Service Ethics in an Academic Profession, says Prof Sharu S. Rangnekar
Noted Management Guru, Prof.
Sharu S. Rangnekar takes a look at an important aspect of those
working in the education sector
The Concept of Service Ethics in India
Traditionally the services were not
considered remunerative careers in Indian culture. Particularly, academic
professions like teaching or health care like medical profession were
considered a service to society and not for earning money.
With this type of ethics, the academic
community was expected to concentrate on improving their knowledge and
disseminating the knowledge to the benefit of the society. The basic motto was
“Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye” (Education is that which liberates human being).
Consequently, the purpose of education was to remove the prejudices that we
accumulate in to the process of our life. So the first priority in academic
profession was the human concern where by what one consumed for one’s own
pleasure was considered secondary to what can be contribute for the pleasure of
others. This is illustrated by the episode of Mahatma Gandhi. A Sri Lankan
journalist tried to interview Gandhi in 1946, but he was very busy with the
negotiations prior to Independence. However, he consented to give three minutes
of time to the ‘foreign’ journalist. The first thing the journalist wanted to
ask for was Gandhi’s autograph – that took one minute and so two minutes were
left. So he asked Gandhi to give a message for his people. Gandhi said,
“The message I am giving is not only for Sri
Lanka, it is for all nationals of developing countries which are going to get
independence in the near future and the message I want to give them is: “Try to
minimize your wants – and satisfy your needs.” The message did not mean very
much to the journalist. So he asked for an explanation. Gandhi said, “When
people become free to take their own decisions for development, they are likely
to provide for what they want and not what their people need.” For example,
they want five star hotels but their people need drinking water in the
villages.
Gandhi’s prophecy came to be true and while
every kind of luxury is available in India, yet the drinking water is not
available in many villages. During the 1977 Janata regime, George Fernandez
said that there are villages where Coca Cola is available but drinking water is
still not available. So he removed Coca Cola from the scene – but the result
was that those villages had neither Coca Cola nor drinking water!
Gandhi was very strong about frugality for
individual comfort. When he returned from South Africa he used to wear kurta,
dhoti and the so-called Gandhi cap. In his first trip to Madurai, he found that
a woman was washing half her saree in the river – wearing the other half. He
asked his host, “Why is she doing such a strange thing?” The host replied, “She
has only one saree. She wears half and washes the other half. When that half is
dry, she wears it and washes the half that she was wearing.” Gandhiji was shocked
at the idea that the woman did not have more than one saree for herself. So he
said, “It is criminal for me to wear so much cloth – kurta, dhoti and cap! So
he measured the area of the saree and decided to have two sets of loin cloth
and that became his dress. Even the cap which was named after him – he stopped
wearing it.
So the basic approach to this type of ethics
is that till all others get the essentials they need, we should not spend on
luxuries. However, the feeling virtually vanished with Gandhi and all types of
luxuries have become part of our life.
The socialistic ideas which ruled the
intellectual thinking in 20th century with the dictum “From each according to
his ability – to each according to his need” created a communist social system which
also influenced the academic profession. However, this came in conflict with
the capitalist system which provided motivation for people to produce more and
more and improve progressively standard of living creating a welfare society.
In the welfare society subsidies were given
by the government through bureaucratic channels. The resources passing through
various sticky hands did not reach where the resources were urgently required.
Thus, came the necessity to conduct the
academic profession professionally. This means:
• A systematic objective method for selecting
beneficiaries
• A market survey to assess the immediate
need
• A system to see the available resources are
spread as evenly as possible
A continuous effort is required to breech the
gap between potential and those whose ideas can help in managing and marketing
financial resources. This is a challenge we are facing today to see that the
commercialization does not overrule the academic professions and ethical ideas
are able to direct the academic process.
Source | Free Press Journal | 26 December 2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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