Sunday Posts

I was at an event yesterday where someone made a case for Autocracy. Not one, but two people made the argument that a period of autocracy is needed for a country's 'development'. The example given was China as it powered itself into the world stage in the aftermath of the Tienanmen Square massacre, but also that of South Korea, Japan and various other East Asian states. The point was that India's democracy, which some Indians see as the source of India's 'soft power', is more of a burden than an asset: Would it not be better if India was rich and autocratic, rather than what it is now, a poor democracy? We were talking about how courageous the makers of modern Indian state were in choosing democracy with universal suffrage just when India became independent notwithstanding the widespread poverty, illiteracy and pangs of partition. The Western nations ridiculed the ambition then and predicted its failure as soon as it started. Pakistan proved the point, but I...

I am learning to live with a new term - Dimaagi Naxal - which roughly translates into Intellectual Maoists. The Indian Prime Minister, who is a master practitioner of three letter acronyms and numerology and a student of 'entire political science', has floated the term recently. The irony is hard to miss: He is launching his own 'Cultural Revolution' to rid the society of those who disagree with the monochrome vision of Hindi-Hindu India, and who is better to invoke than Mao even if it is done in this backhanded way!  This is another of those political absurdities that surround us every day. The performance politics, of which the Indian Prime Minister is an acknowledged expert, has taken over the dour activities of justice and law-making. One could watch the grand inquisition of a law enforcement officer, Jack Smith, as a great TV drama, complete with tragedy, criminals and crime, as evidence of this mind-bending change. While I know little about North Korea, I can not ...

I am working on a school for entrepreneurs. It is still work in progress and I am approximately halfway to securing funding and collaborators, and therefore, my ideas are still radical and reflect what I really think about entrepreneurship. I know, after having been there a few times, that I may not be able to implement these ideas in the pure form: There will be adjustments and compromises made along the way, and at this stage, I am better off defining clearly what is non-negotiable and which parts are open to modification.  Let's take for example one of the things I want to do: Start the entrepreneurship education programme by dissecting business failures. I want to have an intensive examination of not just how businesses fail, but what happens when they do. This, for me, is an useful corrective for the celebration of start-ups, which obscures how painful setting up a business is. In fact, it is a good starting point to know that if a business doesn't work, the entrepreneur i...

Recently, Britain got really bad press. The American right portrays it as a failed state, with violent streets and gangs reminiscent of Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later. And so does the Indian right - bashing up Britain is a parlour game for Indian news channels.  Britain has many problems. But it is not a failed state. British cities, despite their lack of economic growth and slightly boring life, are far safer than either American or Indian cities. There is indeed knife crime, which is declining, but we don't have school shootings. We had grooming gangs, for sure, but we don't have vigilante gangs poking into our homes checking what we eat or who we worship. Most of the Britons know Nigel Farage what he is - a charlatan - and even when someone suggests that all asylum seekers should be castrated on Live TV, no other panellist rushes to defend her with whataboutery. The public transport is rickety and costly, but I don't have to drive every day to go to my office; the NHS ...

I am having a conversion: It seems there is a case for setting up a Transnational Education (TNE) campus in India after all. I used to think that this was a bad idea. After all, foreign - particularly Western - universities wanted Indian students but did not want to embed themselves into the Indian society and economy. The TNE projects were exercises of 'crack-up capitalism', the neo-liberal project of creating extra-territorial communities. The education they offered were designed for a self-loathing elite which wanted to run away from India, offered by patronising white men who thought who knew better.  Nothing changed here: This is exactly what the TNE projects continue to represent. But the world has changed and the neoliberal ideas are now well past their heyday. We are in a world of '3 hards': Hard border, hard culture and hard money! The student mobility is reducing and one must find opportunities at home. At the same time, we now have a generation of Indian stud...

President Xi invoked Thucydides Trap, yet again. Therefore, it is now back in fashion, yet again. This has left me perplexed. I have read Graham Allison's book and I get it: A rising power makes the hegemon uneasy and this leads to war, just as it did in the Peloponnesian War. But what I don't get is why Xi is talking about it and why everyone else is getting excited. For starters, let's set the record straight: Despite the historical reputation of Athens, it was Sparta which was the hegemon and Athens was the rising power, and at the end of the war, Athens lost. Assuming that Xi, like everyone else, sees China as the rising power, he should know better than invoking Thucydides. Besides, Thucydides knew better than projecting history to the future and making predictions. It is a story we want to tell ourselves, but there is no inevitability that history has to play out in a certain way. It never does. For example, Allison's thesis draws much from the Britain vs Germany ...

 Many people around me think I am a socialist. After all, I laugh at the late night TS posts from Donald Trump, talk about the follies of regime change wars and generally foo-foo right wing propaganda. I work in democratising access to education, believe in public provision of health and schooling, and think technology is leaving too many people behind. I failed to support Hinduvta and its new god in my homeland; I broke ranks with my friends in London and didn't vote for Brexit or Boris Johnson. My right-thinking associates consider me to be beyond redemption, perhaps a red! But apart from my sartorial preference for red T-shirts, there is nothing red in me. I believe that from the 'crooked timber' of human nature nothing straight can ever arise. I believe that history works with timespans much longer than our lifetime and we have imperfect knowledge about the world, and therefore, neither we can change our society intentionally nor can predict the future. Not just regime ...

