Dissecting The Myths Of Merit And Meritocracy
By Narendra Kumar Arya
15 January, 2013
Countercurrents.org:
“We don't think a slight error implies madness but just as they call strong desire love, so they name grand delusion madness.” 1
( Socrates , Xenophon, 1923)
What is merit? The opinion one man entertains of another. 2
Lord Palmerston, British Prime Minister.
An essay exploring to deflate the notion of merit and meritocracy as ‘a palpable social reality' hinged around the myths, misconceptions, prejudices and ethnic stereotypes conspired by the elite and dominant oligarchs globally and in special context of India. It enquires the claims and arguments from multidisciplinary approach of politics, neoliberalism, elite theory, psychology and neurosciences
Exclusivity is a marked phenomenon in the scheme of universe, visible in its entire animate and inanimate world. Two things are never identical but this distinctiveness does not entail rationale for discrimination, vertical ranking, inculcation of the sense of inferiority and superiority, oppression and prejudice towards individuals and communities. What is essence of humanity? Is not it feeling and bond of being one irrespective of geospatial or ethnic variability and heterogeneity? Despite, that we see no dearth of people, projects, ideological apparatuses and institutions which vehemently believe and propagate discrimination, hatred, violence and conflicts. The democracies around the world seek to bring democratic ideals to life but they hardly have spirit in their societies to enact them. Inequality, discrimination, injustice, oppression, social prejudice and communal hatred is abundant and manifested in many forms; this is more true and stark in societies which are like living social fossils of primitive minds and mentality like ours. Instead of attempting and cooperating in annihilating the onus of dead culture and ideological apparatus which are antithetical to the spirit of democracy and the progressive constitution- a compulsive instrument to reform their obstinate conscience - they are not yet mentally ready to be reformed and now and then put forth new polemical devices to reinstate status-quo or ‘glorious past'. Merit and meritocracy- as substantial basis of operation of present mode of society and democracy- are axiomatic social reality, they claim, and not the one desirable form, is favourite trumpet of this ancient breed.
Merit and Caste Elite: Rationale for Power
Merit as a social conception is one of the means for justification of present systems operating on miniscule social support and large scale economic disequilibrium along with persistent implicit failures and contradictory confines. It is wooed with same passion as money in societies contemporary. Merit is one of the strongest legitimising force or conception coined by its adherent to hoodwink their inherent agenda. “Even before the arrival of democracy, the character of premodern Indian 'society had been highly fragmented, and an interventionist democratic state has facilitated rapid political mobilization of various castes, classes, and religious and language groups. Add to this the roles of powerful economic actors such as business groups and the landowning peasantry, who depend heavily on state resources and thus wish to block access by others... ” 3
Often merit is thrown as a challenge to society by the elite. It is regular working mechanism by which the ruling elite tame the wild desires or proper rights to ascendency or popular threat by putting it before the ruled or common masses. In its challenging character is implied the meaning that the merit is not a thing of masses; so better, they be satisfied with their present fate and fatalistic destinies, in common parlance. The colloquial universality of the embedded mechanism of merit is that it cannot be attained by one and all but the chosen few. Though the societies based on the principles of capitalist endeavours proclaim that merit is as freely available as freedom in their societies as freedom itself is meant to be meritorious. So going by that logic every individual has easy access to it. It's attainable. But in their simplistically seeming contrived hypothetication, they muddle the way freedom grapples with justice and equality.
In the bragging behaviour of elite merit is frequently metaphored to biologically embedded abilities and capabilities. To simplify, it is believed to be same sort of ‘pure blood of geneticism' which had flown in the arteries of Nazis, Fascists, Nordics Brahmins and other plethora of racial brags. The biological vanity is disguised though rarely revealed public outburst, rationale behind the supportive ideologies of meritocracies, merits and meritocism as the ultimate acid test of existing liberal societies.
It is believed by the historians that Chinese aristocratic system was the first system where use of ‘merit' was introduced. Since then the world has seen many perversions of ‘merit system, along with equally popular spoil system. The historical growth of merit system shows that a particular class has a fancy and preference for meritorious individuals. Merit thus appears to be a system –generated bug. It is systemic.
The prevalent systems of governance always require a particular breed of people most suitable to their needs. Merit in its origin is symptomatically need-based and class-conscious. The criteria of merit is not as desired by the demos but as fixed by their masters. The merit in essence is the characteristic in a class of people who are deemed to be appropriate and likeable as per the need of power structures. Thus merit is relative sort of conception which has flourished and transformed in the aspirations of the ruling stratum, at the specific periods of the history, as desired.
To use Foucaultian paraphrasing, the desire to control people required, the need for developing a system of discipline and punishment where merit worked as the invisible and morally-correct weapon of controlling the ever demanding people. It was the psychological baton for haunting people away from corridors of power, wealth and elite-ousting. The barrier of difference among people was created in the name of justifying principle of merit. Those who don't have please don't dare to dream! Merit worked as bulwark to protect interest of the elite. Masses have to cross the armies of naturally meritorious people and declared breed of meritorious people, if they ever dreamt of challenging the incumbent elite.
