Ever since his growing (?) mind was rudely steered away from academics at IIT Kanpur around 1978, J.K Suresh has been dabbling in a befuddling (to him!) mixture of readings, thoughts and analysis of the relationship between politics, technology, science, society, language, philosophy and the like in India.

 

During the next 40 or more years, he has always been marginally associated with groups that have had a powerful influence on his thinking – be it the group of social thinkers at Kanpur who subsequently were deeply involved in articulating the possibilities engendered by the peasant movement of the 1980’s and in developing  the Vidya Ashram of later years that focused on the knowledge of ordinary people(LokaVidya)  as a potential source of developing their strength and will to resist and overturn the new forms of colonialism that rule the world today; or the PPST group that once aimed to lay bare the hidden assumptions and values that underlie the so-called objective and value-free Science and Technology (S&T) of modern times, and in later years embarked on an exploration of Indian S&T in relation to society and its ontological bases; or the Gram Seva Sangh (GSS) group that in recent years has been vociferously demanding a reversion to hand-made products in India as the only alternative to large scale automated production of goods and services, the progress towards which has helped create a juggernaut of vested interests that has wiped out jobs, justice, dignity and livelihood for a majority in the country.

 

Somewhere in these 40 odd years, he also managed to serve a little more than two life sentences in separate business organizations in exchange for life and sustenance. And honed a technique of writing which seem to others as being similar to that of 19th century German philosophers - difficult to read, understand or appreciate.

 

In recent years, Suresh also dabbles in coprological studies of social media as a side interest.