Tribute to a Legend

R. KRISHNASWAMI

1936 - 2015

An Heir to th­­e Grand Tradition 

of the Chennai Legal & Cultural Elite

Connoisseur and cognoscente Kalaimamani Mr. R. Krishnaswami, Secretary, Narada Gana Sabha, Chennai, was a worthy heir to the grand tradition of stalwarts like Sangeetha Kalanidhi Justice T.L. Venkatarama Iyer, Justice M. Ananthanarayanan and Justice V. Krishnaswamy Iyer who adorned the legal, cultural, and intellectual milieu of Chennai and left an indelible mark on many fields.  A senior counsel of the Madras High Court, Mr. Krishnaswami was acknowledged to be a walking encyclopedia of civil law.  In addition, he was an erudite scholar of literature and religious texts in a multitude of tongues - English, Tamil, Hindi, and Sanskrit – with a masterly grasp of Hindu religion and philosophy.   He had put his silver tongue and tremendous scholarship to good use through his prolific speeches and writings on law, the performing arts, and Hindu religion and philosophy.  His numerous contributions to magazines like Thuglak, Bala Jyothitam, Gnana Bhoomi, Idhayam Pesugirathu, and Saavi displayed his scholarship, and compilations of these have appeared as books.  

     Above all, what shines through is Mr. Krishnaswami’s illustrious service as a volunteer administrator shepherding many institutions.  Besides being the Secretary of Narada Gana Sabha for over five decades, he served as President of Asthika Samajam; Chairman of the Vidya Bharathi Trust founded by Sri Sri Bharathi Theertha Swami; Managing Trustee, Gnanananda Ashram Trust; Managing Committee Member of the P.S. Educational Society; Committee Member, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Chennai Kendra; and President of the Federation of City Sabhas.  Instrumental in founding the RAK Trust, a philanthropic organization of his family members, he organized the Kumbhabhishekam of the Gajendra Varadar Temple built by the Pallava Kings at Athalanallur, Tirunelveli, and brought it back from ruins into a vibrant place of worship.  He also played a pivotal role in constructing the magnificent Panduranga temple at Thennagur, which embraces the North and South Indian styles of temple structure (see http://shanthiraju.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/visit-to-thennangur/ ). This temple also houses the Guruji Medical Center (a multi-specialty hospital), a home for the aged, and a cow shelter, all of which remain popular establishments devoted to working for the greater good of the community.    Mr Krishnaswami’s philanthropic spirit has helped improve the lives of many needy persons and institutions. He has not only offered them pro-bono legal help but has also rescued many ill-fated artists and their dependents as well as a large number of bhagavatas and religious scholars from both professional as well as financial predicaments. Several famous performers of today will willingly acknowledge that Mr. Krishnaswami’s helping hand and encouragement did play a pivotal role in their rise to stardom. Mr. Krishnaswami has indeed enriched Chennai and Tamil Nadu through his tireless service and numerous significant contributions.

     Born in 1936 in Harikesanallur, Tirunelveli, which is famous for the great Carnatic composer Sri Muthiah Bhagavathar, Mr. Krishnaswami lost his father, Sri Ramasubbaier, within three weeks of his birth.  He was raised by his elder brother Mr. R. Surianarayanan (Gnanodaya Press Suri) and and his mother, Soundaram. Young Krishnaswami went to school in Madras and, eventually, graduated from Law College, Madras. After a brief apprenticeship with Justice K.S. Ramamurthy, Mr. Krishnaswami joined Solicitor General V.P. Raman’s flourishing practice.   Later on, he set up a private practice of his own with an extensive practice particularly in the areas of trial law, insolvency laws, and movie related laws.   He served later as a Senior Counsel of the Madras High Court.  He and his wife Srimathi Rajam lived in Alwarpet, Chennai, and  are the proud parents of two successful sons.

