THE SONGS PLAYED TO BABIES IN FRANCE

                                          

THE SONGS PLAYED TO BABIES IN FRANCE 

French baby songs, or comptines, are far more than simple lullabies. They’re a child’s first encounter with the sound, rhythm and quiet melancholy of the French language, favouring poetry and beauty over moral lessons. À la claire fontaine teaches nasal vowels through a story of lost love, whilst Une souris verte drills é sounds with the absurd image of a mouse in boiling oil. The songs rarely sanitise life: Au clair de la lune is about a rejected plea for light. Most are paired with gestures, from Ainsi font, font, font to Savez-vous planter les choux, so children perform them as much as sing them. With simple, often minor-key melodies, they lodge in the ear at age two and remain there for life, which is why any French adult can still recite all twelve verses of Alouette, gentille alouette. If British nursery rhymes teach rules and caution, French comptines teach sound, longing, and a shrug at life’s absurdity.

À la claire fontaine is one of France’s oldest and most poignant folk songs, dating back to the 1600s. It was carried to Canada by the French settlers, where it became an unofficial anthem of French-speaking communities. Gentle and melancholic, it opens with a deceptively simple scene:  

“À la claire fontaine  

M’en allant promener  

J’ai trouvé l’eau si belle  

Que je m’y suis baignée  

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime  

Jamais je ne t’oublierai”  

It translates as:  

“At the clear fountain  

Going for a walk  

I found the water so beautiful  

That I bathed in it  

I have loved you for a long time  

I will never forget you.”  

The song turns a little sad in later verses, as the singer dries herself beneath an oak tree, hears a nightingale sing, and laments a lost love: she refused a bouquet of roses and, in doing so, lost her sweetheart without deserving it, now wishing only that the rose were still on the bush and her beloved still loved her. The tune is slow and instantly recognisable to any Francophone, and while children learn it for its lilting é, ée sounds and simple melody, the lyrics carry the weight of memory, regret and innocence lost. À la claire fontaine offers the other side of the French childhood canon: a longing for an order that was broken by one small refusal.

French culture values beauty and sound over moral lessons. Anglo nursery rhymes come from a didactic tradition where stories must teach right from wrong, so the absurd gets edited out or punished. French songs keep it, because art isn’t required to justify itself. The lyrics tolerate randomness and injustice without closure:  Au clair de la lune ends with a refused favour.  Paired with minor-key melodies and poetic language, they teach early that sadness and beauty can coexist, and that life doesn’t always give tidy reasons. Children aren’t shielded from the idea that order can break over something small, like refusing a rose in  À la claire fontaine. The absurdity isn’t added. It’s just never taken out, set to music, and handed to them at age two.

French comptines give children something rare: honesty set to music. While other cultures scrub childhood clean of loss and contradiction, French rhymes trust a two-year-old to hold beauty and sadness in the same breath. They teach the ear before they teach the conscience. There is no condescension here, no simplified fable where good is rewarded and evil punished. Instead, there is À la claire fontaine, where one small refusal breaks an order that never returns. There is 'Une souris verte, absurd and vivid, refusing to explain itself. This is training in resilience without preaching it. It says: life will be strange, unjust, and heartbreaking, and still worth singing. A child raised on these songs learns early that melancholy is not a disease but depth, that the world does not owe you closure, and that you can meet its absurdity with grace and a shrug. That is not a lesser childhood. It is a braver one.

(Avtar Mota)

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FRENCH CONNECTION OF SOME INDIAN ARTISTS

                                         

                                             

                                          

FRENCH CONNECTION OF SOME INDIAN ARTISTS

At least three prominent Indian male artists are documented as having married French women, with each couple embodying a significant Indo-French cultural exchange in the arts. Sakti Burman (b. 1935), the Kolkata-born painter, married Maite Delteil (b. 1933), a French painter raised in Furnel and trained at the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts and Académie Julian, in 1963 after they met in Paris. The couple, who divide their time between Paris and India, are often described as an “iconic French-Indian artist couple”, and their daughter Maya Burman is also an award-winning painter. 

S. H. Raza (1922–2016), one of India’s most celebrated modernists and a founding member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group, moved to Paris in 1950 and was married to Janine Mongillat, a French artist. Raza lived in France for over six decades, became a naturalised citizen, and was regarded by many Europeans as a “native artist of France”. 

