ABSTRACT
Early in 2000, a small but significant political flap arose in India over fundraising which Indian immigrants in the US had been carrying out on behalf of India’s prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Significant numbers of IIT alumni now live in the United States, where many of them have become extremely prosperous through involvement in California’s Silicon Valley computer and information industry (Dutt 2000: 24; Padmanabhan 2000: 22; Rekhi 2000: 24). In return for raising needed funds, alumni groups strongly urged that the IITs be restructured to reflect more closely the mix of science and entrepreneurship prevalent in many American universities and business schools. The Indian scientific establishment, still imbued with older notions of pure science, responded with outrage at a proposal that seemed redolent of American arrogance and cultural imperialism.
