Passing the Baton - Thondup

When we were in Goethals we were lived in a cocoon and hardly knew what was going on in the rest of India.
We used to read about the caste system in India in our history books, I think Furtado was the writer. I used to think it was all history.
It was only when I started living in Bihar that I received the full blast of the caste system.
There was reservation for the SC & ST even then but we in school treated everyone as equal and did not know what SC & ST meant.
Like the cuckoo who pushes out its young ones to fend for themselves after they reach flying age, we too were pushed out after ICSE to fend for ourselves.
Many of us have had many experiences.
Richard Johnson had asked us to pen our experiences.
Here is one first hand experience by one of our boys. It was a struggle against all odds, with both failures and success greeting him.
He had initially sent this piece to the TOI but it was never published.
Our papers always publish sanitized articles which would not hurt or embarrass the establishment or their owners.
The TOI especially does not have an editorial policy. Its editorial consists of two views presented side by side
They tell you, read what you like.Ignore the rest.
The Statesman was the best in publishing your letters as they did not care much for the establishment. They had to suffer for this and the paper is passing through difficult times.
The Telegraph also does not hesitate to publish your letters, be they pro or anti establishment.
It was one of the reasons why this blog was started.
First to bring all Goethals boys in contact and
Second, to express our views on events occurring in our country which our papers never publish, for their own reasons.

Radheshyam

"It is the best of Times and it is the worst of Times … that is for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Here I am today – nigh thirty years after having last used my privilege as a member of a Scheduled Tribe to enter the hallowed portals of IIM , Ahmedabad – and I do not know whether I should proclaim my status with the same regal air of those intoning with hurt dignity “ I am a Brahmin” (T. Surendar ) or mumble in apology “Sorry, but I am an ST ”. Or should I speak plainly and say “ Yes I am an ST and I intend to jolly well take advantage of the rights granted to me by the Indian Constitution “. Why these conflicting undertones? The apologetic tone because even though I did get into IIM A, I could not graduate? Or because I have met better “Brahmens” – pardon the male chauvinism – who did not get the chance I did? The matter-of-fact proclamation of my rights because I have suffered from the prejudices of the Brahmin / Forward Class (FC) (to quote Sam George) against my ilk? And the indignation because all those who have been heard in this case have treated the entire phenomena as an intellectual exercise having no personal experience but only imaginary projected fears? My voice is tinged with all these different emotions.

As all stories go let me start at the beginning. I was born in 1950 and the Constitutional rights gifted to the SC/ST communities started with those of my generation. My parents were uneducated but they literally tied their belts a couple of notches tighter to see that all of us children were given the best education that they could afford. As a result my eldest sister was one of the first Sherpa graduates and another sister the first Sherpa doctor. As for myself the only advantage that I felt over my ‘Brahmen’ peers was that I received a princely sum of Rupees 3000 as annual stipend during my college days. And that an archaic rule of the Indian Railways ensured that my status as an ST granted me a further concession on the railway fares – therefore I traveled First Class when going home for the summer vacations and even paid less than what my ‘Brahmen’ peers did. They traveled Third Class – so much for my first blow against ‘Brahmin’ supremacy. This was in the late Sixties. Even though I studied in St Xavier’s College in Calcutta it was perhaps the because of my circle of friends that I never even got to hear about the IIMs – or for that matter the nearer home XLRI. However it was not until after I graduated did I realize the magnanimity of the Constitution’s gift to our community. That is when I started responding to the advertisements of the Public Sector / Banks / Government vacancy notifications. Even then my first application for a job was to The Times of India for the post of Trainee Journalist. Please note - The TOI did not have any reserved quotas.

TOI conducted tests, if I remember correctly, in 5 zones – all the 4 cardinal points of the compass plus the Central Zone. There were just 2 candidates who passed from the East Zone – my classmate A. Bose and I. For the final interview in Bombay there were 22 candidates and 10 were selected – I came 11th. This may not seem pertinent at this point of the story but please bear with me.

A few days later I applied to the State Bank of India for the post of Probationary Officer, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for the post of Management Trainee and to IIMA. I sat for the admission / entrance tests to all three Institutes and received calls from all of them. Since the first letter I received was the appointment letter from HAL I left for Bangalore. While in Bangalore I received letters from the SBI and IIM. I was still clueless about the prospects of IIM – even though I had applied – so in the HAL Staff College in Bangalore I sought the advice of a Wing Commander who was in charge of the training. I was advised that IIM was just a hyped up study and that in all probability even if I did join IIM I would, at the end of my studies apply for a job similar to the one I just had!!! I believed the Wing Commander. Had I been better exposed, more street smart (for want of a better expression) perhaps I would not have even consulted the Wing co but would have quietly packed my bags and bought a ticket for Ahmedabad. Again. this may not seem pertinent at this point of the story but please bear with me.

