Why I’m worried by Amartya Sen’s take on India’s IT sector

Last month, Nobel prizewinner Amartya Sen spoke at India’s National Association of Software Services and Companies (NASSCOM) about the state of the country’s IT sector. Here’s my take on what he said.

His basic argument was that the IT industry must do more for Indian society at large:

“I want to speak about the possibility of the Information Technology industry to reach out beyond its principality, about the case for the industry to bring its influences somewhat beyond what can be seen as its traditional domain… It already makes enormous contributions. My point, rather, is that it can do even more.”

This idea is based on Sen’s so-called ‘capability approach’ – in a nutshell, that dignified living and freedom from poverty rest on non-material factors such as political participation, and access to information and resources:

“[There is a] foundational connection between information and social obligation, since the moral – and of course the political – need to pay attention to others depends greatly on our knowledge and information about them…. More information in itself goes a long way to breaking that chain of apathy and indifference.”

All perfectly laudable… But Sen then invoked a historical analysis to rationalise – or should that be romanticise? – how India has acquired its penchant for specialist (including IT) skills:

“There has been a historical respect for distinctive skills, seeing it even as a social contribution in itself. Indeed, even the nasty caste system, which has so afflicted the possibility of social equity in India, has tended greatly to rely on — and exploit — the traditional reverence for specialised skill, which, in its regimented form, has been used to add to the barriers of societal stratification.”

At this point my alarm bells started ringing… Sen clearly acknowledges the ‘nastiness’ of the caste system and its exploitative nature. But his analysis of the caste system’s contribution to India’s undeniably successful IT sector – in terms of revering ‘specialised’ skills – is a worrying depiction of a ‘good thing’ arising from a ‘bad system’.

Sen knows perfectly well that this ‘specialisation’ of the caste system has also condemned many in lower castes to professions such as manual scavenging and constructing latrines (which continues today, despite being prohibited in 1993). This stems from the fact that ‘intellectual sciences’ such as astrology have traditionally been respected by the Hindu religion, whereas knowledge systems involving physical labour are considered menial.

As a result, millions of Indian people are still denied the opportunity to realise their full potential. Surely this situation is precisely the opposite of Sen’s capability approach?

[In response to Dipankar's suggestion, here's Gail Omvedt's article 'Untouchables in the world of IT']

Comments

[Dipankar]

Murali, I couldn't agree with you more.

When I read first read Sen's speech, faithfully reproduced in The Hindu in toto, I too felt he had soft-pedalled the caste issue.

While Sen is often described by his critics as being an advocate of caring capitalism, I was singularly disappointed by the lack of a more rigorous and robust analysis of the caste factor in the speech.

Perhaps your blog can give a link to Gail Omvedt's excellent piece, written for Panos Features some years ago, on caste and IT?

[Raja Samuel]

Murali, you've struck the nail on its head. Just as the traditional caste system cleaved society, the IT -caste nexus has created a wide gap between the haves and have-nots. With salaries and perks going to unethical levels for so called skilled jobs, it is time we question the basis for attaching high value to intellectual skills and absolutely poor value to physical labour.

[Prof.V.N.Viswanathan]

Interesting issue for a serious discussion. I am close observer of IT development in India and observed that there is a scheme of casteism among IT professionals. The digital divide is not only within the axis of rural and urban but also within the rigid cast sturcture. High requirement of intellectual acitivites consider to be repository of high caste groups in the IT sector. Empirical evidence also collected by one of research scholar in recent time prove this point.

When professionalism looked from sociological prisms, there are certain myths and realities which is/are beyond our visulization. I may go with Sen's deep sighted vision which is not certianly soft peddling on caste influnce in thew IT sector.

[Annu]

Murali, i think you've got it wrong.. not only does he talk of 'the nasty caste system' but also of how it 'has been used to add to the barriers of societal stratification'. How can you then say that he 'romanticises' caste when he talks about the need for reaching out 'beyond its principality' - i.e. as i understand it, it is not enough to have 'a reverence for specialized skills' and one has to go beyond and actually CREATE! I really think that's what he's getting at..
But I would tend to agree that the IT sector is caste-ridden - one just needs to see the Silion valley Tam-Bram nerds on the lookout for good Tam-Bram wives from the proper caste and sub-caste, but that's another issue altogether..

[Rina Mukherji]

A reverence for specialized skills is,in itself,not wrong. But when this results in denying human rights to a section of the population, it is definitely wrong. What's more, the caste system in India has often been used to humiliate communities or groups defeated in battle. (That is how one finds many Rajputs engaged in sweeping and scavenging).This can change only if IT and other professional education is made affordable for the marginalized and poor. Until then, IT skills will contribute to widening the rich-poor gap in India. Amartya Sen may not have had first-hand experience of the pernicious caste system, since he has worked through his Pratichi Trust largely in West Bengal. Perhaps, that is why he has soft-pedalled the caste issue. But let us not forget, vertical mobility through professional education is just as tough for poor tribals who are as badly treated in this country, and continue to be branded criminals and worse in spite of their innocence.

[Murali]

I’d like to thank everyone who responded to my views on Amartya Sen’s talk about India’s IT sector. As well as the comments above, a couple of journalists and several activists have emailed me personally. Most comments were supportive, some wondered if I’d got it wrong.

Another close reading of Sen’s paper convinces me that he is portraying the caste system in a positive light. According to Sen, the caste system has led to the development of specialised skills (which he welcomes), even though – in its regimented form – it has also been used to add the barriers of societal stratification (which he condemns).

As Gail Omvedt said in an email to me, “I don't think [the caste sytem] encouraged skills; …it made them [low caste and untouchables] stagnate. People were not supposed to be inventive; stay where you are was the message. And with no inventiveness, what good was this so-called ‘specialisation’?”

[Rajkumar das james]

I admire Prof Sen and the discussion were interesting. caste System is prohibited by our constitution yet very little is accomplished since independence. It is duty of every citizen organizations churches temples Mosques local and federal governments to fight caste system which exists in all societies and countries in form or other our system is the worst. What can I do thanks