Is the ground more fertile or does it produce a better yield because of its caste?

Change requires action, which requires sacrifice, which requires courage, which requires freedom. Caste is the antithesis of freedom. So, how to force change on a society so deeply entrenched in unfreedom, asks Akshat Jain.

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IN The Gospel of Mark, there is a parable about seed being sown in four different places. The point of the parable is to tell us that nature can be cultivated by human art for a definite purpose.

Using the same farming metaphor, Plutarch talks about the purpose of education to suggest that deficiencies of nature can be made up with training and practice.

Their collective argument is that no matter how the ground is, or how a student is born, correctly working the ground, or training the student, can produce the required yield.

Therefore, if the required yield is not being obtained, the problem is not the ground or the student, but the farmer or the trainer. And, if the required yield is being obtained, then the credit goes not to the ground or the student, but to the farmer or the trainer.

What do the Greeks and Romans have had to do with anything happening in South Asia today? Quite a lot, it turns out.

When NEET became too neat

While the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) controversy rages on for various reasons, what interests us is its implications on the merit versus reservations debate.