Why US academics lecturing Silicon Valley on Modi is both arrogant and comic
Reminding Silicon Valley entrepreneurs of their digital “responsibility” is as preposterous as it is comic.
People who write open letters to famous people generally seek reflected glory. The missive by a group of American academics warning Silicon Valley companies and entrepreneurs from investing in India’s Digital India initiative falls into this category. The letter comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the region scheduled for September 27 this year.
“As it stands, “Digital India” seems to ignore key questions raised in India by critics concerned about the collection of personal information and the near certainty that such digital systems will be used to enhance surveillance and repress the constitutionally-protected right of the citizens,” they write from a country whose security and allied apparatus has been exposed for spying systematically on all and sundry. (emphasis added)
The letter details all the usual suspects (Nalanda, NGOs etc.) and a new addition to the bouquet is the controversy over the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. “Those who live and work in the Silicon Valley have a particular responsibility to demand that the government of India factors these critical concerns into its planning for digital futures,” the letter says. The signatories include Thomas Blom Hansen (Stanford), Wendy Donniger (University of Chicago) and Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia University). The rest are defined in the first line of this piece.
My first reaction was to ignore the letter, but its remarkable, and might I dare add, hilarious disconnect with reality was too tempting to pass. In addition, I have lived in the region and studied in one of its top universities and seen student-academic politics closely. I have friends in the region who include CEOs and others. I can even claim to have some idea of how entrepreneurs think, work and grow their businesses globally.
Risk is a key factor for them. Nobody understands risk better than American business people and perhaps it is the only country in the world where failure is truly seen as a stepping-stone to success. Stanford University, for example, has benefitted hugely from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs many of whom have graduated from the university and set up their own companies benefitting from the spirit of enterprise and risk in the region. Start-ups are a dime a dozen and I am among those who believe that the next Google will also come from the US or something where Americans have massively invested.
Academics do not understand risk. They are not required to. Many of them spend long years in US universities chasing full tenures. University funding comes from all kinds of sources including some dubious ones, but that never becomes an issue of human rights as jobs and tenures, doctoral students and large project hinge on them. All governments keep an eye on what is going on in their country and spies abound in universities including American universities.
Reminding Silicon Valley entrepreneurs of their digital “responsibility” is as preposterous as it is comic, given their own history and possible complicity in the American surveillance regime. It also pre-supposes that India and Indian institutions are incapable of ensuring the democratic rights of its people. But let us look at the good side – the more you hate, spread and support it, the more marginal you will become. Democracies are about good for the largest number of people, secured through democratic processes and institutions – extreme views wherever they come from will eventually fall off the table.
I am willing to bet that most of the signatories who claim to defend the rights and responsibilities enshrined in the Indian Constitution have not read it.
Way to go Wendy. Actually, I support you. PLEASE ENSURE that none from the Valley come forth and support the Digital India move. It will give us, the local entrepreneurs to create businesses that will then go and eat your lunch in the future.
Remember how you prevented India from getting Space technology. Who lost out. WE ARE NOW launching your Satellites. Wait another 5 years, we would have taken over the Global Satellite launch business completely.
I DO HOPE you convince the Valley not to come in. Thank you for the favor.
Wendy: good to see you going digital. The last I heard you were completely obsessed with - dare I say - most Indian gods epitomizing a certain part of the male anatomy. In your line of ad hominem fire, where you would like to attribute anything civilzed in India as being of Hellenic or other non-Indian origin, I am sure you are doing research to prove that Sundar Pichai or Satya Nadella have Greek great grandmothers. As for the cohort of the other usual suspects, lining up to sign with, groan, frequent predictability: only a fool stumbles against the same block twice, or two dozen times. Get a life, guys!
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The reason for such an organized effort to influence the Silicon Valley enterprise about PM Narendra Modi visit is at best unclear as it goes beyond the academia into the political realm. If it were their academic endeavour, we never heard any of them on California textbook controversy, Indian court decision on Wendy Doniger's controversial book denigrating Hindu Dharma etc.
Have these academics paid attention to Rajiv Malhotra's books - Invading the Sacred, Breaking India.Com, Being Different - that counters the viewpoint, not based on objectivity or sheer logic, of such academics?
I would have applauded these academics had they contributed to scholarship, innovation and new ideas that would benefit humankind. A sheer hypocrisy concerning Indian PM Modi visit is no scholarship.
A new India has emerged on its original civilizational platform grounded in universal values with its own heritage of intellectual order. There is little scope for such hypocritical practice of academics by some individuals in the 21st century world. It would be appropriate to engage in scholarship rather than hide under the shroud of 'academic freedom' as this logic applies equally to other academics with an opposing point of view or evidence based scholarship.
It’s the 'usual suspects' gang indulging in collective breast beating and communal wailing, but these nay sayers and doom mongers deserve to be consigned to the dustbins of most boardrooms, which i have no doubt will happen. They can shriek for all their worth, but who’s listening ?
And it is our rich industry titans like Narayana Murthy who funds the Sheldon Pollocks of this world who nurture the Sepoys. Shameful indeed.
Though it is hilarous & comic the way these chaps operate, as a person who follow these elements closely, the tone and tenor is not acceptable. End of the day, its not about Narendra Modi or someone else - its our Prime Minister elected by the world's largest democracy who represent one of the oldest civilization in the world. When we Indians knew how to do business or trade, all these pirates were nothing.. Starting from Prof Amartya Sen to these small fries, we gave them beyond permissible limit importance all these days. I am shocked at the way these Academic terrorists operate.. Do we need to learn democracy, freedom and liberty from these barbarians ??? Where were these academic elements when US were bombing half the islamic world to meet their ends. Atrocious is the key word...
No wonder Wendy Doninger is no friend of India, Indians in general and Hindus in particular.
Most of them have Bengali surnames and are communists living in a land of free enterprise. Shame that they are pouncing on a forward-looking guy such as Modi.
Why does Stanford admit duh-uh students of rich dads with ill gotten wealth? Doesn't their avg IQ come down?
A great article indeed. Convinced that most of these entrepreneurs would not take this letter seriously; would have got used to the crazy/ hypocritical views of these self-proclaimed intellectuals by now.
I mean why would somebody oppose Digital India; considering that the net penetration in India is a mere 13% while other developing countries like China, Brazil have net penetration over 50%.
Mam... one article required on how so many from same club become academics in these universities.. india and abroad alike...
...the thuggery, favoritism and nepotism in academia..
Indian academics, esp. in humanities dept, form the madrasa network of the CIA. Their funding, tenures and residencies depend on their willing participation in the CIA choir. If you unravel it further you will unearth evangelical money as well
http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/why-us-academics-lecturing-silicon-valley-modi-both-arrogant-and-comic-33811