I am a lifelong learner. I became serious about learning only after I left college. In fact, my 'conversion' came much later in life, once I left my comfort zone, migrated to another country and went back to college, first with an instrumental objective to get a qualification but eventually for learning.  I grew up a Brahmin in India. My upbringing was traditional. I was surrounded by books, music and theatre, but no one was talking about going back to college at a late age. It was not 'learning' but self-cultivation that I saw. My grandfather, in his eighties and with fading eyesight would still read, by holding the books very close to his eyes - that is the image I carried in my head. We would have guests from town (we lived in the suburb) on some Sundays, when the best cutlery would come out and we would eat on the dining table, talking about cultural events around us. However, though my father taught English Literature at a local college, there was no hint of academ...

  How long does it take for a country's media to go from unquestioning celebration of youth to reviling it? Not long, it seems in India, as all the celebration of Gen Z turned sour as some people started asking questions that the media didn't. The generational labelling is an imported practice from America that Indians embraced enthusiastically. It makes no sense, as the Indian history didn't follow the same path. For example, the equivalent of the silent generation - people born between 1928 and 1945 and lived in the shadows of their parents (the greatest generation, who fought the war) and their children (the baby boomers, who prospered) - would be the generation that built the Indian republic, the heroic ones. However, somehow the Indians like to believe that the world is flat, or at least, it has gotten flat since the 1990s. Therefore, Gen Z was celebrated as the herald of brilliance and prosperity, the generation that would lead India to the 'developed country'...

  Careers are no more. Like the one my father used to have. Or the one I aspired for. The rituals of entering, the legitimate peripheral participation followed by genteel progression into the inner circle, marked by ever greater material possessions and social prestige - they are no longer real. But the idea of a career is the cornerstone of middle class life. In fact, it is middle class life. From the start - choice of school, grades, university ranking, traineeships - to the end, the dreams of retirement, putting one's children on the same path, the middle class life arc is a projection of mid-twentieth century career. How many young men I met who have been inspired to study law after watching The Suits? They are all inspired by Mike, they say. Yet, Mike is post-career, a hustling entrepreneur more than a lawyer. If they want a career path of the sort law schools offer, ...

 I am at that point in life that all I want is quiet. There is a certain sweetness in failure. A life I started has come to an end; definite, irrevocable end. First time, this end is not about a beginning. I always feared this, but having arrived, I feel what Kundera called an unbearable lightness. What burden did I lose? I guess it is my former self. Bounded forever by my upbringing, the crushing sense of responsibility coupled with a liberal faith in infinite improvability of others. From over the edge of life, I see how I got things mixed up: My grandfather's generation carried the responsibility because everyone else did, my father's generation believed in improvability because the going was good. But, at the same time, my grandfather would have believed only a few, distinguished by character, deserved attention; my father's generation would not have assumed the responsibility for others.  Losing the faith is like losing myself. I have been a coalition-builder; somewhat...

A conversation with a self-avowed right-wing (and Trump admiring) friend made me think what I really think is wrong with America's Iran war. But let me start by acknowledging the differences of our political standpoints first.  First, my friend thinks that America's military might is enormous and it has the ability, and therefore the right, to shape the world in its image. I do not think that America's might is limitless, and it has been proven many times over, in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. It has largely failed to shape the world in its image, and therefore, it should be more circumspect about getting involved in foreign wars. Second, he also thinks that Iranian regime was repugnant, which has killed tens of thousands of its citizens, and should therefore be overthrown. My view is more nuanced on this: I do not believe what the mainstream media (like the BBC says) and I don't follow Persian channels to balance the English language narratives. Therefore, I am not 10...

 I am trying to ascertain what historical moment we are living through. Should we compare this with 27th May 1905, the  Battle of Tsushima, the moment when the anti-colonial self-confidence emerged in Asia? That an underdog - Japan then, Iran now - can win in an assymetric battlefield is an important lesson. Iran hasn't really won, or can win, but that it did not submit easily will count. This would change the calculus of the alliances: An Arab leader today would be circumspect about its alliances now. Whatever started after Saddan Hussain's invasion of Kuwait would now end. Of course, the United States can destroy Iran with its superior firepower, but it can only do so at a great cost. Bringing all its firepower in the Middle East may open the space for China in South China sea, and even Russia in Europe, and indeed, this could spiral into a world at war. I am hoping that won't come to pass, a situation when no one would win. But if Marco Rubio was lecturing the European l...

