Comments - Top One Percent: Are Hindus the New Jews in America? - PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network 2024-03-29T11:26:36Zhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=1119293%3ABlogPost%3A400582&xn_auth=noSocial Realities of Indian Am…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-11-01:1119293:Comment:4277142023-11-01T03:35:57.811ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace…</span><br></br><br></br></p>
<p><span>Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/06/09/social-realities-of-indian-americans-results-from-2020-indian-american-attitudes-survey-pub-84667" target="_blank">https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/06/09/social-realities-of-indian-americans-results-from-2020-indian-american-attitudes-survey-pub-84667</a></span><br/><br/><br/><span>Thirty percent of non-citizen IAAS respondents possess a green card (or a permanent residency card), which places them on a pathway to gaining U.S. citizenship. Twenty-seven percent are H-1B visa holders, a visa status for high-skilled or specialty workers in the United States that has historically been dominated by the technology sector. On average, an H-1B visa holder reports living in the United States for eight years, although 36 percent of H-1B beneficiaries report spending more than a decade in the country (that is, they arrived before 2010). Eighteen percent of non-citizens reside in the United States on an H-4 visa, a category for immediate family members of H-1B visa holders. Fourteen percent of non-citizens are on F-1, J-1, or M-1 visas—categories of student or scholar visas—while another 5 percent hold an L-1 visa, a designation available to employees of an international company with offices in the United States. A small minority of non-citizen respondents—6 percent—claim some other visa status.</span><br/><br/><span>------------------------</span><br/><br/><span>The overwhelming majority of Hindus with a caste identity—more than eight in ten—self-identify as belonging to the category of General or upper caste.</span></p> Latest US Census Data Release…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-10-13:1119293:Comment:4276022023-10-13T01:24:26.266ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Latest US Census Data Released in 2023</span><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://data.census.gov/table/ACSSPP1Y2022.S0201?q=S0201:+Selected+Population+Profile+in+the+United+States&t=-02:-04:070:Ancestry:Income+and+Poverty" target="_blank">https://data.census.gov/table/ACSSPP1Y2022.S0201?q=S0201:+Selected+Population+Profile+in+the+United+States&t=-02:-04:070:Ancestry:Income+and+Poverty</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>Pakistani-Americans Median Household Earning: $106,281, Mean Earnings:…</span></p>
<p><span>Latest US Census Data Released in 2023</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://data.census.gov/table/ACSSPP1Y2022.S0201?q=S0201:+Selected+Population+Profile+in+the+United+States&t=-02:-04:070:Ancestry:Income+and+Poverty" target="_blank">https://data.census.gov/table/ACSSPP1Y2022.S0201?q=S0201:+Selected+Population+Profile+in+the+United+States&t=-02:-04:070:Ancestry:Income+and+Poverty</a></span><br/><br/><span>Pakistani-Americans Median Household Earning: $106,281, Mean Earnings: $149,178</span><br/><br/><span>---------------</span><br/><br/><br/><span>White Americans: Median household Income $78,636 Mean Earnings $112,415</span><br/><br/><span>African Americans : $52,238 $76,888</span><br/><br/><span>American Indian Alaska Native $61,778 $85,838</span><br/><br/><span>Asian Indian $152,341 $197,732</span><br/><br/><span>Bangladeshi $80,288 $116,500</span><br/><br/><span>Chinese $101,738 $160,049</span><br/><br/><span>Taiwanese $122,952 $180,906</span><br/><br/><span>Filipino $109,090 $122,635</span><br/><br/><span>Pakistanis $106,286 $149,178</span><br/><br/><span>Nepal $92,262 $120,146</span><br/><br/><span>Asians $104,646 $149,363</span></p> op Source Countries of Immigr…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-09-13:1119293:Comment:4269752023-09-13T02:51:34.675ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>op Source Countries of Immigrant </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> </span><span class="il">Workers</span><span> in US in 2019</span><br></br><br></br><span>1. India (720,000) 2. China (273,000) 3. Mexico (119,000), 4. Vietnam (100,000), 5. Philippines (87,000), 6. South Korea (84,000), 7. Canada (56,000), 8. Taiwan (53,000), 9. Russia (45,000), 10. Pakistan (35,000).…</span><br></br><br></br></p>
