Gatekeepers, DeepSeek and Open Source in India
Over the last few days since the launch of DeepSeek AI model, there has been a deluge of comments on Twitter of how despite having such a large community of software developers, China has stolen the thunder and led the way in AI and why India continues to be a laggard. Many people have given their opinions and most of them are known and true. Despite having millions of engineers, India has a massive dearth of genuine Open Source projects. The reasons of why we don’t have more Open Source projects is the same reason why we don’t have more foundational AI models.
I pushed my first code on the web in 2009 and have been sharing all my code in public since then. Starting from obscurity, we have been able to build a high quality free and open source low code framework and ERP system along several other products. During our journey I have had many interactions with the “community” in India. For many years, we were ignored. There was no place we could go and even showcase our code which we were freely sharing with others. I was not even looking for money or support, but just an opportunity to engage with people who could potentially benefit from free software.
As we got some stability and users, we continued to apply for talks to various events. When we were already one the most successful Python projects from India, we were rejected twice from presenting at PyCon India. Just on basis of reputation, I strongly felt we deserved to be represented. That left us with no other option but to run our own conference. The so called “open source” conferences in India were mostly driven by commercial and proprietary vendors and that pushed us to collaborate with folks at Zerodha to start FOSS United. Even there we struggled to find more partners to build stronger foundations for the community.
ERPNext being free and open source is a huge benefit to not only private companies but also government and non profits. We have been approached by various government departments and public sector companies for “free help” several times. Rarely, did any government department offer us even fair money for support, forget grants and funding. At the same time, I have seen the government fund horrible projects in the name of open source with the support of brand name public universities. This was when we were seeing other popular projects outside India in our domain get massive government support in their home countries.
Over the years we have talked with various large companies in India — many of whom would massively benefit from ERPNext. One of them have a strong internal practice in ERPNext as well. When it came to a commercial engagement, they offered to acquire us or threaten that “why should we pay you, your code is already free”. The first people who have been “kind” to us have been a small SMB based on Germany who wired us $5000 and a religious organisation based in South India. Over the years, our biggest support has been our own organic community. SMBs, IT vendors who have benefitted from ERPNext and have been strong evangelists. The other genuine exception has been Zerodha, who have been investors since 2020 (they were community members first).
The reason I am recounting this journey is to highlight the general lack of support we have received in India from either open source communities, trade bodies, corporate customers or media in India. I have agonised several times over why this has happened. When you think you deserve “recognition” and you don’t receive it, it is natural to doubt yourself. But then when I look at the “objective” success of our projects, I am very perplexed.
Over the years I have closely observed how people in power behave in India. India is not the most “meritocratic” society (I have lived in the US for three years). If you want “entry” in to any “club”, you have to first “conform” to their preferences and offer deference. This is so deep rooted that you can start observing patterns in how people pick their friends. As a school parent, I have seen parents “choose” who their kids should be friends with. I have heard senior IAS officers say “Sir” thrice in a sentence to their own superiors.
The way to get things done in India is “relationships”. This means that if you want to get VC funding, you must belong to the right college — because your hostel mates will be the analysts who will weigh in on the decision and select “people like us”. If you want to get a speaking opportunity at an event, you have to be “nice” to the people who run the event. To put it bluntly, India is a country of bootlickers and gatekeepers. I am not even going into deep rooted caste hierarchies and biases (I don’t have any data backing this but I have my suspicions).
What makes this worse is that India is also extremely status conscious. People will pay anything for status symbols — cars, phones etc. and assume that that is what gives them respect in society. While reading the Neapolitan novels about post war Italy, I was genuinely surprised by the respect given to teachers in society. In India, teachers are treated like service providers at best and maids as worst. Let’s not even get started about how maids are treated in India.
Power in India is held by extremely insecure people who have acquired their power through either affiliations and relationships or by nepotism. These people are extremely scared of truly skilled and capable people taking power and do their best to keep them out. I have seen this pattern over and over and over that I don’t think it is a random thing. “Why don’t you be practical?” my mother keeps chiding me. This kind of meek acceptance on the face of general moral corruption is the bane of modern India.
India needs to celebrate people who break the mould, challenge status quo. The “iron frame” of power is so strong that there are so few people who even know how to think honestly. Innovation requires being fearless and asking hard questions that no one is asking. I remember the last meeting with my thesis advisor in university in the US. I told him that his entire research was pointless and went ahead to make my points. It wasn’t important whether I was right or wrong, I was unafraid to say what I wanted to say. I don’t think this is possible in India. People only want convenient truths, not real truths.
India is a society that values tradition, conformism and networks over ideas, debates and honest confrontation. Innovation thrives in when people rub against each other, pushing, polishing and celebrating ideas. No wonder we lack true innovators.