The philosophy and merit and synonymous concepts have always been put forth by incumbent elite. The history of people shows that elite have always been more meritorious in usage of violence, power, bloodshed, massacre and death-sentencing than applying their hard earned merit and competence to win people; their merit has come from linage of Barbary and bloody seeds than refined subduing. These picturesque characteristics are truer as to the sketches of past as modernity or now, with very insignificant changes. The way of behaviourism has become complicated, sophistry-happy and covertly disguised. The crude initial forms of power have now been theoretised and institutionalised in the psyche of the mind.
Merit, Intelligence, and Heredity
The merit occupies such a glorious and snooty place in present liberal societies; still it is very difficult to be the most meritorious definer of the merit. It is difficult to decide whether merit is something which is related with biological giftedness, unique circuitry of the cortical and cerebral inheritance or result of these which is visible in the physical world? Though the hardcore fans of merit will object on the geneticism of merit but this is what which is most obvious from their most propagandized inferences. There is no dearth of people who see a close alignment between merit and intelligence. Linking merit with intelligence itself is erroneous .Intelligence itself despite being a popular concept is subject to most vigorous criticism. It has been found to be measuring no absolute intelligence but conception of intelligence what is deemed to be intelligence by its creators, users and analysts. Lacking heavily in validity, efficiency, consistency, precision etc and yielding to results acceptable by particular creeds, classes, colour and environs. The universality of what constitutes intelligence is not acceptable by scientific standards. Intelligence has very little to do with genetic endowment. Environmental factors not only seem to, but historical evidences too, confirm that environmental factors have much more potential to defeat the constraints of biological rigidity. This may be little frustrating to the fervent supporters of merit as their chain of the archetypical myths of merit is disintegrating .Neither it is supported by their own handmaid of scientific researches nor prognosis of historical factuality.
Merit could not be linked to grossly erroneous systems of educational success and achievements as well; Despite, all the towering claims of academicians and scholars of mainstream thought, the present system of evaluation for educational achievement in the history of the man. The horrible measures of objectivity to ascertain the talent, intelligence, creativity, knowledge and likes and their appreciation in the learner prove abominably wrong in practical achievement of life. These are some of the vitally desirable ingredients of merit which have so defective a stand.
Merit is believed to be the key component of the systems-based on power, government control, influence, exploitation of resources, scarcity and unyielding greed for materialistic achievements in terms of individualised editions of competition and self-actualisation. Merit is a calliper of threatened visions of societal future, in a society which operates on the premises of infinity of consumption principle—where elite due to their eternal greed for maximum exploitation of societal resources, however limited, cannot continue with present levels of cowboy behaviourism. They cannot part with their hold off the precious resources, source of the amazing power.
The Historical Genes of Merit
The forms of merit could be traced to the concepts of race, caste, clans, blood-relations, loyalties, linage, ideology, competence, efficiency, education, accreditation from the crudest to the most sophisticated in the popular belief. The conception of merit to Greeks, Rajputs, Mughals, the Raj, American presidential system or British democratic system has been amazingly transformative and dynamic to suit particularistic circumstances.
To its adherents, merit implies a scientific and objective truth. It is scientific and objective because it follows certain principles faithful to its masters. The principles behind recognition, calculation, evaluation, accreditation are not just subjective, voluntary or whimsical but even their scientificism is not beyond critical pursuits. The principles derive their strength from ideologies of dominant classes. They evaluate and test but at benchmarks of already futile and personalised sciences of preferences and prioritisations. The dominant structures and institutions do not allow deviance. Outside the precincts of their scientificism no truth is said to exist. This is clearly the hegemonistic endeavours of ideologies of dominant elites and symbiotic portrayal of power structures to keep people disciplined .
Historicity of Intelligence Tests: Eugenics Project
Merit is often linked with intelligence. In the company and congregation of intelligent people whether in an organisation, system or structure merit is believed to exist .Intelligence in early years of 20 th century came at forefront. It was the period of ‘ethnic reasoning'- societies across the globe were being ranked on various bases of ethnicity, colour of skin, texture of nose or hair, and other physical traits, not only this, but even on a grounds which could be attributed to deeper repercussions-beyond the physicality or ‘present-being' but running in generations having its root in apparent scientificism of genetics –what emerged was intelligence. Intelligence is not as an individual's characteristic of body and brain but a signifier of generations and their accompanied hierarchised inferiority and superiority. It was the era of eugenics and it was the era of bigotry whereby the mankind was to be bred like the best breed of stallions under the allure of Social Darwinism. Clearly the roots of tests of intelligence lie in such racially empathised atmosphere of ranking of human races and what was assumed by races –the aggregate of individuals –if majority of individuals of a ‘racial stock' faired poor it was inferior race and which did well belonged to the race and racial brags. It provided sort of propaganda justificatory to ‘rule' the masses and spirit of democracy. But intelligence test since the times of its inventors Alfred Binet in 1905 had controversial character. Organisations inspired by Eugenics and politically implicit objectives mushroomed around the world especially in United States , England and Nazi Germany with Anglo-Saxon racial superiority implied. In USA almost half of the states passed laws which were influenced by such flawed and racially oriented biology. Its biggest victory and manifestation came in the form of Immigration Act of 1924 alias the National Origins Act aided by eugenicists and corporate lobbyists which even restricted entry of Eastern European and Mediterranean whites leave aside the ‘yellow' Asians ,'Black' Africans and ‘mixed' Mulattos , to avoid adulteration of ‘pure' Anglo Saxon blood. The essence of a thing invented is often decided by its objective. Thus, if the concept of intelligence is a historical corollary of racially imbued Eugenics, it's definitely must be more or less tarnished by the ideological shades of it parentage.