<p><span>op Source Countries of Immigrant </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> </span><span class="il">Workers</span><span> in US in 2019</span><br/><br/><span>1. India (720,000) 2. China (273,000) 3. Mexico (119,000), 4. Vietnam (100,000), 5. Philippines (87,000), 6. South Korea (84,000), 7. Canada (56,000), 8. Taiwan (53,000), 9. Russia (45,000), 10. Pakistan (35,000).</span><br/><br/><a href="https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/foreign-born-stem-workers-united-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/foreign-born-<span class="il">stem</span>-<span class="il">workers</span>-united-states</a><br/><br/><span>Since 2000, the share of foreign-born </span><span class="il">workers</span><span> in the </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> workforce has increased by more than 40 percent.</span><br/><br/><span>The share of foreign-born </span><span class="il">workers</span><span> in </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> occupations has grown significantly in recent years. As shown in Table 2, the number of foreign-born </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> </span><span class="il">workers</span><span> increased from 1.2 million (16.4 percent of the </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> workforce) in 2000 to 2.5 million (23.1 percent of the </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> workforce) in 2019.</span><br/><br/><span>Because immigrant </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> </span><span class="il">workers</span><span> tend to possess skills that complement those of their U.S.-born co-</span><span class="il">workers</span><span>, the presence of immigrants in the workplace increases the productivity (and therefore the wages) of all </span><span class="il">workers</span><span>. Moreover, innovation by immigrant </span><span class="il">workers</span><span> increases the revenue of the firms in which they work, which enables employers to hire more </span><span class="il">workers</span><span>. The overall share of </span><span class="il">workers</span><span> who are foreign-born and hold advanced degrees from either a U.S. or a foreign university is also associated with higher levels of employment among U.S.-born </span><span class="il">workers</span><span>. A 10 percent increase in the share of foreign-born </span><span class="il">workers</span><span> with advanced degrees working in </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> occupations boosted the U.S.-born employment rate by 0.03 percent. This means that every additional 100 foreign-born </span><span class="il">workers</span><span> with an advanced degree working in a </span><span class="il">STEM</span><span> occupation creates roughly 86 </span><span class="il">jobs</span><span> for U.S. </span><span class="il">workers</span><span>.</span><span class="im"><br/></span></p> Hindu Violence against Buddhi…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-08-11:1119293:Comment:4259932023-08-11T15:06:23.427ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>Hindu Violence against Buddhism in India has NO Parallel<br></br><br></br><br></br>by Syed Ehtisham<br></br><br></br><br></br>The ruthless demolition of Buddha statues by the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan has invited severe criticisms from different quarters of the world. It is quite surprising to note that the Hindu Nazi-led Indian Govt. supported by all other Hindu Nazis has condemned the Taliban action. It appears paradoxical that the ancestors of the present Hindu Nazis in India wantonly destroyed the Buddhist…</p>
<p>Hindu Violence against Buddhism in India has NO Parallel<br/><br/><br/>by Syed Ehtisham<br/><br/><br/>The ruthless demolition of Buddha statues by the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan has invited severe criticisms from different quarters of the world. It is quite surprising to note that the Hindu Nazi-led Indian Govt. supported by all other Hindu Nazis has condemned the Taliban action. It appears paradoxical that the ancestors of the present Hindu Nazis in India wantonly destroyed the Buddhist statues and brutally killed the followers of Buddha in India. An impartial student of history can unequivocally remark that the Indian Nazis have no moral right to criticise the Taliban action.<br/><br/>Hundreds of the Buddhist statues, Stupas and Viharas were destroyed in India between 830 AD and 966 AD in the name of the revival of Hinduism. Indigenous and foreign sources, both literary and archaeological, speak volumes of the havoc done to Buddhism by the Nazis in India.<br/><br/>Role of Sankaracharya<br/>Nazi leaders like the Sankaracharyas and many kings and rulers took pride in demolishing the Buddhist images aiming at the total eradication of the Buddhist culture. Today, their descendants destroyed the Babri Masjid and they have also published a list of mosques to be destroyed in the near future. It is with this sin of pride that they are condemning the deed on the part of the Afghans.<br/><br/>The Hindu ruler, Pushyamitra Sunga, demolished 84,000 Buddhist stupas which had been built by Ashoka the Great (Romila Thaper, Ashoka and Decline of Mauryas, London, 1961, p 200). It was followed by the smashing of the Buddhist centres in Magadha. Thousands of Buddhist monks were mercilessly killed. King Jalaluka destroyed the Buddhist viharas within his jurisdiction on the ground that the chanting of the hymns by the Buddhist devotees disturbed his sleep. (Kalhana, Rajatharangini, 1:40). In Kashmir, King Kinnara demolished thousands of Viharas and captured the Buddhists villages to please the Brahmins. (Kalhana 1:80).