“I see this all the time in academia…people conflate their own political views with an evaluation of the health of democracy. I think academics have a real moral responsibility to be careful about not allowing our biases to influence our expert judgements,” said Prof Salvatore Babones in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, while questioning the validity of various established indices.

Talking about the authenticity of the international rankings, the sociologist said: “I have offered facts about India that Indians should be aware of. I have also offered facts about the International rankings, I think there is a tendency among people to seek something coming from a prestigious organisation, that somehow it is driven by facts, by deep analysis, but the reality is that these rankings are done very cheaply, based on a very narrow evidence base, and represent a small number of people who are talking to themselves, quoting and reciting their own works.”

Exemplifying a crucial index like V-Dem report the professor maintained that 85 per cent of people responding to the V-Dem rankings are university academics, and the others are either directors of NGOs or the editors of major news organisations, clearly pointing towards a small and cosy group of people.

As V-Dem stresses on in-country experts, which constitutes two-third of the people sampled, Prof. Babones expressed a deep interest to know who are those intellectuals. Further, it cannot be denied that a substantive portion of Indian academia is reminiscent of the old ways and old literature despite significant changes in the last eight years.

Pointing out the biases in academia, the American sociologist said: “The problem is that the people are allowing their biases to creep in their expert judgements…If someone in India is so anti-Modi that the fact that Narendra Modi is the prime minister somehow reflects the undemocracy, is as similar to the people in the US concluding that if there is Trump elected there is a problem in a democracy. It means that the people believe that if their own side is winning democracy is working fine, while something contrary to it is wrong.”

Talking about three major sets of evaluation: V-Dem rankings, Freedom House Freedom in the World report and The Economist Intelligence Unit report, he said that “inaccurate”, “misleading” and sometimes “un-truthful” information has been fed by the experts to the ranking authorities.

The associate professor at the University of Sydney conceded that people do have difficulties fighting their biases, but, “intentionally” spreading falsehood in support of one’s biased views is unforgivable. These people should be held accountable and so should the ranking organisations.

Speaking for the democracy of India, the professor said, “Honest evaluation of Indian democracy has to compare Indian democracy to its own history over time, it has to compare it fairly to other countries around the world using the same metrics.”

Talking about the institutional anti-Hinduism, he asserted: “Many of the people who were notoriously anti-Semitic has come out to be anti-Hindu as well…and we are often seeing these kinds of articles being published in the middle-east based journals, the middle-east eye out of Qatar is the primary focus of this rhetoric…people taking their anti-Semitism as a model for a new anti-Hinduism.”

He further said that if someone has views opposite to India, it is picked up by such anti-Hindu organisations and amplified, even though the person may not be anti-Hindu personally. This is something western academics are far too naïve about.

Finally, he urged the academicians not to become intellectual warriors despite advocacy having its place in society because academicians have a responsibility to educate the public and pursue the truth.

Salvatore Babones is an associate professor at the University of Sydney and the author of the recent study of India’s democracy rankings, ‘Indian Democracy at 75: Who Are the Barbarians at the Gate?’ He earned his MS (mathematical sciences) and PhD (sociology) from Johns Hopkins University. His 2018 book ‘The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts’ was named among the ‘Best on Politics’ by the Wall Street Journal. Views expressed are personal.

References:

firstpost.com