They thought revolution is just round the corner and they will lead them. The Communist Party of India (Marxists), first referred to as CPI(M) to distinguish it from the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) and later coverted into CPM (with India gone), was formed in 1961, giving a special avenue of adventure for young college students in West Bengal. The dream of turning the Indian State into a Communist Command State to end the sufferings of all the poor and the weak was further blostered by the hands-down defeat of India in the short -duration Chinese aggression in 1962. Some of the brilliant students of Presidency College felt it more attractive to cultivate their aim of being in the forefront of the CPM-sponsored revolution to capture State power in (hopefully a separate, independent) West Bengal, if not India, rather than compete to beat others in the examinations for the University degree. They barely scrapped through and could not secure qualifying marks to get admission to the Presidency College for the Masters degree programme of the Calcutta University. They could have joined the University's own Departments, but they insisted that they continue with the Presidency College. So, they went into agitation of a nature that led to virtual stoppage of both academic and non-academic work in both the Presidency College and the University. They failed to realize their stated objectives and our Masters program classes started after a delay of two months. Unfortunately for the young aspiring revolutionary communist leaders, they could not realize their main objective of getting place of prominence in the youth or student wings of the CPM. We were forced to sacrifice our studies for two months .The youth leaders who with their poor academic credentials had served the party for over a decade were not going to let these upstart brilliant boys to snatch the leadership away. The upstart revolutionaries needed a new refuge. The became Naxalites or Naxals or part of Communist Patry (Marxist Leninist) or Communist Party Maoist. In these new parties they became the leaders as there were no existing leaders. We were destined for suffering more costs to be inflicted on us by the varying communists fighting among themselves to lead West Bengal's communist revolution that never took place.
Our classes started in November instead of July- August while the breeze of the impending revolution continuing to blow
To go from BA honors classes to MA classes is a great downward slide. You have about 100 classmates, most of whom were of average merit and just wanted to get a degree with above qualifying marks. The intellectual environment quality of the class was much poor as compared with the BA honors class.
There were of course brillant teachers who were brilliant students earlier. But they were catering to a different avearge standard of students and very few knew how to control and communicate in such a large class of 100 students. The exceptions were the teachers in the Specialisation classes. My specialisation of Econometrics & Mathematical Economics had a class of about a dozen of students: so the brilliant teachers could remain brilliant in the class as well.
In the Masters program we had eight papers each subdivided into two. The general papers were five. Classes for these had all the 100 or so students. Teachers for these classes were of broadly two types: (a) academically useless, uninteresting, unimpressive and pure time passing, and (b) impressive, useful and effective communicators and some even with a fair degree of control over the class. The first group of teachers were elderly, non-quantitative and had lost touch with what was happening in economics. Some of them made it plain that the students in the MA classes are expected to learn on their own. The teachers were only to give lectures on selected topics and was not responsible to cover all that is in the syllabus. They were responsible only for gining some references of books and articles in journakls which the students have to reade and gather knowledge on their own. One such teacher simply dictated notes from his own notebook for 40 minutes at a stretch: no question and no answer. Another discussed everything other than economics and ocassionally referred to some official reports like that of the Radcliffe Commission in the United Kingdom. A third teacher of this group looked at the roof and scribbled something in the black board while lecturing and did not appear to be aware of what he was teaching. A fourth spoke for all the 40-45 minutes giving an impression that he was explaining some deep scientific thought to himself rather than imparting any lessons to the students in the class.These four teachers covered nearly 5 half papers (like advanced micro-economics, money and banking, Indian economic problems and history of economic thought) of the 10 general half papers. Among the second group of teachers, one was a brillant mind and speaker. Though elderly, he taught something in every class with effective communication. He covered roughly two half papers: History of Economic Thought and Theories of Economic Development.
Then there were three relatively young teachers - all brilliant scholars who compleed their Masters about two to four years ahead of us. They were highly quantitative and appeared to be deepening their knowledge through teaching and preparaing for their forthcoming Ph.d poragms abroad. They were the most useful lot in terms effectiveness in helping students to acquire new knowledge. These three young teachers covered roughly 4 half papers (International Economics, Public Finance, Economic Growth Models and Planning Techniques) among themselves.
The youngest teacher, we were his first set of students at theMasters level, was the most enthusiastic, caring and hardworking teacher dedicated to ensuring that the students learn whatever he teaches. He took series of additional classes on Mathematics from Linear Algebra to Calculus, Calculus of Variations and Fixed Point theorems to prepare all the students who had no background in mathematics to follow his main classes on growth models, optimal savings, turnpike theorems, input-output systems, planning models and techniques, etc. He tried to change the way the students are taught in the Masters program and spent time to organise seminars every week where one of the students had to present a paper on some economics topic. I have not seen such an enthusiastic and competent teacher in my life, though I have been fortunate to get exposed to brilliant and competent teaching of many other competent teachers. However, he was mostly trying to spoon-feed the students and thereby discouraging brilliant students to excel in knowledge beyond what every student could acquire.
