Remembering Arindam Sen

It was the second half of 1987 and we had a new Economics teacher in class XII. Room number 6, just beside the college office in St Xavier's College had by then descended into total chaos. Suddenly a well built man rushed out of the staff room and as he entered the classroom, the cacophony literally changed to pin drop silence.

That was my first encounter with Arindam Sen, who had a tremendous dislike for students coming from posh, upmarket schools. Sen, as he was known among the Economics Honours students, used to teach us Mathematical Economics. His trademark was a cotton side bag, which hardly matched with the sophistication of the college, and would draw curves with their axes in thin air.

Sen, was hardly bothered if anyone attended his class or not and would circulate a sheet of paper for the students in the room to write down their roll numbers for attendance. Taking advantage of his two hour classes we would often slip into the noon or matinee shows at cinema halls in central Kolkata. Our friend Soumyananda Dinda, whom Sen liked for his humble background, low profile and sincerity, was entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring our requisite attendance as we enjoyed outside. Only once as a fellow student was trying to skip his class, Sen retorted that he was 'physically, mentally and intellectually more able than all of us". If someone ever tried to act smart, Sen's treatment would be to ask him questions ranging from Lord Tennyson's 'Ulysses' to what not.

From the looks, however, he seemed a very idealistic person. Mostly sporting a set of crumpled Punjabi-Pajama (Kurta-Pyjama), he would often push his dense hair from over his broad forehead while delving with the mathematical expression of complicated economic theories, without any concern as to whether they made any sense to a majority of the students in the class.

Often the very moment becomes more important than what was fundamental, and it was so true with Sen. Rather than trying to relate to what he was trying to explain, we would either bunk his classes or would scribble on paper, pretending as if we were listening to his lectures with apt attention.

From disinterest grew indifference and gradually Sen turned out to be an enigma for many of us. It was so intense that a joke was doing the rounds when we were in college and it related Sen with the celebrated economist Paul Samuleson. The joke went like this: once Samuelson landed at the Kolkata Airport and someone present to receive him whispered in his ear that Arindam Sen taught Economics in a city college.  Hearing Sen's name, Samuelson got so puzzled, fearing that Sen's mathematical analysis of Economics would be totally incomprehensible to him, that he took the next flight to the United States.

This may just have been a joke but the enigma surrounding Sen continued within me even after I left college. So when I heard from the famous Bengali singer Srikanto Acharya (who incidentally is a Xaverian but from the Political Science Department) a couple of months ago that Sen passed away, the first thing that crossed my mind was the enigma that surrounded him. Despite not relating to his lectures, I always wondered what his position would have been on some of the complex issues relating to economic theory or if he had some published work, which would give us some idea about his thinking on controversial topics.

One thing is for sure, he was a very determined person and I have a personal story to complement that. I used to take private tuition in Mathematics from Dr Shankar Prasad Bhattacharya, who used to live on the same road as Sen at Sinthee in north Kolkata. When Sen was adapting himself to the mathematical treatment of Economics, he would often seek help from Dr Bhattacharya. In Dr Bhattacharya's own words, Sen wouldn't bother about the time of the day, be it morning or evening, and would rush to him (Dr Bhattacharya) whenever he was faced with any mathematical problem. Dr Bhattacharya himself told me that it was very unusual for a man of Sen's stature and age and only speaks of his determination and dedication for the subject.

Sen still remains an enigmatic person for me and I would like to untangle the intellectual puzzle in him by searching for his works which would give me some idea about his original thinking.

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant.
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com

All comments are personal. 

Global World

We are living a very exciting moment in history. The changes in the world order have thrown open new opportunities and at the same time exposed the mankind to innumerable challenges, like never before. As the global population reaches seven billion, we are reminded of the scarcity of resources to meet astronomical demand.

The world needs to work out innovative ways to meet the difficulties that lie ahead. Possibly, we need to recycle more to meet the increased demand for goods. Probably, the media needs to share the responsibility of educating the people as the number of formal schools may not be enough to reach a large section of the population. May be the big corporate houses and non-governmental organisations need to play a supportive role in sustaining the global health system. Be it food or energy shortage, all we need to do is to break from the past and work out innovative ways to meet the challenges of the future.

The list of global problems doesn't end only with the scarcity of resources. This has been an area of concern for the world leaders and policymakers for a very long time. Challenges also come from the opportunities that have been created with the advancement of science and technology. While, new technology has made life easier for many, it has also increased the threats of unemployment. The current form of globalisation, with its compression of time and space, has made capital more expansive, yet increased inequality in the society.

Conventional wisdom has taught us for decades that as we move to higher stages of development the economy becomes more formalised. However, in the current phase of capitalistic expansion informality is the norm, leading to formation of sweat shops in the developing world, resulting in increased exploitation.

