"Science" in India

[Steve Farmer]

Bijoy Misra writes:

> I don't know you personally.  But that you could interview
> one student in Stanford and then flood the net with opinion
> on the quality of scientists and engineers of Indian origin
> does not say much about your own scientific thinking.  Pardon
> me for saying this, but your absurd generalizations does sound
> extremely irresponsible and you must rethink your empiricism.

I didn't "interview one student in Stanford." I've talked to
dozens of Indian engineers and graduate students about the issue.
Moreover, the discussion didn't begin with my "absurd
generalizations" about education in India, but with the scathing
recent review of Indian science in OUTLOOK, seen at:

http://www.outlookindia.com/20001023/coverstory.htm

All I added were my comments on the links between the Hindu
mythologizing of history and Indian engineers (in the US and
elsewhere). The nonsense that Kak, Rajaram, et al. dish out could
not come from anyone even with a moderate training in philology
or ancient history in general.

Misra writes:

> Do interview any of the
> new engineers who are flooding the US, who even do not come from
> the quality schools. Do observe the respect they gain at the
> American workplace. They do not have a research resume with them,
> but certainly carry a head of objective thinking to deal with
> rational logic of computing.

I know many of them. The question in this forum is whether being
a engineer qualifies you to speak on Indological issues,
especially when you come from a system that mistakes narrow
technological training for a broader education. This is a problem
in US schools as well, but at a lesser level. It is much less of
a problem in most European school systems.