Anyway it was in HAL that I first got my taste of the power of Brahmanism. A few months into the training course and having been exposed to the politics of the different caste system – Tamilians versus Kannadigas versus Malaya lees versus Andhraites etc – a Brahmin colleague asked me a seemingly innocent and straightforward question
“Assuming X and Y were to appear for an interview and the Chairman of the board was Z–all things being equal who do you think would be favored and given the promotion ?”
My answer was “X”. He then asked me for the reason. “ It’s simple – X is a Malaya lee and so is Z – the Chairman of the Board ” I replied. My friend laughed. “ Sheroo, you may have learn’t that all South Indian are not Madrassis but you still have not learn’t the caste equation of India. X and Z may both be Malayalees but it is Y who will get the promotion. X is not a Brahmin whereas Y and Z are.” That is the moment I became acutely aware of the significance of Quotas and reservations. Before any of my readers retort that this is the rabid logic of an ignorant low class Brahmin let me add that my friend, it pains me to say, had been a lecturer in college before joining HAL. In the class of 22 he was by far not the only Brahmin – and not an exception in terms of the casteist behaviour / views held by those of his ilk. Some of them were even surprised that I spoke and wrote English as I did!!!! And in the initial monthly quizzes they would demand a rechecking of the papers if I managed to score better than them

Years later, and after one promotion, I would accompany the senior most executives of the company to the various IITs and other Regional Engineering Colleges for Campus Recruitments. Looking back over the years, and reflecting upon Sam George’s letter “ I am a Dalit ” I can only agree with him. There were some brilliant FC candidates, many above average and quite a few below average. And the number of Below Average candidates consisted equally of Brahmin / FC as well as SC/ST. The only difference was, and here I am being brutally honest to the cost of my case , that some of the SC/ST candidates seemed to approach the interviews with a confidence which sadly was based on their confidence in the Reservation card than on their own technical merit. Does this have a bearing to my story – yes? Please lend me your eyes for a few more moments.

On a lark, and in order to lend moral support to two of my FC engineering colleagues I was persuaded to apply to the IIMs along with them. All of us got through and in 1979 we joined IIMA. Mathur ( MTech IIT Powai ) and Sai Prasad Rao ( Mtech IIT Madras ) graduated in 1981 whereas I ( BA English Honours ) flunked. To be fair to the IIM faculty I was not only given special coaching classes in MSM by Professor Mallya and encouragement by Professor Mote but at the end of the year I was also given the choice of repeating the year in only those subjects I had flunked – Accountancy, Mathematics (MSM as it used to be called ) and Production Planning and Control (who says Maths isn’t omnipresent?) For personal reasons and also based on my own aversion to suffering through another year of academic leprosy I declined. I was 29 years old whereas some of my classmates were just 20. And yes, this does have a bearing on what I have to say.

Fast-forward twenty years to the year 2000. Same city, Bangalore but this time I am here with my daughter who has applied to Mount Carmel for BCom. Does she deserve admission – I think so. With an aggregate of more than 85% in her Class 12 exams (with 98% in her Accountancy) I believe she could have qualified for even Shree Ram College of Commerce, Delhi. But I opt for Bangalore because I feel that education is more than just a degree. And living in the South will broaden her vision. She is refused admission. No cognizance is given to her ST status and I am verbally told by the Principal that my daughter should have stayed in her home state and not come to Karnataka. . As a sop she is offered a course in some vague subject, which is going a begging for applicants. Simultaneously she tops the merit list of Reserved Candidates in Christ College and is offered a scholarship / stipend to boot. I inform the Archbishop of Bangalore and we are somewhat appeased when His Reverence sends me a very warm letter in apology and I believe His Reverence does initiate remedial measure I have also put in my complaint to the SC/ST Commission in Bangalore – it is a waste of time and postal stamp nothing is done by the Commission.

