College level debates

[Sanjeev Sabhlok <sabhlok@almaak.usc.edu>]

Hi folks,

Some of us on this list live in India. Others live abroad. Those who live
abroad perhaps go to India once in a while.

I was giving some thought to the question of expanding the debate. 

Without needing to take on the name of any "organization" since we each
should be able to represent oneself, alone, at least at this stage, is it
possible for some of us to:

a) write to our friends/ colleagues in India 

b) request at least a few people in a few colleges/ universtities/
tea-shops/ drawing-rooms/ railway journeys, to sit together and discuss
what they want for India and how they want it. Not simply "cribbing," not
simply blaming anyone else, but talking about why corruption takes place,
for instance, in the first place. 

We could ask: Are Indians pathologically evil, for instance, or are we
cornered into this form of pathological behavior by some strange forces
that we have created? Etc. If a copy of the preamble and manifesto can be
printed and sent out (in howsoever draft a format), that would be of some
help, though the purpose is not propaganda but debate and discussion, and
getting feedback.

In Assam, for example, I am writing to friends - both on this list and
outside - to consider this suggestion. I would perhaps write separately to
my Principal of the DAV College, Jullundur, Punjab, where I studied for 3
years, long ago, and to others. Someone, somewhere, might be interested in
not simply crying about what we have achieved and become, but in doing
something in a step-by-step, and scientific, way. India is a vast,
apathetic, cynical, organism, in intellectual disarray and inward
withdrawal. 

No format of a letter for this communication can, or should, be
standardized, since our personal relations with our friends are at
different levels and these letters have to be send informally.

Those who live in India could participate in these debates, at a personal
level, if they wish, and those who are going to India once in a while,
could do this too, like going to their college and talking to some people,
somewhere, asking them to systematically work out a framework of policy,
if possible. 

We have to release a lot of balloons. Some will cross the Mount Everest.

Well, this is just a random thought. Anyone with some other suggestions or
alternative viewpoints?

Sanjeev