K.N. Raj’s Legacy As Economist and Teacher
(Photo: K.N.Raj, extreme left, and other members of the Indian Planning Commission with Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, right. Courtesy: CDS.)
October 31, 2024
K.N. Raj “inspired me in two ways,” said Pranab Bardhan, a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. “I hardly knew anybody who had a larger vision of the structure of the Indian economy, combined with a grasp of the micro-realities of the various diversities in Indian economies. This combination is extremely rare.”
Bardhan was in conversation with Gita Sen at a conference marking the 100th birth anniversary of Raj, founder of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum, India. The conference and a CDS alumni gathering were held at CDS from October 19 to 22.
Raj pointed out that technological changes can favor capitalists and increase economic and political inequality, potentially exacerbating rural-urban disparities and creating a new form of colonialism, said Gita Sen.
Sudipto Mundle, chair of CDS’s board, noted Raj’s legacy as an institutional builder, particularly his focus on grassroots development. “Under professor Raj’s leadership, CDS did pioneering research on the development experience of Kerala, a study now famous as the CDS UN study of 1975,” Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala, said while inaugurating the conference.
T. M. Thomas Isaac described CDS as the "academic fountainhead" for numerous policy reforms in Kerala, bridging academic research and real-world applications. Raj also contributed “to development policy worldwide,” said C. Veeramani, director of CDS, while welcoming alumni, students and guests to the celebrations.
Under Raj, CDS became “a world-renowned economic research institute”, in part due to his connections with leading economists, including Joan Robinson and Nicholas Kaldor, a Nobel prize winner, as well as with officials of various United Nations agencies, noted Beena P.L, convener of the Raj centennial conference.
K. M. Chandrasekhar spoke about Raj’s intellectual rigor, where thorough analysis preceded written work and economic theories sought to solve practical problems. Raj wanted researchers to "first study empirically the complex structures and inter-relationships characteristic of traditional agrarian economies before attempting to advance general theories," said Suraj Jacob.
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