Festschrift to a mentor
V. K. SRINIVASAN
A PASSIONATE HUMANITARIAN – V.K.R.V. Rao: Ed. by S.L.Rao et al.; Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore & Academic Foundation, 4772-73/23, Bharat Ram Road (23 Ansari Road), Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs.695.
This centennial festschrift to eminent social scientist and mentor V. K. R.V. Rao (1908-91) carries personal and professional reminiscences by 30 students and associates, and brings on record his remarkable contribution in building prestigious research institutions and nurturing young economists of great promise.
Explaining his long initials Rao once said “my full name is Vijayendra Kasturi Ranga Varadaraja Rao… My mother had performed seva for forty-five days at the Vijayendra Swami Brindavan in Kumbakonam and so gave me the name Vijayendra. I had to include my father’s name Kasturi Rangachar. I was born in Kancheepuram and so was named after the presiding deity Varadaraja Swami. The long name was abridged to V.K.R.V. Rao in school records for obvious reasons.”
Renowned economist
Born in the temple town of Kancheepuram in 1908, this son of a Sanskrit pandit and astrologer had his schooling in Kumbakonam, and his collegiate education in Bombay. He started his research career with J.M.Keynes and obtained his doctorate in economics from Cambridge. On returning to India he took up academics and was instrumental in conceptualising and establishing the Delhi School of Economics (1948), and later the research institution, the Institute of Economic Growth in 1958. He was Vice Chancellor of Delhi University (1956-60) and later served as a Member of the Planning Commission (1963-66). Elected to the Lok Sabha from Bellary in 1967 with a modest margin of 25,000 votes, he served as Union Minister for Shipping and Transport (1967-69) and as Minister for Education and Youth Services (1969-71). He returned to the Lok Sabha in 1971 with a sweeping majority of 1, 17,000 votes, but was not included in the Cabinet. Losing interest in electoral politics, he decided to settle down in Bangalore in the early 1970s to pursue his research interests. Awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1974, the year in which Indira Gandhi laid the foundation for the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Rao broadened the scope of his research interest to promoting social and economic change in a well informed manner. Slipping into old age he passed away in 1991. A highly successful fund raiser for the institutions he built, Rao is reported to have been without resources of his own in old age and to have depended on his wife’s savings and national professorship conferred by the Central government.
Multifaceted
A multifaceted personality, he has left his mark in many areas. His associates wonder, as B.M Bhatia points out “How to remember Dr. Rao? As an eminent economist? As a towering academician? As an institution builder? As a pioneer in research in some important fields of economic science? As a deeply religious person? As a devotee of Swami Vivekananda? As a dynamo of human activity? As an affectionate and sincere friend? As a benevolent human being? He was all of these rolled into one and much more.” S.L. Rao recalls that, “V.K.R.V. Rao had a quick and brilliant intellect, was a mesmerizing speaker, an able administrator, a great visionary, a very thorough planner especially in building intuitions, an excellent judge of people, impatient and often rudely dismissive but without any malice and at the same time, a warm and affectionate human being.”
The volume is in the main, personal recollections of several social scientists who had interacted with V.K.R.V. Rao and is divided into four sections: creating ISEC, building people; a passionate institution builder; an inspiring academic; and some intimate facets. When 30 persons offer their personal reminiscences, there is bound to be some degree of repetition. Jayaram’s introduction provides a backdrop highlighting Rao as a legend, as a scholar, as an institution builder, as a visionary, as a religious and devout Madhwa, as a formidable and blunt person, and as a humane being.
Humanitarian
The collection gains in substance by the inclusion of a tribute to him by P.R. Brahmananda first published in the Indian Economic Journal in 1992. Pointing out that his work span of about six decades resulted in a prodigious output of “about 39 books/ monographs, 210 articles, 68 addresses and seminar papers, and 6 edited works,” bulk of them after Independence, P.R Brahmananda observes, “Indian Economists can be divided into cuckoos and crows. Crows lay their eggs in the nests they build; cuckoos lay their eggs in crow’s nests. Dr. Rao’s literary output flowed from his own nest. It was his great generosity that he provided a habitat for so may cuckoos. I may add that the crow is revered in our mythology.” He traces different facets of Rao’s contributions to economic analysis, particularly national income, its structure and its growth and the methodology of its computations, food and nutrition and the distribution of food and income, planning for a social purpose and human resource development.
What should interest economists of today is his reference to Rao’s concern in his twilight years: “He felt that economists in India have not been participating sufficiently in public debates. They were also not contributing adequately to the enlightenment and education of the public in economic matters…” The picture is different today thanks to several economists, who received their baptism from Rao. The ISEC has done well to highlight the humanitarian Rao while most of us remember him as an authoritative economist.
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