     Mr. Krishnaswami’s interest in music began at an early age through his brother, Mr. Suri, and his mother, Mrs. Soundaram, who both took him to several concerts and introduced him to several artists. This interest, eventually, led to his involvement with the Narada Gana Sabha ever since its inception in 1958. Thanks to his determination, energy, and untiring efforts, the Narada Gana Sabha has grown from very humble beginnings into a leading institution of high repute.  Today, it is recognized as one of the most notable sabhas in Chennai not only for its success in serving the performing arts in diverse and notable ways but also for its role as a pioneer in introducing many novel endeavors.  For instance, the Narada Gana Sabha Trust provides a pension to several aged artists who are in dire need.   The sabha, which is a citadel for Indian classical dance, conducts a dance wing called “Natyarangam” (with Srimathi Sujatha Vijayaraghavan and other volunteers) to support upcoming dancers and annual thematic dance presentations on a variety of subjects (see http://www.thehindu.com/arts/dance/article595991.ece ).  At an annual dance camp conducted by the sabha at Thennangur, many young dancers and gurus get advanced training and guidance from senior luminaries in Bharatanatyam (see http://www.kutcheribuzz.com/features/column/kiranrajagopalan.asp).  The sabha hosts many namasankeertan programs and religious discourses emphasizing the intertwining of our fine arts with the Hindu ethos.   Indeed, as noted by Sruti, the efforts of the sabha under Mr. Krishnaswami’s guidance and the leadership of Swami Haridoss Giri through the namasamkeertan programs have played a significant role in reviving the interest of the public in both namasankeertanam and in Carnatic music.

Mr. Krishnaswami continued to chug along almost to his end as a karma yogi, and his ability to do so stemmed from his deep religious faith and faith in his gurus, Swami Gnanananda and Swami Haridoss Giri.  May his soul rest in peace !

V. Ramaswami

BIAS AGAINST ASIAN INDIANS IN USA - A SURVEY BASED WHITE PAPER

By most accounts and given the high positions some of them occupy, the story of Asian Indians in the US is  a success story in America, and the US can indeed showcase its Asian Indians proudly as an example of how openly USA embraces diversity.  On their part, Asian Indians in the US have much to be thankful for as well.  But how well are they accepted in mainstream America ?  Are they subjects of any bias, or do they sense bias agains them?  We wanted to find out.  Ours may be the first such attempt through a survey.

SUMMARY:  An anonymous internet survey using SurveyMonkey was conducted by data scientists Drs. Vaidyanathan & Soundaram Ramaswami. Over the period 2/14/15 to 2/20/15, it yielded a sample of 99 valid cases.  The sample, though not representative of all Asian Indians in the USA, is still interesting in that most of its participants are college educated Asian Indians who are citizens of the USA.  The group had an adequate representation of both genders.  It was obtained through postings on three major social networks and direct mailings to several hundred contacts in the Asian Indian community.  Given these and the fact that response rate was low, there is no reason to suspect any systematic bias in the way respondents were generated. Data show that a non-negligible percentage of participants encountered incidents of "discrimination" in 2014, and that an overwhelming majority of them considered Asian Indians in the USA as being subjected to "discrimination". The term discrimination was deliberately left undefined so as to give latitude to the respondent to include any act they consider as such.   That, however, limits our ability to assess if reported instances of "discrimination" are properly classified as such by the respondents.   In spite of this limitation, one irrefutable conclusion that comes out of the survey is that bias against Asian Indians in the US is certainly  a serious topic for research especially given that our sample comprises mostly of college educated Indians who are US citizens, and even they feel "discriminated."  It appears entirely fair to ask:  Is this the tip of an iceberg? Would the results be a lot worse if one were to get a set of representatives from other sub-groups with less education, income, English Proficiency etc.? Here are some highlights.  A pdf copy of a detailed paper can be obtained by sending an email to vramaswami@gmail.com with subject line SURVEY REPORT.

STUDY SCOPE & LIMITATIONS:  Be careful in drawing definitive conclusions from this study, and do not quote its results selectively. The inferences here are preliminary and need to be re-examined with a larger study .  Such a study should be with a representative sample which involves collection of national level data and the inclusion of many additional variables like income, English proficiency, and geographic information.  Also, clear definitions of bias and discrimination should accompany any future survey.  It is also preferable to ask the participants if any of a  specific list of problems were encountered so that difficulty in interpreting results is minimized.  Survey results should also be corroborated by interviews, case studies, and the like.  None of this was possible in this modest pilot which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first of its kind.  This survey was intended for the main purpose of determining if there is even a need for a larger study and to obtain a list of important questions to pursue.  To that extent, it has certainly proved its value.  We hope some researchers in US and Indian universities will embark on a more detailed research.

PARTICIPANT PROFILE: Total 99 valid responses; Males 53; Females 46; US Citizen 87; Permanent Resident 7.  Four  (4) under 25; 55 in the age group 26-55; 40 above 55.  Ninety six (96) college educated.  Thus, the sample comprises predominantly of college educated Asian Indians who are citizens of the US with a fairly even gender distribution.  It has also given adequate counts in  age groups 26-55 and Over-55.  

