Thread:
When I studied in India, I went to a private university. They had money (by Indian standards). What they didn't have, were expansive coffers compared to universities in the US or the UK. This meant that they could afford a JSTOR subscription, but not Project MUSE.

They could afford to get some books in each discipline, but not a lot. As a liberal arts school, they tried their best to give students a wide range of materials, but often failed because they simply couldn't afford to spend $200 on one book, when that money could buy six others.

It worked for some people, sometimes. An instructor would get us papers and texts from their other affiliations and friends. Things worked somewhat. Then they didn't. As I made my way through college, I found myself struggling to find material that matched my academic level.

I couldn't find new studies or recent research anywhere. I bought books from second-hand stores and begged my parents to buy rarer books that weren't published in India. My parents were willing and able. That's a luxury and a privilege not shared by most in India.

I built my collection till I couldn't. My program required both a senior thesis and a seminar level paper. My interest in Gothic fiction and adaptation, in psychoanalysis and fairy tales made it difficult to find the resources in my college library, that prioritized general...

...studies and textbook purchases (for photocopying and handouts) over specialized works. I didn't know to ask authors for copies, not for everything. For psychology, I used researchgate and academia dot edu to contact people. For literature, I didn't know who had written

...the works I needed. So I used libgen and I used torrents. I asked my friends at other universities to share resources and I downloaded PDF after PDF, breaking DRMs so that I could learn and write. I could do this because I was privileged in a country where most are not.

Not everyone knows or has access to technical skills. Not everyone has access to the internet either. Hundreds of thousands of students share material downloaded onto thumb drives because they have no other choice. Should they stop learning and trying to know more?

What kind of world do you envision when you reject people's requests for PDFs? For open and free access to work? What kind of gates and walls do you build when you demand that graduate students or undergrads in financial difficulty, pay the cost of their monthly groceries for ...

...one book? Let's be clear. You'd rather have a publisher make money, than allow someone to know more. You'd rather let someone's academic aspirations die, than let them use a pirated copy. That doesn't make you an educator, it makes you a corporate cog-in-the-wheel.

I, and thousands like me, made our way into your ivory towers because we fought and used EVERY avenue we had to learn and accumulate knowledge. Who do you think you are, to deny us that? To deny us the reason for our success?

Publishers matter, but gatekeeping knowledge with claims of their immanent demise and trying to tell a graduate student who may or may not be in a position to buy a book that they shouldn't try to get a PDF through non-standard means is a kind of imperialist practice.

Some day, those graduate students may want to buy your book. Some day, they may want to cite you. But when you act like a jerk, you get treated like one. Your reputation, your citations, your survival in this profession is dependent on the free exchange of ideas. Don't be a fool.

This article should also give you a sense of the material concerns at risk here (h/t @swatiatrest) : https://m.thewire.in/article/education/du-photocopy-case/amp?__twitter_impression=true

I've muted this thread because my anxiety overwhelms me when I see so much interaction, but I'll just say one last thing. Moving to the US for grad school only made me more aware of how impoverished India's educational infrastructure is, in terms of resources and access.

When we're asked to present our work, we're at a competitive disadvantage. This holds true even if scholarship is about the Global South, because publication is dominated by the Global North. Open access or at the very least, free and reasonable sharing of resources helps.