of Living etc. mostly comprise of traditional ideas repackaged and distributed through modern marketing mechanisms.

The choice of gods and goddesses to worship is my favorite aspect of Hinduism. If you are the nerdy type, you might like Ganesh - the elephant headed god of wisdom. If you are a gym loving health freak, you might want to worship Hanuman - the monkey god endowed with amazing strength and the ability to fly (like Superman but better because Hanuman is supposedly Chiranjeevi - one endowed with eternal life). Then there are a number of goddesses. Laxmi (the goddess of wealth) may be worshiped by one and all. Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and Durga (or Shakti), the goddess of energy are equally venerable. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva... the trinity... the foundations of Hindu mythology are eternal favorites among devotees. So are the many incarnations of Vishnu, Krishna and Rama being the most preferred of them all. There are of course many rituals and rites you might choose to observe to please or placate your preferred god/goddess. You may choose to enjoy the beauty of many of the devotional songs (the Bhajans and Abhangas) or devotional dances. You may indulge in meditation and chanting. If you so prefer, you may also choose the almost sadomasochistic acts of worship like sleeping on a bed of nails or standing for days on one leg.

In many respects, Hinduism is like and operating system for your life. It is a way of life. You may choose your own favorite 'distro' of the Hindu operating system, your own favorite path, your own favorite deity and still call yourself a Hindu as long as you subscribe to the central idea - the concept of the supreme Brahman. The gods and goddesses are all manifestations of the Brahman. The various paths all lead to the union of the Atman with the Brahman. The Brahman itself is something beyond all concepts. According to the "Advait" school, everything after all IS the Brahman, including you.

Thou Art That!

Right to Information Act: A Primer

On October 13, 2005, the Right to Information (RTI) act came into full effect in India. In the two years since its implementation, the act is undoubtedly helping to bring a measure of accountability to the hopelessly inefficient and irresponsible Indian bureaucracy and bring to light the corruption and mismanagement of public resources by the government agencies at all levels. The main reason behind writing this post is to educate myself about the act and its implications. This is an ongoing learning exercise and I will keep adding information to the post. Tons of information about the act, its provisions, history is available on the WWW. My effort is primarily to collect scattered pieces, summarize and put it in perspective.

Contents:

• Brief History
• Provisions of the act
• How to file applications?
• External Links
  • Government websites
  • NGOs and other organizations
  • Videos
  • Articles
• References

Brief History of the RTI campaign: India is a democracy. The government is supposed to be "of the people, for the people and by the people". The people then should have the right to access information about the functioning of the government. This "right to information" had been recognized by the Indian Supreme Court as a fundamental right by noting in a 1975 judgement[1] that "[the people] ... are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearing". However without the RTI act, there was no mechanism through which the people could meaningfully exercise this right. Access to information was governed by laws based the archaic Official Secrets Act of 1923 passed during the British Raj. The demand for an RTI act started coming largely from activists and citizen's groups involved in rural development activities. The implementation of public schemes in India is riddled with huge amount of corruption. However the people affected by this corruption had no means through which they could get information regarding how public resources are utilized. Even in day-to-day governance people have to face indomitable wall of bureaucratic ineptitude and corruption to achieve simple things like getting a passport, an electricity connection or a ration card. In most cases an expectation of a bribe is behind the delays, dodges and disinformation regarding progress of applications. The passing of the RTI act gave a simple but powerful channel to get information and use it expose corruption and improve governance.

The campaign for the right to access information was initiated by an organization, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan (MKSS), in Rajasthan since 1990. This campaign arose from their efforts to access government records while investigating wrongdoings in wages paid to laborers working on publicly funded schemes and malpractices in the implementation of Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) through which essential food grains are available to people at subsidized rates. An article by Rob Jenkins and Anne Marie Goetz [2] summarizes MKSS's role and motivation as follows:

...This led to greater awareness of other malpractices which local workers had observed first-hand, but had no method of documenting. These included inflated estimates for public-works projects, the use of poor-quality materials, and over-billing by suppliers. To combat these forms of fraud, it became clear that access was required not only to balance sheets, but also to supporting documentation which could be cross-checked by workers organised through the MKSS – for instance, employment registers and bills submitted for the purchase of materials.

