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| Daniel
Thorner Memorial Lectures |
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| Edited
by : Alice Thorner |
Published
by: Tulika Books |
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| Price : Rs 525/- |
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Click to Enlarge
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The ten lectures
in memory of Daniel Thorner comprising this volume
were delivered in various cities in India over
a period of sixteen years, from 1985 to 2001.
Instituted after his death in 1974, and sponsored
by the Indian Statistical Institute, this continuing
lecture series reflects the breadth of Thorner's
own range of interests: from themes in the social
sciences to issues in the fields of public policy
and human rights. Besides an introductory essay
by Utsa Patnaik, the volume also includes a hitherto
unpublished paper by Daniel Thorner, written in
his student days. As a student, Daniel Thorner
did not set out to become a specialist on India;
nor did he consider himself an economist. Yet, |
paradoxically
this is how he is remembered in India. His intellectual
career, which began as that of a historian, followed
a logical and ever-widening path that led him
from studying British economic and social relations
with India, to researching the agrarian structure
and economic development of India. Indeed, most
of his publications in the 1950s and 60s could
be so interpreted as to place him in the category
of 'Indian economists'.
The ten lectures in memory of Daniel Thorner comprising
this volume were delivered in various cities in
India over a period of sixteen years, from 1985
to 2001. Instituted after his death in 1974, and
sponsored by the Indian Statistical Institute,
this continuing lecture series reflects the breadth
of Thorner's own range of interests: from themes
in the social sciences to issues in the fields
of public policy and human rights. Besides an
introductory essay by Utsa Patnaik, the volume
also includes a hitherto unpublished paper by
Daniel Thorner, written in his student days.
As a student, Daniel Thorner did not set out to
become a specialist on India; nor did he consider
himself an economist. Yet, paradoxically this
is how he is remembered in India. His intellectual
career, which began as that of a historian, followed
a logical and ever-widening path that led him
from studying British economic and social relations
with India, to researching the agrarian structure
and economic development of India. Indeed, most
of his publications in the 1950s and 60s could
be so interpreted as to place him in the category
of 'Indian economists'.
Daniel Thorner began his research on India in
1939-40, when he went to England from the US on
a fellowship. In London, he came to know several
Indian students - P.N.Haksar and K.T.Chandy, among
others - who were dedicated to the cause of freeing
their country from imperialist rule. Soon Thorner
too developed a deep commitment to the cause of
Indian nationalism, and his interest in India
ceased to be purely academic.
Extensive tours and field visits to remote villages
marked the course of Daniel Thorner's sustained
engagement with India. He widened his understanding
of this country's social, economic and political
complexity through exchanges with leading scholars
and public figures, through acquaintance with
administrators and journalists, and through involvement
in everyday urban and rural existence. Thorner's
longest stint in India was between 1953 and 1960,
when he lost his US passport because he refused
to provide names of fellow academics who could
be charged with 'un-American' beliefs or activities,
to a US Senate Committee. Thorner stayed back,
waiting for the storm of intolerance to blow over
- a wait that extended to seven years.
In 1960 Daniel and Alice Thorner flew to Paris,
where he was invited as visiting professor to
the Ecole des Hautes Erudes. He was soon elected
to chair in the Ecole where he remained until
1974.
Alice Thorner, the editor of the volume, has been
studying, teaching and writing on the economic
and social history of South Asia since 1940. She
is co-author, with her late husband Daniel Thorner,
of Land and Labour in India (1962). More recently,
in collaboration with Sujata Patel, she has edited
two volumes of essays - Bombay: A Mosaic of Modern
Culture and Bombay: A Metaphor for Modern India
(1995). Alice Thorner lives in Paris, and visits
India regularly. |
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| October 25, 2002. |
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