Meghnad Desai, Baron Desai
Encyclopedia
Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai, Baron Desai (born 10 July 1940) is an Indian-born British
economist and Labour
politician. He unsuccessfully stood for the Speaker in the British House of Lords (2011) , the first ever non-UK born candidate to do so.
, Gujarat, India, Desai grew up with two brothers and one sister.
, after which he won a scholarship to University of Pennsylvania
in August 1960. He completed his PhD at Pennsylvania in 1963.
, California . He then became Lecturer at the London School of Economics
in 1965. At LSE, he taught econometrics
, macroeconomics
, marxian economics
and development economics
over the years.
He wrote his first book Marxian Economic Theory in 1973 followed by Applied Econometrics in 1976 and Marxian Economics, a revised edition of his 1973 book in 1979. He wrote Testing Monetarism, a critique of monetarism, in 1981.
In the 1970s, he taught an idiosyncratic version of economic principles to freshers at the LSE (starting with Sraffa).
Desai has written extensively on a wide range of subjects. He has published over 200 articles in academic journals and many more articles in newspapers with a regular column in the British radical weekly Tribune
, 1985–1994, in the Indian business daily Business Standard between 1995–2001 and currently in Indian Express and Financial Express. From 1984-1991, he was co-editor of the Journal of Applied Econometrics
. A selection of his academic papers is published in two volumes as The Selected Essays of Meghnad Desai in 1995.
He has been active in the British Labour Party, becoming Chairman between 1986 and 1992, and was made Honorary Lifetime and President of Islington South and Finsbury Constituency Labour Party
in London. He was made a life peer
as Baron Desai, of St Clement Danes
in the City of Westminster
, in April 1991.
In 2002, Desai wrote a book Marx's Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism which states that globalization
would tend toward the revival of socialism
.
He published a biography of Indian film star Dilip Kumar
entitled Nehru's Hero: Dilip Kumar in the life of India (Roli, 2004). He has described the book as his 'greatest achievement'. Examining Kumar's films – some of which Desai has seen more than 15 times – he discovers parallels between the socio-political arena in India and its reflection on screen. He discusses issues as varied as censorship, the iconic values of Indian machismo
, cultural identity
and secularism
, and analyses how the films portrayed a changing India at that time.
He has written Rethinking Islamism: Ideology of the New Terror (2006), The Route to All Evil: The Political Economy of Ezra Pound
(2007), a novel Dead on Time, (2009) and The Rediscovery of India(2009).
In 2003, he retired as Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance
, which he founded in 1992 at LSE
, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He was Chairman of the Trustee's Board for Training for Life, Chairman of the Management Board of City Roads and on the Board of Tribune
magazine. Lord Desai was also a founding member of the Development Studies Institute (DESTIN) at the LSE in 1990.
(Lord Desai had retired from LSE in 2003)
As Desai had already retired from the LSE he had no involvement with the donation from Saif Gaddafi's charity to LSE. Learning from the press of these links between LSE and Libya, Desai demanded that the money be returned to the people of Libya. He expressed disappointment at a speech Saif Gaddafi subsequently made on Libyan state television declaring the Gaddafi family's willingness to "fight to the last bullet", observing that "he was not behaving as if he had had an LSE education."
She was the daughter of George Ambler Wilson
, CBE
.
They had three children. http://www.thepeerage.com/p36861.htm#i368601
During the course of writing Nehru's Hero, he met Kishwar Ahluwalia, his second wife who worked as an editor for this book. On July 20, 2004 he married Ahluwalia. Desai and 47-year-old Ahluwalia were both divorcees and married at a registrar's office in London
.
Desai is an atheist. He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
economist and Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politician. He unsuccessfully stood for the Speaker in the British House of Lords (2011) , the first ever non-UK born candidate to do so.
Early life
Born in VadodaraVadodara
Vadodara formerly known as Baroda is the third most populated city in the Indian State of Gujarat . It is one of the four cities with the population of over 1 million...
, Gujarat, India, Desai grew up with two brothers and one sister.
Education
He is said to have gone to secondary school at age seven and matriculated at 14. He secured a master's degree from University of MumbaiUniversity of Mumbai
The University of Mumbai , is a state university located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was known as the University of Bombay until 1996 when the city of Bombay was renamed as Mumbai. The affiliated colleges of the university are spread throughout the city of Mumbai and four coastal districts in...
, after which he won a scholarship to University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in August 1960. He completed his PhD at Pennsylvania in 1963.
Academic career
He worked as Associate Specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, California . He then became Lecturer at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
in 1965. At LSE, he taught econometrics
Econometrics
Econometrics has been defined as "the application of mathematics and statistical methods to economic data" and described as the branch of economics "that aims to give empirical content to economic relations." More precisely, it is "the quantitative analysis of actual economic phenomena based on...
, macroeconomics
Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics is a branch of economics dealing with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of the whole economy. This includes a national, regional, or global economy...
, marxian economics
Marxian economics
Marxian economics refers to economic theories on the functioning of capitalism based on the works of Karl Marx. Adherents of Marxian economics, particularly in academia, distinguish it from Marxism as a political ideology and sociological theory, arguing that Marx's approach to understanding the...
and development economics
Development economics
Development Economics is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic growth and structural change but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example,...
over the years.
He wrote his first book Marxian Economic Theory in 1973 followed by Applied Econometrics in 1976 and Marxian Economics, a revised edition of his 1973 book in 1979. He wrote Testing Monetarism, a critique of monetarism, in 1981.
In the 1970s, he taught an idiosyncratic version of economic principles to freshers at the LSE (starting with Sraffa).
