Comments on: Why is India poor?

By: Notsure

Notsure — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:23:01 +0000

AGW do name the top fighters who are/were MIT,stanford Phd’s.

By: Atanu Dey

Atanu Dey — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:55:34 +0000

AGWorld:

I would disagree with you. Tavleen was not talking about illiteracy but rather education. I think that we have to take a much broader definition of education. Anyone who is willing to commit horrible crimes based on some ideology is definitely not educated — regardless of how many technical degrees they acquired.

Here we should be careful to note that merely because some prominent terrorists have degrees does not argue that crime in general is more likely in a society that is less educated. Also, there is are causal links between the level of education and general social prosperity.

By: AGWorld

AGWorld — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:46:09 +0000

http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/feb/23edu.htm
“Meet the educated, tech-savvy terrorist”

Proves Tavleen’s assertion wrong.
The problem is not illiteracy.
The problem is Islam.

By: sukesh

sukesh — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:43:18 +0000

Does education means just the knowledge. To me education means the imparting skills. And when we talk about primary education then it means imparting a child with ability to learn. And secondary education should impart him with ability to reason. Now if a person can fairly reason pros and cons of a given thing, he can do a justified deed to his duties.
If like Pankaj said someone keeps his faith(Whether faith is of religion or his leader) on top of his reason then definitely he has not received education, virtually he might be a post graduate.

By: Amit

Amit — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:54:19 +0000

pankaj, I can’t help it if you don’t read my comment properly and jump to conclusions. *shrug*

By: pankaj

pankaj — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:14:09 +0000

Ag and amit you both are wrong that educated people dont make terrorists,terrorists/violence are made when there is perceived injustice,anybody can get angry and violent its human nature.regards to knowledge of islamic terrorism u both are i think not informed well forgive me.one of my islamic freinds told no matter whatever education a muslim may acquire Stanford,UCLA,MIT for him islam is at the top of the pyramind all other things come afterwards.

By: shakti

shakti — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:52:30 +0000

But how is the resignation of Dr. Manmohan Singh a solution or even a logical thing to do (for Dr.Singh) considering that his Education Minister is doing irreparable damage to the Indian education system? I fail to understand that. He, as a PM, is accountable for his ministers. Agreed. But isn’t asking for his head a little to radical? Lets assume he has a conscience and he does indeed resign. What better can happen? Sonia decides Arjun Singh knows best how to cash-in on vote-bank politics and cling on to power and makes him the PM instead. He is an old player, loves and adores madam, surely he cant be a bad choice! We should perhaps ask ourselves if that is what we want. I am of course arguing more on the comment to the post than on Tavleen Singh’s column itself. Mostly because I am in near-total agreement to all that she said.

By: Amit

Amit — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:05:46 +0000

AGWorld, while your point about education and terrorists is valid, it is also true that educated people are less likely to go the way of terrorism. If you look at the percentage of terrorists recruited, overwhelming majority of them are poor and/or uneducated, with no/little job-earning skills. If the assertion was "educated people never become terrorists/indulge in violence" then what you say is true. But if the assertion is "educated people are less likely to become terrorists/indulge in violence" - you'll probably agree with it.

By: AGWorld

AGWorld — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:51:24 +0000

I am not in agreement with many things Tavleen mentions.

For one, she says because people do not have access to good education do they become goons.
Really? Why then, are all of Al-Queda’s top fighters MIT and Stanford PhDs, doctors, engineers etc?

Surely living in the US of A could have made them more aware? Or why, for that matter, does Malaysia become more intolerant and afghanistan-ish the richer it gets?

Availability of education is a problem but it is the content of education that is equally a problem. Here is where a solid grounding of economics and history — as you suggest — helps.

There are other things though that are spot-on, including your call for MMS to resign!