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/

Why Bhaag DK Bose makes complete sense…

(This is an original article. Many Bollywood news websites, including that of Bollywood Hungama News Network, have pasted this article on their page without permission or proper credits. I condemn such violation of my copyrights. I highly appreciate Ahmedabad Mirror for raising up this issue: http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/20110607201106070248346861642e50f/City-blogger-gets-splogged-.html - Kathan Shukla, Blogger)

Many are surprised by the lyrics of the song ‘Bhaag DK Bose’. There have been many Indian songs containing explicit slangs, but they failed to enter into the mainstream. But, this particular song is from the movie Delhi Belly of Aamir Khan Production, which is undoubtedly one of the most successful production houses in India. Quite obviously, the conservatives will find it very hard to tolerate this song being played in their living rooms. They would consider it outrageous, anti-social, and vulgar; and would do everything possible they could to isolate their children (age does not matter) from such bad media influence.

However, the song has a unique feature that touches the youth. The crux of the success of the song lies in the philosophy of its genre, the Punk Rock. This genre of music symbolizes the rebellious nature of individuals, especially of youth. It is an expression of free thinkers, who challenge the traditional way of thinking, behaving and living. People who create such music simply cannot accept everything as it is. They hate all those who try to take decisions on their behalf – this may include family members, teachers, bosses, big corporate houses, and of course, the governments & politicians. They simply raise a question – “who the hell are you to take decisions for me?” These iconoclasts cannot tolerate monopolies, privileged classes or elite groups; and they simply cannot remain silent against structural/systematic injustice. They speak out loudly– “F**k your elitism, blind-traditions and your monopolies. I reject you… You can neither stop me nor shut me off”.

Coming back to the song ‘Bhaag DK Bose’, the traditional view in the Indian culture is - 'one should fight against all odds, no matter how big a challenge is. Consider life-problems as tests given by the god; and have faith in god, who will make everything right. This will help you suffer all hardships patiently'. The song rejects this view. It responds- 'when you are detested and underestimated by the family, when you are surrounded by misfortunes, when girlfriend (or boyfriend) and money are too hard to get, and when the crescendo of tragedies is inundating you, what’s wrong in running away? Just run away - you DK Bose*. Life isn’t worth fighting battles that the society wants you to fight. That will only create tension and frustration in you. Just run away from all those battles and remain a free Kabootar (dove)'.

Without a doubt the youth has a lot to identify with this song. Youngsters live amidst significant uncertainties and social pressure. They have a lot many people telling them what to do and what not to. Then there is uncertainty of having a bright career, good life partner and a high socio-economic status. And above all, they find a cut-throat competition in almost every aspect of life, whether it is admissions, job, or business or even life-partner. Such a song and music were always on the cards in the Indian cinema; it was only a matter of time. Whether you agree with the ideas presented by the song is a different story, but it surely will polarize the public opinion. And we should fasten our seat-belts - as more of such songs will surely follow if this movie succeeds.

*DK Bose makes sense in Hindi when you put Bose before DK.

I welcome your comments....

Understanding Hungry Politicians

I don’t get surprised by Political Corruption. Here’s the explanation:

One fine day, a fox (citizen of Jungle) and a lion (the king of the jungle) visited Ahmedabad. After taking ride of Ahmedabad- Darshan (site-seeing) Bus for the whole day, they went to Vishala, the famous Gujarati restaurant, for dinner.

The waiter asked the fox – “Two full Gujarati dishes for you two, right sir?”

“No, only one is fine” – replied the fox.

The waiter asked surprisingly - “Why? The lion is not hungry?”

“If he would have been so, I would have been his meal right then” - responded the fox with a gentle smile. And he added – “I have made sure, I remain with the king, who is well-fed”.

Moral of the story: Always have people, who are satiated, in power structure, else they’ll eat you out.

In the pre-independence era, people who were entering into the politics perceived it as a way of serving the nation and usually were successful in their respective careers (Tilak, Gokhale, Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Jinnah and almost all of them were fairly to significantly successful in their respective professions). Making money out of such service was just out of question for them. They entered into politics to give and not to take. In short, on personal level, they were satiated.

However, as the country became free and when our politicians gained power (and charge of lots of money), politics became a profession (rather a business). 

Today the system works more or less like this:

· Get in the circle of a political party of interest, and be very nice to the influential voices there

· Get funds from family, friends and relatives (society in-general). You also should have great potential of attracting funds from the businesses. Needless to say, the amount for contesting an election reaches crores. If you can make your party-heads believe that you are worth initial investment and will generate great returns for the party, you are likely to win a party-ticket to fight election.

· If you win election,

o You are expected to enrich party treasury

o All of your friends and relatives, who have invested in your political career must be benefitted (economically, at least)

o Satisfy demands of all business houses, who provide capital for your election campaign

o Make sure all grass-root workers of your party have improved life styles

Thus, before even resuming service to the people, the politicians have a huge list of hungry stake-holders today. The system is set up such that the people in power have to feed all major election-investors to remain in power, else they won’t reinvest in the future.

Politicians very well know that kick-backs, non-merit favour, and manipulation of lawful procedures are various forms of corruption, which is unlawful. But, this is the system that our society has cohesively created. We may hate our politicians from the bottom of our hearts, but they are there because they deserved to be there. Is there any alternative to this system? How can one become an influential political leader without going through the above inconvenient steps? How can we have well-fed politicians, who don't eat up public funds? How can we have givers?

You and I must come up with the answers of above questions and act for systematic improvements with persistence. Let’s not forget, we all have created the present system and we only can ameliorate it. 

My suggestions –

· we need to push for election reformations like: state funded election-campaign and complete transparency of accounts and of candidate selection procedures of political parties

· And, of course, we need more aware citizens

· last but not least, let’s elect satiated candidates, who are doing fine at personal level.

Image courtesy: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQuPiIUtQ1HME9IKXDmwd6nnlwghD6iv-VM7JSKzAHN88WOm8ea-ERbi4hl199Va5ZEMeUr90G59K_WnLJE33V2JSZLFu0f9WOD85mzVCfJmhV2QCQRAIWI7osJbHMTaqTq4CDoYEY6xTg/s1600/1_671615_1_34.jpg

I welcome your comments....