IndiaThink

As Riots Flare... Lets Look Deeper

There have been numerous reporting of Hindu riots over the last few weeks, specifically the reports detail Hindu mobs burning Christian homes and churches.   Thus far about 50 people are reported dead and the Wall Street Journal reports that about 7,000 people have moved into refugee camps.

So why are the Hindu's attacking the Christians?  While its interesting to read these reports through the eyes of a Westerner who is surrounded by Christianity every day and think "those poor Christians."  I suggest you open your eyes wider as these stories are not so black and white.

 While India has long been known as a place of refugee for people escaping persecution such as the Tibetans, other parts of the population have an intolerance of outside religions (outside being outside the 85% Hindu population) such as Christianity and Muslims for a variety of reasons.  I have spoken about the Muslim plight in India here. There are very few successful Muslims in India which is not surprising considering that most with means migrated to Pakistan during separation in 1947.  Muslims tend to be viewed from a caste perspective, or system the of Chaturvarna, as part of the lower castes.  Ironically, Christians suffer from this same problem.  Most of them used to be Dalits or other lower castes, but they converted to Christianity to "escape" the caste system.  These are generalizations; there are rich Christians in India as well as Rich Muslims.  But lets be very clear, for the most part Christians of wealth likely started out as higher caste Hindus which means from the beginning that had access to more resources.  

Untouchables are viewed as un-pure so there are cultural traditions set up to keep the purity of the higher castes.  This means different tables if not different rooms entirely, using different drinking glasses, only allowing those of the same caste to wash their used glasses as they are considered contaminated, living down river so their water does not flow into the higher castes' supply, they can not take communion inside a Catholic church (in most situations its just not done anymore in India to avoid the conflict) for fear of sharing the same cup..and so on.  The hold idea is to keep these people at the edge of society in every way possible.  They are not granted land, they are entitled to grow a few things on the community property outside the village as the higher castes in the village realize they need the labor but do not want them to live inside town.  And you get the point....

To escape this plight Dalits attempting to leave this group change their names (last names indicate caste) and attempt to reject Hinduism by joining the Catholic of Buddhist faith.  Hindus view this as "Christians trying to convert our people" according to Jagannath Lenka who was quoted in the Wall Street Journal.  This is a "problem" as the Dalits are a powerful political force because of there sheer volume--its represents 16% of India's population or about 170 million people by today's numbers.  Guess what?  That is HALF the people that live in the United States.

Ironically, the idea of converting to escape the Hindu caste system was started by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar who was one of the leaders working on the Indian Constitution in 1947 after its Independence from Britain.  Babasheb decided to encourage all Dalits to convert to Buddhism after loosing this fights to do away with Chararuvana.  Christian faiths picked up on this movement and sent in leaders to try to evangelize Indians to join their faith quickly there after.

The Hindus want the Dalits and other low castes to stay with the team--to keep working on the government to open up more affirmative action policies and more access to programs.  And the pressure is mounting as higher caste members are eliminating their need for the Dalits with the introduction of technology and the privatization of land ownership.  Dalits are no longer needed as much by society so they are being pushed father to the edges.  As a group, departure is viewed as a weakening team.  Its no wonder that so many Christians have been attacked over the previous weeks.

I have little tolerance for the Catholic Church's efforts in India.  The effort around the Dalits is filled with sappy language about how these people need Jesus and the Catholic's "God."  What the Untouchables really need is access to education where 90% of their group does not drop out because they are needed to work at home or they are heckled out by students after they are forced to clean the toilets.  They need access to skill building and training.  They need the same things that the US needed in 1960's around equal access---instead of being served out the back window with separate glasses they need a seat at the table.  They need for community leaders to not call meetings after dark when Dalit members are not allowed to leave the confines of their community to vote on issues.  Mind you, they hold a very large portion of the respective leader chairs as demanded by the affirmative action mandates, but they can not be used if they can't get to the voting time.  They need a way to build a community of their own, not one under the auspicious of seeking God.  Not a church that still demands separate cemetery plots based on caste or rejects the sharing of a communal cup.  I encourage the Church to find a path that these can be balanced and build templates that whole communities can use instead of building more walls, something India has plenty of already.   