Merit, Intelligence and Geneticism Disclosed
“To get a high score on many intelligence tests, you must answer the test items the same way that most successful white, middle-class US males would respond. If a black person raised in the Detroit ghetto gets a score of 85 on the usual IQ test, can we say the score is a valid indicator that the black has less intellectual capacity than a white person raised in the Detroit suburbs who gets a score of 100? If blacks had made up the test instead of whites, might not the score be reversed? And if American Indians had devised the scale, might not blacks and whites both do poorly on it?” 4 This apprehension of a seasoned psychologist clearly marks the credibility and absolute reliability of IQ test which are often taken as the measure of merit? These tests are affected by the ethnic, gender and class relativity of IQ conception. They are very much foods of susceptibility and thus the major argument of merit based on such conceptions of merit or inherent abilities, as well. This understanding becomes even clearer when we see what Harvard psychologist David McClelland has to offer about intelligence and personality tests generally, “IQ tests tap those traits that are necessary for success in the “black board jungle”, but they have little or nothing to do with success in the non-academic world. In short , your IQ predicts what grades you will get (for instance) as a student in Harvard Medical School , but not how good a doctor you will be once you get your medical degree …..to succeed as a practicing physician , you must get well along with people and speak their language ( rather than book language ): you must be able to solve real-life (rather than mathematical problems): and you should have considerable respect for life” 5 , paraphrased by MacConnell . Am I wrong to stress the last part of the quote, ‘you should have considerable respect for life, what is much more valuable than other aspects?
Merit and Education: Flawed MarriageOne of the universally pandemic assumptions in liberal modern societies, in particular, is that people who do not have access to prevalent system of education are unquestionablely ‘idiotic', ‘uncivilised', ‘hard-headed' so on and so forth. Their capacities to think, understand, access, observe, analyse and create are compromised and doubtful as if these faculties are solely dependent on education. The belief in modern system of education and knowledge –distribution machinery brings with it coupled vested interests of the dominant communities. It helps in arranging a hierarchy of status and discrimination based on ascribed notions of differences .The conventional system of schooling is known to originate from 17 th centuries alchemist Moravian Bishop John Amos Comenius or Jan Komensky (1592-1670), Czech educational reformer and religious leader,best known for his contributions to teaching techniques which, along with principals of education, are presented in The Great Didactic (1628-1632AD. But what goal of universal education had he in his mind? The fundamental of his theory were:
• Human brain could be transformed through infusing certain texts into ‘wise apparatus';
• Human labour could be enhanced towards parameters of ‘skill, usable to capitalist system of production';
• The ‘undesirable social behavior' could be channelized to pursuance of objectives of certain classes.
The words and phrases in quotation marks need close attention and may let the inquisitive mind to know what his social objective was.
Science, knowledge and information have usually been yoked to serve particularistic class interests. Technical and ambiguous terminology in knowledge has its own class-characterization and socially subversive role. This consequently influences specific groups to access and attain it; its spread and assimilation of such knowledge according to developed indices of intelligence and socio-economic conditions of the seekers of knowledge. Thus, place in socio-informational hierarchy, prosperity or penury, class affiliation, social segregations and alienations or empathy and occupation of parents etc. like material conditions and affect degree of accommodation, assimilation, extraction and internalization of prevalent system of recognition, evaluation and accreditation.
French scholar, Pierre Bourdieu assessed the role of the school in preparing and nurturing an elite class drawn from the society's ruling group. Clearly, exactly the same process is going on in India and it is doubtful if state educational institutions are performing to empower and emancipate for our most marginalized communities. We have a parallel system of Scholl and higher education which serves the caste and class polarized disciples. The elite and private institutions take most of their ‘raw material' from upper caste and classes where as government institutions and second tier of educational traps attract the lower caste and class disciples. The caste and class elite preserve their dominance and block the rest from mingling and sharing the power and wealth of multiple natures.
This helps in psychological self-scrutiny of the aspirants. The self-image is negatively distorted of most of the aspirants at costs of escalation of a few. The so-called failures and its real success in establishing values of dominant societies .It provides the means of justification ,rationalization, sublimation and appropriation as they may suit the system of incumbent and their aspirants.
