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'IITians Are Big Fools'No, it wasn't a frustrated or failed aspirant but a former IITian who said this last week at a lecture, while addressing a crowd of nearly a thousand IITians.RAJESH GAJRA

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No, it wasn't a frustrated or failed aspirant but a former IITian who said this last week at a lecture while addressinga crowd of nearly a thousand IITians and other collegestudents during the annual Techfest at Indian Institute ofTechnology, Bombay (IITB). But coming from Dunu Roy, who, unlike his colleagues and peers, decided to pursuegrassroot integration of technology with local and practicalrequirements, it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyonewho has followed this IITian's career.

But for a first-timer, the 90-minute talk and the subsequentQ&A could well have been an eye-opener. Provoking hisaudience by calling them "big fools" who know nothingabout India and its village life, Roy said the IITians arevictims of the politics of education and science. He addedthat the first lesson he learnt was that technologists andengineers are under an illusion that they get to take thedecisions. That was not all. He went on to say thatenvironmental dynamics aren’t understood by engineerswho seem to specialise in solving one problem to createanother one, thereby creating a "sustainability for theengineering profession—and not for the people".

"How many of you will end up working for the Haliburtonsand Microsofts of the world?" he asked. And thenproceeded to answer by pointing out that many of thestudents would do so because "Indian technical educationis geared to meet global demands". The collapse of the USeducation system has led to a shortage of scientists andtechnologists, he said, which is why the courses they [the IITians] are learning are required for the US". Since Indianengineers are also cheaper than the Americancounterparts, "it made good sense for the Indiangovernment to promote technical education so that you canprovide cheap service to the US." Therefore, he suggested,the curriculum has changed. Earlier, he pointed out, IITshad a more integrated approach and also taughthumanities, ethics and logic. But these subjects were

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'IITians Are Big Fools' : outlookindia.com http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070201&fname=iiti...

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discussions or start those of your own.

Caste As Racism: So what's wrong with talking about it at the UN?Creamy Layer: Now why has that not been excluded?Heard a good one lately? Some of our readers have, apparently. Join in.

Secularism What is wrong with it?India: A peaceful and peace-loving society? Is Idealism Dead? Has practicality taken over?"Hindus" versus "Muslims" Are we any different? Must it be so ugly?

...and more

removed in order to hasten the production of ‘unreal’technologists.

The original vision to set up IITs stemmed from the independence movement. The Indian leaders at that timerealised "the need to have trained scientists andtechnologists" who could provide equal rights to food, shelter, education and work to the people. The idea was totake the "best from universal education, invest in pocketslike IITs (so that) they would return their expertise to thecommon pool of the country." Which is why the money tofund the IITs comes from the exchequer, he pointed out.

And then came perhaps the most thought-provoking part ofthe lecture. Referring to the hyped-up success stories ofIITians —he cited the example of Kanwal Rekhi, a SiliconValley-based venture capitalist— who have earned millionsof dollars, Roy posited that while the ostensible aim ofeducation is to teach us about success, most of ourlearnings comes from analysing and understandingfailures. For every one IITian who makes money, there are10 others who don't. And no one talks about the thousandsof IITians who stay back and work for the country despiteencountering victimisation by domestic politics of scienceand technology. Urging the young students to askquestions, and not just be receivers of "wisdom", Royasked them to "learn the laws of motion of society and notjust the laws of motion of science."

And coming from him, it did not sound phoney. For after his post-graduation from IITB, Roy moved to Shahdol district ofMadhya Pradesh and started the Vidushak Karkhana aspart of the Shahdol Group carrying out focussed work onbuilding a development model for the district and its implementation, in conjunction with local people.He wasinvolved in this for 17 years during which he earned hisincome primarily out of repairing bicycles in the villagedistrict. He then shifted to Delhi for a four-year stint with theWorld Wide Fund for Nature, and later set up the HazardsCentre, a multi-disciplinary consultancy group.

It’s rare for IITians to be the recipients of such blunt talk.And it should be noted that the student organisers ofTechfest invited Dunu Roy to give this talk after acceptinghis condition that there would be no restriction on thecontent of his lecture. So perhaps the IITians are not suchbig fools after all.

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