About the title, there was a popular Hollywood film with the title –
Great Train Robbery, Perhaps based on a well-known detective novel. So, I was
inspired by that title, in choosing the title for this note, “Robbery” is
obviously inappropriate for the title. Having looked up the dictionary for the
meaning of the words “Plagiarism” and “Piracy” I chose the word ‘piracy’ in
preference to the word “Plagiarism” widely used in academic literature and by
the publisher’s disclaimers. Here is the meaning of the word “piracy” : the
unauthorized use or appropriation of patented or copyrighted material or ideas
etc. (The new Collins Concise English Dictionary, Rupa and co 1982 Indian
edition).
Background
During March 2010 I made a brief visit (10th to 12) to
Delhi-Dept. of Social Work, Delhi University (D.S.W.D.U). One of my former
students who is on the faculty of D.S.W.D.U. met me at the University Guest
House and conversationally mentioned that S/he had got the Ph.D. recently from
another Central University, one of the two at New Delhi. I expressed a desire
to look at the Ph.D. dissertation which was given to me on the next day. I had
no time to read it but read the Introduction and then turned to the Bibliography-my
habit when reading a new book. It was a long list containing titles, names of
the authors of the books from the disciplines of Sociology, economics,
education and some well-known economic authors including Michael Todaro. I have
read some of his writings and was very impressed. Then an entry-Social
Development under the publication title-Social Work Encyclopaedia 3rd
Edition, caught my attention which puzzled me. I asked for the name of the author and the name
of a distinguished T.I.S.S. alumnus was mentioned, who had passed away. I had
thought I was the only author on Social Development in the 2nd Encyclopaedia
of Social Work in India (1987) and was unaware of the 3rd Edition of
Encyclopaedia of Social Work and the author who had passed away more than two
decades ago had written it! (There was no article on Social Development in the
1st Edition of Encyclopaedia). I did make a few enquiries seeking
details of that entry. But did not say anything more.
After my return to Bangalore Ramesha. M.H. the young editor of the
bilingual monthly Social Work Foot Prints, happen to mention proudly that he
had a copy of all the four Encyclopaedias. I requested him to lend me his copy
of the 3rd Encyclopaedia of Social Work. He did so and I read carefully
the preliminary pages including the contents. I turned the pages, reading a few
passages and was greatly shocked to find my own, G.R. Banerjee’s and Hans
Nagpaul’s published writings-without names and credit (Publication details). I
mention only a few.
1. Banerjees ‘Social Worker looks at V.D.’ written during the early
1950’s and published in the I.J.S.W. and later included in the book Papers on
Social Work-An Indian Perspective, 1972,TISS., publication. I had written a
Review Essay which was published in I.J.S.W. during the mid 70’s.
The correct entry in ‘PRETENCY’ vol-Page No-344 is; Social
Development: A profile: I have been cited in the references. No name of the
author.
2. My own several writings I could recognize, but, I mention only
one. My article based on the Keynote Address at the ASSWI seminar at
Bhubaneshwar, 1986 which was later published with the title Social Work and
Social Development-Some Unresolved Issues in R.K. Nayak and H.Y. Siddiqui,
Eds-Social Work and Development, Gitanjali Publications New Delhi, 1989. While
lifting this article the academic Pirates over looked the footnote on the very
first page No.354 and failed to delete that entry. Thus left a vital clue
(evidence) of their Piracy.
Some major crimes are accidentally discovered-e.g. the great scam of
cricket-match fixing by Hans Cronje of South Africa including two well known
Indian cricketers, one of whom is now on M.P. (LokSabha) of the ruling party !
Another a very recent I.P.L. Rajasthan Royals three team members which is still
under further investigation. The police were monitoring phone calls for a major
crime-terrorist attacks and chanced upon the match fixing conversations.
3. Hans Nagpauls article-Perhaps from the I.J.S.W. (or from his
book).No names mentioned,
Such as authors, publishers etc.
An Encyclopaedia is a major academic project, planned carefully,
selecting topics and suitable authors, and takes several years before
publication for a variety of reasons. The 2nd Encyclopaedia, to
which I am a contributor, was planned in 1978-79, but published only in 1987.
Also, topics are added or titles changed keeping in mind the changes over a
period of years. If the Pretender Encyclopaedia hereafter (PRETENCY) was to
publish on the S.T.D. (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) there would have been two
entries, one on Social Work in the field
of S.T.D. and the other HIV-Aids. To publish 1950’s article in 2001-Social
Worker look at V.D. apart from the crime
of piracy, demonstrates the academic (in) competence including ignorance of the
areas which the chosen topics are to cover.
