Swami Vivekanandas vision of Technical Education

Swami Vivekanandas vision of Technical Education Revered Swamijis on the dais, Director of NITTTR Prof Bhattacharya, Convener Prof Dey, distinguished guests, my fellow teachers and dear students: Today, in this Seminar organized by the NITTTR, Kolkata, I shall be speaking to you about a very interesting topic Swami Vivekanandas vision of Technical Education . This topic is very dear to me. You will kindly pardon me if I use some time in painting a background against which we can truly appreciate Swamijis vision of technical education. Swamijis vision of technical education can be understood if we have an idea of Swamijis conception of work, wealth & human society. The main idea we need to understand first of all is that of Wealth Generation. Wealth generation is most important for stability in society, for stability of a Nation. How is wealth generated? Wealth is generated only by work. What sort of work? Work that is preceded by sufficient thought, or research. But, all types of work do not generate the same kind or same amount of wealth. It is work that is done directly on the natural resources available on this planet that generate sustainable wealth. What do I mean? Agriculture & Mining are classified as Primary Work in modern economics. In these two fields of activity, man works directly on Earths natural resources. We can do a lot of further work on the produce obtained from agriculture and mining. These are called Secondary Work. No further work needs to be done on the products of this Secondary Work. The products of Secondary Work will be directly consumed by all of us. The entire process of making the products of Secondary Work available for consumption is itself a huge work that is further classified as Tertiary Work. Tertiary work is also called as Service Activities. I have to give a word of caution here. The term Service Activities is not to be understood as Seva or work done for the benefit of others, without any self-interest, popularized by Swami Vivekananda. In the context we are speaking of, Service Activities is a term used for a particular type of work that man engages in, for economic reasons, a particular type of work that is a link of the chain of wealth generating activities, as explained above. Up to the 16th century, the world knew about Primary activities i.e. Agriculture & Mining. Naturally, there was also quite a bit of secondary & tertiary activities too going on in the world. But all the secondary activity was individualistic in nature. Really, English is a difficult language to use! Chances of misunderstanding are more than the chances of conveying our ideas correctly. Individualistic in this context means that the activity was carried out by one single person only. It was individualistic in that sense. Not individualistic in the sense that Psychology uses it! So, as I was explaining, most of the work that man did was handled by a single person, or a very small group of persons, who held their technology secret. Then came the Industrial Revolution in Europe that changed the texture of all human activity. The Industrial revolution was helped by the birth of the idea of Joint Stock Companies. This combination was formidable. It completely revolutionized the way men worked. It extended the horizons of human achievements, beyond all imagination. Indians have always exalted work. However it was individualistic in nature. Conjoint effort, requiring a complex harmony between large numbers of people, was seldom encouraged
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here. We must acknowledge that there is a close connection between these three work, wealth & type of society. When society was segregated into clusters, when there was no inter-mingling between the different groups within society, work tended to be individualistic. But that kind of individualistic work too tended to produce sufficient amount wealth. That accounted for the enormous wealth that India had generated before 1500 AD. We may need to speak something about the close inter-connection between the market that consumes goods and the technology used for production of the goods. Upto the 16th century, goods were produced locally. They were consumed too locally, well, more or less. Certain things that were produced in quantities that were in surplus over local consumption were shipped off to far-off markets too. Trade & Commerce did exist & thrive before the 16th century. And this distribution was the field of the Service Activities or Tertiary Work that we explained earlier. Now, Indians were hard-workers. Everyone in the India of that age had a specific duty of producing something or the other. The Caste System took care of that division of labor. Now, the market always prefers goods that are cheap but of good quality. As long as the market is small, the individualistic type of working will satisfy the market demands. But as population increases, demands rise. The goods become costly due to various factors. The most important one is the quantity in which the item can be produced. So, there has always been a tendency to reduce the cost of production. Society will always choose a technology that will achieve this twin objective cheaper & higher quality. The conception of the Joint Stock Company in Europe was the turning point of most of the development we