Propaganda and education:
Propaganda and education have close relation and for a non-analytical and non-questioning mind the two would not make any difference. When education instead of being a process of imparting a spirit of free thinking, questioning established or suggested teaching and inquiry becomes a means of influencing, socializing and stuffing of brain with maligned information and learning in the minds of the educatee it becomes propaganda. The merit myth is propagated successfully and received earnestly because it is in line with the prevailing system of beliefs where lower caste or inferior ethnic distinctiveness , traditionally ‘perceived' and ‘believed' to be illiterate ,un-intelligent, devoid of intellectual acumen and ambience ,children of uneducated parents and on the whole offspring of an inferior atmosphere and bio-ethnic conditions which influences the abilities and capabilities(merit) of every member of such origin and continues to persist infinitely.
As Paulo Freire explained in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the internalization of the oppressor's opinions, one of the inherent elements of meritocracy, causes their self-depreciation. They “so often hear that they're good for nothing, know nothing, and are incapable of learning anything—that they are sick, lazy, and unproductive—that in the end they become convinced of their own unfitness ” 6
The Bell ‘Curb': Ethnic Academics
The worst episode in history of unravelling the assumed relationship between the nature, nurture and intelligence has been publication of ‘The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life' authored by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray and published in 1994. 7 This controversial project , by using empirical statistical analysis to defend racial and class objectives demonstrated that African-Americans have comparatively less measured intelligence than their Asian and White peers; low intelligence is related to criminal activities and interestingly the police records in America are highly biased towards non-whites specially African –Americans. Cornel West, an American philosopher, in his famous ‘Race Matters' argued if Blacks are just 9% of American population why 50% prisoners are Blacks in America? And this can be learnt easily by understanding the double meaning embedded in sensational study named The Bell Curve. At one hand, it establishes that African-Americans are people of low intelligence and that's why they are more prone to indulge in criminal activities; given their genetic dispositions; on other hand suggesting that public expenditure on welfare and affirmative action like activities is sheer waste of money and energies-a highly irrational and illogical activity, because it will not alleviate them. The author duo referred, felt intelligence was a single trait of mind, a numerically fixed quotient, a globally arranged system of graded individuals, genetically grounded and non-elastic characteristic. But a scrutiny of this highly sensational project brought certain startling facts of non-academic and scientific nature. One of the author associated with the project has previous history of being racially-inclined and has got published a paper of equally malicious nature in Atlantic Magazine, without substantial statistical proofs, some twenty years back . The duo was offered a fund of 100 million dollars by the conservative Bradley Foundation with complicit track of providing financial funds to organisations and bodies aimed at production of studies and researches which sought to aggravate racial and class distinctions and peculiarities , some of the beneficiaries being think tanks like American Enterprise and Heritage Foundation etc. Any rational being can decide that the conspiracy, academic dishonesty and prejudice inherent in the study invalidate itself as well as its purported genetic upshot.
Nature Vs Nurture:-
Once a journalist asked eminent behaviour psychologist Prof. Donald Hebb what matter most the nature or the nurture and his wisdom came in reply that it was similar to asking what feature of a rectangle contributed most to its area –length or width . 8 This binary phrase is credited to Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin ,led to research in biological domains which were based on his conviction that there was some degree of genetic attributable intelligence running through his family. He also laid down the framework of Eugenics. In this Nature Vs Nurture debate Nature represents human biological system specially emphasising genes and genetics; and nurture to environment and its various forms socio-economic conditions, education, social privileges or deprivations and almost everything outside the body of the individual. But interestingly to the amazement of the laymen and common stereotype , it be known that whatever is inherent in our genes or genetic programming is there is also influenced by the nurture since the impregnation of foetus itself till maturation at subsequent ages.” The nature side of this debate emphasizes how much of an organism reflects biological factors. But, on the other hand genes are activated at appropriate times during development and are the basis for (organism)……The nurture side; on the other hand, emphasize how much of an organism reflects environmental factors. In reality, it is most likely an interaction of both, genes and environment, nature and nurture that affect the development of a person. Even in the womb, genes interact with hormones in the environment to signal the start of a new developmental phase. The hormonal environment, likewise, does not act independently of the genes and it cannot correct lethal errors in the genetic makeup of a fetus. The genes and the environment must be in sync for normal development. Similarly, even if a person has inherited genes for taller than average height, the person may not grow to be as tall as is genetically possible if proper nutrition is not provided. Here too the interaction of genes and the environment is blurred. It has been suggested that the key to understanding complex human behaviour and diseases is to study genes, the environment, and the interactions between the two equally . ” 8
In recent years, our knowledge about the working of the brain have changed drastically given the technological devices. The concept of brain plasticity has gained quite a place. “Most contemporary psychological models reflect largely outdated ideas about how the biological system develops and what it means for something to be innate. Thus, contemporary models of brain development challenge the foundational constructs of the nature versus nurture formulation in psychology. The key to understanding the origins and emergence of both the brain and behavior lies in understanding how inherited and environmental factors are engaged in the dynamic and interactive processes that define and guide development of the neurobehavioral system.” 10 Again genetic makeup of an individual or even group is not a closed condition. It has history of millions of years and thus all the biological information. Genes are not expressed things of a few hundred years. Gene is defined as "not just one single physical bit of DNA…[but] all replicas of a particular bit of DNA distributed throughout the world". 11 Simply put, Genes are coded instructions for making everything the body needs, especially proteins. Human beings have about 25,000 genes. For example, the gene, called Boule, is responsible for sperm production and it is oldest gene around 600 million years old. 12 At other place In River Out of Eden , Dawkins further refined the idea of gene-centric selection by describing life as a river of compatible genes flowing through geological time. Even a hard core liberal scholar Francis Fukuyama opines that genetic factors at individual level might influence intelligence but racial based differences seem biologically untrue because from evolutionary point of view when races of mankind separated ,it hardly witnesses genetic variance, and their average group heritable intelligence is distant possibility . 13
Plasticity of the BrainAs recently as the late 1980s the human brain was considered to be a sort of biological computer that, as one scientist put it, "secretes thoughts the way kidneys secrete urine." We now know that the brain is much more malleable and fluidly organized than the analogy to computer hardware suggests, and that it changes with every perception and every action. Over the past decade compelling evidence for neuroplasticity has come from studies of the blind by Alvaro Pascual-Leone, now a professor of neurology at Harvard University and Boston 's Beth Israel hospital.
