Because there are buyers around!

Pulling the world of knowledge from the trap of capitalist economy warrants a shift towards restoring academic freedom.

Neoliberal approaches in higher education have largely failed, as:  it has not led to greater efficiencies but to more bureaucracy; it has not led to greater liberties but to more constraints on teaching, research, and engagement; it has not led to more robust and autonomous institutions but to weakened institutions linked too closely to the immediate concerns of the day; and it has not led to new ways to grapple with the crises that face us but to treading farther down the same paths that created those crises. Prof. Lawrence Busch contends that as the capitalist economy promotes the marketing and branding of everything and everyone, pulling the world of knowledge out from the trap of the business model that aims at investing in education for getting a good job would warrant a shift towards restoring academic freedom.     

Knowledge for Sale could not have appeared at a more important time, as it reflects the painful decline the institutions of higher learning are going through. At stake is the role of higher education as a crucial public good, which is being compromised under the influence of the markets. The crisis is so stark that its symptoms are spread all over: decline of humanities education, escalating student debt, and underpaid contract faculty. One would imagine that with the only knowledge worth pursuing is that which has more or less immediate market value, such a situation was bound to occur.  

Lawrence Busch is not convinced, and challenges this market-driven approach. His thesis is based on the premise that most of the present-day problems – from climate change to water shortages, and from obesity to financial crises – would need new knowledge in addressing each of these issues. To imagine that market alone will resolve such issues is a fallacy worth challenging, because the market is neither inclusive nor transformative. It does alter consumptive habits only to the extent of minting profits, and almost always by externalizing costs of such a transition. Consider how market incentives in our food system promote diets that create obesity, thereby putting extra demands on medical institutions. Markets on their own cannot substitute institutions of higher education and research which co-create knowledge for the state to act upon. 

Drawing a distinction between liberals of 18th and 19th centuries with neo-liberals of 20th and 21st centuries, the author explains that while the liberals had argued that the State should merely leave the market alone, the neo-liberals sought nation-states active involvement in the market instead. No surprise, therefore, that the market has intervened at individual and institutional levels by changing the rules of the game. Hence, markets and market-like competitions have replaced direct government intervention in promoting higher education and research. 

Professor emeritus of sociology at Michigan State University, with research interests in environmental and agricultural research, Busch argues that education is a public good and that an educated citizenry is an essential component of functional democracy. Through an in-depth analysis on the influence of neo-liberalism the book provides a crucial rationale for defending higher education as an important public good, which ought to be protected from corporate control as defined by agents of privatization, deregulation, and commodification. For this to be realized, universities and research institutions must be remade as places where the future is neither already made in the mold of the market nor in which the market is to be avoided at all costs, but where many possible futures are proposed, debated, and discussed.

Among many cases of the kind, the case of 10-year lease agreement worth Canadian $7 million biotechnology research between Monsanto and the University of Manitoba illustrates how market influences research that may not necessarily be in the public interest. For three years, much to the dismay of many faculty members, the university administration unsuccessfully suppressed the news. This isn’t an isolated case of market influenced research. What is more, such dubious agreements erode public faith in research institutions.  

Knowledge for Sale peels many layers of the crises, including individual researchers’ laid back attitude awaiting pay-checks to those who capitalize public resources to maximize personal goals. Such situations have created a ‘moral hazard’ for the public sector, which only helped create an opening for the market to make inroads through open competition for external grants and by tagging institutions as products in the market. Although there is some merit in this approach as it promises to increase efficiency, productivity and profits, it eventually undermines research, education, public engagement, and fails to contribute to promoting democracy. In the nutshell, public good gets compromised! 

In making a case for the promoting and strengthening public good, Busch investigates four institutional core areas - administration, education, research, and extension – in enlisting specific proposals for change. Ranging from making research institutions secure places with attached conditions to making universities models of democratic discourse, the book challenges the pervasive idea that higher education needs to be run like a business. Citing successful initiatives at many universities and research institutions, Busch has drawn an actionable agenda at the core of which the leading question before the society at large is: what kind of universities and research institutes we want to help us come out of the wicked problems afflicting us?    

For those in the spheres of academics, Knowledge for Sale offers substance to view the current predicaments while at the same time remaining brief and accessible. 

Knowledge for Sale
by Lawrence Busch
The MIT Press, USA
Extent: 153, Price: $25.95

First published in Current Science, issue dated January 25, 2019.