It is hard to explain my feelings about the war in Iran.  I have no particular love for the regime, growing up, as I did, with the shadow of Khomeini's fatwa on Salman Rushdie. But like many others, I saw the Islamic Revolution as a part of anti-colonial movement. When Saddam, backed by the Americans, attacked Iran, my sympathies were with the Iranians. That Persia/ Iran is standing on a civilisation thousands of years old, and with which, as a Bengali, my own has a great affinity, was an idea that was ingrained in my thinking. It was an integral part of how I think: East vs West, Coloniser vs the Colonised, Old world vs the New world! But I see Trump's war not so much against Iran but against the rules that we were all supposed to follow, and this is why I am even more upset. Since when 'eliminating' a country's leadership by assassination become a legitimate thing to talk about? If they didn't know that they were starting a forever war, they were stupid: And o...

 Are we in a new world, or witnessing the end of the old one? As I write this, the US and Israeli forces have attacked Iran. Iran has retaliated by sending missile barrages towards Baharin, Qatar, UAE and Israel. Trump is calling for a regime change in Iran and wants to install the son of deposed Shah. Not quite the way of the world I knew, where there was at least the figleaf of international law used by countries wanting to attack one another. I feel pity for Keir Starmer. As far as I am aware, his government is trying to fix Britain's institutions after the stupidity of Brexit and fifteen years of Tory assault on public economy and straightlaced corruption. But Sir Keir has no courage to do something or say something openly. He appears like Trump's poodle, and Trump is a difficult master even to be a poodle too. Therefore, notwithstanding whatever his government is doing, he looks like a joke. He is hollowness personified, and at moments like this, he could as well be a holo...

My New Year's resolution is not to wait any longer, but to get on with what I have always wanted to do: set up a new higher-education institution. I have been waiting forever. Not that I haven't tried, but I have ended up taking the wrong route a few times. Each time I learnt, I have learnt about the merits and considerable challenges of for-profit higher education, and how to balance the different interests to do something innovative. I have learnt about international markets and the rapidly changing expectations of the students. I have taught and know firsthand what social media has done to students' attention and commitment. Having tried project-based learning, I have seen its possibilities and also why it does not work at scale. But, in the learning mode, I was forever waiting - doing various projects adjacent to what I r...

The opening of international university campuses in India has a distinct gold rush feel to it. There are 17 universities whose applications are already through and the projects are at several stages of implementation. Several are in the pipeline. The British universities were quick to move in, given their historical affinity. The Australians followed suit, taking advantage of the geopolitical bonhomie between the two nations. The Canadian universities, despite Canada being a top destination of Indian students in the last decade, were hampered by the rift between the two nations around an alleged state-sponsored assassination of a Canadian citizen. But they feel left behind, and will soon turn up in force at the India AI Summit in February, looking for deals. And, finally, the US universities, ever so inward-looking (international students at US universities make up only 6% of the population, compared to about a quarter in UK or Australia), are slower, but some, like the Illinois Instit...

It feels like another life but I used to be all-in for microcredentials not so long ago. That was the effect of Australia for me. The Australian national framework and the buzz around Microcredentials converted me. I loved its flexibility and the focus on practical stuff. In the UK, where a Masters could be achieved through negotiated learning, it is possible to build a course as close to practical life and work as possible. And, yet, not many people can afford multi-year commitment that such postgrad degrees offer. Microcredentials were that sweet everything - short, flexible, close to real-life and daily work, and in theory, stackable, to make a full qualification! But the standard formula was not exciting enough. Work needed to be team-based and collaborative, otherwise it was to become academic and make-believe. And, therefore, the assessment was meant to be complex. I saw the MCs which are meant to be practical but ended up in reflective essays marked by academic mentors - that wa...

As I set down to write a sequence of paragraphs - I promised to myself not to call it a book - on what makes a person today successfully negotiate life and work over the next 20 or 30 years, I should start with an admission: I have nothing new or insightful to say about how such future lives would pan out to be. I simply don't know.  Therefore, unlike the other 'books' of this kind, I can't start this project with a confident posture, peppered with quotations from McKinsey, PwC or the World Economic Forum. Not that I don't find what they publish useful, but they are useful to me for a different reason. I don't look so much into the Executive Summary and the bold claims these make, but more to the footnotes and the methodology they followed. The methodology often tells a story very different: That these reports, presented as guides for the future of humanity, reflect the views of a very small number of people, drawn from mostly similar backgrounds. They reflect a...

If I thought India was the El Dorado of International Higher Ed - everyone wanted to go there, but no one knew how - it may no longer be true: Reportedly, 17 foreign universities have got permission to open their campuses in India, with more waiting in the queue. At the same time, Indian higher education policymaking continues to send mixed signals. The Prime Minister recently talked about the 'Macaulay Mindset' and the invitation to free India of the influence of the long-dead Lord M. (See here ' Modi wages war against the ghost of British Empire ') In effect, therefore, India is telling the foreign universities that 'we want your brands but none of your methods', when China is doing the opposite - taking their methods and building its own brands!  This is what triggered me to write this post, and I do want to make more posts about the prospects of foreign universities in India. But, as a starting point, it may be worthwhile to understand...