In the early 1990s Pascual-Leone and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health showed that as blind adults learned to read Braille, the region of the somatosensory (touch-sensitive) cortex responding to input from the reading finger greatly enlarged. In 1996 the researchers made a more startling discovery: Input from the sensitized finger was lighting up not only the somatosensory cortex on the side of the brain, but parts of the visual cortex near the back of the brain as well.
“In fact, neuroscientist David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine argues that the unconscious workings of the brain are so crucial to everyday functioning that their influence often trumps conscious thought. To prove it, he explores little-known historical episodes, the latest psychological research, and enduring medical mysteries, revealing the bizarre and often inexplicable mechanisms underlying daily life.” 14
Is Merit Propaganda?
So Merit in popular domains closely identified with ethnicity and associative intelligence, defined in a recent effort by Lenivson and Sadovnik as “most common definition of meritocracy conceptualizes merit in terms tested competency and ability, and most likely as measured by IQ or standardized achievement tests." 15 Is it just propaganda of the incumbent elite?
“Propaganda” has not always been so difficult to define. The English word derives from a Latin term that originally referred to a committee of Cardinals, or Congregation of Propaganda, established by Pope Gregory XV in 1622 to propagate Roman Catholicism. The word was later extended to designate “any association, systematic scheme, or concerted movement for the propagation of a particular doctrine or practice” ( OED ). But with the professionalization of advertising in the late nineteenth century, and the emergence of public relations specialists and the rapid development of mass media in the twentieth century, “propaganda” became increasingly difficult to pin down. Although the word began to acquire some negative connotations over the nineteenth century owing to government distrust of secret organizations designed to sway public opinion, the OED does not record until 1908 the now-common definition of “propaganda” as tendentious persuasion by interested parties. At that time, with so much of modern society dependent on the rapid exchange of information, “propaganda” usually denoted persuasive information or mere boosterism. The information propagated might come from interested sources, but its integrity or reliability was not necessarily suspected. That would change over the first half of the twentieth century, when two world wars helped link “propaganda” to lies and deception without completely erasing the notion that “to persuade” might simply mean “to inform.” 16
Propaganda is a huge industry says Chomsky while referring exclusively to corporate one but that relates to other as well which employs a wide array of instruments to manipulate ‘minds'- entertainment industry, television, radio, newspapers and magazines, school curriculum etc. Edward Barneys a Cambridge liberal's ‘Propaganda' is a sort of bible for this genre asserting the point that “conscious manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is the central feature of democratic societies”…”we have the means to carry this out, the means to regiment peoples mind as efficiently as armies regiment their bodies. And we must do this .First of all; it's the essential feature of democracy. But also ( as foot note) it's the way to maintain power structures and authority structures ad wealth , and so on, roughly the way it is…” 17
A Tail of Three Capitalist Sisters
We are inmates of an excessively economic world. The present system sees that its dependence on merit is must for survival of three sisters of productivity, efficiency and effectiveness, almost impeccable for success of any system—economic, corporate, social, political or else. There is almost infinite chord of sequential notions based on absurdity, bias and highly relative relevance and meanings which form a close connection with the concept of merit, we have seen the case of intelligence, such more are success, achievement, productivity etc. The compulsion of limits and lust for profuse profits from enterprises operated by elite propel them to come with crazy anti-people notions and a hired creed of experts, knowledgeable guys, theoreticians nickname as think tanks just do the job, and garb them in pseudo-democratic social terminology. Societies where people are often neglected to the last rungs of depravity ,despite the fact being that everything is done in their name only. “Getting ahead is ostensibly based on individual merit, which is generally viewed as a combination of factors including innate abilities, working hard, having the right attitude, and having high moral character and integrity. Americans not only tend to think that is how the system should work, but most Americans also think that is how the system does work” 18
Casteism & Nepotism in Politics, Corporate and Bureaucracy: Is It Merit?