see in the world today. How? Most of the things we use today are impossible to produce by means of individual work. Cottage industry or handicraft economy can never produce a car or an airplane. Well, at least in any case, a car or airplane cannot be massproduced by that kind of work! Adam Smith had predicted in his book The Wealth of Nations that the growth of markets would lead to division of labor and new social groups would emerge. Extensive use of technology for mass production called for extensive capital investment, which was no longer possible for individuals to do so. So, the conception of Joint Stock Companies was a logical consequence of the large scale use of technology. Anyway, due to various forces working on the Indian society, from within & without, by 1947, when India obtained political independence, India was a most impoverished nation. Poverty & backwardness was synonymous with India. Now, why did India, one of the richest countries in the world become one of the poorest in the world in a matter of 400 years? What had gone wrong? Human Society had changed. The English rulers who had colonized India had got their act together in their country and had achieved unprecedented economic growth. But India still lived in its mediaeval dream of individual work, individual growth and individual wealth. Everything in India was individualistic. Even spiritual salvation or Moksha was individualistic! However the new dispensation was Joint Effort. Everywhere, there was mass production, mass distribution, mass generation of wealth and mass prosperity. Everywhere, except in India. It was during such a watershed moment in Indias history that Swami Vivekananda said, What we need is to study, independent of foreign control, different branches of the knowledge
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that is our own, and with it the English language and Western science; we need technical education and all else that may develop industries so that men, instead of seeking for service, may earn enough to provide for themselves, and save something against a rainy day.It would be better if the people got a little technical education, so that they might find work and earn their bread, instead of running from pillar to post and crying for service. During the course of a conversation with a friend, he once said, If I can get some unmarried graduates, I may try to send them over to Japan and make arrangements for their technical education there, so that when they come back, they may turn their knowledge to the best account for India. What a good thing that would be!" The friend asked, Why, Maharaj, is it better for us to go to Japan than to England? Swamiji replied, Certainly! In my opinion, if all our rich and educated men once go and see Japan, their eyes will be opened. There, in Japan, you find a fine assimilation of knowledge, and not its indigestion, as we have here. They have taken everything from the Europeans, but they remain Japanese all the same, and have not turned European; while in our country, the terrible mania of becoming westernized has seized upon us like a plague. When India obtained political freedom, two visions for the Nation were present in our country. One was the vision of Mahatma Gandhi. The other was the vision of Swami Vivekananda. Gandhi preferred the cottage industry. Every village would provide all that it needed. That was his dream for India. India was to be a cluster of a few lakh self-sufficient villages. He was totally against the use of widespread technology in India. He felt that introduction of technology in India would leave the masses unemployed and hungry. India had a tough time getting over that mind-block. During Mao Zedongs regime, an American industrialist visited China. He saw a very strange scene. Hundreds & thousands of workers were working with spades, digging a long canal. He asked what they were doing. They explained that it was Maos inspired vision that he had rejected the use of modern technology for digging the canal so that more and more people could have employment. The industrialist had famously retorted, Why dont you suggest your Premier to use spoons instead of spades? That way, more people will be required and the work will go on for a much longer time. It is utterly wrong to feel that the use of technology will render people unemployable. No. Technology uses more people than rudimentary processes. However, skill development is necessary. And for that, systematic technical education is essential. However, one thing has to be noted. Mass employment is closely linked to technology. You cannot provide employment for the masses if you do not adopt modern technology. Again, adopting modern technology calls for two associated developments. One is a capitalistic economy, for technology is capital intensive. Secondly, the masses must have access to modern technical & business education. As opposed to the Gandhian vision, Swamiji preferred the capitalist economy. He dreamed that independent India would develop the capability to impart requisite technical & business skills to its citizens and then, with sufficient capital investment from the citizens themselves, wealth would be generated in India and India would reach the heights of economic prosperity that it always enjoyed in the past. That was his dream. Which vision did India adopt after 1947?