MKSS invented a novel way of enforcing accountability through "Jan Sunwais" (Public Hearings) where records of wage payments and detailed accounts of public works were read out in public in front of the concerned citizens. After a prolonged campaign and lot of resistance from bureaucracy initial success came in form of order from government of Rajasthan in 1997 to allow photocopying of records related to development work conducted under public schemes. By 1996 NGOs and groups in other parts of India involved facing similar issues had come together and formed the umbrella organization - National Campaign For People's Right To Information (NCPRI), and started a nationwide campaign to pass the RTI act. Some of these organizations are Samarthan in Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, Parivartan in Delhi, Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jana Andolan (Peoples Campaign against Corruption) led by Anna Hazare in Maharashtra. On the state level RTI acts came into effect in 9 states starting with Tamil Nadu and Goa in 1997 to Jammu and Kashmir in 2004. In the meanwhile the freedom of information act was passed in the parliament and became a law in 2002. This act was severly criticized to be extremely dilute and for having no effective power due to numerous exemptions to the disclosure of information. The right to information bill was tabled in the parliament in December 2004. The culmination of the struggle by NCPRI and associated organizations was the passing of the national RTI act of 2005.

Provisions of the act: I will no go into the detailed scope and provisions of the act in this section. The Wikipedia article and many other sources explain this in great detail. I will on the other hand try to summarize what I think is important in the scope and provisions of the act. First of all the act is quite broad in its definition of "information" that can be sought by citizens. For example, citizens can demand "samples of materials of work" under the RTI act. The act covers all constitutional authorities including the executive, legislature and judiciary. It also applies to any institution or authority created by an act of the parliament and any private institution that receives substantial financing from the government. This makes the act very broad in its scope as well. Certain types of information, such as information pertaining to national security etc. is of course deemed outside the scope of the act and may not be available

How to file applications?: Here too I will avoid going into details of the process as it is explained clearly in the Wikipedia article. If interested you can also watch one of the videos below by Arvind Kejriwal to understand the process clearly. The thing I liked the most about the process of filing RTI applications is its simplicity. Anyone who has tried to obtain a passport or a driving license etc. in India knows that simple things require a lot of tedious paperwork. In comparison an RTI application can be filed on a single piece of paper, it can be handwritten or in some places can be filed electronically. Another salient feature is that the citizens do not have to explain why they are requesting the information. The act also has a clear time-line defined in which a response can be expected and redress sought. The simplicity of the procedure is important to bring the act within the reach of the illiterate and poor citizens.

External Links:

Government Websites
[1]Right to Information act.

NGOs and Organizations
[1] Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan (MKSS)

[2] National Campaign For People's Right To Information (NCPRI), India

[3] Parivartan

[4] Samarthan

[5] Association for India's Development (AID)

Videos
[1] MKSS video(41 min.) about the RTI campaign [A shorter version (16 min.) of the video]

[2] Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan talks at AID - Bay Area chapter. [Talk: part1, part2; Q&A: part1, part2, part3]

[3] A video (59 min.) introduction to Maharashtra RTI act (in Marathi). Includes a talk by Anna Hazare of the Brashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan.

[4] Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan talks at Asha - Univ. of Florida chapter. [Talk, Q&A].

[5] Talk by Arvind Kejriwal - Provisions of the Act (12 min.), How to draft an RTI application? (3 min.)

[6] Common Man's Empowerment (45 min.) - Introduction to Maharashtra RTI act (In English).

Articles
[1] Wikipedia article about Right to Information act.

[2] India Together: RTI section. (There are many interesting articles on India Together about the campaign as well as the implementation of RTI)

[3] Writings by Aruna Roy and others on MKSS website.

