Amiya Kumar Dasgupta
A.K. Dasgupta (Amiya Kumar Dasgupta) (1903–1992) has been described as "one of the founding fathers of modern economics in India" and "a pioneer in theoretical economics" (Amartya Sen). His work included an evaluation of the major schools of economic thought and a concern with growth.[1]
His son is the noted economist Partha Dasgupta.[2]
Life and Education
Amiya Kumar Dasgupta was born on 16 July 1903, in Bhanga, Faridpur district, East Bengal, India (now Bangladesh). His childhood was spent in Goila, a village in Barisal district, East Bengal, India (now Bangladesh).[3]
Dasgupta obtained his Matriculation degree from Goila School (established in 1883 by his uncle, Rajnikanto Dasgupta) in 1920; his Intermediate degree from B.M. College, Barisal, East Bengal, 1922; and his B.A. in Economics in 1925 and M.A. in Economics in 1926 from Dacca University.
During the years of 1926-1946 Dasgupta was Lecturer in Economics at Dacca University. On leave from his Lectureship, he worked for a Ph.D in Economics at the London School of Economics in 1934-1936 (elected Honorary Fellow, 1978). His Ph.D supervisor was Professor (subsequently Lord) Lionel Robbins.
Among the earliest members of the Hindu diaspora from what is now Bangladesh, Dasgupta and his wife, Shanti, and their two children (Alaknanda and Partha) migrated to Delhi in 1946. Apart from brief appointments abroad (Chief of the South Asia Division, International Monetary Fund, 1950-53; Commonwealth Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge, 1963-64), he remained in India.
He died on 14 January 1992, in Santiniketan, India.
Economic Work
Dasgupta is widely acknowledged to have been India's leading economic theorist in the decades 1930-60 (he published a number of seminal articles and books in economic theory and the history of economic thought) and a pioneer in contemporary development economics. In his obituary, the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen wrote, "(Dasgupta) was one of the true pioneers of development economics. He had also made substantial contributions to the history of economic ideas, and in particular to analysing the diverse perspectives of alternative traditions of economic reasoning and their interconnections. He has important publications in at least a dozen other areas in economics ...".[4]
Dasgupta was also a renowned teacher (among his students: S.R. Sen, Ashok Mitra, and Amartya Sen). In his obituary piece, Sen goes on to write, "... Dasgupta was a great teacher who could make the subject come alive with imagination, wit, lucidity, and a quality that I can only describe as astute compassion."
Dasgupta was one of the founders, in 1949, of the internationally known journal, The Economic Weekly (current name, Economic and Political Weekly). He was President of the Indian Economic Association in 1959. In 2009 his collected works were published by Oxford University Press in three volumes (Two Treatises on Classical Political Economy (Vol. I), Essays in Economic Theory (Vol. II), and Essays in Planning and Public Policy (Vol. III)), compiled and edited by his daughter, Alaknanda Patel.
Professional Affiliations
- 1926-46: Lecturer, Dacca University
- 1946-47: Senior Lecturer, Sri Ram College of Commerce
- 1947: Professor, Ravenshaw College
- 1947-58: Professor, Banaras Hindu University
- 1958-61: Deputy Director General, National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi
- 1961-65: Professor, Indian School of International Studies
- 1965-71: Director, A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna
- 1970-73: Member, Third Pay Commission of India
- 1976-82: Honorary Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University[5]
Selected Publications
"Keynesian Economics and Underdeveloped Countries", Economic Weekly, January 1954 (reprinted on his birth centenary in Economic and Political Weekly 2003, Vol. 38, No. 28, pp. 2919-2922)
Planning for Economic Growth (George Allen & Unwin, 1965)
The Economics of Austerity (Oxford University Press, 1975)
Epochs of Economic Theory (Basil Blackwell, 1985)
The Collected Works of A.K. Dasgupta, Volume I: Two Treatises on Classical Political Economy, edited by Alaknanda Patel (Oxford University Press, 2009)
The Collected Works of A.K. Dasgupta, Volume II: Essays in Economic Theory, edited by Alaknanda Patel (Oxford University Press, 2009)
The Collected Works of A.K. Dasgupta, Volume III: Essays in Planning and Public Policy, edited by Alaknanda Patel (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Key Sources and Works
Sen, Amartya (1994) Amiya Kumar Dasgupta (1903-1992)The Economic Journal, Vol. 104, No. 426 (Sep.), pp. 1147-1155
Notes
- ^ http://www.oup.co.in/search_detail.php?id=144812
- ^ Dasgupta,Partha (2003) The Social Analyst: A. K. Dasgupta (July 16, 1903-January 14, 1992) July 12 Economic and Political Weekly.
- ^ For more information on all aspects of this section, see The Collected Papers of A.K. Patel, Volume I: Two Treatises on Classical Political Economy, edited by Alaknanda Patel, Oxford University Press (2009).
- ^ Amartya Sen (1994). Economic Journal 104 (Sept): pp. 1147-55.
- ^ For more information see The Collected Papers of A.K. Patel, Volume I: Two Treatises on Classical Political Economy, edited by Alaknanda Patel, Oxford University Press (2009).