Ep 320: South India Would Like to Have a Word
The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma
Historical context of famines and impact of simple incentives on education
The famous Bengal famine in the 1940s coincided with excess grains in Punjab and other north states, leading the British to propose taking grains from there. This historical context sets the stage for the impact of simple incentives on education, highlighted by the example of mid-day meals, first experimented with in 1923 after the Montego Jamesford reforms, followed by another version launched in 1956, and finally in 1982.
India is run in a top-down way with a Northern bias -- and this is a problem. Nilakantan RS joins Amit Varma in episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how and why our Southern states perform so much better -- and are punished for it. Also discussed: virtue ethics, the charms of Madras and the dangers of storytelling. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out:1. Nilakantan RS on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. 2. South vs North: India's Great Divide -- Nilakantan RS. 3. Chandrahas Choudhury's Country of Literature — Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Lessons in Investing (and Life) — Episode 208 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Deepak Shenoy). 5. Crossing Over With Deepak Shenoy -- Episode 271 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza.. 8. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Phineas Gage. 10. The Great Man Theory of History. 11. Pandemonium in India's Banks — Episode 212 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tamal Bandyopadhyay). 12. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 13. On Bullshit — Harry Frankfurt. 14. The Facts Do Not Matter — Amit Varma. 15. Facts Don't Matter. Stories do -- Amit Varma. 16. It is immoral to have children. Here's why -- Amit Varma. 17. Better Never to Have Been -- David Benator. 18. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 19. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 20. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Beyond Words: Philosophy, Fiction, and the Unsayable -- Timothy Cleveland. 23. Consider the Hamiltonian. 24. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Murder in Mahim — Jerry Pinto. 26. Mallikarjun Mansur and Bhimsen Joshi on Spotify. 26. Paul Krugman on the internet in 1998. 27. The naked man with an egg -- Amit Varma's prompt and ChatGPT's reply. 28. The Liberal Nationalism of Nitin Pai -- Episode 318 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Adam Gopnik, Michel Martin, Paul Harding and Timothy Gowers. 31. Tinkers -- Paul Harding. 32. Eraserhead -- David Lynch. 33. There's a Name for the Blah You're Feeling: It's Called Languishing -- Adam Grant. 34. The variants on Chess.com. 35. A Summons to Memphis -- Peter Taylor. 36. Virtue Ethics on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 37. VP Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India — Narayani Basu. 38. India's Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu). 39. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World — Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai). 40. The Indus Valley Playbook — Sajith Pai. 41. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 42. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 43. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State — Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen. 44. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 45. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 46. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 47. Centrally Sponsored Government Schemes — Episode 17 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 48. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma. 49. Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. 50. Athenian Democracy and Socrates. 51. Plato (or Why Philosophy Matters) -- Episode 109 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rebecca Goldstein). 52. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 53. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra).. 54. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 55. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahadev Govind Ranade and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar. 56. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy, Abhijit Bhaduri and Gaurav Chintamani. 57. The Walk -- Robert Walser. 58. So Long, See You Tomorrow -- William Maxwell. 59. All Aunt Hagar's Children -- Edward P Jones. 60. The Known World -- Edward P Jones. 61. Slow Man -- JM Coetzee. 62. The Changeling -- Kenzaburo Oe. 63. Earthlings -- Sayaka Murata. 64. Birth of a Theorem -- Cedric Villani. 65. Gilead -- Marilynne Robinson. 66. If I Survive You -- Jonathan Escoffery. 67. Donnie Darko -- Richard Kelly. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'Conflict' by Simahina.
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