Akbar Padamsee (1928–2020), another key figure of Indian modernism, married French-born Solange Gounelle, and their daughter Raisa Padamsee was born in Rochefort, France. While Paris was a major hub for Indian artists from the 1940s to the 1960s, these three marriages are the most well-documented instances of Indian  painters wedded to French women, with all three couples maintaining studios and exhibiting extensively in both the countries.

( Avtar Mota )

PS

First photo is young S H Raza with his wife in Paris. Second photo shows Javed Akhtar with Sakti Burman and his wife . Third photo shows Akbar Padamsee

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BAIOCCHI CLASSICI BISCUITS IN PARIS

                                           

                                          

BAIOCCHI CLASSICI BISCUITS IN PARIS

 I have developed a taste for Baiocchi  biscuits available  in various stores in Paris. Baiocchi Classici are a brilliant example of what Mulino Bianco does best: proper, nostalgic Italian baking with real flavour and no nonsense. You get two beautifully golden, buttery shortbread biscuits that are crumbly yet sturdy enough for dunking. The top one is stamped with that charming “Baiocchi” smiley face and five little holes, a proper bit of design that makes them instantly recognisable. Inside is a generous, silky layer of hazelnut and cocoa cream made from sustainably sourced hazelnuts. The taste is superbly balanced. The biscuit isn’t too sweet, which lets the rich, nutty cream shine without becoming sickly like some chocolate spreads. Mulino Bianco also make a point of using no palm oil, which matters to anyone who cares about ingredients and flavour. They’re marketed as a breakfast biscuit for dunking in your morning coffee or milk, and they absolutely excel at that, though they’re just as good as a mid-afternoon treat with an espresso. Simple, well made, and properly moreish. Once you open the pack it’s hard to stop at just one. In Paris, I munch two after the dinner is over.  

Founded in 1974 as a subsidiary of Barilla, Mulino Bianco was created to bring artisanal-style baked goods to Italian households. The brand quickly rose to prominence, becoming a staple in kitchens across the country and has now swept market across Europe .This Italian bakery brand  produces biscuits, snacks, breads and cakes. Giovanni Maestri  created the brand to differentiate Barilla's production, historically linked only to pasta.

( Avtar Mota )

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PETANQUE, A POPULAR GAME IN FRANCE

                                        

                                                                             

PETANQUE 

Petanque is a popular game in France. People play it on gravel or dirt. I saw this game being played by the elderly in many parks in France. The players use metal balls called boules. The goal is to throw the boules close to a small wooden ball. The small ball is called the cochonnet. Two or three people can be on a team. You get points when your boule is closest. Many people play in parks and village squares. It is common in southern France. Old and young people play together. The game is slow and social. It is a big part of French life.

Petanque is widely regarded as a modern descendant of a long tradition of Mediterranean throwing games in which participants aim to position a projectile as close as possible to a designated target. This family of games, commonly grouped under the term boules in French and bocce in Italian, represents one of the oldest documented forms of competitive recreational activity in Europe, with antecedents traceable to antiquity.

A significant developmental stage in this lineage is represented by Jeu Provençal, a regional French variant that preceded modern pétanque. In Jeu Provençal, players first delineate a throwing circle on the ground and subsequently propel a small target ball, known as the cochonnet (or bouchon), to a distance typically ranging between 12 and 20 metres. Competitors then attempt to place their own boules as close as possible to this target. The throwing technique is distinguished by a dynamic approach, in which the player may step out of the circle in any direction and execute the throw while balancing on one leg, thereby incorporating a run-up and airborne delivery of the boule.

The transition from Jeu Provençal to modern petanque is commonly dated to the early twentieth century, particularly around 1907 in La Ciotat, France. In this context, Jules Lenoir is frequently credited in traditional accounts with contributing to the adaptation of the game. According to this narrative, physical limitations experienced by a player prompted the modification of the rules to eliminate the running approach. The resulting form required participants to remain stationary within a fixed circle, maintaining both feet on the ground while delivering the boule. This constraint is etymologically reflected in the term pétanque, derived from the Provençal expression ped tancats (“feet planted”). Collectively, these modifications transformed Jeu Provençal into a more static and accessible discipline, establishing the foundational structure of contemporary pétanque as it is practised today.

