Amiya Kumar Bagchi
Encyclopedia
Amiya Kumar Bagchi is a distinguished Indian political economist. His contributions have spanned economic history
, the economics of industrialization and de-industrialization, and development studies
from an overall Marxist perspective, incorporating insights from other schools of radical political economics, including left Keynesianism. Among Marxists, he is known for his extensive contributions to theories of imperialism
and underdevelopment
.
district in West Bengal
, Bagchi received his higher education in Presidency College, Kolkata
and Trinity College
, University of Cambridge. In 1963 he was awarded the PhD degree at Cambridge University for a thesis titled "Private investment and partial planning in India".
He is married to the feminist critic and activist Jasodhara Bagchi
.
His academic career began when he started teaching in Presidency College, Kolkata
. In the 1960s, he taught in the Faculty of Economics
in Cambridge (where he was Fellow of Jesus College
), but resigned his post in 1969, to resume his academic career in Presidency College, Kolkata.
In 1974 he joined the newly-founded Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
, which went on to become one of the most productive and globally famous research institutions in India
.
Bagchi has specialised in the history of Indian banking and finance, and acted as Official Historian of the State Bank of India
(SBI) from 1976 to 1998; he played a leading role in ensuring that the unique archives of SBI are preserved for posterity.
After retiring as Reserve Bank of India
professor from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
in 2001, he became the founder-director of the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata
, a multidisciplinary centre of excellence in the social sciences
, which is affiliated with the University of Calcutta
, and is promoted by the government of West Bengal. Here, he spearheads research in development studies in an array of areas, notably banking and finance
, public health
, labour studies, information and communication studies
, gender studies
, education
, and the sociology
of literature
.
He has been Visiting Professor in international academic institutions such as Cambridge University, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris
, Cornell University
, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
, Naples University, and University of Bristol
.
Economic history
Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...
, the economics of industrialization and de-industrialization, and development studies
Development studies
Development studies is a multidisciplinary branch of social science which addresses issues of concern to developing countries. It has historically placed a particular focus on issues related to social and economic development, and its relevance may therefore extend to communities and regions...
from an overall Marxist perspective, incorporating insights from other schools of radical political economics, including left Keynesianism. Among Marxists, he is known for his extensive contributions to theories of imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
and underdevelopment
Underdevelopment
Underdevelopment is a term often used to refer to economic underdevelopment, symptoms of which include lack of access to job opportunities, health care, drinkable water, food, education and housing...
.
Biography
Born in 1936 in the small village of Jadupur in MurshidabadMurshidabad
Murshidabad is a city in Murshidabad district of West Bengal state in India. The city of Murshidabad is located on the southern bank of the Bhagirathi, a distributary of the Ganges River. It was the capital of undivided Bengal during the Mughal rule. Nawabs of Bengal used to rule Bengal from this...
district in West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, Bagchi received his higher education in Presidency College, Kolkata
Presidency College, Kolkata
Presidency University, Kolkata, formerly Hindu College and Presidency College, is a unitary, state aided university, located in Kolkata, West Bengal. and one of the premier institutes of learning of liberal arts and sciences in India. In 2002 it was ranked number one by the weekly news magazine...
and Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, University of Cambridge. In 1963 he was awarded the PhD degree at Cambridge University for a thesis titled "Private investment and partial planning in India".
He is married to the feminist critic and activist Jasodhara Bagchi
Jasodhara Bagchi
- Biography :She was born in 1937 and educated at Presidency College, Kolkata, Somerville College, Oxford, and New Hall, Cambridge. The larger part of her working life was spent at Jadavpur University, where she was Professor of English...
.
His academic career began when he started teaching in Presidency College, Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
. In the 1960s, he taught in the Faculty of Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
in Cambridge (where he was Fellow of Jesus College
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
), but resigned his post in 1969, to resume his academic career in Presidency College, Kolkata.
In 1974 he joined the newly-founded Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta is an autonomous research centre devoted to the research and advancement of the social sciences in South Asia...
, which went on to become one of the most productive and globally famous research institutions in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Bagchi has specialised in the history of Indian banking and finance, and acted as Official Historian of the State Bank of India
State Bank of India
The State Bank of India is the largest Indian banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Mumbai, India. It is state-owned. The bank traces its ancestry to British India, through the Imperial Bank of India, to the founding in 1806 of the Bank of Calcutta, making it the oldest...
(SBI) from 1976 to 1998; he played a leading role in ensuring that the unique archives of SBI are preserved for posterity.
After retiring as Reserve Bank of India
Reserve Bank of India
The Reserve Bank of India is the central banking institution of India and controls the monetary policy of the rupee as well as US$300.21 billion of currency reserves. The institution was established on 1 April 1935 during the British Raj in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of...
professor from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta is an autonomous research centre devoted to the research and advancement of the social sciences in South Asia...
in 2001, he became the founder-director of the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata
Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata
The Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata is an autonomous research institute dedicated for Development Studies and related subfields, in Kolkata, India. It was established in 2002...
