When will Socrates meet peasants

I am tired of students bringing start-up ideas based on me-too business models. Anything you look around yourself in India is either a clone (Uber for X, eCommerce in Y etc.) or a Jugaad and has been funded because if it has worked somewhere, it might as well work here.  Let's make some money is the general idea, no doubt it is good for some and I wish them well but not so good for ourselves as collective. Larger question to ask is when will we have our own Apple or WhatsApp or Tesla?

We weren't this unoriginal about the world of true discovery and useful science. Aryabhata had reasoned that earth rotates. Brahmagupta had reasoned and proven that earth has gravity and therefore things do not fly off. Both Aryabhata and Brahmagupta had been translated extensively into Arabic in 8th century. Al-Beruni (after learning 10 years of Sanskrit) translated them again in 11th century and wrote Taarikh al-Hind, additionally informing the world about Indian numerals and decimal system. Later in 17th century Italian jesuit Roberto Nobili (an expert in Tamil and Sanskrit) translated  numerous Indian rationalist literature into Latin. Another french gentleman Father Pons in early 18th century translated non-spiritual literature into French and smuggled umpteen manuscripts to France. Late 18th century, legal scholar of East India company William Jones, who also started Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, was amazed when he compiled and published on topics such as Arithmetic and Geometry, Mixed sciences, Medicine, Chemistry , Surgery, Manufacturing, Trade and legal and analytical treaties such as Manusmriti, Kautilya and Nagarjuna.

Yet, our ability to reason, organize and administrate ourselves was deliberately crushed by the expediency of colonization. Warren Hastings and later ones had to undo William Jones and collude with James Stuart Mill (The history of British India, where he shamed Indian rationalists, astronomy and science), Katherine Mayo (very derogatory book Mother India, also the most preferred book to know India in the whole of West), Rudyard Kipling and Macaulay to prove India "a barbaric and primitive society, unaware of its vision and unable to rule itself" as a justification for colonization. At the same time, they actively promoted India as land of exotic (elephants, snake charmers and mystics) as it not only introduced an element of fun in their work but it also subtly reinforced notion of inability for reason and science across the world including Indians themselves.

Nationalist Indian elite had to play the ball. We were the vanquished. A series of humiliating defeats over hundred years through the journey of consolidation of Raj (colonization) made Indian elite succumb to acceptance of idea that we were inferior to West in terms of "material world" i.e. science and organization. The only way left for Indian-elite to build self-confidence towards anti-colonization nationalism was through invoking of "inner world" i.e. cultural and spiritual superiority, a domain incidentally left unmanaged by British. It is no surprise that Vivekanand used pride in Hindu culture as his main plank for revival of nationalism. Tilak had to organize his comrades under religious banner of Ganesh Chaturthi. Gandhi had to concoct Ahimsa and Satyagraha (non violent movement) as his bulwarks for nationalist movement. By mid 20th century firmly under Raj, Indians had started to relish attention and praise for the inner-identity i.e. spiritual and mystic capabilities. Barring few rationalist in West as well as among Indian elite, the new inner-identity had taken universal roots.  

So why does all this matter? It matters because post independence, we have not worked on re-calibrating our inner-identity towards rationalism and scientific ability as a nation and therefore even in 2015, Yoga remains our most visible and impressive export to the world. How did we arrive here?

Nehru and Patel were nationalist as well as a rationalist. While they and their colleagues worked with Gandhi for the freedom movement, they also had ideas (read Gandhian ideals were deemed unfit) on how to build a Modern nation. Nehru travelled the world to help India shake this inner-identity off. At home, in a hurry to remedy gaps in inner-identity or quickly imitate or catch up with West in scientific accomplishments, Nehru went on a spree to expand higher science and technology education through IITs and institutions such as BARC, Bokaro and others. While cutting edge science and technology is a matter of exacting formal education and years of rationalist preparation, Nehru and subsequent powerful elite ended up neglecting formal base for mass education. Saddled with inherited society-wide inner-identity, non-existent mass education system to prepare rationalist thinking, our youth had to take the route of coaching/ cramming to hope and get into the imitation games at IITs (where entrance test JEE is the real brand) and such other places to secure available employment opportunities at first Bokaro et al and later IT industry. Lately, most Indian students (at least those who can afford) are decidedly preferring to do their higher studies at foreign universities.

There is simmering awareness of it among all of us. Yet immediately we would wonder how come we have Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Padmasree Warrior, Sanjay Mehrotra, Shantanu Narayen, Sanjay Kumar Jha and few others leading world's best technology companies. However, if you ask them or their family in private, in their earlier days in India they were mostly doing what others were doing, studying hard to get a degree, to get a job or exit to better world . It is the subsequent flowering by rationalistic education at US universities and long work experience with colleagues from similar universities that has helped them to reach where they are. Even Indian tech startups are preferring to hire leadership with foreign degrees and work experience, which incidentally is not just about relevant experience but also for rationalist mindset. Yet, by their name, skin color and family roots they are Indian. It makes me happy for them as individuals but their success does not translate into obvious pride for us as collective.

Thus, at a larger scale, Socrates is yet to meet the peasants in our country to change our inner-identity towards rationalism and science. This can not be done by more IITs and mere Skill Development programs. This can not be done without strengthening  elementary school system as acquiring rationalist and scientific temperament  is matter of rigour and preparation over years.  However it can be accelerated by inspiring our children in 'Making of small products and projects'. When a product does not work, child is mentally challenged towards rationalist thinking with laws of nature and science to make it work.

Until Socrates meets the peasants, we will be adapting, not inventing. We will have IT labour, not Steve Jobs. We will have opportunistic capital, not the risk capital.

(Author's views are personal)