Copy-paste Culture: Challenges for Creative Intellectuals in India

The last article of this blog, Why Bhaag DK Bose makes Complete Sense, was stolen first by Bollywoodhungama.com and then by hundreds of bollywood news splogs. At first, this infuriated me. But as I explored this mishap in broader contexts, things started making sense to me. Here is the explanation for – why violation of intellectual-rights is so prevalent in India and what effect does it generate on creative intellectuals (of course, this can be generalized over other developing nations as well).

In Indian society, masks are way more valued than creative minds. To make my point clear, I’d like you to have a look at various fields. People go mad after actors, who simply follow instructions; but story & script writers, who create brilliant stories, visualize their effects on masses and develop characters that touch our hearts, go unnoticed. Singers, who do same job as any instrument players, get standing ovations, while we hardly care about the music-composures, who come up with mind-blowing tunes that perturb millions of hearts. Our society over-appreciates what it sees, and fails to value the major contributions of people behind the scene. This shows lack of critical thinking ability of our masses. All the name, fame and money follow the mask, and not the mind. This gives a clear message – if you wish to be successful, get seen-heard and noticed. It does not matter where you get things (ideas) from, but be the first person to bring those ideas to the masses. Importance is given to the one who brings new things to masses, and not to the one who creates new things. And with money and power the big fish can always hide its knowledge-source and earn all credits.

Such social scenario is very discouraging for creative intellectuals (CI), if they are unable to reach out to the masses. Eventually, they may feel – “why should I put in so much of efforts, when others are beneficiary of it, and not I?” They might explore some of the following routes:

• Succumb to the copy-paste culture: Giving up sounds very detested option in theory, but it is always an obvious path taken by the majority of people. A creative intellectual may begin applying all his/her creativity in finding newer ways of copying and hiding sources. After all, even if one finds no gain in money or fame, this option reduces cognitive labour. In short, lesser headache for same (or possibly more) rewards.
• Stop sharing: Some CIs may simply stop sharing their creations and innovations with the society. “People have no intellect to understand and appreciate my contribution. I will keep my work undisclosed and wait for a favourable time. And if that time never comes, my creation will die with me but I won’t let big fishes take credit for my work” – this can be their response to the society’s negligence.
• In India, even in schools you will find this trend. Very few students would do their assignments independently. The rest of the class would either get things done with the help of parents/tutors or copy from digests/guide-books or from the notebooks of their colleagues. Now, the students, who have done work independently, would be very reluctant in sharing their work with their class-friends. This is because, like our society, the teacher focuses on whether things are done (or not done) and not on how things are done. The result is highlighted and not the process. I have complete empathy towards those very few CIs in our classrooms.
• Find a place where CIs see appreciation: ‘Get settled in a place/country where your contribution is appreciated’- this is one of the biggest reasons why many CIs settle-down in developed countries. No country can afford to lose its top intellectuals.

All three scenarios mentioned above are nightmare for not just CIs, but for the whole society. Especially, when the world is moving rapidly towards a ‘knowledge economy’ era, a developing country like India needs to begin valuing minds. Today, India needs an intellectual revolution. I have following suggestions:

• Value for intellectual-rights must be nurtured in children at homes and schools. Programmes/courses should be designed such that creativity is encouraged in students. Every new idea should be valued and student who generates idea should be encouraged in schools. Students should be trained to write essays with references.
• Government and civil society should join hands to run campaign for spreading awareness about intellectual property rights, privacy rights and for inculcating respect for others’ intellectual properties in masses.
• Clear cut procedures should be available for reporting complaints about copy-rights violations at every level. Needless to mention, appropriate actions must be taken without delay.
• The society needs to realize its greatest assets, Creative Intellectuals; and must revere their contributions.
• Lastly, CIs themselves must raise their voice and be more assertive for securing intellectual-rights. After all only they can carve their unique place in the Indian society.

I welcome your comments....

Image courtesy: UNSW from: http://techpp.com/2009/07/06/how-to-fight-plagisarism-on-wordpresscom/