Editorial

The College magazine is a platform for self-expression as well as a journal that records the achievements of College. It has a certain format that is an inevitable outcome of this dual function. Although it looks as though it might fall between two stools it manages to land on its feet. A proliferation of Society and department magazines in College provides a valuable outlet for the creative energies of our students that an annual volume in four languages just cannot. The Stephanian looks too staid and stodgy to young radicals and the creative folk. Our strength lies in the fact that we represent all the shades in college. We provide historical continuity and sustain institutional memories, which the niche publications cannot beyond a point. A journal is as good as the contributions that it gets and therefore we welcome all shades of opinion. There is much public debate these days about the likely changes in the field of education in the foreseeable future. The growth of commercialization, professionalization and vocationalization are undermining the prestige and market value of good university education. Our Principal, Dr Wilson, has never held back in championing the cause of liberal arts and science education whenever he gets the opportunity to do so. It is education rather than just training of the mind that has always been valued in College. The prizes, for the students who show strength of character combined with learning and for all round achievement and contribution to the life of the College, are among the most coveted in College. The values people imbibe in College are as important as the skills that they acquire. The civil service cohorts from College will soon reach the pinnacle of their careers and sooner or later fade away from public memory. A younger generation of Stephanians in several walks of life will have to carve a niche for themselves taking with them both core competencies and core values into the competitive market-driven economy. Our Chief Guest on Founder’s Day, Mr Siddhartha Shriram, gave a vivid and candid account of his youthful rebellion against his father and his subsequent evolution as a manager and industrialist. While he made certain insightful remarks about the economy and polity of India in the years after independence it was his humorous and honest account of his days in College that helped him connect with the students gathered for the solemn ceremony. He concluded his talk with a moving Christian allegorical story and he almost choked with emotion by the time he finished. In March 2004, our Chief Guest was the writer and editor, Mr M.J. Akbar, who outlined the future possibilities for economic growth and political cooperation in South Asia. If only we could overcome the political divisions within the country and the region South Asia could become the most important economic bloc in Asia. It was a bold and inspiring vision of the future that undoubtedly impressed the students preparing shortly to step out into the world beyond College. The state of the nation provoked many students to explore issues of national importance. They were concerned about the growth of communal tensions in the country and the true nature of religion. Several students felt that militant Hinduism had little to do with either genuine religion or Hinduism. It is not possible to publish all the contributions that dealt with this theme but young minds have grappled with the problem of defining both religion and secularism in our times. We publish an essay that represents a nuanced and academic view of the emergence of modern Hinduism. Another essay deals with the present crisis in society. It is simplistic and naive only to blame the other individual, ideology or group for the problems we face today. We too are responsible for the present malaise. Nathuram Godse alone did not assassinate Mahatma Gandhi and the growth of communal ideology is not the handiwork of misguided zealots alone. All religion and culture is not necessarily divisive. Many contributors also voice concern for the preservation of national and cultural identity. The Indians who go out to live and work overseas have a higher social and educational level than those who went out in the colonial period. In fact, the Founding Editor of The Stephanian, Charles F. Andrews, also worked with overseas Indians in South Africa. The overwhelming majority of those working overseas are still working class but it is the successful middle class and rich overseas Indians who so mesmerize the imagination of our educated middle class. The Indian diaspora figures prominently in the imagination of this middle class cutting across the ideological divide, variously called the Non Resident Indian or the Pravasi Bharatiya. The preservation of one’s identity, whether language, culture or religion, is vital for the diaspora. The processes of globalization have provoked controversies all over the world. Many of our students have debated the nature of this process. The World Trade Organization is the subject of an article that is critical of its role from the standpoint of developing countries like India. The radical minority is hostile to the western dominated and U. S. led emerging world order. A few College students went to attend the World Social Forum meet in Bombay. The majority of moderate critics would probably go along with Joseph Stiglitz and his call for a different kind of globalization. As Amartya Sen has pointed out globalization is not a new phenomenon and the real issue is to find ways of promoting welfare in the changing context. Now that a Stephanian school of writers has made a mark for itself it has acted as a great source of inspiration for those who aspire to become writers. It is about time Stephanian women writers joined the exclusive club. The number of well-known Indian women writers in the diaspora and the regional literatures of India has grown in the last two decades. Why does the Stephanian woman writer lag behind? Maybe it is a question of time. After all in more gender-sensitive countries too women from elite universities are not always desperate to excel either by becoming writers or professionals. The women who entered several Cambridge colleges and St Stephen’s after these institutions began to admit female students might have more in common than one may have imagined. Even when male bastions fall they may still remain inhospitable to women and inhibit their development and creativity. Today journalism has emerged as an attractive option for many young people. It is a pity that The Stephanian does not get more substantive, readable and lively articles on various issues with which our students grapple in an interminable series of lectures and seminars throughout the year. Surely, if their minds are being ignited by the lectures of various luminaries and distinguished speakers their prose pieces should begin to glow. C.P. Snow has famously drawn attention to the great divide between the cultures of science and the humanities. It is not an unbridgeable divide and it is usually presumed that the scientists are more capable of crossing the barriers. An article by a young science student does inspire some hope that even if distinguished scientists may often fail to bridge the gap this may not be so in future. We can try to bridge the arts-science divide at our own College level and use contributions to the College magazine to do so. Let us try and pull down the barricades that divide the two cultures and the two wings of College.