<br/><br/>Demon’s role<br/><br/>A large number of Buddhist viharas were usurped by the Brahmins and converted into Hindu temples where the Untouchables were given no entrance. The Buddhist places were projected as the Hindu temples by writing Puranas which were concocted myths or pseudo-history.<br/><br/>The important temples found at Tirupati, Ahoble, Undavalli, Ellora, Bengal, Puri, Badrinath, Mathura, Ayodhya, Sringeri, Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Delhi, Nalanda, Gudimallam, NagarjunaKonda, Srisailam and Sabarimala (Lord Ayyappa) in Kerala are some of the striking examples of the Brahmanic usurpation of the Buddhist centres.<br/><br/>At Nagarjunakonda, the Adi Sankara played a demon’s role in destroying the Buddhist statues and monuments. Longhurst who conducted excavations at Nagarjunakonda has recorded this in his book Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India No: 54, The Buddhist Antiquities of Nagarjunakonda (Delhi, 1938, p.6.).<br/><br/>Non-Brahmins burnt alive<br/>The ruthless manner in which all the buildings at Nagarjunakonda were destroyed is simply appalling and cannot represent the work of treasure-seekers because many of the pillars, statues, and sculptures have been wantonly smashed to pieces. Local tradition relates that the Brahmin teacher Sankaracharya came to Nagarjunakonda with a host of followers and destroyed the Buddhist monuments. The cultivated lands on which the ruined buildings stand was a religious grant made to Sankaracharya.<br/><br/>In Kerala, Sankaracharya and his close associate Kumarila Bhatta, an avowed enemy of Buddhism, organized a religious crusade against the Buddhists. We get a vivid description of the pleasure of Sankaracharya on seeing the people of non-Brahmanic faith being burnt to death from the book Sankara Digvijaya.</p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> Why #Indians don't want to be…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-07-01:1119293:Comment:4250682023-07-01T23:02:06.301ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>Why #Indians don't want to be Indian #citizens anymore? More than 1.6 million Indians have renounced their Indian citizenship since 2011, including a whopping 225,620 in 2022 alone, averaging around 618 per day. #Modi #BJP #Hindutva</span><br></br><span>#chaos #anarchy…</span><br></br></p>
<p><span>Why #Indians don't want to be Indian #citizens anymore? More than 1.6 million Indians have renounced their Indian citizenship since 2011, including a whopping 225,620 in 2022 alone, averaging around 618 per day. #Modi #BJP #Hindutva</span><br/><span>#chaos #anarchy</span><br/><span><a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/migrate/why-indians-dont-want-to-be-indian-citizens-anymore/articleshow/101418122.cms" target="_blank">https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/migrate/why-indians-dont-want-to-be-indian-citizens-anymore/articleshow/101418122.cms</a></span><br/><br/><span>"The principal reason why people migrate is economic well being. Everyone wants a better life and their hope is that they would find it in another country," Amit Dasgupta, former Consul-General of India in Sydney, told IANS.</span><br/><br/><span>"In sociology, this is referred to as 'the push factor'. You are pushed out to a place which offers better prospects," Dasgupta said.Many Indian students who go for higher studies abroad also end up settling there as these countries provide them better jobs with attractive pay scales.According to the latest Education Ministry data, more than 770,000 Indian students went abroad to study in 2022 -- a six-year high.</span><br/><br/><span>Also, many Indian students find it tough to find jobs after returning home, which is why they apply for permanent residency in their country of study.</span><br/><br/><span>More than 90 per cent of the students do not wish to come back to India, say estimates.When it comes to India's rich, they want to swim in foreign waters to diversify their fortune, set up alternative residencies, conduct business and pursue a better quality of life even though India continues to be an attractive environment for business activity and corporate growth.</span><br/><br/><span>A 2020 Global Wealth Migration Review report said that among many reasons why people make the decision to migrate to other countries is safety of women and children, lifestyle factors like climate and pollution, financial concerns including taxes, better healthcare for families and educational opportunities for children, and to escape oppressive governments.A low passport score of a country can also make individuals emigrate.</span><br/><br/><span>A higher passport index ranking ensures one gets better access to travel visa-free to many countries.The Indian passport registered the largest global fall in the Passport Index 2023 -- ranking at 144th position this year with a mobility score of 70.</span><br/><br/><span>This means Indians can travel to 21 countries visa-free, and need a visa for 128 countries.In contrast, a Greece or Portugal residency card provides Indians visa-free travel across all Schengen countries.</span></p> TOP TALENT, ELITE COLLEGES, A…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-06-14:1119293:Comment:4248212023-06-14T17:50:10.395ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>TOP TALENT, ELITE COLLEGES, AND MIGRATION:</span><br></br><span>EVIDENCE FROM THE INDIAN INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY</span><br></br><span>Prithwiraj Choudhury</span><br></br><span>Ina Ganguli</span><br></br><span>Patrick Gaulé</span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31308/w31308.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31308/w31308.pdf</a></span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span>We study migration in the right tail of the talent distribution…</span></p>