Fast-forward three years to Calcutta - my alma mater St Xavier's. My son has not done too well in Class 12 – just 67%. While approaching the Vice Principal for admission there is a young girl ahead of us in the queue. Her appeal to the Vice Principal for admission into the English Honours course is based on just two facts – a 65% in her Class 12 and the claim that her father is an ex-student of St. Xavier’s. She is granted admission.
I then repeat the same litany with the added points that not only am I an ex student of St Xavier’s but that I had passed out doing English Honours and that my brother too is an ex student and to top it all my son has secured 67% and he is from the
ST reserved quota whereas the girl had secured 65% and did not belong to any Reserved Quota. We are rudely told to go away. Then there is a further rejoinder that students from the North East are not welcome and that we would do better to stay in Darjeeling and to study in St Joseph’s College there. Inflammatory remarks and the last bit goads me , once again, to write to both the Archbishop of Calcutta and to the Minorities Commission in Writer’s Building. After several trips to Writer’s Building I am “unofficially “ told that I am, to put it colourfully, pissing against the wind. It seems that there have been complaints in the past against the same institution but they have all been squashed / swept under the carpet because a very high-ranking bureaucrat is on the College Board. Once again we receive a formal letter of apology from the Arch Bishop but in this case His Reverence regrets that St Xavier’s is out of his jurisdiction. Game set and match to the duo of the SC/ST Commission and the Establishment. Or in the more popular parlance – 2 matches out of 2 matches in the 2 matches One Day Series.

Now that I have come to the end of my stories of the 3 cities – not heard / read third hand but experienced personally – I would like to, as they say in managerial terms, come to the nitty gritty analysis. And here I borrow from not only T. Sunderan and Sam George but also P.V. Indiresen ( Former Director IIT Madras and TOI April 2, 2006 page 14 )
and Mr Gurcharan Das ( Panel Discussion on Reservations in the Private Sector aired by a Private Channel about 9 months ago ). In the spirit of IIM assuming that all the above are Case Studies what then, dear readers, is your take on them. Personally speaking

1. My brief foray into the world of Journalism vis-à-vis the success of being chosen as one of the 2 candidates from the Eastern Sector told me that, academically, I was as good as my Brahmin / FC friends.

2. My ignorance, or call it my lack of vision, about the importance of XLRI / IIM was just the product of having been brought up in a deprived milieu, or should I call it “unaware ” Scheduled Tribe surroundings. In those days the Happy Himalayan Disposition of the Hills people was also because of our ignorance. Did I hear someone chant “ Where ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise? “

3. The subtle segregation by my colleagues – aah the fine nuances – on account of my ST status only encouraged me to ensure that in spite of the pressure from my superiors – in those days the Chief Authority of the Public Sector would be held responsible if Reserved points on the roster were left vacant - I never allowed any post to be filled based solely on the strength of the quota reservation. Rewarding unfit candidates based solely on quotas, I felt, would be doing disservice to the candidate and to his / her community at large. How would you expect to improve or even encourage others to improve if the example was of an unfit candidate being rewarded solely on the basis of his SC /ST certificate?

4. Though I did not get my degree from IIM I did get an education. I got to meet the best of the country. In fact the best of the best. The best – actually the second best since the best had already left on scholarships for

5. MIT, UCLA etc – from the IITs and St Stephens etc etc. I learnt that more than the degree it was the attitude. I learn’t the meaning of true humility when I saw a Professor invite a student to dispute his mathematical model and allow the student to present a better method and then sincerely applaud the student along with the rest of the class. I never saw discrimination based on caste / community. I learn’t that I was worthy of respect just by being there. I learn’t that the Institute was eager to see that all of us do well and the entire Faculty were rooting for the students. I saw academic excellence in the easy interaction between the faculty and the students. I learn’t not to be cowed by any fear…. And most important of all I learn’t that the books and those in authority are not always right. And it is these lessons which have helped me genetically modify the ST genes I was born with and also to believe that, irrespective of the academic outcome , as many SC/STs need to enter IIM if there is to be a qualitative change in the reserved community. And this is a priority – not the basic education that everyone is trying to fob us off with.

6. And it is this education which has prompted me to write to you today.

7. Nearly 40 years ago my sister was given the opportunity to study medicine – thanks to her ST status. It was an opportunity that was given and nothing else. The medical syllabus was not changed for her. Years later she landed in Norway, learn’t the language, sat in a competitive examination, was selected to study psychiatry and is now a successful and well known psychiatrist in that country.
Incidentally Messrs Inderesen / Gurucharan Das and Sunderan, Norway does not have an SC or ST quota.She was just another Doctor from India applying for further specialization. My sister is in Norway because the ST quota gave her the opportunity to become a doctor. Without reservations I doubt she or any SC / ST would have the opportunity to study medicine or engineering. To paraphrase Sam George –“ Gentlemen, why do you begrudge us that opportunity? Or are the hallowed portals of higher education the exclusive preserve of the Brahmins and the Forward Classes ?
You speak of improving basic education forgetting that the improved basic education, denied to us all these years, is what you have had for the last 2000 years.
Nearly every soldier in the Gurkha Brigade belongs to some ST community.
Is that all we are good for ? Cannon fodder and a cursory condescending pat on the back whenever there are rumblings along our borders ?
Tailpiece – I now have a niece who is a Pediatrician and another who is an Income Tax Officer – all fruits of us first generation educated STs in the family.