I wrote about my “detective” findings to a well known social work
academic, formerly at T.I.S.S, now retired
sometime during September 2011 and I quote from this academic’s reply :
The situation of
professional ethics outside T.I.S.S. seems to be worse. Some years back the T.I.S.S.
Librarian did send me three volumes of a book on social work in India for
approval. I did not approve it as it had no references at all, which means all
of the content was plagiarised. I don’t Know if you are talking about the same
work in India. On the other hand, in 2000, Prof. Surendra Singh, then the
President of ASSWI asked me to be a member of an Advisory and Editional Board which
had been formed for the Third Edition of the Encyclopaedia of Social Work in India . I sent him my suggestions
for an update set of contents. He asked for names of experts for the new topics
which also I sent him. Many T.I.S.S. faculty members were invited who sent their
articles but then there has been no news
from him till now. Just last week I heard from a colleague who had met Prof.
Singh recently that Prof. Singh told him that a faculty member of an
institution in Mumbai wrote to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
who was funding it and complained that it is the Ministry who should publish
this Encyclopaedia and not ASSWI! The Ministry withdrew the funding.
When I mentioned to Ramesha about my discovery of the crime-The Great
Social Work. Academic Piracy, he queried why don’t you file a case in the court
? I told him the futility of that exercise, the legal tangle, visits to the
court for the hearings, engaging a lawyer on payment of fees, and the enormous
delay in concluding the judicial process-more than five years with more than
three crores of cases pending in various courts in the country and my age (80+
years).
The Social Work academic pirates, perhaps, assumed that most of the
authors would have passed away, If alive would not come to know because of old
age or living abroad (H. Nagpaul), But, I happen to be alive (83 yrs) blessed with
a good memory and my mental faculties are in good condition. As I said before,
the discovery of the crime was accidental-my brief visit to Delhi and the Ph.D.
dissertation being mentioned by the faculty member and my interest in looking
at it.
More than the enormity of the crime what shocks me is that it has
not been detected before by other Social Work academics. And it pains me to see
that it is being mentioned by the Social Work academics as part of their
Scholarly publications. Even after Ramesha made a brief reference to it in his
(Kannada) editorial in one of the issues of Social Work Foot Prints – a well
known, retired Social Work academic who would have read the editorial, listed
it as part of his lecture Bibliography, published later in the same journal !
My further investigation of the contents of the “Pretency” Vol.3,
surprised me even more. There are three chapters of my book Social Welfare-An
Evolutionary and Developmental Perspective. Macmillan India, New Delhi, 1981,
with the same chapter titles ! I could also guess identify published writings
of Robert Pinker, H.Y. Siddiqui and Vidya Rao in the same volume. Note also
that the contents are not in an alphabetical order-the practice followed by the
encyclopaedias.
To conclude, why this academic piracy was not detected for nearly
ten years after the publication in 2001 ? why Ph.D. scholars and academic
writers (scholars?) continue to mention it as part of the bibliography of their
academic products ? Very disturbing answers to the questions posed above. “Why,
oh Why” (a line from the poem “Boatmen’s Song” by Sarojini Naidu)
Bangalore
Shankar Pathak
No
213, 16th Cross M.C Layout,
Date 12th August 2013 Vijayanagar,
Bangalore-560040.
Suggested additional
reading
“Social Work Educators as Scholars-Some Animadversions.” Indian
Journal of Social Work, April, 2000.
Postscript
I have spent much time, about 50 hours and mental energy in writing
this Note, inspite of my age and related disability, computer illiteracy etc
with the help of others who kindly agreed to get this note computer printed. I
shall feel rewarded if the Social Work academic community-individual and
institutional act concertedly to curb if not eliminate the epidemic of academic
piracy from spreading and the pirates benefiting financially and in other ways
(academic reputation unearned, spurious) and
hurting the genuine writers, depriving them of what they deserve.
Suggestions:
1. To remove immediately from Library the “Pretency” volumes if
purchased and destroy
them.
2. Heads/Directors of Institutions to evolve proper procedures if in
existence already to
improve, to prevent
purchase of expensive books falsely claiming to be the original
academic publications by
exercising due vigilance as illustrated by the former T.I.S.S.
academic, already Quoted.
3. Research guides to scrutinize the references, bibliography etc to
detect pirated,
plagiarized publications(
assuming that they are widely read scholars).
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