References:
[1] Supreme Court of India Judgement on 01/24/1975 [link]

[2] Accounts and Accountability: Theoretical Implications of the Right-to-Information Movement in India, Rob Jenkins and Anne Marie Goetz, Third World Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 3 (1999), pp. 603-622. [link available through MKSS website]

Republic Day

Every year the 26^th of January is celebrated as the Republic Day in India. Today is India's 58^th Republic Day. While India gained political independence from the British empire on August 15, 1947; we formally adopted a democratic constitution and became a Republic on January 26, 1950. There is a curious bit of history behind this date. The Indian constitution was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was the body of elected representatives that governed India since independence. The Constituent Assembly passed the Indian Constitution on November 26, 1949. January 26 was deliberately chosen as the formal date of adoption of the constitution because it was on that day in 1930 that the Indian National Congress had symbolically declared "Poorna Swaraja" - complete independence- from Britain.

In some ways the Republic Day is more important than Independence day in my opinion. It was on this day that we chose the path we would take as a nation. We committed ourselves to the ideals of a liberal democracy. We chose to become a nation governed by laws - not men. Half a century later much remains to be done to fully achieve a true democracy in India. Politics in India is still dominated by caste equations, religion based vote banks and by parties which - while participating in the democratic process - are themselves highly un-democratic and governed by "supremos" and "high commands". When we adopted the constitution, we decided that India would be a "Sovereign Socialist Democratic Republic". The word "Secular" was added to that list later in 1976. Most of the socialist policies implemented since independence have been counter-productive and have posed a great impediment to progress in India. After India began dismantling some of those policies in the 1990s, India has seen significant economic growth. Secularism too has a long way to go in India.

During this period India has fought five defensive wars against it's neighbours (1947, 1962, 1965, 1971, 1999). There were internal threats as well. Pakistan has waged a proxy war with India by fostering and sponsoring terrorists in Kashmir. There was also the separatist militancy in Punjab in the 1980's and early 1990's. Regional threats such as the ULFA separatists in Assam continue to operate even today. The 18 months from 1975-77, when Indira Gandhi declared national emergency and suspended civil liberties, was perhaps the only time when India came close to wavering from the democratic path. In spite of all these threats and shortcomings, India has managed to remain a democratic country. This I believe is a significant achievement. The fact that we have managed to hang together as a democratic country in spite of the multitude of differences in our country is in my opinion a huge asset for India. It is common nowadays to compare India's progress to that of China's in every aspect. Some believe that political freedom in India will prove to be a great benefit for India vis-a-vis China in the long term. I tend to agree with that line thought to a certain extent. Economic and political freedom go hand in hand. China's economic prosperity with the lack of political liberties is bound to create a clash. While China has the challenge of managing that clash in the future, the challenge for India is to bring the benefits of democracy and economic liberty to her poorest citizens.

Republic Day for me also evokes fond memories from my childhood. We used to go to school dressed in a clean uniform early in the morning for the flag hoisting ceremony. The best part for me used to be the sweets distributed at the end of the ceremony. Then I used to run back home to watch the Republic Day parade on the TV. The Republic Day parade on Rajpath in Delhi is celebrated to honor the war heroes and display the military might and cultural treasures of India. It is a great sight to watch the columns of soldiers marching in perfect harmony. The tableaux from various states follow the military parade and display the motley cultural traditions in India.

Today as India continues to grow economically at a spectacular rate, let us all renew our commitment to democracy and work to fully realize the democratic values that are enshrined in our constitution.

Jai Hind!

Technorati Tags: India, Republic Day

Half Bad Job at Covering the IIPM Story

I am not a pessimist. I like to say that the glass is half full, but in this case it simply was not meant to be. So lets look at the "half full" part first. The coverage of the story in the mainstream media [MSM] so far has been really bad. Today Outlook-India covered the IIPM story today in an article by T. R. Vivek.

