Many people have to work and sacrifice for it.
July 29, 2024
Prof. Kumble Subbaswamy takes issue with Tunku Varadarajan’s op-ed “J.D. Vance and the Indian American Dream” (July 17) on grounds that most Indian migrants to the U.S. owe their success to the higher education with which they arrived (Letters, July 25), as opposed to “those African-Americans who were born into poverty, educated at subpar schools and discriminated against at every turn in the job market.”
Most Indian migrants to the U.S. have come from middle-class families with relatively limited financial means. Their parents made huge sacrifices in their own lives to give their children the kind of education that would provide them better opportunities. This education was obtained by tough parenting at home and by securing scarce openings in top-rated Indian schools and universities through rigorous selection processes at every step and competitive entrance exams.
As such, the gift of education to the Indian migrants wasn’t bestowed on them by privilege and wealth but by their own dedication and hard work, as well as that of their parents, who knew the value of such education. Those who don’t seize the benefits of education, and shun the hard work necessary to obtain it, can’t complain that they were later passed over in the job market for the lack of it.
Education is the only leveler in life for those who aren’t born into privilege and wealth. A good education, though, is hard to procure without toil and trouble.
Anil Bhalla