Indian society's crux of operation hinges upon caste consciousness .This gives life to tendencies of nepotism, casteism, family inheritance and other ethnic bonds. Our institutional- political, corporate, and bureaucratic fabric is the nudist version of such psyche and materialism. The study conducted to assure the caste structure of Indian corporate board rooms is clearly indicative of this. Big business houses said to be operating on none but principles of professional merit, excellence, and efficiency. But do they really follow these principles? Even in pre-independence era Anti-Brahmanism movements had their origin in dissatisfaction over over-occupancy of Brahmins in bureaucracy. “According to a British survey in 1912, though Brahmins represented only 3.2 percent of the male population of Tamil Nadu, they held 83.3 percent of the subjudgeships (immediately under British personnel), 55 percent of the deputy collectorships and 72.6 percent of the district administrative posts. 67% percent of those receiving bachelor degrees from The Madras University were Brahmins. Of those receiving Law degrees Brahmins outnumbered all non-Brahmin Hindus 3.5 to 1 and Brahmins receiving teaching licentiates outnumbered non-Brahmin Hindus by more than 6.5 to 1.” 19 We the people of India have seen spell-bound caste show how in a constitutionally secular and socially-just state nine of the twelve Prime Ministers have been Brahmin. “In the IAS, Brahmins still rule. From the senior-most bureaucrat in the central government to the officials who advise the prime minister, bureaucrats from the community are continuing with a tradition many say they were born into. According to one, the dominance of Brahmins can be traced back to the British who recruited literate Indians in lower positions of administration…. A quick head-count reveals that right from the present cabinet secretary to other key positions like secretary, RAW, defence research and development, agriculture and cooperation, economic affairs, revenue and legal affairs, Brahmins hold key jobs. As many as 37 top officials in the list of secretaries and officers of equivalent rank in the present administrative set-up are Brahmins. Going by figures quoted by the Backward Classes Commission, Brahmins account for 37.17 per cent of the bureaucracy. Other forward castes too constitute a substantial chunk.”... “Brahmin chief justices between 1950 to 2000: 47%, Associate justices between 1950-2000: 40%” 20 Not just Brahmins but even Shudra caste like dominant Jats may also create the caste concentration. The disproportionate occupancy at crucial levels in contemporary Haryana is an ideal example. 21 That is why prominent social scientist Gail Omvedt is compelled to render her observation that “Employment is only partly the result of merit even in examinations and interviews; it has a large element of ``influence''. And for those trying to run businesses, even very tiny ones, the role of influence and access to power is even greater. ” 22
“The empirical results show that caste diversity is non-existent in the Indian corporate sector and nearly 65% of the Indian corporate board members are from one caste group – the forward caste – indicating that it is a small and closed world. In the corporate world, social networking plays an important role. Still, Indian corporate boards be-long to the “old boys club” based on caste affiliation rather than on other considerations (like merit or experience).” 23
In his fascinating study on extant of nuptial spoil system in India, Patrick French in his ‘India: A Portrait ' spotlights the fact that a shocking 100% of Indian MPs under the age of 30 are hereditary, Two-thirds of Indian MPs under the age of 40 are from political families, Less than 10% of MPs over the age of 70 are hereditary,27 MPs are classified as ‘hyper hereditary', and 19 of them are in the Congress party. By hyper-hereditary, we mean that they have multiple family connections, and several family members who have made a career out of politics. 24 Perhaps, this is the merit that most of the supporters of merit desire to protect and let flourish!
In our patriarchal Indian society the symbols of feminist power, 69.5% of women MPs came into politics through family connections. This trend, without any major change in psyche of society happened, is going to be funny and tragical at the same time, when after the 108th Constitution Amendment with 33 per cent of seats in national and state-elected bodies for women is implemented, this number is likely to go upward and make mockery of merit.
“The Indian upper class, like royalty, is sexually transmitted. Politics, business, mainstream cinema and other occupations where talent is subordinate to lineage are dominated by family cartels, who plant their own over the rest. The Indian elite are a system where there is a 100 percent reservation for its own genetic material. And the most underrated joke in the country is when this class joins the middle class in lamenting reservations for the poorest Indians from the “backward” castes in colleges and jobs.” 25 The case of Regional parties is equally blemished , as they are centered around any particular charismatic figure.