<p><span>TOP TALENT, ELITE COLLEGES, AND MIGRATION:</span><br/><span>EVIDENCE FROM THE INDIAN INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY</span><br/><span>Prithwiraj Choudhury</span><br/><span>Ina Ganguli</span><br/><span>Patrick Gaulé</span><br/><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31308/w31308.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31308/w31308.pdf</a></span><br/><br/><br/><span>We study migration in the right tail of the talent distribution using a novel dataset of Indian high</span><br/><span>school students taking the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), a college entrance exam used for</span><br/><span>admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). We find a high incidence of</span><br/><span>migration after students complete college: among the top 1,000 scorers on the exam, 36% have</span><br/><span>migrated abroad, rising to 62%for the top 100 scorers. We next document that students who</span><br/><span>attended the original “Top 5” Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) were 5 percentage points</span><br/><span>more likely to migrate for graduate school compared to equally talented students who studied in</span><br/><span>other institutions. We explore two mechanisms for these patterns: signaling, for which we study</span><br/><span>migration after one university suddenly gained the IIT designation; and alumni networks, using</span><br/><span>information on the location of IIT alumni in U.S. computer science departments.</span><br/><br/><span>------</span><br/><br/><br/><span>Highly skilled immigrants make important contributions to innovation and technology in</span><br/><span>the United States. Often, they study in elite universities in their home countries before getting</span><br/><span>advanced degrees abroad. For example, many successful Indian immigrants in the technology</span><br/><span>industry—including Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet Inc./Google, and Arvind Krishna, the</span><br/><span>CEO of IBM—are undergraduate alumni of the selective Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).</span><br/><span>Similarly, Chinese students in U.S. Ph.D. programs overwhelmingly come from a set of highly</span><br/><span>selective Chinese universities (Gaulé and Piacentini, 2013).</span><br/><span>In this paper, we study migration in the very right tail of the talent distribution for high</span><br/><span>school students in India, focusing on the extent to which elite universities in their home country</span><br/><span>facilitate migration. We focus on the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The IITs are</span><br/><span>prestigious and highly selective technical universities with lower acceptance rates than Ivy League</span><br/><span>colleges, particularly for the original five IIT Campuses.</span><br/><span>1 Admission to the IITs is solely through</span><br/><span>the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), where nearly one million exam takers compete for less than ten</span><br/><span>thousand spots. Desai, Kapur, McHale, and Rogers (2009) document anecdotal evidence related</span><br/><span>to the role of elite institutions in India, such as the IITs and the All India Institute of Medical</span><br/><span>Sciences, in facilitating skilled migration to the United States. IIT students have even been</span><br/><span>described as “America’s most valuable import from India” (Leung, 2003).</span><br/><span>Emigration is often difficult to observe from administrative datasets, and few surveys have</span><br/><span>been conducted with a focus on top talent that are not selected on future success or mobility.</span><br/><span>2 We</span><br/><span>were able to overcome these challenges by leveraging the unanticipated public release of the names</span><br/><span>and scores of JEE exam takers in 2010, combined with an intensive manual collection effort on</span><br/><span>exam takers’ outcomes. The result is a novel dataset of high school students who took the JEE</span><br/><span>exam, linked to college attended and later career, education, and migration outcomes. The data</span><br/><span>provides individuals’ scores received on the exam and their national ranking. An important feature</span></p> India’s diaspora is bigger an…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-06-13:1119293:Comment:4249042023-06-13T20:06:20.103ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>India’s diaspora is bigger and more influential than any in history</span><br></br><span>Adobe, Britain and Chanel are all run by people with Indian roots</span><br></br><br></br><br></br><span><a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2023/06/12/indias-diaspora-is-bigger-and-more-influential-than-any-in-history" target="_blank">https://www.economist.com/international/2023/06/12/indias-diaspora-is-bigger-and-more-influential-than-any-in-history</a></span><br></br><br></br><span>The Indian government,…</span></p>