 The simplicity and sociable nature of the game quickly made it popular throughout France, particularly in Provence, where it became closely associated with café culture, village squares, and relaxed gatherings, before eventually spreading across Europe and the wider world as an internationally recognised sport.

Governed by the Fedération Française de et Jeu Provençal, the game blends precision, tactics and good-natured banter, and its accessibility means that grandfathers, teenagers and holidaymakers can share the same pitch. Though often seen as a leisurely pastime for retirees, competitive petanque is fiercely contested across France, culminating in the national championships and the iconic Mondial La Marseillaise, where thousands gather each July in Marseille to celebrate a game that is, at heart, as much about community as it is about competition.

Petanque is played in some schools in France and other parts of Europe where the game is well established. It is sometimes included in PE lessons, after-school clubs, or school sports days because it is easy to learn, encourages teamwork and concentration, and can be played by pupils of different ages and abilities.

Although many families regard it as a light-hearted pastime, locals often take petanque remarkably seriously. Across the country, countless villages boast their own pétanque pitch, while clubs, associations, and fiercely contested tournaments form an integral part of community life.

The appeal of Petanque lies in its remarkable accessibility. While seasoned players acquire considerable finesse through years of practice, newcomers can grasp the fundamentals with ease and begin enjoying competitive play almost immediately. The physical demands are modest, yet beneath its unassuming surface lies a game of genuine strategic depth and subtle judgement.

(Avtar Mota)

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BOOK REVIEW : FLAMEGUARD: THE FIRE SAFETY MANAGEMENT

                                        

Book Review:.... Flameguard: Fire Safety Management by Kanwal Peshin

Publisher: ...BFC Publications, Lucknow  

Price:.....₹155

Fire safety is not my subject. Yet , Flameguard held me like a novel.  Kanwal Peshin’s style is plain, urgent, and human. Published by BFC Publications, the work is structured as a six-chapter manual aimed at facility managers, safety officers, policymakers, and ordinary citizens who bear responsibility for fire prevention. He says systems are useless if people don’t use them. Kanwal’s central thesis is straightforward yet critical: “No matter how good active and passive fire protection systems you have in place, they all become useless once the people who are supposed to use the installed  safety  tools and systems are unaware of how to use them in an emergency”. This human-factor focus distinguishes Flameguard from purely technical codes and positions it as a management guide rather than an engineering textbook.

The book is a practitioner-oriented text that tackles one of India’s most under-addressed public safety crises: fire-related fatalities. It opens with a sobering statistic that immediately frames its urgency: “Due to fire and related causes in India itself, almost 25,000 fatalities occur every year. On an average, around 21 males and 42 females die each day”. The book is divided into six chapters that progress logically from problem identification to solutions:

Chapter 1: "Introduction to Fire Safety in India" sets the stage by defining fire as a universal hazard: “Fire is something that can be expected at any structure, maybe at your home, at your workplace, in a hospital, or in public places, almost anywhere”. It emphasises that fire “would certainly have the potential to cause harm to its occupants and severe property damage”. This chapter establishes that fire safety is not a niche concern for factories but a daily risk in all occupancies.

Chapter 2: "The Problem" quantifies India’s fire burden. The gendered imbalance :42 female deaths vs 21 male deaths daily , points to domestic hazards like LPG cylinders and electrical faults in homes that differ from industrial risks dominant in Western texts.

Chapter 3: "Prevention Strategy" moves from diagnosis to action. The author’s emphasis on “day-to-day management” indicates a focus on routine, low-cost interventions: risk assessment, housekeeping, electrical safety, and behavioural protocols rather than expensive retrofits.

Chapter 4: "Legislations" addresses the regulatory framework. India’s fire safety landscape is fragmented across the National Building Code, state Fire Service Acts, and NDMA guidelines. Placement of legislation after prevention suggests Kanwal believes compliance alone is insufficient without cultural change.

Chapter 5: "Fire Safety Audit" operationalises the strategy. Audits are presented as diagnostic tools: “it is every individual’s responsibility to identify flaws in the fire safety procedures”. The chapter likely provides checklists for egress, extinguishers, alarms, and evacuation drills.