The six half-papers of specialisation were covered by eight or nine teachers, mostly from other campuses/ institutions like the Department of Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (which at that time was located in the premises adjacent to the Kantakal premises of our Department of Economics of the University of Calcutta. Two teachers dealt with Mathematical Statistics from correlation, regression to probabilty distributions, analysis of variance to probality, testing of hypothesis and Inference). One teacher dealt with the Mathematics of Capital Theory including reswithing and Models of Sraffa. Another taught us Econometrics. Some teachers took a few special classes on econometrics and statistics. Still another covered Planning models, Linerar Programming and Non-linear Programming. Another teacher covered Leontief systems.
The teachers were unaffected by the emerging environment of communist revolution in West Bengal. Some agitations did take place in our campus but our Economics department premises on the northers outskirts of the city of Calcutta and away from the main University building in the heart of the city, remained congenial to learning. But everybody knew that all these bougeoise Economics learning would be of zero value during the Revolution and after the Communists capture the power. We were only concerned about the future use of all these that we were being taught. It was becoming increasingly clear that West Bengal or Calcutta may not provide a cogenial atmosphere for an academic career in the midst of fighting amongst the communist revolutionaries. The killings and murders were soon to start. In any case, if the Communist Revolution succeeds, all this knowledge of economics would be of any use to the country. My communist friends were convinced that economics that we had been learning is all unscientific, rotten garbage worthy of being drained out through the sewerage channels and had no relevance to a communist economy. Revolutionaries seemed to have the best idea of what scientific knowledge could be!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
It wasn't Cricket: My Unfolding Voyage 44
India and Pakistan have been great rivals in the game of cricket. But their cricketing spirit has been mostly limited to cricket only. Outside of cricket, the truncated and age-old Indian Nation and the spun-off, relatively young Pakiststani Nation seemed to be always engaged in non-competitive winning effort: they did not seem to enjoy open and fair competition -wins only counted - not the play. It did not matter if you had to depend on third country alms so long as you won and not lose.
In 1965, young Pakistan had assessed India as weaker, especially after India poor showing in the War of 1962 with China and had planned a grand plan of simultaneous border infiltration, inciting insurgency in Indian Kashmir and miltary aggression with India. Pakistan had been largely ruled by the military dictatorships that Pakistanis and the Americans continued to believe as democracy: the miltary junta had survived in Pakistan through a strategy of keeping the country in continuous trouble and revolving romancing bouts with the US and China. A great strategy for a small and young country In 1965, its military dictator thought of getting Kashmir into Pakistan's fold and teach India a military lesson through a military victory. International pressures abruptly ended the war when India was about the take over Pakistan's second largest city, Lahore and Pakistan had been counting days to surrender. Vanity prevented Pakistan to accept the international assessment that India was the victor in 1965. Yet, Pakistan's military dictatorship would never learn to play cricket as the Pakistani cricketers continued to do: cricket always meant competive performance - enjoying competition and rivalry: not winning by any means. In 1971, Pakistan got truncated by Indian Army, though as students we had lost a few days in anxiety in September 1965.
By January 1966, the final third year classes in the college were getting over. We were still a few days of winter left in Calcutta before Spring would set in. About 70 days were available before the university examinations would start. I had already prepared for the Economics Honors' four papers: only some polishing and final touches with the books and notes were needed. But I had to devote some time now to my mathematics (minor) paper with statics, dynamics and astrology. Dynamics with fine with applications of Calculus. Statics was drab for me except the concept of equilibrium and the ideas of torque, moment, force and etc had intuitive appeal. I was not going to be a mechanical or structural engineer and hence had only obtain some marks to pass the examination. Acceleration and relative motion were interesting for the economics student and hence a part of elementary dynamics was easy to handle. But astrology which would account for two-fifths of the third and final paper of Mathematics minor was an issue. Of the 40 marks, a single question involving dealing with a sphere diagram was the most confusing to me. I picked up a little of that but concentrated on chapters on twilight, Archimedes and the like. With ten days' of effort, I felt comfortable with the preparation. So, I thought of devoting some time for pleasure: practicing and playing in tournaments that would create some thrill and excitement. In any case, playing cricket is going to end soon as I get into Master program and then begin by career. So, preparing for the final BA examinations (Part II) combined nicely with enjoying cricket.