Then there are problems related to the environment - climate change is threatening to punish those who are in no way responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases, making the atmosphere warmer.

The social changes are also throwing up enormous challenges. Various forms of social, economic and earthly threats are making people more insecure, resulting in serious familial consequences. Urbanisation is exposing the children to unhealthy competition; nuclear families are retarding their physical and mental growth. Invasion of dominant cultures are undermining cultural pluralism and pushing indigenous knowledge to oblivion.

Addressing these challenges cannot be the work of only the national leaders, policymakers or professionals - like the economists, scientists, and environmentalists etc., each one of us have a stake in the well being of the planet and need to take responsibility in finding a solution to the difficulties that lie ahead. Each one us needs to think a way out of the crises.

My new blog 'Global World' is going to be a forum for reflecting on the problems and working towards their solutions, however small and insignificant the contribution might be. This blog will thus deal with issues involving development, economic problems, environmental concerns and social challenges, to say the least.

Over the past couple of months, I have got tremendous response and support from my friends, well wishers, pals in social networking sites, in promoting Stray Thoughts. As a tribute to such magnanimity all my posts for Global World will be reproduced in Stray Thoughts.

When I decided the name of my new blog, my wife was very confused. She found the combination 'world' and 'global' very trivial. However, I stuck to the name for a definitive reason. The new challenges that lie ahead have placed us in a strange predicament. The world has become smaller and now the actions of each one of us living in this planet affect the others. Our world now is not confined only to ourselves, our families, communities, states, countries or even continents. Each and every member of the global community is now intrinsically linked and we share the same future. Our world has now become truly global.

Finally, like the Stray Thoughts, Global World is also monetised. Any proceeds, however small it might be, will go to a charity. The name of the charity will also be published on the blog site.

Any proceeds from this monetised blog will go to a charity.

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Art of the Possible

Visualise the situation of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a dominant party of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, leader M Karunanidhi pleading before the Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi, the release, on bail, of his beloved daughter M K Kanimozhi. Despite the best of efforts, Karunanidhi couldn't ensure Kanimozhi's release before Diwali, the festival of lights ensuring the arrival of a new year in certain parts of India and the victory of the good over evil.

Kanomozhi has been arrested in connection with a scam involving illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones.

Politics is undoubtedly a great leveler. The octogenarian leader may now be pleading, the Italian-born Indian politician Sonia Gandhi to use her influence to secure the bail of his daughter, but it was the same Karunanidhi who joined former Prime Minister V P Singh and other anti-Congress leaders, including the late Communist Jyoti Basu, to spearhead a movement, which virtually turned into a hate campaign against the now deceased Rajiv Gandhi.

Sonia Gandhi's husband may have been killed by the Tamil Tigers, yet one can hardly doubt that the vitriolic campaign launched against former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi portrayed him as a political villain sipped in corruption.

When V P Singh launched a campaign against Rajiv Gandhi, alleging, he and his close associates received kickbacks in the infamous Bofors arms deal, Karunanidhi, Basu and other anti-Congress leaders put their weight behind it, without properly scrutinizing the facts behind such allegation. As V P Singh displayed a diary, allegedly having the names of the kickback takers, in public rallies, India was agog with sloganeering, which branded Rajiv Gandhi has a 'thief'.

One can't deny that such unfounded yet vitriolic campaign made Rajiv Gandhi politically more vulnerable, leading to his desperate attempts to reach out to the public, which might have contributed to his brutal assassination.

Despite such roles of Karunanidhi, Singh, Basu and other leaders, Sonia Gandhi cobbled together such disparate elements of Indian politics to keep the BJP at bay, and finally attained power in 2004. Although, in a personal interaction, Sonia Gandhi confided that she overlooked the past only to resist the rise of the so called communal forces in Indian polity, yet this only speaks of politics being an art of the possible.

There are allegations of rampant corruption against both Karunanidhi and his arch political rival, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, yet they enjoyed being in power in the state at regular intervals. This is attributed to their charisma and the partisan nature of the state's political landscape. However, one cannot deny the lack of choice faced by the voters in Tamil Nadu, which speaks of one of the many flaws in India's brand of democratic polity. Taking advantage of such a flaw, both Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha not only remained in power in the state but also made hard bargains with the national parties like the Congress and the BJP to be part of successive central governments.

India may take pride in its brand of democracy, yet the survival instincts of some of its politicians also remind us of the famous adage that politics is the art of the possible.

This Blog is monetised, any proceeds, whatsoever, would be donated to the charitable sector.