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Nehru adopted neither in toto. He adopted a strange brand of socialism for India. Was he right in doing so? Yes. Why? Because, the enormous technological development required for changing the Indian society to be in tune with the modern world could not be funded by the citizens themselves as yet. So, the State funded the Steel factories and electricity producing dams and defense equipment manufacturing industries and vehicle factories and built roads and railways and established the telephone & telegraph networks. Premier technology-education institutions were started and skilled, educated people were produced. And by 1970, India had already cleared sufficient backlog of its homework. By 1970, India should have opened up its capital market. It didnt. The consequence of this lapse has been deleterious for our country. As a result, corruption set in. Corruption is a direct by-product of the license-raj system of working. Private investors had to and still have to walk through an endless labyrinth of official procedure in order to invest capital in India. 30 years of state-funded market had however accomplished one invaluable result. It had created an ambitious middle-class that was ready to experiment with its newly acquired purchasing power. India had to wait till 1991, when Indias capital market was opened up. It is interesting to study the rate of Indias economic growth right from 1947. You will then get an idea of what I am trying to explain here. Up to 1980, India had the proverbial Hindu Rate of Growth which was 3.5%! Modest reforms in the economy introduced by Rajiv Gandhi in 1980 immediately raised it to 5.5%. The liberalization of 1991 instantly raised it further to 6.2, which peaked to 8.5% in 2010! But we need to analyze this unprecedented growth in this country. We will notice that from 2010 to 2013, the rate of growth has again plunged to 6.4%! Why has this happened? This spurt of growth up to 2010 was fuelled by growth in services and domestic consumption. It was not due to growth in the infrastructure and core manufacturing sectors. In other words, India had bypassed the Industrial Revolution! That is a great danger sign for all of us. The whole problem has been that opening up the capital market requires to be followed by some more important reforms. Let us highlight some of the burning issues that need urgent attention: 1. Land acquisition laws need to be immediately changed. The laws that are currently followed in India were enacted by the British Govt in the 1860s! 2. The so-called Labor Class has been pampered to no end. Labor laws need to be revamped immediately. Laws have to protect the investor too, not just the employee. 3. The liberalization that the 1991 reforms effected was only in the service sector. Even today, the core-manufacturing sector & infrastructure sector are governed by the despicable, out-dated License-Permit-Quota Raj. Even today, no private investor is coming forward to invest in Steel or Road & Railway construction or Power generation or Mining in India. Why? The red-tape involved in investment in those sectors is too intimidating, even for the stoutest hearts! The sooner we allow private investment in these vital sectors, the quicker will be our countrys growth. And it will be a sustained growth.
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4. The CSR scheme that the Indian Parliament has legislated recently ought to be linked to Reverse Engineering. This is the minimum concession that is needed at present. We all know that original research in science & technology is very costly. A country that doesnt have a strong infrastructural basis cannot dream of full-fledged R&D. But it can easily have Reverse Engineering. China has done just that. That is the reason why we see our local markets flooded by all sorts of items of daily use manufactured in China. The Indian Space Program which is today one of the most advanced in the world is a magnificent example of Reverse Engineering initiated in ISRO & DRDO by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. 5. We have to understand as soon as possible that we cannot avoid the Industrial Revolution in our country. We must understand that the Industrial Revolution is not just a couple of State-funded Steel factories and Cotton mills and some medium & small scale industries dotting the sub-urbs! The underlying idea of the Industrial Revolution was the empowerment of the common man. The common citizen was allowed to invest in any sector of the countrys economy. We are yet to see that sort of liberalization in our country. Everything is not negative in India, however. India has some traditional advantages when it comes to private investment. The Indian has traditionally been a man who has saved money and accumulated capital. Now, the growing middle class in India has enormous capital investment power. That needs to be tapped into by a feasible Govt policy on economic liberalization. However, it is just a matter of time. We shall be seeing those requisite reforms soon in our country. Now, the important question is: Do we have the education system that can sustain an economy that is in consonance with such reforms? Do we have the education system that can supply the right kind of people to run a society that is the consequence of such reforms? We have to instill the love of hard work in our technical students. Todays system produces diploma & degree engineers who are shy of touching any machinery with their hands. Our engineers want to sit in AC rooms as soon as they finish their education! That is a dangerous trend. Only drawings are transferred from the West today. They keep the technology tightly to themselves. And our Engineers are satisfied to read those foreign