Unfortunately, the my cricket extended to late spring. And, I contracted chickenpox and had to be quarantined for three weeks. (Chickenpox or varicella, is a highly contagious and self-limited infection that most commonly affects children but also affects teenagers and even the aged, peak incident is generally during March to May in India. Lifelong immunity for chickenpox generally follows the disease -- over 90% of non immune individuals will develop chickenpox following exposure. It is communicable by both direct skin-to-skin contact and via respiratory droplets (coughing, sneezing) from the infected individual. While the average incubation period from viral exposure to onset of symptoms is 12-14 days and generally treated at home without medicine but full rest and controlled diet). Lost three weeks and was sad. But my preparation earlier had been sufficient enough to face the examinations within two weeks of the end of the quarantined period.
So, the Economics honors papers examinations went off without any problem or difficulty. The questions were rather easy and I had thought everyone would do well. I thought that I had done as good as I had done on an average in the Part I Economics Honors four papers. The fourth paper in Part II required us to write an essay on any of the four or five topics in the question paper. I chose Trade Cycle and wrote for nearly three hours a kind of a literature survey monograph on the subject: in the standard essay style, I had covered all aspects of trade cycle from the nature and incidence of such cycles and the earliest theories explaining the cycles including such crude ideas as Sun-spot theory, the periodicity, causes and socio-economic effects of cycles, the mathematical models like those of the Multiplier-accelerator model of Samuelson including the the range of values of parameters that could generate convergent and divergent cycles using difference equations and differential equations, the macro-economic policy to deal with trade cycles in a Keynesian economic framework, the counter-cyclical, stabilizing fiscal policies explained through a mathematical model, the counter-cyclical monetary policies and its limitations, and of course a short para of concluding remarks. I had thought it was a great display of whatever I had learned about trade cycles with mixture of both mathematical treatment and the standard economic logic. I had it was remarkable to cover all these aspects in less than three hours over so many pages. I had thanked the great speed of my handwriting keeping pace with my flowing mind.
There was a short relief for 10 days before the minor mathematics paper test was due. It also went off well. I tried to answer as many questions as possible, even if had not been able to work through each answer fully. The same old technique I had applied in Part I mathematics paper. This time also the technique paid rich dividend: I secured 67 out of 100 maximum marks despite the small allocation of time to study and practice sums in astrology, statics and dynamics.
With the examinations over, there was time to enjoy two more months of fun and frolic.
I had to walk around the busy roads for about two long hours before I could absorb the most unbelievable event in my unfolding voyage. I had gone to the college to look at the results. I stood second in the aggregate in Economics honors: the difference between us was about 20 marks, implying that he stayed where he was after Part I and I had to slip by nearly 40 marks. That was absolutely absurd. For a while, I though it was because of playing cricket that caused me to go out of commission for three weeks before the examinations. But, all sorts of analysis established clearly to me that it wasn't cricket. It wasn't cricket for many other classmates as well. Many of these bright students were disappointed and shifted to other universities to pursue their Masters. Some of my Economics honors classmates failed to clear their Mathematics minor - a few sought review and scraped through later.
I decided to stay on with the University of Calcutta. For me, playing cricket was more important than winning games. Yes, academics had lost its clean image in my vision. But I did not mind enjoying the game of learning economics from lectures of outstanding scholars while increasing the distance with them in terms intellectual interaction. I had known by then that I were in an unassailable position: it would be virtually impossible to get me out at low score and not to appreciate my accuracy in length amidst variation of my pace, flight and turns. I was firmly established on my path to acquire my Masters degree.
In 1965, young Pakistan had assessed India as weaker, especially after India poor showing in the War of 1962 with China and had planned a grand plan of simultaneous border infiltration, inciting insurgency in Indian Kashmir and miltary aggression with India. Pakistan had been largely ruled by the military dictatorships that Pakistanis and the Americans continued to believe as democracy: the miltary junta had survived in Pakistan through a strategy of keeping the country in continuous trouble and revolving romancing bouts with the US and China. A great strategy for a small and young country In 1965, its military dictator thought of getting Kashmir into Pakistan's fold and teach India a military lesson through a military victory. International pressures abruptly ended the war when India was about the take over Pakistan's second largest city, Lahore and Pakistan had been counting days to surrender. Vanity prevented Pakistan to accept the international assessment that India was the victor in 1965. Yet, Pakistan's military dictatorship would never learn to play cricket as the Pakistani cricketers continued to do: cricket always meant competive performance - enjoying competition and rivalry: not winning by any means. In 1971, Pakistan got truncated by Indian Army, though as students we had lost a few days in anxiety in September 1965.