Concentration of Merit:
The present Indian society exhibits a peculiar phenomenon when we see merit as trait concentrated into certain sections of Indian society which is easily identifiable on caste lines. Elsewhere across other societies globally too; it has got and shows strong links with dominant ethnic identities, In eastern Europe gypsies and Muslims, in USA whites that too, other than Hispanics (the case of newly migrated Chinese, Korean and Indian professionals is different as they are permitted only to immigrate on their high-tech professional qualifications) and African-Americans; in India Dalits, Backward Castes, Muslims and Women specially are said to be lacking merit .Is merit a castiest phenomenon? Is it racial, too? Why merit lands and persists in certain castes, ethnicities, why? It has to have; otherwise, it has to be just mythical. Either merit originates, flourishes or spreads on ethnic grounds or it does not exist at all, in other words than it is just not merit; it is not merit at all, it is a pure fallacy. It just an ethnic or castiest tendency which exists like a symbiotic parasite. It shows that institutionalization of merit has erected with bricks and mortar of ethnic favoritism, nepotism and partially – most of the times consciously with vigilant discriminatory mindset and practice and a few times unconsciously and routinely following the stereotypes and prejudices lent from peers and traditions. The belief that merit encircles around some specific communities and repels off some others is based on serious misunderstandings which have their roots in psychological perversions. Stereotypes act as devices of gross generalizations about a group or community on the basis of a member of it – a socio-cultural phenomenon. The heavy bias during growth period of concept formation regarding racial and caste groups etc. in process of categorization leads to prejudiced stereotypes. One such process is gating mechanism which involves selective filtering of perceptual inputs that is of our ‘liking' or ‘requirement'—two persons of equal abilities but belonging to different caste groups namely Brahmin and Dalit would elicit different perception regarding their almost equal abilities, in case of Brahmin these would be ‘pronounced' while in case of Dalit ‘denounced', in usual conditions usually, by upper caste dominated social institutions. This is how in our castiest societies consciously or unconsciously prejudices and stereotypes and perceptual deformations persist cyclically and support specific case of merit. Merit is simply not merit. Merit much more than merit judged on our own notion of merit. It is practically much more sophisticated phenomenon than we understand as a theoretical reality. It fetches and absorbs inputs and strengths from discrimination and inequality–operated social, psychological, cultural and economic environments to feed itself. Merit is not an absolute and empirically objective fact. In most of the societies and most of the times; it is fictitious and horribly a ‘false consciousness' or if insisted a fact jeopardized.
Merit as a Static Notion:
There may be little consensus among the supporters of the conception of what really constitutes merit but one thing stands out common in their mind that merit is a static and once-for-ever sort of thing. Either you have it or not. You have it for once and always. This mind-set resembles the attitude and perceptual deformity of status-quoists. The mental morbidities and blindness is almost incurable; more so, if the patient is unwilling to accept the change in circumstances and his inner hiccups. It is widely believed that if a person is un-meritorious in a given sense at a given time one will not and cannot attain traits of merit as expounded by its enthusiasts. This phobia even at the entry level is could be observed. The hardcore merit fanatics don't believe that human being is a dynamically endowed being and his capabilities and mental faculties are easily repairable or upgradeable and given a positive motivation and ambience this can be vigorously changed. Again the environment (work, study, job etc.) itself plays the role of an implicit a motivator or change –agent ,denying this fact is denial of human potential and the humanity, at large. May a dare to quote what an ancient philosopher saw some 2500 years ago and we still bear witness vulnerability to his prophetical warning “Every living entity goes through a process of development from ‘potential' to ‘actuality', if it is not interrupted.” 26 People socialized in a specific cultural milieu easily transform themselves to its requirement and display high degree of adaptability but it does not affirm the prejudiced pet theory that ‘outsiders are not competent to attain the required level of competence or efficiency. The stagnancy has deeper roots in the culture of discrimination and psychic inelasticity than the actual experiences or human performance potentiality .A renowned social psychologist Prof. Kuppaswamy has correctly observed that “one of the unique features of Indian culture is the resistance to reorganize attitudes on the basis of new information .The new information is assimilated without abandoning (old) customs, beliefs and attitudes which are contradictory to new information.” 27
Prejudices in Indian Society
We are citizens of caste- blind state but castiest society. Prejudice is a permanent character of Indian caste system and society at large, cut across geospatial and temporal boundaries. This is not that all other societies are bereft of prejudices and stereotypes but it is often not that unique as it is in Indian societies especially against Dalits, Muslims and women. Caste-oriented perceptions and attitude imparting forms the staple diet of Indian children and it never goes away again. No matter how hard you may try to desensitize this, even our hardcore scientists and Marxists cannot discard them. It seems as if “In the realm of beliefs we are all hostages to fortune .Had we been born in a different era, culture or social class-had we been educated at different schools, raised in different neighborhood or born with a different temperament-many of our beliefs would be different than they are .So, unless we are unbelievably lucky, we are all addled with false beliefs, even about the most important things…… homo sapiens , rational animals –are so very fallible?” 28 Even Indian Diaspora settled in more ‘modern' European and American set up is unable to give up its caste prejudices and whenever there are opportunities to save caste culture and norms they would make all efforts to follow them, even at the cost of conflicting the law of the land. A British Indian writing in The Guardian narrates; caste permeates Indian society, even today. But its influence most often lurks beneath the surface. On the surface, it does not necessarily seem to exist, but it always lurks beneath the skin. ” 29
Of Merit or Procedures of Coincidences:-