Chapter 6: "Fire Safety Awareness" is the book’s philosophical core. Kanwal argues that systems fail when users are untrained: “unaware of how to use them in an emergency and are unaware of the significance of the use of such systems”. The solution is “a proper fire safety management programme should be established in the building”. For 100% safety, “a healthy fire safety management system is essential”. This chapter elevates the book from a manual to a manifesto for behavioural change.

Strengths of the Book

Most Indian fire safety literature is code-driven, dense with NBC clauses and IS standards. Flameguard pivots to the user. By stating that management is “basically a day-to-day management concept for aligning a building’s fire safety procedures in place so that they can be used at the time of need”, Kanwal makes the subject accessible to non-engineers. This is vital in a country where 25,000 lives are lost yearly, often in homes, schools, and hospitals lacking dedicated fire officers.

The book is unapologetically India-specific. Citing the annual toll grounds the discussion in local reality, highlighting risks :  kitchen fires, garment fires, and short circuits  that demand context-aware solutions.

The emphasis on audits, awareness, and management systems gives readers actionable tools. The line, “No matter how good active and passive fire protection systems you have” is a reality check for builders who install sprinklers but never conduct drills. Kanwal’s insistence on individual responsibility “it is every individual’s responsibility”  democratises safety.

Flameguard fills a critical gap between the National Building Code and on-ground behaviour. Its ideal readers are:  

Facility Managers: For implementing daily checklists and training programmes.  

Housing Societies/RWAs : To understand that sprinklers are useless if residents don’t know evacuation routes.  

Hospital/School Administrators: Where the domestic fire death data suggests institutional overlap.  

Policy Makers: To see that legislation without awareness campaigns fails.

Critical Assessment And Conclusion

Kanwal succeeds in reframing fire safety from a hardware problem to a management problem. The core insight that “a healthy fire safety management system is essential” for 100% safety is empirically sound. NCRB data show most fire deaths in India stem from failure of evacuation and first aid, not absence of extinguishers. Flameguard is a timely, necessary primer for India’s fire safety ecosystem. In a country losing 25,000 lives yearly, Kanwal’s human-centric argument is both ethical and practical. The book won’t replace technical codes, but it ensures those codes don’t gather dust. Its message is blunt and necessary: systems don’t save lives; people using systems do. For any Indian institution serious about preventing the next headline tragedy, establishing the “proper fire safety management programme” Kanwal advocates is step one.

Flameguard is not a code book. It is a call to account. Builders, residents, planners  and anyone with a key to any door should read it. Kanwal delivers what 1000-page manuals cannot: clarity in 79 pages. He begins with the arithmetic of neglect: 25,000 lives a year. He ends with a system you can start before sundown.

(Avtar Mota)

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IMMANUEL KANT(1724-1804) ON HAPPINESS

                                   

IMMANUEL KANT(1724-1804) ON HAPPINESS 

 

"Something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for”...Immanuel  Kant 

The triadic formula “Something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for” is almost universally attributed to Immanuel Kant, but there’s no evidence he ever wrote it. The earliest sources point instead to 19th-century Scottish thinkers like Thomas Chalmers or the essayist Richard Sharp. The misattribution is itself philosophically interesting: we want Kant, the austere moralist, to sound warm and practical, because the quote captures ordinary psychological wisdom. But Kant’s actual project in ethics was to separate morality from happiness altogether, and that contrast is instructive.

For Kant, happiness means “the condition of a rational being in the world with whom everything goes according to his wish and will.” The problem is that wishes are empirical, subjective, and shifting. What makes me happy today might make you miserable, and even I can’t predict what will satisfy me next year. So Kant argues that we cannot build a universal moral law on such unstable ground. If your maxim is “I’ll keep promises only when it makes me happy,” that can’t be willed as a universal law, because it would destroy the practice of promising. That’s why Kant grounds ethics in the 'Categorical Imperative': act only on maxims you could will to be universal laws, regardless of what you desire. Commands aimed at happiness are merely 'hypothetical imperatives'  “if you want X, do Y” , and they lack moral authority.

Yet Kant doesn’t banish happiness. In the ,"Critique of Practical Reason" he introduces the "highest good” : a world where virtue and happiness are proportioned, so the morally best people are also the most flourishing. Because we don’t see that correlation in experience, practical reason must “postulate” God and immortality to make the highest good possible. This is where “hope” enters Kant’s system, but it’s rational hope, not wishful thinking. It’s the assumption we need to avoid seeing morality as futile. Kant also admits an indirect duty to promote our own happiness in 'Metaphysics of Morals".  Not because happiness is good in itself, but because extreme misery, illness, or poverty are “great temptations to transgress duty.” A starving person finds it harder to be honest; an exhausted parent finds it harder to be patient. So prudence serves morality.

