On Spirituality & Technology

Continuing with a similar theme from last week, we now turn to Subramaniam's article. Reading this article, I am reminded of India as portrayed in an episode of the TV show "30 Days". "Western science had been transplanted into India and subsequently embraced as a central force in Indian politics" -- the episode talks about the experience that an American, who has had his programming job outsourced to India, has while he lives in India with an Indian family that works outsourced American jobs. When talking about the Indian environment, the narrator notes the vast amount of buildings and skyscrapers present in urban India (particularly Bangalore), which portray it as a pretty technologically advanced and business-oriented place. Its people are adept at computer usage, among other things, as obvious from the amount of market researchers and customer service representatives jobs that are available.

One thing to note about these jobs is the hours that they spend at work; as can be recalled from the article, "most Hindus in Christian schools knew many Christian prayers, Christian carols, and blessings" -- well, the employees at the call centre in the episode may or may not have been familiar with Christian carols and prayers, but they most certainly took their holidays when their North American customers did -- during Christmas. That is their customers' time off, so they take their time off then. On a similar note, it was mentioned that they worked hours that accommodated the hours of their North American customers and participants. Call centre representatives said that they would work early into the morning, since that is when their customers were likely to be home -- during suppertime. Although call centres in India are a small niche in what India may call their technological industry, it certainly portrays an India that embraces Western culture in order to attain notions of modernity and progress.

This view of India, however, is the public portrayal of the country as scientific and "modern". As we go into the host family's living quarters, we see that traditional family and gender values are still being practiced. Religious ceremonies are still commonplace, and the female perpetuates 1950s gender stereotypes by taking care of the house, her husband, and being a subservient wife. What a juxtaposition. The public sphere is all about science and progress, while the private sphere still displays signs of religion and tradition. But it actually is not so clear-cut in the episode. What appears to be happening is that technology and its prospects for jobs is cutting into the traditional core of the family unit. Time is no longer spent with family at supper, spouses sleep at different times, and the woman has no time to prepare food or do many chores for the husband due to her new-found opportunity at having a career. "My feminism and politics were very linked to modernity, and modernity was linked with claims of reason, and reason was linked with the objectivity and rationality of science" -- perhaps Subramaniam would not have minded being a part of this transitioning society. India is "raining jobs", as the episode indicates, although the downside is that women probably are often placed into lower ranked positions. Despite this fact though, I am unsure of the amount of truth to her claim that "neither science nor religion after all has much of a place to offer women" in a society that is slowly changing and transitioning.