, a multidisciplinary centre of excellence in the social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
, which is affiliated with the University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...
, and is promoted by the government of West Bengal. Here, he spearheads research in development studies in an array of areas, notably banking and finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
, public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
, labour studies, information and communication studies
Communication studies
Communication Studies is an academic field that deals with processes of communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols over distances in space and time. Hence, communication studies encompasses a wide range of topics and contexts ranging from face-to-face conversation to speeches to mass...
, gender studies
Gender studies
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyses race, ethnicity, sexuality and location.Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one"...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, and the sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
of literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
.
He has been Visiting Professor in international academic institutions such as Cambridge University, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Naples University, and University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
.
Awards and honours
The professional awards and honours Bagchi has received include:- V.K.R.V. Rao award for Economics, awarded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, 1980
- Pranabananda Saraswati award for Economics, awarded by the UGC, 1994
- the H.K. Barpujari award of the Indian History Congress for The Evolution of the State Bank of India Vol. II, 1999
- Roskilde UniversityRoskilde UniversityRoskilde University is a Danish public university founded in 1972 and located in Trekroner in the Eastern part of Roskilde. The university awards bachelor and master's degrees as well as Ph.D...
, DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, conferred a doctorate honoris causa on him in September 2001 - He received an honorary D.Litt. from the University of KalyaniUniversity of KalyaniThe University of Kalyani was established on November 1, 1960. With of campus it has a three-star accreditation from National Assessment and Accreditation Council...
in December 2002. - Muzaffar Ahmad award for Capital and Labour Redefined in 2004
- Padma ShriPadma ShriPadma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
of the government of India 2005 - North Bengal University conferred a D.Sc. honoris causa on him in March 2008.
- In March 2008 he became the first Chancellor of the newly reconstituted Tripura University, a Central University.
Edited and co-edited volumes
- 2007 Capture and Exclude: Developing Economies and the Poor in Global Finance (with Gary A. Dymski) New Delhi: Tulika
- 2005 Webs of History: Information, Communication and Technology from Early to Post-Colonial India (with D. Sinha and B. Bagchi), New Delhi: Manohar
- 2005 Maladies, Preventives, and Curatives: Debates in Public Health in India (with K. Soman), New Delhi: Tulika
- 2003 Economy and the Quality of Life: Essays in Memory of Ashok Rudra (with M. Chattopadhyay and R. Khasnabis), Kolkata: Dasgupta & Co.
- 2002 Money and Credit in Indian History since Early Medieval Times, New Delhi: Tulika
- 1999 Multiculturalism, Liberalism and Democracy (with R. Bhargava and R. Sudarshan), Oxford University Press
- 1999 Economy and Organization: Indian Institutions under the Neoliberal Regime, Sage Publications
- 1995 Democracy and Development: Proceedings of the IEA Conference Held in Barcelona, Spain, Palgrave Macmillan
- 1995 New Technology and the Workers’ Response: Microelectronics, Labour and Society, Sage Publications
- 1988 Economy, Society and Polity: Essays in the Political Economy of Indian Planning in Honour of Professor Bhabatosh Datta, Oxford University Press
Papers
- Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, China and India: From where? Where to? A preliminary investigation, Paper presented at International Development Economics Associates (IDEAS) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) conference on 'Post Liberalisation Constraints on Macroeconomic Policies', Muttukadu, Chennai, India, 27–29 January 2006
- Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, The Parameters of Resistance, Monthly Review, Vol 55 No 3 (July-Aug, 2003)
- Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, The Other Side of Foreign Investment by Imperial Powers, Economic & Political Weekly (June 8, 2002)
- Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, The problem of colonialism in classical political economy : analysis, epistemological breaks and mystification, Centre for Development Economics/Delhi School of Economics Occasional Paper 1, March 2002
- Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, The ails of the system, Frontline Volume 19 - Issue 02, Jan. 19 - Feb. 01, 2002
- Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, Amartya Sen's Human Science of Development, Frontline Volume 16 - Issue 12, June 5–18, 1999
- Bagchi, Amiya Kumar, The Past and the Future of the Developmental State, Journal of World-Systems Research, vi, 2, summer/fall 2000, 398-442 Special Issue: Festchrift for Immanuel Wallerstein – Part I
External links
- Kurien, CT, Review of PERILOUS PASSAGE — Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital, The Hindu (Oct 03, 2006)
- Radical Notes, Capital and capitalists nannied by the states: An Interview with Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Radical Notes (Oct 18, 2008)
- Murali, D, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/07/17/stories/2010071751750700.htm, 'Property Right Subjugation by British Land Tax,' review of an essay in Bagchi's 2010 book Colonialism and Indian Economy, The Hindu Businessline (July 17, 2010).