If we run the popular triad through Kant’s framework, each term gets a moral upgrade. “Something to do” becomes more than busywork. In ,"Groundwork"  , Kant says we have a duty to develop our talents, because a world of idle people can’t be universally willed. So your work must be morally permissible and contribute to your own perfection. “Someone to love” has to pass the 'Formula of Humanity': treat people as ends in themselves, never merely as means. Kant distinguishes pathological love or affection you feel  from  practical love,  and the duty of benevolence. You can’t be commanded to like someone, but you can be commanded not to exploit them. Love grounded in use or sentiment alone fails the test. “Something to hope for” for Kant isn’t a raise or a vacation. It’s the hope that the moral order makes sense, that virtue isn’t ultimately absurd. That’s why he calls the postulates of God and immortality “matters of faith” required by practical reason.

Kant gives us  normative ethics : constraints that prevent those three from collapsing into self-interest or harm. Purpose without duty can be cruelty. Love without respect can be manipulation. Hope without reason can be delusion. Kant’s coldness is really a demand for integrity. He wants us not to use happiness to justify wrong actions, and don’t let our pursuit of happiness undermine the dignity of  persons. In that sense, Kant doesn’t reject the triad; he disciplines it. He would agree one needs something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for ,  but only if each is held to the standard of the moral law.

Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724, in Königsberg, Prussia  ,modern-day Kaliningrad, Russia to a Pietist artisan family.His father was a harness maker and his mother Anna Regina raised him with strict religious discipline. At age 8  he entered the Collegium Fridericianum for Latin and theology, then enrolled at the University of Konigsberg in 1740 at age 16, where he studied philosophy, mathematics, and physics under Martin Knutzen, who introduced him to Newton and the Leibniz-Wolff rationalist tradition. After his father’s death in 1746, Kant left without a degree and spent 9 years as a private tutor for families near Konigsberg. He returned in 1755, earning his Magister degree . He lectured for 15 years on metaphysics, logic, ethics, geography, and anthropology before being appointed professor of logic and metaphysics at Konigsberg in 1770. Kant’s critical philosophy later shaped German Idealists like Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, who developed his ideas on freedom and reason. Schopenhauer  called his book , "Critique of Pure Reason" as the “the most important 

 book ever written”. Later Neo-Kantians like Hermann Cohen and Ernst Cassirer in the 19th–20th centuries; and 20th-century figures including Hannah Arendt  in political theory, John Rawls in ethics with his Kantian conception of justice, and Jurgen Habermas  in discourse ethics brought his philosophy . His work remains foundational in epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics.

KANT AND BHAGWAD GITA

Though it has not been established  that Immanuel Kant  read the Bhagwad Gita or the  Upanishads or the Vedas ; Schopenhauer, arriving a generation later, would be the first to proclaim their influence, yet Kant's  critical philosophy nonetheless traces lines that run uncannily parallel to the teachings of Advaita Vedanta. Kant’s discovery that space and time are not properties of things-in-themselves, but a priori forms through which the human mind must intuit all appearances, echoes Advaita’s insistence that desa, kaala, and nimitta or the  space, time, and causality  belong to Maya, the empirical veil, and not to  Brahman, the unconditioned real. His distinction between phenomena, the world as it appears to us, and noumena, the world as it is in itself, mirrors the Vedantic division between  vyavaharika or the realm of conventional truth, and paramarthika or the plane of absolute truth. Even his doctrine of synthetic a priori judgments  or knowledge that is both universal and necessary, yet not drawn from experience ,  opens room for the Advaitic claim that Self-knowledge is immediate and self-revealing, not a product of the senses. To be clear, Kant halts where Advaita advances: he holds that the noumenal, including the Self, cannot be known as an object of cognition, while Advaita proclaims that the Self is known not as an object, but as the very light by which all knowing occurs. This fertile comparison did not escape the great philosopher-statesman Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, who, in his 1918 study ,"The Ethics of the Bhagavadgita and Kant" , placed the Gita’s doctrine of "nishkama karma" or action without attachment to fruits ,  alongside Kant’s categorical imperative, showing how both traditions subordinate happiness to duty, yet nourish the hope that virtue and well-being may finally converge.Dr S Radhakrshnan writes :

"Turning our attention to the moral law, we find that both Gita and Kant preach duty for duty's sake. "Your business is with action alone, not by any means with fruit. Let not the fruit of action be your motive to action." And Kant explains , " That an action done from duty, derives its moral worth, not from the purpose which is to be attained by it, but from the maxim by which it is determined, and therefore does not depend on the realisation of the object of the action, but merely on the principle of volition, by which the action has taken place, without regard to any object of desire."