Music to the years

During the decades in which the nation was made, unmade and remade, songs captured the mood, sentiments, and consciousness of the country’s identity.

Could there be any political underpinnings of the time reflected in this unforgettable song Hum bewafa hargiz na thay, par hum wafa kar na sake of the late 70’s? Not much is there to write home about Anand Bakshi’s lyrics, but Kishore Kumar’s pitch, tone and tenor of delivery made the song a timeless classic. Give a discerning year to the song and one can draw an interesting parallel to this hit-song from a flop-film. Much like the short-lived Janata Party rule at the centre at that time, the much-hyped film Shalimar too had flopped at the box office the same year. And, the song conveyed the message that letting down the people was neither the objective nor the intention. It applied as much to the characters in reel life as to the politicians in real life. 

Differing in their journalistic experiences and personal interests, Ankur Bhardwaj, Seema Chisti and Sushant Singh teamed together to draw such parallels, one song per year, to complement the twists and travails of seventy years of post-independent era. As much a book of general knowledge, Note by Note captures the rhythm of country’s socio-economic and political rumblings to the beat of popular film music. The symphony it creates is imaginative, interesting and engaging albeit in parts.

There is no denying the fact that Bollywood songs have held relevance beyond the narratives and situations unfolding in the films. Living in our collective memory, songs articulate some of our deepest desires, delights and even nightmares. Written by some of the great contemporary poets and composed by pre-eminent musicians, film songs have tended to reflect upon our everyday existential, social, national, and universal concerns. The authors argue that rather than narrowing the notion of ‘India’, popular music has continued to expand it. During the decades in which the nation was made, unmade and remade, songs captured the mood, sentiments, and consciousness of the country’s identity. . 

If Guru Dutt’s reaction to the persistent corruption and degradation of society a decade after independence was masterfully captured in the song Jinhe naaz hai Hind par who kahan hai, the end of jury system following the landmark Nanavati case was epitomized by Pyar kiya to darna kya. Without doubt, much of the 60s and 70s were youthful years of post-independence generation, the whiff of romance in the air found reflections in first, Oh haseena zulfon waali as an attempt to woo lady love, and second,  Chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko confirming  that love has finally found its mark. With one song representing each year of independent India’s history, the book gives music to the years by picking one Hindi film song that was composed and widely heard during the year. 

Nothing could be more challenging than to pick one popular from among hundreds of songs to mirror the development of the nation during a particular year. Some lyrics closely reflect the unfolding realities whereas many other songs need interpretation to match the situation. While the authors argue that the link between words and tunes of songs with the people has been deeper and stronger, the present-day lyricists and composers have the added challenge to generate the level of feelings that can sustain that link. 

Although the efforts by Bhardwaj, Chishti and Singh are commendable, midway through the book a reader starts to wonder if it is a general knowledge book peppered with songs or a book of songs interspersed with general knowledge. However, the authors succeed in making reading modern history musical by juxtaposing short analyses of the songs with thumbnail sketches of development. Papa kehte hain bada naam karega bore little resemblance to the events in the country in 1988, but the lyrics by celebrated poet Majrooh Sultanpuri sought hope amidst all round anxiety. Whether or not one accepts the choice of songs, the selection not only captures the overall mood and groove of the year but the poetic sensitivity with which it was musically expressed as well. 

Be it a reflection of Jawaharlal Nehru drafting country’s future through Afsana likh rahe hoon in 1947 to the period of deaths and strife in 1993 which sought nothing less than a mourner to hum Dil hoom hoom kare, Ghabaraae, the songs of the past seven decades clearly reflect the innate resilience that has seen the country emerge unscathed from each bout of uncertainty. Nothing but the number Anhoni ko honi kar dein, honi ko anhoni, from the movie Amar Akbar Anthony, released in 1977, reflects our national character of pulling ourselves out from all odds. 

Having grown up with the memorable film music of yesteryears, the book evokes nostalgia of the era when rhythm and melody reigned supreme in conveying emotions of all hues. The songs of the past were part of the cultural fabric of the society, stirring emotional chord with its listeners. In the predominant market culture, however, songs are like products on the supermarket shelves! 

Note By Note
by Ankur Bhardwaj, Seema Chisti, Sushant Singh
Harper Collins, Delhi
Extent: 159, Price: $35  

First published in Hindustan Times dated Sept 8, 2018