In memoriam

Nirmal Azad: a radical Punjabi economist

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Professor Nirmal Azad, who died last year on 14 September at Patiala, was a well-known figure in Punjab’s left-wing politics. I first came to know him as an undergraduate economics student at Panjab University, Chandigarh where Nirmal had come to study for his Masters in Economics. Along with some other friends, we both got involved in varying degrees with the Maoist movement. Even at that time Nirmal displayed an unusually strong individualistic streak which did not gel with the collectivist ethos of the Marxist tradition. He was greatly influenced by Napoleon which propelled him to adopt an attitude of conquest towards life. This Bonapartist influence sat uncomfortably with the Marxist ethos and though this contradiction seems to have pervaded his entire life, the intellectual attraction of Marxism proved more powerful in his early phase.

He passed his MA with first class, taught at Panjab University’s postgraduate centre at Rohtak in Haryana for a few years and then settled at Punjabi University, Patiala. The first in his family to have studied at the university, like many in his generation, he helped younger members of his large family to acquire higher education and upward social mobility. In particular, he showed keen interest in educating his sisters and other girls in the family, reflective of his perspective on gender equality.

Nirmal’s politics had a deep impact on some younger members of his family. His younger brother Kulwant and sister Devinder joined the Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPM). His cousin, Gurmeet, was once a leading figure in the pro-Maoist Punjab Students Union, the most powerful student organisation in Punjab in the 1960s and the 1970s. Both Gurmeet and Devinder, along with most immediate members of Nirmal’s family, have since migrated to America. It is, perhaps, a reflection of the tortured nature of Punjabi society and politics since the 1980s that Gurmeet has turned towards religion and Sikh nationalism. If one were to construct a historical profile of Nirmal’s family in the last few decades, it would mirror many trends in Punjabi society concerning rural-urban migration, women’s education, landscape of competing political ideologies and migration to the West.

Nirmal’s attachment to his social roots led him to do research on the small peasantry in Punjab and he produced an impressive PhD thesis on the subject. Based on the Leninist method of the differentiation of the peasantry, his work shows scholarly reading but simultaneously a reluctance to engage critically with Marxist orthodoxy. He set up the Marxist Study Forum in Patiala in the 1970s. Through this Forum, the first of its kind in any Punjab city, Nirmal made a leading contribution towards the radicalisation of intellectual and political culture in Patiala, organising lectures and discussions on contemporary economic and political issues.

Nirmal made innovative contributions to curriculum development and research direction at Punjabi University, Patiala. He introduced several radical economics modules to the university’s MA and MPhil programmes, encouraging his research students to adopt a political economy approach. Alongside his research and teaching commitments, Nirmal also played a leading role in the trade union work of the Punjabi University Teachers Association.

Nirmal used the experience of his academic visits abroad to inform his teaching and research work. He spent six months in Warsaw and nine months in Paris. During his stay in Warsaw and Paris, he was a keen observer of the social and political trends in Poland and France. On his return from Warsaw, he told me that he was struck by the problem of alcoholism in Poland which, he thought, was indicative of some malaise in that society. He though praised the humane methods of the police in picking up drunkards from the streets at night and transporting them home. He also observed the close proximity between the Catholic Church and the Communists in Poland, and wondered whether in the context of Punjab, an Akali-Communist alliance based on the progressive potentialities of the egalitarian teachings of the Sikh gurus was a desirable political combine.

Nirmal edited Punjab di Arthikta for Punjabi University, Patiala, the first academic book on Punjab economy in Punjabi. Nirmal wrote extensively on Punjab economy for Punjabi language newspapers. In order to reach as broad and diverse a readership as possible, he wrote for newspapers with varying ideological orientation –the Punjabi nationalist Ajit, the Hindu nationalist Jag Bani, the ideologically ambiguous Punjabi Tribune, the pro-CPM Desh Sevak and the Sikh nationalist Aj Di Awaz. Through his newspaper writings, he not only contributed to enhancing the understanding of Punjab economy among the readers, but equally to the enrichment of Punjabi language and its modern scientific vocabulary. Without doubt, of all Punjabi academics, it was Nirmal whose writings reached the largest number of readers in Punjab through his newspapers contributions.