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Beyond Lip Service

It is like a wave sweeping across parts of the globe. First it was Tunisia followed by Egypt and now it is the turn of Libya. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh narrowly survived the popular protest and Bashar al-Assad of Syria is still trying to put up a brave face against the uprising with the help of brutal forces.

The media sphere is no short of acronyms and they range from the 'Arab Spring' to 'Jasmine Revolution'. The West has likened the series of protests and the uprisings with a wave for democracy. What has happened in Africa undoubtedly epitomises the fall of dictatorial regimes but whether such events would facilitate democratic polity is a matter to watch in the future.

Be it another wave of democracy or popular uprising facilitated by globalisation and technological innovation, the events which uprooted longstanding dictators in the Arab world also exposes a level of hypocrisy by the West. Remember the vacillation by the US administration when Hosni Mubarak was struggling for his political life. The western countries always provide lip service to democracy and the peoples' right to self determination but in reality prefer someone in power who would act as the custodian of their political and economic interests. Hosni Mubarak was one such custodian as is Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.

There is a difference though between Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi. Colonel Gaddafi was loathed by the West in the past but, once he promised concessions about furthering their interests, the western leaders embraced him with open arms. Colonel Gaddafi's heinous past was forgotten in the name of diplomatic engagement only to have access to the plentiful natural resources of his oil-rich country.

Such hypocrisy is, however, not associated only with the West. Even countries like India, who leave no stone unturned to pride itself as the world's largest democracy, considered undemocratic leaders like Saddam Hossain and Muammar Gaddafi as its trusted friends. While the West did so in the name of economic and political gains, countries like India did so in the name of non-alignment or to uphold its anti-west credentials for playing to the gallery of its domestic constituency.

Leaders across the globe have likened the developments in the Arab world as a manifestation of the peoples' power. Whether such power really lies with the people would determine the success of this wave of transformation.

As dictators like Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali make exit from public life in the face of popular protests, the western leaders need to make some introspection to match their words with action. They should not only celebrate the advent of 'democracy' by jugglery of words but also question whether it is fair to support undemocratic and tyrannical regimes like the one in Saudi Aarabia.

Democracy and right to self determination should not only be the prerogative of the West. Those who claim their right to modernity should also take the lead in propagating it, not only through words but also by actions.

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Selling the Past

King's College is just across the road from my workplace at The Strand. Everyday I take the bus from in front of the King's College to go to the Waterloo British Rail station on my way home. Everyday I see the pictures of well known people associated with the King's College on the glass wall of the institution's Strand Campus.

Never did it strike the chord so strongly till the time when I entered the premises of the King's College to get myself enrolled for my latest academic endeavour. I felt a strong bond with John Keats, who abandoned his career in medicine to become a poet, Desmond Tutu or may be Martin Bashir. They were all alumni of the King's College. It is this special link with the past which probably makes us proud today and provides inspiration for the future.

I have seen such exhibition of the past glory in almost all the famous British academic institutions. Pictures of great Indians like Amartya Sen, Meghnad Desai, I G patel, K R Narayanan adorn the walls of the London School of Economics. Similar is the case with the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Oxford University, which has many prime ministers and presidents as its notable alumni. However, I haven't seen anything like this in the Indian educational institutions that I went to.

At the St. Xavier's College in Kolkata there were portraits of Jagadish Chandra Bose and Ramananda Chattopadhyay but probably the Jesuit institution produced more luminaries, who could be considered well known in their respective fields. That the West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chattopadhyay is a Vidyalaya Praktani became known to me only after reading a report of his felicitation in a Bengali newspaper, although I have interacted with him several times during my reasonably long stint in journalism. Like the St. Xavier's College,Calcutta, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur, also produced many personalities, who later made significant contribution to either their fields of work or to the society at large.

From our childhood days we were taught to be humble and not to boast about ourselves. I still remember my grandfather telling me "baro jadi hote chao, choto hao tabe" meaning if you want to be seen as well known and hence respected you should be humble and not boast about yourselves. This principle, however, doesn't find many takers in the age of Neo-liberalism, when individualism rules the roost. One might not boast about oneself but should not be self evasive either.

What else could be more self deluding than being indifferent to the rich past and being ignorant about the good work of the predecessors. As a student of the Calcutta University's Economics Department at the Katakal Campus, I have never seen portraits of or commemorative plaque about people like Bhabatosh Dutta, Amlan Dutta, Santosh Bhattacharya, Panchanan Chakraborty and many others, who either as economists or as teachers were well respected during their times. Neither was there any knowledge or interest about these personalities and their works among the students nor any effort to make them (students) conscious about such things.

Engaging with the past bestows a sense of responsibility and pride for the incumbent generation, which is essential for success. Moreover, when the market has become the ultimate platform to assess success, probably marketing the past may ensure a better price for the future.

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