By January 1966, the final third year classes in the college were getting over. We were still a few days of winter left in Calcutta before Spring would set in. About 70 days were available before the university examinations would start. I had already prepared for the Economics Honors' four papers: only some polishing and final touches with the books and notes were needed. But I had to devote some time now to my mathematics (minor) paper with statics, dynamics and astrology. Dynamics with fine with applications of Calculus. Statics was drab for me except the concept of equilibrium and the ideas of torque, moment, force and etc had intuitive appeal. I was not going to be a mechanical or structural engineer and hence had only obtain some marks to pass the examination. Acceleration and relative motion were interesting for the economics student and hence a part of elementary dynamics was easy to handle. But astrology which would account for two-fifths of the third and final paper of Mathematics minor was an issue. Of the 40 marks, a single question involving dealing with a sphere diagram was the most confusing to me. I picked up a little of that but concentrated on chapters on twilight, Archimedes and the like. With ten days' of effort, I felt comfortable with the preparation. So, I thought of devoting some time for pleasure: practicing and playing in tournaments that would create some thrill and excitement. In any case, playing cricket is going to end soon as I get into Master program and then begin by career. So, preparing for the final BA examinations (Part II) combined nicely with enjoying cricket.
Unfortunately, the my cricket extended to late spring. And, I contracted chickenpox and had to be quarantined for three weeks. (Chickenpox or varicella, is a highly contagious and self-limited infection that most commonly affects children but also affects teenagers and even the aged, peak incident is generally during March to May in India. Lifelong immunity for chickenpox generally follows the disease -- over 90% of non immune individuals will develop chickenpox following exposure. It is communicable by both direct skin-to-skin contact and via respiratory droplets (coughing, sneezing) from the infected individual. While the average incubation period from viral exposure to onset of symptoms is 12-14 days and generally treated at home without medicine but full rest and controlled diet). Lost three weeks and was sad. But my preparation earlier had been sufficient enough to face the examinations within two weeks of the end of the quarantined period.
So, the Economics honors papers examinations went off without any problem or difficulty. The questions were rather easy and I had thought everyone would do well. I thought that I had done as good as I had done on an average in the Part I Economics Honors four papers. The fourth paper in Part II required us to write an essay on any of the four or five topics in the question paper. I chose Trade Cycle and wrote for nearly three hours a kind of a literature survey monograph on the subject: in the standard essay style, I had covered all aspects of trade cycle from the nature and incidence of such cycles and the earliest theories explaining the cycles including such crude ideas as Sun-spot theory, the periodicity, causes and socio-economic effects of cycles, the mathematical models like those of the Multiplier-accelerator model of Samuelson including the the range of values of parameters that could generate convergent and divergent cycles using difference equations and differential equations, the macro-economic policy to deal with trade cycles in a Keynesian economic framework, the counter-cyclical, stabilizing fiscal policies explained through a mathematical model, the counter-cyclical monetary policies and its limitations, and of course a short para of concluding remarks. I had thought it was a great display of whatever I had learned about trade cycles with mixture of both mathematical treatment and the standard economic logic. I had it was remarkable to cover all these aspects in less than three hours over so many pages. I had thanked the great speed of my handwriting keeping pace with my flowing mind.
There was a short relief for 10 days before the minor mathematics paper test was due. It also went off well. I tried to answer as many questions as possible, even if had not been able to work through each answer fully. The same old technique I had applied in Part I mathematics paper. This time also the technique paid rich dividend: I secured 67 out of 100 maximum marks despite the small allocation of time to study and practice sums in astrology, statics and dynamics.
With the examinations over, there was time to enjoy two more months of fun and frolic.
I had to walk around the busy roads for about two long hours before I could absorb the most unbelievable event in my unfolding voyage. I had gone to the college to look at the results. I stood second in the aggregate in Economics honors: the difference between us was about 20 marks, implying that he stayed where he was after Part I and I had to slip by nearly 40 marks. That was absolutely absurd. For a while, I though it was because of playing cricket that caused me to go out of commission for three weeks before the examinations. But, all sorts of analysis established clearly to me that it wasn't cricket. It wasn't cricket for many other classmates as well. Many of these bright students were disappointed and shifted to other universities to pursue their Masters. Some of my Economics honors classmates failed to clear their Mathematics minor - a few sought review and scraped through later.
I decided to stay on with the University of Calcutta. For me, playing cricket was more important than winning games. Yes, academics had lost its clean image in my vision. But I did not mind enjoying the game of learning economics from lectures of outstanding scholars while increasing the distance with them in terms intellectual interaction. I had known by then that I were in an unassailable position: it would be virtually impossible to get me out at low score and not to appreciate my accuracy in length amidst variation of my pace, flight and turns. I was firmly established on my path to acquire my Masters degree.
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