Its that time of year...the Holiday Cluge

According the the Urban Dictionary, Cluge is defined as:

"When the characteristics of something entails a bunch of different aspects which seemingly do not make sense."

And this is how I would describe the holiday season which has already begun inside India call centers spanning back to that red Starbucks cup you received this am.  First a few things to recognize: India as a whole has lots of gods, lots of holidays but Diwali is one of the larger ones celebrated by the country at large, not just in a particular region.  Of course, do all of the regions of the country celebrate the same thing under the same holiday name?  NO. According to diwalifestival.org:

"In north India, Diwali celebrates Rama's homecoming, that is his return to Ayodhya after the defeat of Ravana and his coronation as king;

In Gujarat, the festival honors Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth;

And in Bengal, it is associated with the goddess Kali.

Everywhere, it signifies the renewal of life, and accordingly it is common to wear new clothes on the day of the festival; similarly, it heralds the approach of winter and the beginning of the sowing season."

Complicated but I believe its ok to summarize it by saying Diwali is known as the festival of lights. A time when houses are cleaned up and made bright.  Lights are used to illuminate the path home for the God(s ) and people are dressed in new clothing.  Fireworks are VERY popular as soon as dusk sets further encouraging the idea that celebrants are sending a signal to the gods to come home.

It should also be noted that Diwali has special significance inside business circles--its considered to be a perfect time to begin new ventures as well as start a new financial year.  People in India will actually say things around this concept like its a new year, and its a new beginning etc.

So, while call centers scramble to fill the shifts on this day, which is especially troublesome considering that this holiday is celebrated at NIGHT when most Indian Call Centers are packed to the gills answering US calls, their managers report going to extreme measures to ensure coverage.  Some reported offering 200% of the daily wage for attendance.  Others indicate that employees are allowed to request this day off months in advance and that space on these lists is limited.  Remember: availability of workers in India is tight so the idea that one will "loose their job" if they don't show up is somewhat farcical.

As the Western world's holiday calendar unfolds, project manager should always be aware of India's holidays when they are planning to work with a remote team.  The beginning of November always brings Diwali, buts its not necessarily on the same day.  Its schedule depends on the moon rather than days.  This year we have Diwali beginning on the 9th which some regions celebrate for several days.  Then we have a full work week, followed by US's Thanksgiving.  Then a week followed by Chanukah which falls mid-week this year ending on the 12th.  And here we are with one full week before Christmas and New Years follow.

The interesting thing about these absent days on our side of the world is they increase the work from a call center perspective sent over the India.  Prime buying and traveling season fires up the brightly colored lights inside the call centers that blare the number of calls in que requiring additional staff to cover the load. 

Be aware of the Holiday Cluge--it is truly a Cluge. It will come at you from both sides with too little staff in India to absent staff in the US to projects that are falling behind and phones that are not answered.  Awareness can manage your project around these dates to reduce making November and December dead zones in your project schedule.

Are Muslims Really Equal to Untouchables?

This article caught my eye while on a plane last week.  Spending an enormous amount of time on planes these days which makes me long for more time to type on this keypad and share my thoughts on all things India. Today’s post looks at Wall Street Journal’s “How a Muslim Tycoon Thrives in India” which I will not even bother to offer up the link to since WSJ is closed off to the world that does not pay for it.  It appears on 9/11/07...a brilliant day to fly to Chicago.

Focus: Muslim Billionaire.
Worth: 17 Billion
Why is this interesting? (Beyond of course our general fascination with the rich?)

And so here we are with some fantastic information around being Muslim in India. Yes this article begins its focus on a very rich man who lives in India who is Muslim. AND, of course we are impressed with this. Great. Thank you WSJ for this information.

BUT, before we chide this Republican centric rag, I am stating right here I am impressed on the WSJ’s ability to see something that looks interesting and look further…….much further. 

For those not familiar with the dispute between Hindus and Muslims in India, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Ghandi or Earth and and buckling down for the evening on the couch.  Earth is very good at telling the story of "separation." To make a long story short: the birth of Pakistan is the result of a political deal (people like the word compromise here) saying India will be Hindu and by the way --- there is a new nation that will be Muslim. This decision resulted in over a million people being killed. I am sure a lot of them would report being very confused about this, why they were suddenly forced to confront their neighbors as enemies especially in cities like Lahore right on the edge of the partition.