This is the most detailed portrayal of the IIPM affair in the MSM so far. The bloggers who uncovered key facts about IIPM founder, M.K. Chaudhuri's background and about IIPM's sister concerns [1, 2] are also mentioned, including a screenshot of Gawker's blog.

Then, halfway through, the article takes a curious turn and focuses on the bloggers. Mr. Vivek offers a lot of insight into the mindset of the Indian bloggers. He says:

The Indian blogging community (or blogosphere, as it likes to call itself) is essentially a bitchy, self-indulgent and an almost incestuous network comprising journalists, wannabe-writers and a massive army of geeks who give vent to their creative ambitions on the internet. Given that the average blogger-age is 25 years, it's clear bloggers love to indulge in hearty name-calling and taking college-style potshots at others. This is probably why some of them get into trouble.

To me this sounds like an utterly baseless generalization, made without taking a serious look at the "Indian blogosphere". Mr. Vivek is however entitled to his own opinions. He should also check the facts though, especially when he uses them to support his claim. He uses two examples, the first one is that of the Swiftboat veterans for truth thing. The other is the CBS - Dan Rather - incident, about which Mr. Vivek says:

In another instance, bloggers questioned CBS News' credibility over the memos purportedly alleging preferential treatment towards President Bush during the Vietnam war launching a flurry of discussions across the country.Dan Rather, the blogger, had to soon apologise for the story.

I guess he forgot to check if Dan Rather was "the blogger" or CBS news anchor. Actually, didn't the bloggers expose that the memos were fake? "Google skills" crash course Mr. Vivek?

Here are some observations:

1. None of the journalists in the MSM have actually tried to investigate IIPMs claims in the advertisements so far.
2. All the reporting covering IIPM story has raised questions about the role of blogs, whether they come under the IT act, etc.

Though concerns about role of bloggers are legitimate, it seems that the media is trying the make bloggers the focus of the story for a reason. That way, while taking the credit for covering a sensational story, it doesn't have to go after IIPM and verify the claims made in the advertisements. The media want to have it both ways and that is simply tragic.

Technorati Tags: IIPM, Indian Media, Outlook

Media Picks Up the IIPM story

The mainstream media has picked up the IIPM story. They have been very slow and they have done a really bad job of covering the story.

Here is the Indian Express story. They didn't even get the complete picture and don't mention the JAM article at all. Same goes for the Delhi Pioneer article (accessed through Google cache). The Hindustan Times article does a better job. Incidentally, Delhi Pioneer and Hindustan Times seem to have contacted the same lawyer to weigh in on the issue. NDTV story does mention JAM article fleetingly. NDTV also featured the story on its TV channel.

All this is good but these stories are appearing in city editions and obscure places where very few people will read them. Further none of them actually try to check veracity of IIPM's claims in the print ads, which is what mainstream media is actually supposed to do - unravel the truth. Instead they are simply narrating a bunch of events.

All the blog posts (including this one) are fine. All these posts will ensure that anyone searching for any information online about IIPM will come across this story. What will really change things though, is some mainstream newspaper or TV channel verifying the claims made by IIPM in their ads. Irrespective of the outcome of such a fact-finding enterprise, it will take this story to its logical end by bringing the facts out in the open. Sadly Indian media doesn't seem to be ready for such a thing yet!

Technorati Tags: IIPM, Indian media, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Delhi pioneer

A Web of Deception?

Gawker continues to explore new aspects of the IIPM story today and has a post about a string of schools in Europe associated with International Management Institute [IMI], which IIPM calls its partner. Gawker noticed some curious similarities in the websites of IMI and its partner organizations namely; Barcelona Business School [BBS] and European Business & Management School [EBMS]. In fact these websites were so similar that Gawker had to conclude:

"Eerie? Hell yeah! I don't know about you, but I sure think this daisychain of interconnected institutes, each existing ambiguously on the internet with no information other than the fact that they claim to churn out a large number of high quality MBA graduates seems extremely suspicious to say the least."

The degrees offered at IIPM are actually conferred by IMI and do not come under the purview of AICTE, UGC or other state acts, a fact brought to you by the JAM article.