<p><span>India’s diaspora is bigger and more influential than any in history</span><br/><span>Adobe, Britain and Chanel are all run by people with Indian roots</span><br/><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2023/06/12/indias-diaspora-is-bigger-and-more-influential-than-any-in-history" target="_blank">https://www.economist.com/international/2023/06/12/indias-diaspora-is-bigger-and-more-influential-than-any-in-history</a></span><br/><br/><span>The Indian government, by contrast, has been—at least until Mr Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) took over—filled with people whose view of the world had been at least partly shaped by an education in the West. India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, studied at Cambridge. Mr Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh, studied at both Oxford and Cambridge.</span><br/><br/><span>India’s claims to be a democratic country steeped in liberal values help its diaspora integrate more readily in the West. The diaspora then binds India to the West in turn. The most stunning example of this emerged in 2008, when America signed an agreement that, in effect, recognised India as a nuclear power, despite its never having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (along with Pakistan and Israel). Lobbying and fundraising by Indian-Americans helped push the deal through America’s Congress.</span><br/><br/><span>The Indian diaspora gets involved in politics back in India, too. Ahead of the 2014 general election, when Mr Modi first swept to power, one estimate suggests more than 8,000 overseas Indians from Britain and America flew to India to join his campaign. Many more used text messages and social media to turn out bjp votes from afar. They contributed unknown sums of money to the campaign.</span><br/><br/><span>Under Mr Modi, India’s ties to the West have been tested. In a bid to reassert its status as a non-aligned power, India has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and stocked up on cheap Russian gas and fertiliser. Government officials spew nationalist rhetoric that pleases right-wing Hindu hotheads. And liberal freedoms are under attack. In March Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party, was disqualified from parliament on a spurious defamation charge after an Indian court convicted him of criminal defamation. Meanwhile journalists are harassed and their offices raided by the authorities.</span><br/><br/><span>Overseas Indians help ensure that neither India nor the West gives up on the other. Mr Modi knows he cannot afford to lose their support and that forcing hyphenated Indians to pick sides is out of the question. At a time when China and its friends want to face down a world order set by its rivals, it is vital for the West to keep India on side. Despite its backsliding, India remains invaluable—much like its migrants.</span></p> A third of India's most sough…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-06-09:1119293:Comment:4248952023-06-09T14:57:21.880ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>A third of India's most sought after engineering graduates leave the country<br></br><br></br><a href="https://qz.com/a-third-of-indias-iit-graduates-leave-the-country-1850522071" target="_blank">https://qz.com/a-third-of-indias-iit-graduates-leave-the-country-1850522071</a><br></br><br></br><a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31308/w31308.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31308/w31308.pdf</a><br></br><br></br>Banaras Hindu University saw a 540% spike in…</p>
<p>A third of India's most sought after engineering graduates leave the country<br/><br/><a href="https://qz.com/a-third-of-indias-iit-graduates-leave-the-country-1850522071" target="_blank">https://qz.com/a-third-of-indias-iit-graduates-leave-the-country-1850522071</a><br/><br/><a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31308/w31308.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31308/w31308.pdf</a><br/><br/>Banaras Hindu University saw a 540% spike in immigration among graduates after it was turned as an IIT in 2012<br/><br/>One-third of those graduating from the country’s prestigious engineering schools, particularly the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), migrate abroad.<br/><br/>Such highly-skilled persons account for 65% of the migrants heading to the US alone, a working paper (pdf) of the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has concluded.<br/><br/><br/>Nine out of 10 top scorers in the annual joint entrance examination held nationally for admission to the IITs and other reputed engineering colleges have migrated. Up to 36% of the top 1,000 scorers, too, have taken this path, according to the paper published this month.<br/><br/>In the US, there is a long list of IIT graduates now leading executives and CEOs. However, most immigrants move to the US as students and eventually join the US workforce. The NBER paper found that 83% of such immigrants pursue a Master’s degree or a doctorate.