Desai has written extensively on a wide range of subjects. He has published over 200 articles in academic journals and many more articles in newspapers with a regular column in the British radical weekly Tribune
Tribune (magazine)
Tribune is a democratic socialist weekly, founded in 1937 published in London. It is independent but supports the Labour Party from the left...
, 1985–1994, in the Indian business daily Business Standard between 1995–2001 and currently in Indian Express and Financial Express. From 1984-1991, he was co-editor of the Journal of Applied Econometrics
Econometrics
Econometrics has been defined as "the application of mathematics and statistical methods to economic data" and described as the branch of economics "that aims to give empirical content to economic relations." More precisely, it is "the quantitative analysis of actual economic phenomena based on...
. A selection of his academic papers is published in two volumes as The Selected Essays of Meghnad Desai in 1995.
He has been active in the British Labour Party, becoming Chairman between 1986 and 1992, and was made Honorary Lifetime and President of Islington South and Finsbury Constituency Labour Party
Constituency Labour Party
A Constituency Labour Party is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular UK parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland has, since February 2009, been organised as a province-wide Constituency Labour Party...
in London. He was made a life peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
as Baron Desai, of St Clement Danes
St Clement Danes
St Clement Danes is a church in the City of Westminster, London. It is situated outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. The current building was completed in 1682 by Sir Christopher Wren and it now functions as the central church of the Royal Air Force.The church is sometimes claimed to...
in the City of Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
, in April 1991.
In 2002, Desai wrote a book Marx's Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism which states that globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
would tend toward the revival of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
.
He published a biography of Indian film star Dilip Kumar
Dilip Kumar
Dilip Kumar , is an Indian actor and a former Member of Parliament.He lives in Pali Hill, Bandra in Mumbai, India. He is commonly known as "Tragedy King",and is described as "the ultimate method actor" by Satyajit Ray....
entitled Nehru's Hero: Dilip Kumar in the life of India (Roli, 2004). He has described the book as his 'greatest achievement'. Examining Kumar's films – some of which Desai has seen more than 15 times – he discovers parallels between the socio-political arena in India and its reflection on screen. He discusses issues as varied as censorship, the iconic values of Indian machismo
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
, cultural identity
Cultural identity
Cultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics....
and secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
, and analyses how the films portrayed a changing India at that time.
He has written Rethinking Islamism: Ideology of the New Terror (2006), The Route to All Evil: The Political Economy of Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
(2007), a novel Dead on Time, (2009) and The Rediscovery of India(2009).
In 2003, he retired as Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance
Global governance
Global governance or world governance is the political interaction of transnational actors aimed at solving problems that affect more than one state or region when there is no power of enforcing compliance. The modern question of world governance exists in the context of globalization...
, which he founded in 1992 at LSE
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He was Chairman of the Trustee's Board for Training for Life, Chairman of the Management Board of City Roads and on the Board of Tribune
Tribune (magazine)
Tribune is a democratic socialist weekly, founded in 1937 published in London. It is independent but supports the Labour Party from the left...
magazine. Lord Desai was also a founding member of the Development Studies Institute (DESTIN) at the LSE in 1990.
(Lord Desai had retired from LSE in 2003)
Saif Al-Gaddafi thesis
In 2007 Desai was asked by the University of London to serve with Tony McGrew of the University of Southampton as one of the two external examiners of the PhD thesis of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the leader of Libya. They did not immediately accept the thesis, as it was found to be weak. It was subjected to an oral examination for two and a half hours and Gaddafi was asked to revise and re-submit it. The revised version was subsequently accepted.As Desai had already retired from the LSE he had no involvement with the donation from Saif Gaddafi's charity to LSE. Learning from the press of these links between LSE and Libya, Desai demanded that the money be returned to the people of Libya. He expressed disappointment at a speech Saif Gaddafi subsequently made on Libyan state television declaring the Gaddafi family's willingness to "fight to the last bullet", observing that "he was not behaving as if he had had an LSE education."
Personal life
In 1970, he married his LSE colleague Gail Wilson, his first wife.She was the daughter of George Ambler Wilson
George Ambler Wilson
George Ambler Wilson MICE was a British civil engineer.Wilson was born in Wellington, Shropshire in 1906. He was the chief engineer of the Port of London Authority from 1953 to 1967. In 1958 he was elected a member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers. He also served as president of the...
, CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
.
They had three children. http://www.thepeerage.com/p36861.htm#i368601
During the course of writing Nehru's Hero, he met Kishwar Ahluwalia, his second wife who worked as an editor for this book. On July 20, 2004 he married Ahluwalia. Desai and 47-year-old Ahluwalia were both divorcees and married at a registrar's office in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Desai is an atheist. He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society
National Secular Society
The National Secular Society is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no-one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of religion. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866...
.
Works
- 1994, "Equilibrium, Expectations and Knowledge", in J. Birner & R. van Zijp, Hayek, Co-ordination and Evolution; His Legacy in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and the History of Ideas, Routledge 1994.
- 2006, The Route of All Evil: The Political Economy of Ezra Pound, Faber & Faber
- 2009, Dead on Time, Beautiful Books Limited (UK).
External links
- Interview with PBS
- LSE Biography
- Centre for the study of Global Governance
- Next Steps in the ride to the top Article in Mint
- The Times of India: The 'I' of Meghnad Desai (autobiographic article)
- Indian Express - columns
- Lord Woolf's Inquiry into the LSE and Libya, March, 2011. Make a submission.
- http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-02/saif-qaddafi-probed-by-lse-over-plagiarism-claim-sky-news-says.html