All this sounded really fishy, as aptly put by Gawker. So I decided to scrutiny the websites of these three institutes (IMI, BBS, and EBMS) further. Gawker had already pointed out similarities in faculty pages for IMI, BBS and EBMS. In fact they are the same word for word, except the names of the schools. None of them list any faculty with names and contact information. Here are some more facts I found:

The "Studying at IMI", "Campus" page at BBS and "Students" page at EBMS; all have exactly same content.

The teaching philosophy pages are also the same for the three schools. Check it out for: IMI, BBS, EBMS

The program descriptions are also similar (word for word). E.g. check out the description of the BBA program at the these schools: IMI, BBS, EBMS

The courses for the BBA program are also the same. The names of courses... everything is same: IMI, BBS, EBMS

Well, these schools are partners so they must be sharing the same course materials, same programs and same teaching philosophies etc. There is no big problem with that right? I guess so.

But hold on... IMI and EBMS both have same contact address, phone numbers and both have campuses in Antwerp and Brussels, as we can see from their contact pages (IMI, EBMS). So, could it be that there is just one school with two websites and two different names? Why? I don't understand this.

Now you will say, "So what? What about BBS? It is physically at a different place (Barcelona) and has a different name too." Very well. I presume it must be having different students too. I think it is highly improbable that these schools located at different places can have the same students. But guess what... different students studying at different schools have surprisingly come up with "exactly the same" testimonials [IMI, BBS, EBMS] singing the glory of these schools. Or was it that "BA graduate from Russia" simply attended all of these schools and found that they are really the same. Curiously none of these students seem to have any names or addresses.

So what? Maybe students didn't come up with good testimonials. So these schools decided to come up with their own and share. What's a little sharing among partners?

Actually I am pretty much convinced that IMI and EBMS are actually one and the same... two names, two websites... one school. Their students look awfully similar to each other as ascertained by links to the same student party pictures from both websites (here and here). Same for their Egypt tour 2004 pictures. But what about BBS then? Do they have similar looking students? Well I dunno about that, but their Turkey 2005 trip seems to have gone on exactly the same route, with exactly the same people as IMI's Turkey trip.

Now either these schools are taking the meaning of "partners" to a whole new level by sharing student photos, testimonials and all the other stuff on their websites OR they are up to some sort of a scheme here. I don't know how IIPM chose IMI as its "partner" but they surely seem to have one similar quality. Both of them are using some really suspicious information (in their advertisements - for IIPM and on their website - for IMI) to catch students and rake money.

IMI, BBS, EBMS, IIPM: all partners in a web of deception? I leave that for you to judge.

Updates:
My posts on media coverage of the IIPM story: [1] [2] [3] [4]
IIPM in the media: [I.E.] [Pioneer] [H.T.] [NDTV] [IndiaTogether] [Outlook] [Business Standard] [CNBC-TV18 online news: 1, 2] [New York Times]

Technorati Tags: IIPM, IMI, BBS, EBMS

Management-gate: What can we do?

I have expressed my feelings about the unfolding management-gate episode in my previous post ( 1, 2 ). I think all the bloggers supporting Rashmi and Gaurav (and Varna now), must think about what actions they can take? What they can do regarding this issue?

What needs to be done is that the facts must be hung high up there, out in the open for everyone to look at them and make up their mind. One way to do this is through this medium...blogs and the internet. Anyone looking for IIPM must come across the facts pertaining to this story. This will help people (probably future students, parents of students, people applying for jobs at IIPM) to make informed decision and judge the quality of the institution. Ravikiran has come up with a way to do just that! Here is his post which explains the steps to be taken.

Apart from posting the information on the web and making it highly visible there are a few more things bloggers can do. We can send this story to the "media" (if it hasn't already picked it up). The story must be well written, balanced and based on easily verifiable facts. I would also prefer if IIPM's side of the story can be heard (unless they want to continue their "under the radar" slander campaign). I think it is very important that mainstream media pick this story. The fact that they have not done anything so far may be due to their fear of losing ad revenues.

