The Annexation of Knowledge

One of the first topics you study in the History Honours undergraduate programme in Delhi University is the transition from capitalism to feudalism. The number of books we were asked to read on that one topic were around fourteen. This topic was one of the odd fifteen topics within a single paper. There are around eight papers within one academic year. This should give an approximate idea of the number of books that are part of the prescribed reading list for an undergraduate student in a year. The student has three options, one, issue the book from the library; two, buy the book spending from his own pocket or three, photocopy the book.

As far as the library is concerned except for a few beatified ones most of them will not even have the books. If they do, there will be a maximum of three copies in a library. Most undergraduate batches in a Delhi University College will have around forty to fifty student. What are the odds of every student getting a copy long enough to read and understand a topic? Exercising the second option is not possible for 95% of students in India as the books in social sciences range anywhere from 400 to 2000 rupees. In pure or applied sciences the lower limit is 2000 rupees. In such a scenario it is not too difficult to figure out what the most viable option for a student from an average Indian middle class family is.

The above example needs to be placed in the context of the recent lawsuit being filed against a tiny photocopy shop in the Delhi School of Economics by the Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Students for the infringement of copyright violations. This apart from bringing in questions of copyright law in India brings in the very important question of access to knowledge.

The question is knowledge from whom, by whom and for whom? The academic research produced is not produced in vacuum by the author. It is sourced in society, people and practices. Without this there will be no work of value. No doubt the researcher gives back to the society through extracting and structuring this knowledge through the academic tools attained. But it is quite an imbalanced proportion of give and take where the researcher gains more from the community than she gives back.

There is a clear commoditisation of knowledge that is happening. Knowledge has become just like any other private commodity which is being owned by a few and sold to a few. The case of the 26 year old internet activist Aaron Swartz’s death needs to be seen in this light. According to him the world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage published over centuries in books and journals was being digitised and locked up by a handful of private corporations. He believed in liberating this information from their clutches. His death should in fact become a rallying point for those who believe in the free dissemination of knowledge and access to information equally.

The ban on photocopying of books will bend the students’ back double with burden. This needs to be coupled with the despicable funds that go into need based scholarships for students in India. When the only worry they should be having is attaining knowledge and producing substantial works of value, they will have to spend their time and energy figuring out how to first gain access to books.