ANALYSIS OF DATA/A BIRD'S OVERVIEW:

Experience of Discrimination in 2014: Claimed to be incurred by 24 of the 99 respondents, of whom 22 are citizens, all are above age 25, and college educated.  A 95% confidence interval based on the data would indicate that anywhere from 17% to 35% of Asian Indians (of the type studied) may have had at least one  incident in 2014 that they would call an act of discrimination.  Questions for a future study: Would these statistics still hold if discrimination and bias are clearly differentiated, and participants are asked to choose from specific lists of acts falling in the two categories? Would the number alleging discrimination or bias be much larger if the survey were to become more representative of all Asian Indians in the USA and included others like those who may not have adequate English proficiency or the level of income one would expect for the sample profile we have?

Sources of Bias in 2014: The 38 responses received in the survey (note that a person could have become subject to more than one event) broke up as follows by source: Police (9), Boss/Employer (11), Other (18).  Treating these 38 as a random sample, among bias incidents that happen to Asian Indians of the type studied, an estimated fraction (based on a 95% confidence interval) of 11% to 40% happen at the hands of police. Question: Is this high value a result of discrimination not being defined and a matter more of perception than reality ? Or can the real situation be worse if the survey were to include less educated Asian Indians than those represented by the sample?  Similar comments hold for other sources of bias as well.  We need a much larger survey to confirm or refute the estimates given here and to make generalizations to all Asian Indians.  Given the profile of the sample, and since managing perceptions is also important, the results cannot be totally brushed aside, but need to be followed up with a deeper examination.

Are Asian Indians discriminated in the USA? About 75% of both males and females assert that there is "discrimination" in the USA against Asian Indians.   Similar caveats as stated in the previous paragraphs hold.   The high percentage (75%) of those under 25 who assert the presence of discrimination  deserves highlighting since we hold the hope that those born in the US and growing up with their peers in the US will not be subject to as much bias as the older generation of mostly first generation adult immigrants.  But we have only a sample of size 4 from this subgroup.  Again, a much larger study is needed for the reasons stated above.  Age specific bias perceptions is an important topic for a future study.  A pertinent variable in this context may also be the number of years the participant has been in the US.

Are Asian Indians Doing Enough? 74% of all survey participants, and 91% of those who would not assert that there is no discrimination, consider that the Asian Indian community in the US is not doing enough to prevent discrimination of its members.  An exploration should be made into what inhibits the Asian Indian community from actively participating in efforts to curb bias against their community ?

Ability to Stop Discrimination: 80% of even those who would not affirm the absence of discrimination feel that they have the ability to stop discrimination against their community.  We find this reassuring of the confidence of the community, and indirectly also their faith in the US.  Does this hold at large, or only among the types of Asian Indians represented in this study ?

BOTTOM LINE:   A non-negligible fraction of Asian Indians surveyed believe they have suffered "discrimination" in the year 2014, and a  majority consider themselves as being "discriminated."  But at this time, we do not know what each one understood by the term "Discrimination."  Suppose that instead of being given such an open ended question without clear definitions of the terms, participants are given a specific list of discriminative or bias related acts to choose from.  Then would statistics similar to those in this survey continue to hold, improve, or get worse ? We do not know. Nevertheless, the fact that most participants are college educated US citizens makes many of the findings particularly important in that they belong to a group most of whose members have done well in the US professionally and financially, and one would expect them to think that they are not discriminated.   It also raises the more troublesome question whether the numbers would be even more inflated if a more representative sample of Asian Indians were to be considered.   What is really the source of the angst and how pervasive is it ?  Those deserve an in-depth study.  The real contribution of this survey is that it firmly confirms the need for a national study and has helped to identify a set of important questions to explore.

INVESTIGATORS:  Dr. V. Ramaswami has a Masters in Statistics and Ph.D. in O.R.  As a researcher in probability he recently retired from AT&T Research and was previously Chief Scientist at Bellcore.  Dr. S.  Ramaswami is a faculty member at the Educational Leadership department of Kean University teaching Research Methodology & Statistics to doctoral students.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT:  We thank all the participants and SurveyMonkey.

DISCLAIMER:  This is a strictly private effort.  No comments of any sort should be attributed to employers or groups the authors are affiliated with.

INQUIRIES: For comments or inquiries, contact vramaswami@gmail.com

WHITE PAPER: Obtain a 19 page White Paper with references, many data tables, and analysis by sending a request to vramaswami@gmail.com with subject line SURVEY REPORT. The report should be useful particularly for sociology faculty and students looking for important topics for research.

OTHER RELATED BLOGS:

http://veeraam.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-terrible-apathy-of-indian-in-america.html

http://veeraam.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-burden-of-asian-indian-ethnicity-in_21.html