8. Sam George’s population figures, endorsed in approximation by the Editor, is of 3% Brahmins. SCs / STs and OBCs put together would constitute approximately 50% of India’s population. Now take the number of Ministers, Top Level Government Officials, Famous lawyers, Judges, Principal Secretaries , Doctors Engineers and also Professional Managerial Captains of the Indian Industry
SC/ST / OBCs : 0.001 % FC/ BRAHMINS : 99.999 %
Aside: And, although it is the fashion today, I have not taken the P3P into account!!!

9. Professor Indiresan and his group prophesy that if reservations are extended they will spell doom for the quality of education in the IIms and IITs and that “ they will become breeding grounds for the worst form of castesim” end quote. Professor, more than 3 FC candidates skulked out of IIM within the first 1-week when I was there. They could not handle the pressure. They were all Brahmins / FCs . I stayed on and got mauled BUT in the end I got an education. My failure / presence in no way detracted from the quality of the graduates who passed out. My best friends – in Dorm 7 – were the top 2 students of the year of 1988-90. One has opened his own Bank in the USA and the other I am sure is doing well. So are my classmates. When I last met one of them, ten years ago, he was the Vice President of City Bank, in their branch in Nepal. I do not think that the IIM faculty watered down their courses for the likes of us…. Please note there were other dropouts too and they were FCs.

Taking a very lopsided logic – since all the Brahmins and FCs tend to believe that 60 years of reservations should be more than ample compensation for 2000 years of deprivation I guess I can indulge in one of my own: I think the FC / Brahmins who get into the IIMs / IITs - after 50% has been hogged by the SC/ST/OBCs - should be grateful . They will have less FC / Brahmin colleagues to compete with come Placement Day. And as the basic economic Theory of Demand dictates - Stagnant or Increased demand BUT decreased supply equals higher price…. Talk about 1 crore rupees … the bright FC / Brahmins will then be able to dream about 1 khokha in Dollars / Euros and not in Rupees !!!!! Perhaps by then, and with your grace, a few of us SC/ST/OBCs can hope to be in the 1 peti slot… but the stint in the IIMs /IITs itself would do more for our community than the rat race of “mine is bigger than yours ( pay packet ). And isn’t this the objective of being granted the opportunity to enter these Institutes?

10. Finally, a few months back there was a debate on a private TV channel regarding reservations in the Private Sector. There was a senior leader from one of the Reserved caste / community and two other including an ex CEO of a major MNC who I respect for his professional achievements as a Professional Manager and a “think tank” . He is also a regular contributor to your Sunday editions. The debate was heated and both sides had their own logic and the ex-CEO carried the day. He was right – private Industry cannot and must NOT be forced down the reservation path. However what made turn me around totally against his logic – absolutely correct as they were – was his last salvo. For a person so fluent in English he burst out in irritation against a remark passed by the leader from the reserved community. I do not remember the exact imprecation but it was either
the word “Damn” or “Bloody”. Whatever it was two
thoughts ran through my mind

a. That in officialese is an “unparliamentary “ word deserving censure but the TV Anchor Person seemed too much in awe of the Ex CEO

b. Had the other person been Narayan Murthy or Ratan Tata or Azim Premji would the exCEO have still used that swear word?

And this basically is the moral of my story. Give us the chance to earn our dignity. We do not need your help. We do not need your condescension. It is the display of such attitudes which will turn even the most sane person into an extremist regardless of his better sense and proclivity to agree with you.

I realize that the politicians are making capital out of this issue. To them I say –first set right the concessions already enshrined in the Constitution. To those of you who are baying for Bramhin / FC blood along with SC/ST / OBC votes prove your sincerity by scrutinizing whether the SC/ST norms are actually being practiced by the IITs / IIMs and other academic bodies. It is only after you have done that and ensured that the law is being implemented should you think of the next move to the OBCs. Otherwise it is all a political stunt and none of us – the SCs nor the STs nor the OBCs will benefit . If at all we will be the worse for it. Denigrated for being granted the concessions and destroyed by being deprived of them – Sheep hung out as wolves.

Finally to Sam George , wherever you are, thank you. No one could have articulated it better. And in the words of Humphrey Bogart all I can say, on behalf of all of benighted lot is “ Play it again, Sam “.

Yours etc

Thondup Tsering Sherpa