( Avtar Mota)

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UPANISHADS IN GLOBAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

                                         

UPANISHADS  IN GLOBAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 

“ For him who sees everywhere oneness, how can there be delusion or grief?”…Isha Upanishad

The Upanishads found ardent Western admirers from the 19th century onwards, most famously the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who called them “the most profitable and most elevating reading in the world” and kept the 'Oupnekhat 'on his desk as “the solace of my life”; American Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, whose notions of the Self and Over-Soul echo 'Tat Tvam Asi',  the quantum physicists Erwin Schrödinger, who kept them at his bedside and saw “the unity of Vedanta” in wave mechanics, Werner Heisenberg, who claimed “quantum theory will not look ridiculous to people who have read Vedanta,” Niels Bohr, who declared “I go to the Upanishad to ask questions,” and J. Robert Oppenheimer, who learnt Sanskrit to read them; poets T.S. Eliot, who ended 'The Waste Land'  with “Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata” and “Shantih Shantih Shantih” from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad , W.B. Yeats, who translated ten principal Upanishads, and W. Somerset Maugham, whose 'The Razor’s Edge' takes its title from the Katha Upanishad; and psychologist Carl Jung, who drew on Upanishadic Atman for his concept of the Self, alongside Aldous Huxley, who grounded 'The Perennial Philosophy' in their teachings.

The foremost Muslim lover of the Upanishads was the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh, who in 1657 worked with Benares Pandits to translate fifty Upanishads into Persian as "Sirr-i-Akbar", “The Greatest Secret,” and wrote "Majma-ul-Bahrain", “The Mingling of Two Oceans,” to demonstrate the unity of Sufism and Vedanta; his Persian version later reached Europe as the Latin 'Oupnek’hat' and profoundly influenced Schopenhauer. Centuries earlier, the Persian polymath Al-Biruni studied the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras in 11th-century India, comparing them to Greek philosophy in his book "Ta’rikh-ul-Hind". The Naqshbandi Sufi Mirza Mazhar Jan-i Janan speculated that the Upanishads contained revealed truth. In the modern era, Allama Iqbal drew on Upanishadic notions of the Self in "Asrar-e-Khudi " and "Ramooz-e-Bekhudi ", whilst Maulana Abul Kalam Azad blended Islamic philosophy with Upanishadic insight in "Tazkira" and "Ghubar-e-Qatir". Contemporary figures include Sri Mumtaz Ali Khan from Kerala, who holds discourses on the Upanishads at Kumbh Mela, and scholar Dr Intaj Malek, author of "Upanishads and Islamic Mysticism " , who equates Sufi Fana with Upanishadic union with Brahman; even TV anchor Suhaib Ilyasi found solace in the Upanishads during imprisonment. The 16th-century ,"Allopanishad" , though a later forgery written in Akbar’s court to promote Din-i-Ilahi and rejected by Swami Vivekananda and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, nonetheless reflects this long-standing Muslim engagement with Upanishadic thought as an expression of divine oneness beyond creedal boundaries.

The Upanishads are now part of MBA curricula worldwide, including at IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, Harvard, MIT Sloan, London Business School, Stanford GSB, Rotterdam School of Management, and INSEAD. Taught not as religion but as Indian Knowledge Systems, they address modern leadership gaps: ethics, self-awareness, and decision-making under ambiguity.

 Upanishads commonly taught are :

 

1.ISHA: Leadership with detachment_: “Tena tyaktena bhunjitha” is taught for sustainable stewardship.  

2.KATHA: Goal Clarity:  Nachiketa’s Shreyas vs Preyas_teaches long-term focus over short-term gains.  