<br/><br/>“...through a combination of signaling and network effects, elite universities in source countries play a key role in shaping migration outcomes, both in terms of the overall propensity and the particular migration destination,” the report said.<br/><br/>India has 23 IITs across the country. The acceptance rates at most these hallowed institutions are lower than those of Ivy League colleges, especially at the most sought-after IITs at Kharagpur, Mumbai, Kanpur, Chennai, and Delhi. In 2023 alone, 189,744 candidates registered for the JEE, competing for only 16,598 seats.<br/><br/>Global economies are keen on highly skilled Indians<br/>The US graduate program is a key pathway for migration, to recruit the “best and brightest,” the NBER report said.<br/><br/>Similarly, the UK’s High Potential Individual visa route lets graduates from the world’s top 50 non-UK universities, including the IITs, stay and work in the country for at least two years. For doctoral qualification, the work visa is for at least three years.<br/><br/>Fresh IIT graduates looking to move abroad are helped by a network of successful alumni and faculty already settled abroad, the report said. Some even provide access to particular programs where they have influence over admissions or hiring decisions.<br/><br/><br/>The interesting case of Banaras Hindu University<br/><br/>In 2012, the century-old Banaras Hindu University (BHU), also India’s first central university, was accorded IIT status. The institute located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, was elevated without any changes to its staff, curriculum, or admission system.<br/><br/>The NBER report studied 1,956 BHU students who graduated between 2005-2015 with a BTech, BPharm, MTech, or integrated dual degrees. It found a 540% increase in the probability of migration among graduates after the grant of the IIT status.<br/><br/>“...the quality of education/human capital acquired by the students in the cohorts before and after the change remained constant, while only the name of the university on the degree received differed,” the report said.<br/><br/><br/></p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> 'Hindutva Is Nothing But Brah…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-04-23:1119293:Comment:4232862023-04-23T23:31:43.230ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p>'Hindutva Is Nothing But Brahminism'<br></br><br></br><a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/hindutva-is-nothing-but-brahminism/215089" target="_blank">https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/hindutva-is-nothing-but-brahminism/215089</a><br></br><br></br><br></br>The author (Kancha Ilaiah) of Why I Am Not A Hindu on his view that 'Dalitisation' alone can effectively challenge the threat of Brahminical fascism parading in the garb of Hindutva.<br></br><br></br><br></br>How would you characterise contemporary…</p>
<p>'Hindutva Is Nothing But Brahminism'<br/><br/><a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/hindutva-is-nothing-but-brahminism/215089" target="_blank">https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/hindutva-is-nothing-but-brahminism/215089</a><br/><br/><br/>The author (Kancha Ilaiah) of Why I Am Not A Hindu on his view that 'Dalitisation' alone can effectively challenge the threat of Brahminical fascism parading in the garb of Hindutva.<br/><br/><br/>How would you characterise contemporary Hindutva? What is the relationship between Hindutva and the Dalit-Bahujans?<br/><br/>As Dr.Ambedkar says, Hindutva is nothing but Brahminism. And whether you call it Hindutva or Arya Dharma or Sanatana Dharma or Hindusim, Brahminism has no organic link with Dalit-Bahujan life, world-views, rituals and even politics. To give you just one example, in my childhood many of us had not even heard of the Hindu gods, and it was only when we went to school that we learnt about Ram and Vishnu for the very first time. We had our own goddesses, such as Pochamma and Elamma, and our own caste god, Virappa. They and their festivals played a central role in our lives, not the Hindu gods. At the festivals of our deities, we would sing and dance--men, women and all-- and would sacrifice animals and drink liquor, all of which the Hindus consider 'polluting'.<br/><br/>Our relations with our deities were transactional and they were rooted in the production process. For instance, our goddess Kattamma Maisa. Her responsibility is to fill the tanks with water. If she does it well, a large number of animals are sacrificed to her. If in one year the tanks dry up, she gets no animals. You see, between her and her Dalit-Bahujan devotees there is this production relation which is central.<br/><br/><br/><br/>----<br/>In fact, many Dalit communities preserve traditions of the Hindu gods being their enemies. In Andhra, the Madigas enact a drama which sometimes goes on for five days. This drama revolves around Jambavanta, the Madiga hero, and Brahma, the representative of the Brahmins. The two meet and have a long dialogue. The central argument in this dialogue is about the creation of humankind. Brahma claims superiority for the Brahmins over everybody else, but Jambavanta says, 'No, you are our enemy'. Brahma then says that he created the Brahmins from his mouth, the Kshatriyas from his hands, the Vaishyas from his thighs, the Shudras from his feet to be slaves for the Brahmins, and of course the Dalits, who fall out of the caste system, have no place here. This is the Vedic story.