Then there is a matter of the legal notices sent via notarized email (whatever that is) to some bloggers by IIPM. I am not even sure if there is such a thing as notarized email or an emailed legal notice! I am not sure whether IIPM is serious about these notices. It may all be just another arm twisting tactic on their part. Check out TechMag's take on the notices. Would someone who has adequate knowledge of law throw some more light on this?

This whole issue is not about of IIPM's rankings, or quality of their program, or credentials of Arindam Chaudhuri, or about IIPM students. This is about the freedom of expression. I urge everyone to take action now...

Technorati Tags: IIPM, JAM magazine, Indian blogs

Management-gate: What went wrong?

I continue to be amazed by the unfolding saga that is management-gate. Desipundit has picked up the cause and is posting regular updates on the latest things happening across the blogosphere. A lot of bloggers are expressing their support to Rashmi (the editor of the JAM article in question) and Gaurav (just another blogger who linked to the article and in the course of events decided to resign his job at IBM). The whole blogosphere has rallied behind the cause. IIPM is now ranked #1 search item on Technorati (as of 3.17 PM, EST today) and another blogger Varna now has received an email legal notice (!) from IIPM, similar to one that was sent to Gaurav.

The question in my mind though is what next? What exactly is the cause here? What are we supporting? What needs to be done? If there is nothing to "act" then all this is mere words floating on the internet.

So what went wrong? Was IIPM at fault by having misleading or hyped up information in their advertisements? After all they can state whatever it wants as long as they pay for them, can't they? I guess the answer is yes and no! A company can hype up a product all it wants. It is up to the consumer then to demand integrity from the company, either by demanding to meet up to the description in the advertisements or by toning down the ads. I guess that's where things are going wrong.

IIPM can get away with all these hyped up advertisements because it gets students. There are literally thousands of students who would line up for admission (irrespective of what IIPM says in its advertisements). There is such a huge demand for these degrees that IIPM will get away with anything it says. It might as well promise paid trips to Mars. The problem is at some point the IIPM staff and students started believing in their own advertisements.

Now, when JAM published a fact finding article about these advertisements, it was not doing something wrong. It is not a crime to point out facts. In fact, it is a sign of vigilant democratic action. The way IIPM reacted to this is what is most outrageous about all this. The way it SHOULD HAVE reacted is by refuting the facts mentioned in the article point by point, on their website and through press releases. Appropriate legal action taken by IIPM against what it perceives as libel is also acceptable.

What is wrong is that IIPM chose to go under the radar and create fake blogs to slander Rashmi. It went ahead and pressured Gaurav by threatening his employer IBM with protests and demonstrations. This malicious response is totally against the freedom of speech. What I understand (and correct me if I am wrong) by freedom of speech is:

The freedom to express my opinion freely without the fear of physical and psychological harm against myself or my family or well-wishers.

From this perspective I say that IIPM engaged in almost criminal behavior in its response to a simple article in a small magazine. It points out how fragile they feel their reputation is and how important it is to save their "sales pitch". It almost seems like those are the only things they have ... a fragile reputation and a sales pitch... no modern campuses, not quality education... just a sales pitch.

Technorati Tags: IIPM, JAM magazine, Indian blogs

Management-gate

There is a huge crop of self declared "gurus" in India. Many in the religious-spiritual regime, others in down-to-earth things like higher education. Education gurus start "institutes" and "universities" for higher education in engineering, management or medicine. Higher education and all its ancillary industries are cash cows. There is no lack of students eager to get that B.E or B.Tech or MBA and get into the IT industry or land some lucrative management job. Students and their parents are willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a degree and often fail to check the quality of the institutes or programs they sign up for.

