Boycott - 2

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To return to the epigraph of yesterday's post, the lady needn't have traveled all the way to India to see untouchability that was the epitome of our caste system. It is there everywhere all the time; you just have to open your eyes and introspect (no contradiction there). It exists at various levels from the brute physical to the subtle intellectual.

It was pretty bad in our Village in the 1950s. They may now resent Gandhijee's attempts to eradicate it as condescending but it was he who took up the Harijans' cause overtly and emboldened them. There was this great commotion in our Village, Muthukur, when a handsome and youthful landlord was ambushed and attacked and lynched to death for his perceived transgressions.

But, untouchability was and is there within the four walls of our South Indian Brahmin households...I was flummoxed when my mom didn't allow me to touch her for all of three days a month. And everyday for the one or two hours while she sits down to her Puja after elaborate ablutions. And if I insisted I have got to embrace her, as a kid of 3, I was stripped stark naked. So, it is no surprise that the first boycott of the so-called outcastes was that they were not allowed to touch the community well; among other things.

Well, the Americans were no better. Just read Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. It is so explicitly against the treatment they gave to their colored fellowmen that it was Mark Twain that was about to be boycotted...because famous literary contemporaries of his were enraged that almost all the white adults in his book were shown as crooks while the coloreds were shown as innocents.

And Muhammed Ali said it openly:

'Ali stated, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong... No Viet Cong ever called me nigger" – one of the more telling remarks of the era.^[6]'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali

That is an instance of Black & White. If you want yellow, just cross the Himalayas and enter the dragon kingdom and shout: "Long Live Dalai Lama!"

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The first boycott in which I was asked to join was at IIT KGP. It was like this:

In the good old days, say, between 1955 and 1975, there was this phenomenon of permanent headship of the HoDs. If a senior professor got to be appointed HoD he would head the Department forever till his retirement or death, whichever is earlier, as the legalese went. And the other Professors resented this since most of them never got the chance to hold that powerful position. So, there was a "KGP Spring". Teachers got together and formed a Teachers Association to fight the System. It was called IITTA...I guess it is still there. And enrolled all of us as members whether we paid the Membership Fees regularly or not.

And, as you know, no one in power for decades likes to lose it. So, the Elite formed a rival thing called Faculty Forum and supported the Director of the moment. That sure was cause for trouble.

And the FF, since they were all in powerful positions of Gymkhana President and Deans and Dons and Wardens had direct hold on the Students. And to teach Teachers a Lesson, egged on the Student VP, Hall Secs et al to come up in a hurry with a Muster Roll of all the 250 Teachers with marks against each Teacher how effective he is as a teacher. It was all done in a hurry and most students were given a Feedback Form and asked to rate their teachers overnight on a scale of 0-100. Kids being kids, didn't understand the Game but were most happy to avail the chance of their lifetime.

So, overnight there were copies of the Assessment File floating all over the Campus rating all the 250 of us with consolidated marks against each of us.

Then shoot hit the Teachers' Fan..

A GBM of the IITTA was called and we were all asked to boycott Hall Days (social boycott).

Students didn't mind it...rather...

Since it was ineffective, we were called upon to participate in Reco Boycott.

Then shoot hit the Students' Fan.

Then we were called upon to participate in Invigilation Boycott.

Then shoot hit the Director's Fan.

Then Russi Mody, Chairman, Board of Governors, stepped in and used his Divide and Rule Policy: he asked the Director to sack the troublesome Office Bearers of the IITTA.

And promote all other teachers wherever possible.

That is how all six of us who applied in the Phy Dept, including DB and I, got kicked upstairs (Percussive Sublimation of Peter Principle) as Full Professors...it was called Merit Promotion...or, if you don't like simple English, Supernumerary Promotion...due mostly to Reco Boycott...

Do keep it under your hat!


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