3.KENA : Humility:  This Upanishad is taught to know “Who drives the mind?” And also taught to check the ego in decision-making.  

4.MUNDAKA: Wisdom vs skill: This Upanishad is taught to understand Para vs Apara Vidya to distinguish technical training from holistic judgment.  

5.TAITTRIYA: Values & motivation: The five sheaths( Pancha Kosa )  model from this Upanishad is used in OB and HR  for team development.  

6.CHANDOGYA: Inclusive Leadership: Tat Tvam Asi from this Upanishad drives empathy and stakeholder thinking.  

7.BRIHADARANYAKA: Strategic Clarity:  The Neti Neti concept from this Upanishad is taught as a framework to eliminate the non-essential in decision-making.

I was told by a MBA pass out from a prestigious University in the US that he learned the story of Satyakama from a professor during his studies for the MBA degree. The Satyakama Jabala story from Chandogya Upanishad (4.4) is taught in MBA programmes at IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, Harvard, and INSEAD as a case study in ethical leadership. Satyakama was a boy of unknown parentage who wanted to study. The Guru asked his lineage. The boy honestly says, “I don’t know, my mother said she served many people  ”. The Guru says, “You are a real Brahmaṇa because you spoke the truth.”

Sent to tend 400 cows, he returns years later with 1000, having learnt from nature along the way. The lesson: leadership rests on Satya (integrity), Shraddha (commitment), and learning through action, not pedigree. B-schools use it to teach authenticity, merit over background, humility in menial tasks, and building trust through truth, framing character as the real credential in conscious capitalism. The story conveys that truthfulness, humility, and eagerness to learn are the real marks of a developed personality.

In India, Prof. S.K. Chakraborty of IIM Calcutta first introduced the Upanishads into management education in the early 1990s. He founded the "Management Centre for Human Values" at IIM-C and launched the course ,"Management by Human Values" , using the Isha, Kena, and Katha Upanishads to address ethics and leadership gaps in Western models. His 1995 book , "Ethics in Management: Vedantic Perspectives" established the framework, earning him recognition as the father of Indian Ethos in Management. Prof. Subhash Sharma and Prof. Peter Pruzan were early introducers of Upanishadic values in modern management science in Europe, while Prof. Bill George helped mainstream it in the US.

Upanishadic wisdom is taught in Japanese management schools, though mainly in electives and executive education. Hitotsubashi ICS has incorporated "Brahman-Atman" concepts into knowledge management modules, while Kyoto University and Keio Business School include the Isha and Kena Upanishads in "Spirituality in Business" programmes. The Upanishads are usually presented as comparative Eastern philosophy for global leadership.

In China, Upanishads are taught to management students mainly in executive and elective programmes at top schools. Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management includes the Isha and Katha Upanishads in its Eastern Wisdom and Leadership modules, while CEIBS Shanghai uses "Tat Tvam Asi" in Global Leadership" courses. Tsinghua SEM and Fudan School of Management also reference Upanishadic ideas in cross-cultural ethics and leadership electives. It remains niche, presented as comparative Eastern philosophy alongside Taoism and Confucianism .

In Russia, Upanishadic knowledge appears in management education only in niche settings. Higher School of Economics (HSE) Moscow includes the Isha and Kena Upanishads in Philosophy of Management electives, while Skolkovo School of Management uses ,"Tat Tvam Asi " and "Neti Neti" in Conscious Leadership executive modules. MGIMO University also references the Upanishads in Cross-Cultural Management courses covering Indian business culture.

I am informed that some Upanishads are also taught to management students in Pakistan in some select institutions : LUMS : The Suleman Dawood School of Business lists ,"Comparative Philosophy and Ethics" as an elective for Management Science students. Course outlines from the Humanities and Social Sciences department show the Katha and Isha Upanishads used alongside Islamic and Western ethical frameworks. At IBA Karachi, The School of Social Sciences offers philosophy and leadership electives where Upanishadic ideas on self-inquiry and detachment appear. They're taught comparatively with Rumi, Iqbal, and Stoic thought. However, the Upanishads are presented as comparative wisdom, not as management doctrine.

At IIMs in India , courses like “Leadership through Literature” and “Spirituality for Global Managers” use these texts as case studies for stress management, ethical leadership, and conscious capitalism. The goal: build leaders who combine competence with inner clarity.

( Avtar Mota )

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