So what does it mean to be Muslim in India? I have met so many victims of partition who are now living in the US and remember moving without anything across the border south or north as being instructed by their religion. What happened to the brightest of these victims who were suddenly forced to choose sides? Most of them left resulting in an intense brain drain in the 50s/60s/70s.  But the WSJ thinks about the Muslim community in regard to India specifically saying “Muslims who abandoned India included large numbers of the most educated and successful. Those remaining after partition have become ‘economically, socially, educationally…India’s most backward community.”

What was astonishing to me was the authors account that “By some economic and social measures, Muslims are even losing out to Dalits, the erstwhile “untouchables” who are at the very bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy.” “Many Hindu politicians and academics see an urgent need to bridge the economic divide between the Muslim minority and the Hindu majority."  These concerns are so strong that discussions about extending them affirmative action benefits--or in other words setting aside jobs specifically for Muslims in the same way Dalits are provided protection. Remember how important these set aside benefits are to low caste Indians(think riots over having access to them)?

Equal to the status of untouchables?  This is something I have not come across frequently in the past and am eager to learn more about.  Is there a distinct prejudice toward the Muslims as a whole that is alive and well in India? Or were so many Muslims displaced that thought leaders have disappeared leaving them with little direction?  I also am very curious about location for this type of thinking.  You will "see" more Muslims in the north so are these problems mostly found in the south?

 

No Malware Coders in India: Its a Cultural Difference

Article in the Economic Times today (or tomorrow as it is not quite July 20th in my part of the world) states that "Indian geeks rated good citizens in cyber city."   Indians it turns out are not one of the top producers of Malware in the world...ranking a mere 11 on the 1-12 scale.

Malware is a fancy word for a malicious program bad guys like to drop on your desktop usually through a piece of spam that asks you to download the file.  Viruses are the most commonly known pieces of malware and the general public expects to be protected by these types of programs by their anti-virus software.  The computer security community is starting to use the term malware in a different way over the past few years as a term that describes a program that remains undetected by anti-virus software.  An elite program if you will, one that is distributed in a way that remains undetected.  A very good recent example of this is was in the news a few days back.  Several companies were targeted using a sleuth method that sent malware to specific organizations in a way that fell under the radar of the anti-virus companies that traditionally detect these attacks.  Unisys, Booze Allen Hamilton, and Hewlett Packard were some of the companies that feel victim to this phishing attack.

The general assumption is that the most dangerous "hackers" living inside our computer networks today reside in foreign countries; most notably China and Russia followed by Romania.   These countries are notorious for having bad laws to fight computer crime and a flagrant disregard by our government as well as theirs to fight back.  Whats interesting is the thinking behind who is sending out these attacks as opposed to who has the talent and skill sets to be doing so---the keys to the castle if you will.   Can it be argued, as Nandkumar Saravade, director of cyber-security at NASSCOM that "India's strong cultural values act as a dampener for any illegal activities"?

Lets take a look at the some of the categories for cultural thinking in an Indian context that I always fall back on:

1.) Hindu Faith: Over 85% of the country is Hindu.  Most believe in reincarnation which focuses very much on activities in the present life being an indicator for the next.  In other words, do good, come back as a person of a higher caste.  Do bad and come back as a low caste member or some type of animal.

2.) Hierarchy:  Indians have a strong system of hierarchy inside their families and their organizations. Elders rule (although I wonder how many of them are aware of the malware problem facing the world).  The tone of what is right and wrong is very strong through this system with elders setting the stage for the underlings.

3.) Communication Style: Indians communicate indirectly using extensive colloquy that is formal British English.  Are Indians the right people to be implementing a plan to send attractive spam any where else in the world that would be read without immediate detection?  Dear sir or madam, kindly enter your password to your bank account.... (little humor here folks)

These are a few things that come to mind immediately...maybe the assumption that their culture is a major  force around India's low malware development.  But perhaps a more logical answer is availabe, like the idea that only 2% of India's population has access to computers...and that 2% has job offers around every corner.  The economic conditions for computer programs inside India are thriving, unlike the other countries that rank so high on the list.  This of course does little to explain why the US is number one.