Then there is the ancillary business of coaching classes. The IITs (Indian institutes of Technology) and IIMs (Indian institutes of Management) are government funded institutes which are ranked highest in their respective fields. To get into one of them you have to take very competitive entrance exams. So there are coaching classes to help you prepare for these exams. The other institutes either have their own entrance exams or use the scores for the entrance exams for IIT and IIM, as a basis for admission. So there are more coaching classes to prepare you for all sorts of other entrance exams.

Naturally there is a lot of competition among the institutes to bag students. So the institutes tend to spend a lot of money on advertisements. With a huge advertisement budget and other significant chunk probably going into the pockets of these education gurus (who are the founders of these institutes), there isn't much left to improve the quality of the programs themselves. So some of these institutes tend to boast a little in these ads, hype about their campus, their program, use faulty rankings here and there. Indian media since it is so occupied with important things like Hollywood, Bollywood, cricket etc., does not bother to check the veracity of these advertisements appearing in their papers.

But what happens when someone calls the bluff? What happens when a small magazine publishes a fact checking article about the claims of a management institute in India? The drama unfolding this weekend gave us the answer and the answer is yet to unfold completely.

How? When? Where?... Check out the details on this post by Amit Verma. It all started when JAM published an article exposing the false claims made by IIPM, a management institute with campuses in many cities in India, in the full page ads that appeared in newspapers. Another blogger Gaurav linked the article in his blog post. The institute (and it is not clear whether it is the current students, the management or alumni) launched a hideous assault with fake blogs created only a few days ago to discredit the article. Instead of responding to the alarming facts raised in the article, they choose to attack the editor of the article, Rashmi, by posting lewd comments on her blog. They also pressured Gaurav by bullying him to remove his posts from his blog, sending him stupid legal notices (via email!) and threatening demonstrations in front of IBM (Gaurav's employer). Gaurav has since resigned his job at IBM (see related post on his blog).

The "management-gate" scandal is still unfolding. Lots of bloggers have voiced their support for Rashmi and Gaurav by posting comments and posting about the story on their blogs. IIPM so far has not responded to any of the specific facts mentioned in the JAM article. The kind of responses the fake bloggers posted on Rashmi's blog and the way IIPM bullied Gaurav is really disgusting. It is hard to understand why they would do such things which would only result in damaging their reputation further.

For these institutes, the degrees are simply products to be marketed by advertisement. The "pitch" is all that matters. The quality is irrelevant. Anything that undermines the "pitch" then is a big threat and must be crushed by all means. Unfortunately so far, their game plan seems to be working.

Technorati Tags: JAM, IIPM, India, Management schools, Indian blogs

Acting Locally

Nabina Das laments the lack of community news coverage in Indian media. India Together: Making it to page one:

"My experiences with the news coverage in places like Assam or Delhi highlighted nothing that could be put in the category of community news coverage. Community mattered when political leaders visited a ward or a municipality for a specific reason or when it was time to woo voters. Even then, assignment editors would not want the stories to be woven around the tribal farmer with his subsistence pig farm or the poor Muslim pith crafter community (whose craft is nearly vanishing)."

I feel that the local language newspapers in India (e.g. Sakal in Maharashtra) do a much better job at reporting local stories. Although I do agree that most of those stories too fall into well defined categories. There is a strong need for alternative media in India. There is still a long way to a place where the community members themselves from all corners of India will participate in reporting and publishing stories about their community. As the use of internet in India grows, community blogs in my opinion will play a really great role in closing the gap.

The news media can start community blogs, where their local reporters may post stories which typically won't go into the print edition. These blogs accessible from the newspapers' websites, would give the readers more access to local reporting. Another solution could be websites (for profit or non-profit) dedicated to community reporting where community members themselves contribute stories via the internet. Websites such as Good news India and India Together have already begun the process a little bit.

There can be many innovative solutions to this problem. I believe that internet and communication technology has vastly improved the number of possible solutions. I am simply thrilled by the possibilites that a participative internet provides for this particular problem.

Looking forward to blogs from Sangli and Kirloskarwadi...

Technorati Tags: Community news, Indian media, Community reporting