As Plato's saying, I have referred, opines too much obsession leads to grand delusion, merit too happens to fall in that characterisation. What we assume as merit is not the merit we encounter generally in our normal life, since individuals at different stages of life are not incapable to alter at their own how it could be attributed to ‘pure merit'; The types of schooling, parentage, education etc most of us receive often come as course of fluke rather than capabilities, potential, talent or worth because world is usually imperfect. To examine this statement we can take an example of examination and selection process of civil services which is a complex process nevertheless this is not fully mechanical, robotic, value-free and utterly objective, to call it so will be a cheap joke; because at every level of testing there is gross subjectivity and human error, relativity, fallibility and psychological underpinnings involved. The candidates applied, sorted out and called for preliminary test are not the best available not even willing due to lots of factors. Those who are declared to be successful at this stage are not the remaining best aspirants as well. May be some could not make it on time of test to present themselves, some others were involved in better options at that time, others may not have performed to their best and the only those who performed only at right moment were selected .The next stage is the most bizarre process of success as it is very much affected by subjectivity. There are numerous aspects; one is, aspirants their writing ,written material ,presentations of crammed material, creative way of presenting the write-ups etc ; another dimension is the evaluator their level of knowledge and variation in comparison to other peer evaluators, evaluation norms, adherence to UPSC norms, deviation from standard norms and guidelines, marks dissemination styles, reward policies, moods of the evaluators, pressure or leisure of time limit and its impact on evaluation process and selection of aspirants to another level .The next process is even more liable to subjectivity and presenting biased results (leaving aside the direct designs) owing to direct tete-a-tete phase though also a good measure of evaluation of mind-set and psyche of candidates but again the demerits are more likely to creep in than merits, credible to various factors. No matter how objective we develop the scheme flaws crawl like invisible insects. No one knows this better than candidates who repeatedly engage in this whole whimsical process for years with growing prowess in the field specified besides ageing .This case is almost universal prototype of failings and chance-induced entry and selection of persons in educational institutions and employment establishments-government or non-government. We are not talking about the role of nepotism, casteism, corruption and backdoor canvassing etc like illegitimate exercises freely practised. Together what havoc they produce we are well-versed with.
All Debates on Merit Lead Towards Affirmative Actions:-
The bone of content in the whole process of Merit vs. Demerit is provision or implementation of affirmative action programmes and policies , seeking to curtail the sharp inequalities, discrimination and exploitative conditions and monopolistic ownership of resources of society and power structured to suit the interests of a minority elite , abusively hostile to the notion of social possession of society and social justice with judicious participation in all organs of state and society , at large.
The deepening participation of people from all sections and strata of society does not weaken or makes institutions incompetent, inefficient and unproductive to use the fashionable lingo imported from and displaying overpowering effect of economics ; rather it makes the diverse ,supplies much needed ‘big genetic pool' of diversified creativity and non-traditional insights. Ultimately boosting cohesion-quotient and as a result become more pertinent, sustainable and socially –correct. There are more than 150 policies and guidelines in the most business-minded society of USA regarding implementation of affirmative action's in American institutions.MIT which has been emulated by desi IITs, is legendry and one of the best institution in science and technology around the globe and it pleasantly offers its 45% seats to ethnically diverse groups of African-Americans, Asians, American- Indians, Hispanics etc same is the case of Christian Medical College, Vellore , a leader in medical services with excellence in India for decades and choosing more than 50% of its medical and paramedical from ‘lower' labelled castes. These are the groups and communities which are beleaguered as source of De-merit.
Merit as a social idea has far too greater appeal across societies but here we shall be more concerned and concentrated on the idea of merit as it prevails in Indian society but nevertheless its theoretical inferences would have global appeal. The supporters of merit point out that the backwards, Dalits and tribal as the main antidotes of assumed merit. No matter you tell them that these ethnically chalked out communities have as good meritorious people as in the assumed group of meritorious they won't listen to. They don't resort to rational and logical thought process, the psychological dimensions of such rigid behaviour has its own explanation of such social pathology.
Summing Up:-
Once we debunk merit as not entirely followed in normal daily lives of democracies nor the truest measure of intelligence and inherent mental faculties of people; we could resort to reverse logic if all societies and communities are not inferior in mental predispositions and intellectual potential why most of the backward castes, Dalits, tribals and women are absent from power arena and fulcrum and decision making bodies ? Why prosperity and wealth and even the basic indicators of human development are missing from the lives of these marginalities? Scope for such questioning automatically leads and signals on the persistence of a system which is severely abused, leveraged to petty ends, lopsided to power elite and malfunctioning , operating to satisfy and preserve the interests of specific identities only, known across the globe differently.
Reference
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Dr.Narendra K. Arya, Born and raised in Varanasi, India, educated at Banaras Hindu University and Patna University with Masters in Political Scientist and Business Management and Doctorate on issues of Globalization and Sovereignty of States. Worked as Senior Lecturer ,Assistant Regional Director, IGNOU and presently working at managerial capacity in Government of India Public Undertaking .Several Poems, articles and published in reputed Hindi and English magzaines and Journals and online journals 'Hans', 'Vaak', Yudharat Aam Aadami', Apeksha',Byaan', ‘Janpath' 'Deliquent (USA),'Tether'(India)', Everydaypoem'(USA), Rabbit (Australia) etc online journals, besides in academic journals .
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