<br/><br/>What you are perhaps suggesting is that Dalit-Bahujan religion can be used to effectively counter the politics of Brahminism or Hindutva. But Brahminism has this knack of co-opting all revolt against it, by absorbing it within the system.<br/><br/>It is true that although Dalit-Bahujan religious formations historically operated autonomously from Hindu forms, they have never been centralised or codified. Their local gods and goddesses have not been projected into universality, nor has their religion been given an all-India name. This is because these local deities and religious forms were organically linked to local communities, and were linked to local productive processes, such as the case of Virappa and Katamma Maisa whom I talked about earlier. But Brahminism has consistently sought to subvert these religious forms by injecting notions of 'purity' and 'pollution', hierarchy and untouchability even among the Dalit-Bahujans themselves, while at the same time discounting our religious traditions by condemning them as 'polluting' or by Brahminising them.</p>
<p class="comment-timestamp"></p> I won a birth lottery on cast…tag:www.pakalumni.com,2023-04-19:1119293:Comment:4227592023-04-19T01:33:57.943ZRiaz Haqhttp://www.pakalumni.com/profile/riazul
<p><span>I won a birth lottery on caste, but learned fortune need not mean cruelty</span><br></br><span>Shree Paradkar</span><br></br><span>By Shree ParadkarSocial & Racial Justice Columnist…</span><br></br><br></br></p>
<p><span>I won a birth lottery on caste, but learned fortune need not mean cruelty</span><br/><span>Shree Paradkar</span><br/><span>By Shree ParadkarSocial & Racial Justice Columnist</span><br/><br/><span><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/04/15/i-won-a-birth-lottery-on-caste-but-learned-fortune-need-not-mean-cruelty.html" target="_blank">https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/04/15/i-won-a-birth-lottery-on-caste-but-learned-fortune-need-not-mean-cruelty.html</a></span><br/><br/><br/><span>I come from a Brahmin family. This means I won a birth lottery. It means that while other identities may pose barriers, caste is never one. In fact, in certain situations, it is the secret handshake that opens doors, sometimes literally.</span><br/><br/><span>Caste privilege looks like — among many things — never hesitating to say your last name, being considered to come from a “good family,” having a higher chance of a sheltered upbringing (innocence is prized but not granted to all women) and being treated with deference in public spaces.</span><br/><br/><span>Brahmins around me insist they are not casteist. They say they don’t even think about caste let alone know the names of various castes, yet their social circles are almost entirely made up of fellow Brahmins. They say that caste oppression is now reversed and that Brahmins are now the real victims, sidelined in the caste system.</span><br/><br/><span>These are debates without empirical data, backed up by an anecdote or two about an undeserving “lower caste” person getting this job or that. (For a Brahmin, everybody else is “lower caste.”) By various counts, Brahmins, who form about four to five per cent of the Hindu population, comprise half of Indian media decision-makers and at least a third of bureaucrats and judges. Meanwhile, according to Oxfam, Dalits’ life expectancy can be up to 15 years less than other groups.</span><br/><br/><span>If forced to discuss caste, Brahmins will often claim the orginal varna system was fluid at its founding thousands of years ago, again with no evidence that Dalits could ever have educated themselves enough to then be considered Brahmin. As Indian social justice advocate Dilip Mandal noted recently on Twitter Spaces, a discussion on caste is neither theological nor historical nor abstract. It’s about lived experiences today.</span><br/><br/><span>Being ignorant of caste is a marker of privilege. I, too, only learned of the details of the caste system thanks to the tireless advocacy of Equality Labs in the U.S. Understanding anti-Black racism awoke me to caste-based brutality. Of course, learning that one’s gloried background is the carrier of such cruelty causes harsh cognitive dissonance. Reckoning with this reality is painful, but that discomfort pales in comparison to the generations of trauma inflicted on the marginalized. There is also little point in guilt or self-hatred; both emotions, while wrenching, simply continue to centre on the self.</span><br/><br/><span>None of us are born with a ready-made analysis of oppression. None of us choose to be born into the identities we inherit. The least the holders of power can do is to sit quietly, listen, reflect — not “Am I complicit” but “In what ways am I complicit” — learn, make space. And then they should let go of the reins.</span></p>