"Science" in India

[Samar Abbas]

On Fri, 20 Oct 2000, Kumar wrote:
> Indians form the largest ...community of minority scientists in
> America...Should we conclude from this...that the American higher
> education and research is abysmal

 That exactly is the point raised by Steve Farmer: why do the same Indians
who fail in India do so well when they go abroad? Why is it that often the
same person does not do well in one state but suddenly becomes a genius
when he goes to any tom-dick-harry country? But hold on, now we hear a new
theory:

> Steve Farmer's posting on science in India is offensive,
> ill-conceived, and wrong...his limited exposure of India (a few
> acquaints of Indian origin and an Asian girl friend, as he claims) ...
                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 So the new insinutation: Indians are doing well in the West not because
of any suppressed merit but due to the European fascination for Indian
and Latina girls ! Jeez - that's right, this explains why they always win
the Miss Universe contests. Anything goes, as long as the holy
system wherein degrees can be purchased for Rs.5,000 is not criticised.

 Let us remember that this same system was founded by Shri Bhagwan
Nehruji, who, as per Rajaram's own website, died of syphilis:

http://www.swordoftruth.com/swordoftruth/archives/oldarchives/syphilis.html
 (BTW The author `Truth Detector' is actually Rajaram himself)

When such a sick person is the father of this academic system, what can
one expect?

> He has published more in the peer-reviewed journals than many of the
> so-called "experts" on this list.  Many of these journals are
> published in the West ...it is not O.K. to demean him.

 Nowhere is it written that Mr. Kak and others are not allowed to take
part in Indology-List. Then why does he not then come to Indology and
defend himself against the charges levelled? For that matter, why don't
any of these so-called `experts' with Rs.5000-degrees purchased from
various of these `prestigious' Universities come forward to the main
Indology list? One wonders why these experts only post to lists such as
`Great-Sarasvati-Sindhu-Metropolitan-Railways',
`Rama-Rajaram-versus-Ravana-Mahadevan', `Jesus-Christ-was-a-Rakshasa',
`Flying-Vedic-Spaceships-From-Mars' lists and not this one? Maybe some of
them are hiding behind some of the hotmail accounts which periodically pop
up every now and then? Then perhaps, the true answer will always hurt
those who benefit from it.

> Indology subscribers should be familiar with the principles of
> netiquettes. In the past the moderator and a few other active members
> had reacted to much less offensive ...

 There was nothing racist about Steve Farmer's post - it was about a
system not a people. Also, before certain persons hyperventilate all their
vicious pent-up hatred on this list, may it be pointed out that his post
was just a link to an Outlook magazine article. For this heinous crime,
Prof. Farmer has now been crucified. May I suggest that the anger
expressed by some list members about that post be redirected to the
authors of the article concerned instead of somebody who merely posts a
link to it? Relevant emails can be obtained from the outlookindia.com
website which is webmaster at outlookindia.com. (Hey - Now THAT is something
the computer engineers should have known!).

 But then, those Outlook persons did not write any articles about horeplay
by Rajaram, which is the real reason for all the anger against Steve
Farmer. His short link to outlook is merely a shallow excuse for venting
anger by those people who couldn't reply to his Frontline article (Is that
perhaps of certain lack of Indological knowledge ?).

Samar