Amarjit Chandan, the London based Punjabi poet, reminded me about Nirmal’s interest in Punjabi poetry. Many of his poems were published in Punjabi newspapers and magazines. Chandan also remembers Nirmal’s ‘jatki’ (peasant) sense of humour. When Chandan who met Nirmal in Patiala a few years back, saw the photographs of Lenin, Bhagat Singh and Bhindranwale on the walls of his ‘rather grand office’, he thought that summed up Nirmal’s personality. I guess the appeal these three distinct historical figures had for Nirmal was that all of them subscribed to some version of the voluntarist conception of historical change. The earlier Bonapartist influence was finding new manifestations.

Nirmal contributed many articles on different dimensions of the Punjab economy to journals and edited books. He valued highly the exchange of opinions and views with fellow academics and political activists. He was as generous in appreciation of what he liked as he was harsh in condemnation of what he disliked. He alienated many people, including some friends and well wishers, by the harshness with which he sometimes treated them.

More recently I heard some unpleasant things about him and his life. I was sad but felt helpless, hoping that a reconnection to scholarly activities might give a productive orientation to his creative energies. I tried to persuade him to participate in a few international conferences. He did write papers for the conferences but failed to turn up. He may have slipped too far into the dark alleys of depression and self-harm, ‘disoriented’ by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of religious fundamentalism in India.

About a year ago, Nirmal in a letter to the university authorities had expressed a wish that his provident fund earnings and books be donated to the Punjabi University Library. It seems that this letter was subsequently withdrawn. Possibly he was grappling with the conflicting pulls of the self and the collective, wanting a last shot at dialectics. Perhaps, he wanted to convert his loneliness, alienation and social isolation into social commitment.

Pritam Singh

 

Bhupendra Hooja 1922-2006

IT is not often that journals facing impending closure find a saviour, and that too in an environment far less conducive, financially and academically, than Delhi. Most of us, on learning that the Indian Book Chronicle, one of the few book review journals in the country, and so far edited by educationist Amrik Singh, would now shift to Jaipur, were sceptical. The Rajasthan University in the ’80s was a pale shadow of its former self, and whatever the other charms of the city, a welcoming and vibrant intellectual environment was certainly not a quality that many would cite.

But then Bhupendra Hooja was no usual person. Recently retired from the civil services, Bhupi was gifted with an infectious enthusiasm and unbounded energy. He roped in friends and family, cajoled a local publisher and cadged advertisements. No associate, far and near, escaped his persistent badgering for reviews, essays or short notes on academic events. And if the IBC still continues to reach its small but loyal band of subscribers, month after month, it is because Bhupi Hooja was never one to accept defeat.

Those not residents of Jaipur may have known him primarily through the IBC, his annotated diary of Bhagat Singh’s jottings (A Martyr’s Notebook, 1993), or his more recent work on other freedom fighters, including the collection on the RIN Mutiny. But for those of us who grew up in the city, Hooja Saab was a constant source of encouragement and support, participant in many causes, continually seeding new efforts and initiatives to keep alive a culture of informed discussion and debate.

Born in Dera Ismail Khan (Pakistan), and educated in pre-independence Lahore, Bhupi made his way to Jaipur via Peshawar, Delhi and Nagpur (with All India Radio) and London (the BBC). He was inducted into the IAS and soon made his mark, specializing in agriculture, irrigation, and command area development – subjects which continued to fascinate him till the end. Alongside he kept up his interests in public affairs – writing articles and pamphlets, participating in radio and TV talks, but most of all, playing host and mentor to a range of young , concerned about the directions our polity and economy were taking. More than a closet sympathizer of left-wing and radical causes, Bhupi Hooja, socialized in the Arya Samaj, represented an unusual blend of western, rational sensibility and Indian civilizational values. His demise in early April has left all of us poorer. He will be missed.

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