I’m trying to ascertain whether this particular educational qualification has its origins in fact or whether it is apocryphal.
As I recall, the joke goes that if an (Indian) person wished to impress a potential employer with his performance at university, but had failed to pass his degree course, he would have his business cards printed with the legend: BA Calcutta (Failed). The message could equally read: I may not have a degree but at least I was clever enough to get to college.
Has anyone actually seen a business card, or similar document, bearing this piece of wisdom?
Can’t answer this question directly, but in my recruitment role (oilfield services), I see a lot of resumes from both Indians and Pakistanis with geological or engineering qualifications. I can only think of two or three who had stopped at Bachelors degrees; it is a given that just about all of these people have a Masters or higher in their discipline, and this is invariably the case whether they had been educated in their home country, or in the UK, Canada or the USA. I suppose the story may be true in some limited circumstance, but if so I can only say that no one has ever tried to present such a (non) qualification to me.
I have never heard of this practice, and I can safely say that it is untrue. I know of no Indian company that will hire someone on the basis of an incomplete degree.
I haven’t seen a business card that says “Failed,” though I have seen one that says “Inc.” meaning “Incomplete.”
It was from a student of mine when I taught night school courses in Toronto some years ago. He was from India, and gave me his business card one night. It showed:
Firstname Lastname B.A. (Inc.)
When I asked him about the “Inc.” he said it meant Incomplete. He had begun a bachelor’s degree somewhere–the card didn’t specify–but hadn’t completed it. I didn’t ask whether he had given up, or been kicked out, or had to stop for some reason; he wasn’t one of my best students and I saw no need to ask anything that might have embarrassed him.
Anyway, to answer your question, yes, I’ve seen such a thing.
I have seen evidence of this practice, although not later than the mid-twentieth century. You may be right that no Indian job candidate of today would use such a credential, but many earlier ones did.
The practice is mentioned in G. H. Hardy’s introduction to a summary of some work of the Indian mathematical genius Srinivasan Ramanujan (d. 1917):
So it looks like you’ve answered the OP’s question regarding origin. It seems to have originated during the British Raj. It certainly does not exist anymore (as a practice, at least), since I have not come across any reference to this practice in 28 years. That doesn’t stop a few individuals from attempting it (as referenced by Spoons), but it is not the norm.
Now that I have a search term to use(failed B.A.), a search of the Historic NYTimes turns up that it was not uncommon to use both that and “failed M.A.” as evidenced by a story about education in India from 1889.
I think there’s a scene in John Huston’s THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING featuring an Indian who includes in his self-introduction (to Michael Caine on a train) as “Oxford, failed” or some such.
The Perishers, a long-running cartoon strip mostly about a bunch of kids but also featuring dogs, a tortoise, a beetle and a caterpillar amongst others, has long since had a character called “B.H. Calcutta (failed)”, a bloodhound who affects Indian mannerisms and cannot smell a week-old kipper at three paces.
The original joke as I heard it was that “B.A. (fail)” was not used in a job application, but in a newspaper advertisement by someone offering private tutoring services for university entrance exams. The failed degree was proof that he was at least able to get in to college, which is what potential pupils (rather, their parents) would be concerned about.
As one of the previous posts illucidates, the term is a reference back to the days of the British Rahj in India, where British Officers of a certain rank having failed to gain a degree at Oxford or Cambridge would - to hide their families embarassment - enroll in the British Army in India - listing their qualification as B.A. (Failed).
The term B.A. Calcutta (Failed) was created by the satyrists of the time as someone lower than someone from Oxford or Cambridge with a failed degree but with a bit more ‘nouse’ who invariably won or got the upper hand.
The term was also used as the name of a character (bloodhound) in the Perishers comic strip in the popular national newspaper ‘The Daily Mirror’ in th UK.
All of which sounds like bullshit. During the period of the British Raj, it was pretty much impossible to fail an Oxford or Cambridge BA degree - a candidate who had completed the residency requirements, who turned up for the exams and who paid the fees still got their degree, albeit with the lowest possible classification. Hence the concept of the ‘gentleman’s third’ (or fourth).
FWIW considering this is a zombie, I remember during music school going through some classical music periodical from the first half of the 20th century. I forget the name of the magazine, but I think it was the British equivalent of the American Etude. At any rate, in the back were advertisements for music teachers, and many of them had the designation “BA Oxford (Failed)” or some such thing. My professor explained that it was considered such an accomplishment to get into Oxford et al., that it gave you status even if you didn’t get the degree. So that was an English example of the usage.
You are all being far too serious. B.A. (Failed) was a dog in a popular newspaper strip cartoon. A kindly Indian bloodhound who lost his sense of smell in an unfortunate incident involving an elephant filled with curry which exploded in the noonday sun.