drawings and locally produce goods here. Our Engineers lack the spirit of trying to unravel the technology by Reverse Engineering. The general spirit of inquiry calls for hard work and soiled hands. Business integrity has to be taught to the Indian youth. Swamiji exhorted to his disciples in a wonderful letter dated 11th July 1894 Learn business, my boy. We have yet to achieve great things. Again on 30th Nov 1894, he wrote to the same disciples, Now go to work for the organization. I have started one already in New York and the Vice-President will soon write to you. Keep correspondence with them. Soon I hope to get up a few in other places. We must organize our forces, not to make a sect; we must organize our forces not on religious matters, but on the secular business part of it. A stirring propaganda must be launched out. Put your heads together and organize. As regards the starting of a magazine called Brahmavadin from Madras, he gave very specific instructions to his disciples as follows: In India the one thing we lack is the power of combination, organization, the first secret of which is obedienceSeveral things are necessary. First there should be strict integrityThe Hindus exhibit a peculiar
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negligence in business matters, not being sufficiently methodical and strict in keeping accounts etc All combined efforts in India sink under the weight of one problem we have not yet developed strict business principles. Business is business, in the highest sense, and no friendship should be there. One should keep the clearest account of everything in one's charge and never, never apply the funds intended for one thing to any other use whatsoever even if one is starving. This is business integrity. Next, you will need unfailing energy. Whatever you do let that be your worship for the time. Let this magazine be your God for the time, and you will succeed...Business is business, that is, you must do everything promptly; delay and shuffling won't do. What you want is organization that requires strict obedience and division of labor. You know, I have a personal theory that Swami Vivekananda was the first Indian Entrepreneur. If you study his letters regarding his starting the Belur & Madras Maths, the two magazines Brahmavadin & Prabuddha Bharata, regarding the establishment of Vedanta Society in New York, you will find he was very clear that he wanted each of these enterprises to be run on strictly business lines. Each of these were to serve a spiritual purpose, nonetheless, they were to be run on perfectly professional lines. In fact, in Swamijis eyes, the distinction between the business & the spiritual aspects of life is merely a figment of wrong imagination. The Practical Vedanta that he formulated will find extensive application in human society when democracy gains popularity in the world and the common man becomes more and more aware of his empowerment and participates in meaningful ways in society. The modernity of his conception amazes me! Swamiji envisaged very clearly that the common man would run the economy of India. Let me read out to you a beautiful conversation that he once had with his friend. His friend, a young Bengali named Priyanath Sinha said to Swamiji: The Marwaris are wise, since they do not accept service and most of them engage themselves in some trade. Swamiji did not agree. He instead spelled out his vision for Indias economic development very clearly. He said, Nonsense! They are on the way to bringing ruin on the country. They have little understanding of their own interests. You [i.e. the Bengalis] are much better, because you have more of an eye towards manufacturing. The Marwaris invest money in trading businesses. They trade goods that are manufactured by the Europeans. However, they make only a small percentage of profit. The greater percentage of profit goes to the Europeans, since the goods are actually manufactured by them. If this money were utilized in conducting a few factories and workshops, then it would not only conduce to the well-being of the country but bring by far the greater amount of profit to them, as well! Let me summarize the entire deliberation for you: Swami Vivekanandas vision of Technical Education in India could be understood by understanding the following two points: Firstly, the path of wealth generation that India should follow. We tried to explain this in some detail, by giving a little bit of historical background and comparing with the contemporary developments. India is yet to become fully investor-friendly and attract private enterprise.

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Secondly, the requisites of training that the Indian Engineer needs to have, so that he can shape this country the way Swamiji had dreamed. We have seen how Swamiji has repeatedly pointed out that professional outlook, conjoint effort & and entrepreneurial spirit are the sinequa-non of the Indian Engineer. Swamiji said very categorically, What we need in our country today are Western Science coupled with Vedanta, with Brahmacharya as the guiding motto, and Shraddha or faith in oneself. No other country on Earth has had the good fortune of having its future course of action spelt out so clearly by any of its leaders. We have Swami Vivekananda who has done that for us. Let us wholeheartedly accept it and bring glory and prosperity to our country.

I pray to Swamiji that may we all be instrumental in turning his vision into a reality. With pranams to the Revered Swamijis present here today, I bring my deliberation to a close. I thank the organizers of this seminar for giving me an opportunity to speak on a topic that is very dear to my heart. Thank you. ************

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