The 21st century will be the knowledge century. Knowledge will play a central role in this century. A country's success or failure in this century will be decided by knowledge. So to succeed in this century, a country must give importance to knowledge. And all the countries of the world are doing this: China, America and many others. All, that is, with one exception: India.
In no other country is knowledge as disrespected as it is in India. Among professions, research/academics is the least respected profession. And education has neither value in the market nor respect in society. A doctorate has less value/respect than a post-graduate, who in turn has less value/respect than a graduate. An anti-knowledge culture pervades our society. People with knowledge are treated with hostility at worst and indifference at best. In the 21st century, this disrespect for knowledge is suicide. Yet we are doing it. Why?
The reason/cause is simple: Our guilt about the caste system. The caste system was a hierarchical and hereditary social system. And it put the knowledge-workers (Brahmanas) at the top of the hierarchy. When India was invaded, conquered and ruled by foreigners (Turks, Mughals, British) for 1000 years, this system became rigid and led to inequality. When we became free in 1947 and started to modernise, we rightly decided to abandon the degenerated caste system. That (again, rightly) meant giving equal respect to a) people of all castes and b) people who do all types of work. So far, so good. But in our over-eagerness to repair the inequality of the degenerated caste system, we (wrongly) took one more step: We stopped giving respect to knowledge itself. The result is the anti-knowledge culture that pervades our society today.
We must distinguish between a hereditary social group (ie, caste) and a social function (here, knowledge). It is one thing to refuse to give special privilege to a hereditary social group who historically performed the knowledge-function in society (ie, Brahmins) -- which is right. It is another thing to refuse to give respect to the social function of knowledge -- which has always been important and is most important in the 21st century. But this is exactly what we are doing. And its consequences are disastrous.
Some people say that our lack of respect for knowledge is due to our systems -- ie, we don't have the right systems in place. (Example: We need more money for research -- both from government and industry) True. But who will build those systems? The Chinese? The Americans? Nobody will do it for us. We have to build our systems ourselves. And we can build the right systems only if we have the right mindset/culture (because everything begins with mindset/culture). So first we must change our anti-knowledge mindset/culture to a pro-knowledge mindset/culture. That is, we must start giving knowledge the respect it deserves in the 21st century world.
PS: A parallel phenomenon (which has the same root-cause) is our attitude towards excellence/quality. We think excellence/quality is anti-equality and mediocrity is pro-equality.
In no other country is knowledge as disrespected as it is in India. Among professions, research/academics is the least respected profession. And education has neither value in the market nor respect in society. A doctorate has less value/respect than a post-graduate, who in turn has less value/respect than a graduate. An anti-knowledge culture pervades our society. People with knowledge are treated with hostility at worst and indifference at best. In the 21st century, this disrespect for knowledge is suicide. Yet we are doing it. Why?
The reason/cause is simple: Our guilt about the caste system. The caste system was a hierarchical and hereditary social system. And it put the knowledge-workers (Brahmanas) at the top of the hierarchy. When India was invaded, conquered and ruled by foreigners (Turks, Mughals, British) for 1000 years, this system became rigid and led to inequality. When we became free in 1947 and started to modernise, we rightly decided to abandon the degenerated caste system. That (again, rightly) meant giving equal respect to a) people of all castes and b) people who do all types of work. So far, so good. But in our over-eagerness to repair the inequality of the degenerated caste system, we (wrongly) took one more step: We stopped giving respect to knowledge itself. The result is the anti-knowledge culture that pervades our society today.
We must distinguish between a hereditary social group (ie, caste) and a social function (here, knowledge). It is one thing to refuse to give special privilege to a hereditary social group who historically performed the knowledge-function in society (ie, Brahmins) -- which is right. It is another thing to refuse to give respect to the social function of knowledge -- which has always been important and is most important in the 21st century. But this is exactly what we are doing. And its consequences are disastrous.
Some people say that our lack of respect for knowledge is due to our systems -- ie, we don't have the right systems in place. (Example: We need more money for research -- both from government and industry) True. But who will build those systems? The Chinese? The Americans? Nobody will do it for us. We have to build our systems ourselves. And we can build the right systems only if we have the right mindset/culture (because everything begins with mindset/culture). So first we must change our anti-knowledge mindset/culture to a pro-knowledge mindset/culture. That is, we must start giving knowledge the respect it deserves in the 21st century world.
PS: A parallel phenomenon (which has the same root-cause) is our attitude towards excellence/quality. We think excellence/quality is anti-equality and mediocrity is pro-equality.
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