International media describes this academic heavyweight- turned-politician as a one man army, who has been waging battles against rampant corruption in India for several decades. One of the most pulsating, vibrant and dynamic politicians the country has ever seen, Dr Subramanian Swamy, is an astute economist, thinker, academician, diplomat, and an expert on education. A PhD Holder in Economics from the coveted Harvard University, Dr Swamy had phenomenal stints, as a professor, at Harvard University and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Following severe pressure from fundamentalist religious groups, Harvard University scrapped Dr Swamy’s lectures without proper explanations in last December.
Blasting the higher education system in an exclusive interview with Education Insider, Dr Swamy says, “I saw mediocre teachers being co-opted and promoted, while independent thinkers are being ostracised at the IITs. There is also no accountability for the money spent. So IITs are famous for brilliant students selected through competitive exams but not for its faculty which is promoted on servitude to the administration. Excerpts
By Dipin Damodharan
What according to you are the greatest challenges before Indian education system?
How to educate the huge 5-25 age group to become capable engineers, managers, and most of all innovators and researchers, proficient in mother tongue, Sanskrit and English languages, and get well paid and dedicated teachers who enjoy high social status.
There has been a strong argument that the Indian education system is hijacked by the pseudo-secular intellectuals? Your comment?
Not hijacked but weaned and groomed by Nehru and Indira Gandhi for their narrow political ends of the family entrenchment in power.
What could be the root cause behind the chaos in our education sector?
Foreign inspired syllabus meant to keep Indians without self respect, imbibed in cowardly risk aversions, bogus History books, and an underpaid teacher syndrome.
In the past, we had globally renowned universities like Takshashila, Nalanda…but today none of the Indian higher education institutions are among the world’s best? Your comment?
Not surprised. Finance is not the reason since if it were so, then Saudi Arabia’s universities would be in the top ten. The reason is the lack of intellectual independence of our scholars in the social sciences. In the natural sciences there is no peer competition. All universities have cartels of teachers, administrators and government flourishing on cronyism.
Regarding the quality of the IITs, what’s your view?
Since I was a Professor IIT/D, and later on the Board of Governors and the IIT Council, I saw mediocre teachers being coopted and promoted, while independent thinkers are being ostracised. There is also no accountability for the money spent. So IITs are famous for brilliant students selected through competitive exams but not for its faculty which is promoted on servitude to the administration.
"It was a coordinated move of some professors of Department of Religion and South Asia Centre who curry money favours of Sonia Gandhi, receive Saudi Arabian funds for their departments, and Left wing types like Amartya Sen who organised Faculty quorum in a normally routine course catalogue approval. The Department of Economics, the student evaluation and the University administration favoured my continuing to teach. But I did not organize them to come to the meeting in strength"
Do you think India needs a fundamental change in its education policies?
Not change but overhaul. Attendance requirement for students should be dropped; Teacher and course evaluation by students must be taken on anonymous basis. Research publications of teachers must be posted online. Campuses should either be in small towns or outside city limits. Indiscipline, alcohol, drugs and girl molestation must be cracked down by a special campus police.
What is your opinion about the privatisation of Indian higher education sector?
In favour. But permission must be granted to private university on strict norms, and evaluation by a committee for the purpose must be posted online for 30 days before granting permission. Capitation fees should be made a criminal offence for any institution which takes funds from the state, implicit as in cheap land allotment, and explicit in cash. However, cheque contribution to tax exempt foundations of private individuals be permitted.
Last May, the government introduced the Research and Innovation universities bill, 2012 with an objective to set up 14 world class institutes. Do you think the bill would be a turning point in Indian higher education system?
Objectives do not make things happen. What are the priorities, strategies, and resource mobilisation techniques? So far none revealed. Thus these will one moreset of government like outfits.
What is your opinion about the one nation, one test policy proposed by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal for the country’s engineering institutes including the IITs?
Less said the better. What do you expect from a corporate lawyer like Sibal?
Harvard University dismissed your summer courses, Economics S-110 and Economics S-1316, without providing any logical reasons in last December? Do you think Islam buys out Western academia?
It was a coordinated move of some professors of Department of Religion and South Asia Centre who curry money favours of Sonia Gandhi, receive Saudi Arabian funds for their departments, and Left wing types like Amartya Sen who organised Faculty quorum in a normally routine course catalogue approval. The Department of Economics, the student evaluation and the University administration favoured my continuing to teach. But I did not organize them to come to the meeting in strength. Of course it was done behind my back without asking me about the impugned article. For more read FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff: Campus in Secrecy.
How do you define the concept of education?
Education must enable a student to develop an independent capacity to reason from axioms to theorems by articulation, inductive and deductive logic of what he learns from past publications such as books and journals. For this he must be educated in the six dimensions of intelligence: cognitive, emotional, social, moral, spiritual, and environmental. There must be a guru-shishyaparampara restored for this.
Through Swamy’s prism
- Indian education system weaned and groomed by Nehru and Indira Gandhis for their narrow political ends of the family entrenchment in power
- Research publications of teachers must be posted online
- Foreign inspired syllabus meant to keep Indians without self respect
- Indiscipline, alcohol, drugs and girl molestation must be cracked down by a special campus police
- Capitation fees should be made a criminal offence for any institution which takes funds from the state
Subramanian Swamy
Born in Mylapore, Chennai, Dr Subramanian Swamy is the President of Janata Party. His qualifications for politics, policy making and teaching are extraordinary, exceptional and extravagant. A man known for his obdurate stand against corruption, Dr Swamy had earned Bachelor Degree in Mathematics from Hindu College, University of Delhi and Masters Degree in Statistics at the Indian Statistical Institute. Under Nobel Laureate Simon Kuznets, he obtained doctorate in Economics in 1965. While doing his PhD, he had worked as an Assistant Economics Affairs Officer at the United Nations Secretariat in New York.
In 1964, Swamy joined the Harvard University. When he was an Associate Professor at Harvard, he was requested by Nobel Laureate Dr Amartya Sen for reader’s chair on Chinese studies at Delhi School of Economics (DSE). But when he arrived at DSE, the government cancelled his appointment due to his views on the nuclear capabilities for India and market friendly attitude. He was a Professor of mathematical economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi from 1969 to 1991. He was removed from the position by the Congress government. But Dr Swamy approached the Court and was legally reinstated in the late 1990s by the Supreme Court of India. He served on the Board of Governors of the IIT, Delhi and on the Council of IITs. He taught economics courses in summer session at Harvard until 2011. He had been India's Commerce Minister, Law Minister and as a member of the Planning Commission. His fight in the 2G spectrum scam had put former Central Minister A Raja in jail along with DMK leader Kanimozhi and several top businessmen.
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