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This article generalises way too many things for me to be interesting. "Unlike the people in some cultures, Indians learn to challenge authority" - This can't
by NikhilVerma 11y ago
This article generalises way too many things for me to be interesting.
"Unlike the people in some cultures, Indians learn to challenge authority" - This can't be further from the truth. At the risk of generalising myself I'd still like to say that Indian culture in general doesn't want anyone to challenge authority (parents/teachers/bosses) this is something we are taught as children.
- x5n1 11y agoMore reasons to rebel. I come from a similar culture. In my life I have challenged everything!
- fezz 11y agoThis is something more common to 1st generation immigrants. Although often true for 1st gen immigrants from India... The driving factors for taking a big risk and ditching the expected norms are similar to taking risks and rebelling. Couple that with a strong emphasis on success and business and you have something that works well in the tech industry.
- krisgenre 11y agoI second NikilVerma. Indians in India hardly will challenge authority.
- puranjay 11y agoAs an Indian, you're spot on. Rebellion is the last thing you see among Indian youth. Most of my friends still can't tell their parents that they drink/party/have sex. We are a deeply conservative society and the middle class expectation is to get a stable job at a known name brand.
- Ollinson 11y agoI had a close friend who refused to wear his Patka/Keski Dastaar anymore (sorry if this is incorrect, I'm going off of images on google) and was nearly disowned by his family. The crazy thing is his family wasn't, to my eyes, even particularly religious.
- puranjay 11y agoSometimes, this plays out in hilarious ways. Infosys and TCS, for example, are well-known companies in India. Tower Research, on the other hand, is not known at all. A friend got an offer from Tower Research (he went to the same college as Sundar Pichai), but his relatives were appalled that he would choose it over a code monkey role at Infosys.
- naturalethic 11y agoSounds familiar
- NhanH 11y agoIt's some combination of survivor bias and sampling bias: people who are reasonably "rebellious" (in the good sense of the word) and ambitious are more likely moved to US in the first place, and successful people are of course likely tend to have more of those trait. Although I wouldn't call successfully climbing the corporate ladder to be much of "challenge authority" ...
- ed_blackburn 11y agoI've had problems in the past whereby people have said 'yes' to do you understand. Or have noticed problems with an approach, or seen better approaches but decided that challenging authority, or admitting you don't know something to someone in authority is perceived as some kind of weakness. Very sadly I've also seen meritocracy trumped by social status. The brightest, most diligent, best informed person being overruled by their peers because of their status outside of work. Once aware of both these scenarios I found them easy to work around but nonetheless it was a shock the first time.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- kamaal 11y ago>>At the risk of generalising myself I'd still like to say that Indian culture in general doesn't want anyone to challenge authority (parents/teachers/bosses) this is something we are taught as children. You did end up generalizing. We are taught to 'respect' elders. Challenging authority doesn't mean lack of respect. Plus it also depends on what kind of background you hail from. People from upper middle class background and rich have generally little incentive to challenge the authority. Because they are the authority and they benefit from it. Some one from lower castes, lower middle class and poor people have no other option but to be anarchists. Following the system can only do more damage to them.