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Calcutta Diary
The essays in Calcutta Diary first appeared in the Economic and Political Weekly during the infamous 21-month Emergency imposed in India between June 1975 and March 1977. Interestingly, Ashok Mitra had worked with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who had imposed the Emergency. The essays recount aspects of a unique and particularly difficult phase in contemporary Indian history.
This new edition includes a foreword by eminent social scientist, Partha Chatterjee, and a concluding commentary by the celebrated historian of South Asia, Ranajit Guha. It offers an unparalleled portrait of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in all its grime and glory in a way few writers have been able to capture life and longing in this infuriatingly memorable metropolis in eastern India.
This new edition includes a foreword by eminent social scientist, Partha Chatterjee, and a concluding commentary by the celebrated historian of South Asia, Ranajit Guha. It offers an unparalleled portrait of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in all its grime and glory in a way few writers have been able to capture life and longing in this infuriatingly memorable metropolis in eastern India.
338 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 19, 1977
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About the author
Ashok Mitra
54 books8 followersAshok Mitra (10 April 1928 – 1 May 2018) was an Indian economist and Marxist politician. He was a chief economic adviser to the Government of India and later became finance minister of West Bengal and a member of the Rajya Sabha.
After completing his graduation from the University of Dacca, he came to India following the partition of India in 1947. Although he attended postgraduate classes in economics at the University of Calcutta, he was refused admission there. He moved to Banaras Hindu University where he earned an M.A. in economics. He joined the newly established Delhi School of Economics in the early 1950s. Later, he attended the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands. Under the guidance of Professor Jan Tinbergen of the University of Rotterdam, he was awarded a doctorate in economics there in 1953.
Mitra taught as a lecturer in economics at the University of Lucknow for two years before proceeding to the Netherlands to complete his Ph.D. thesis. He taught at the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East in Bangkok, Thailand before returning to Delhi in 1961. He joined the Economic Development Institute in Washington, DC, as a faculty of economics during the early 1960s. He also worked for the World Bank in the 1960s. In the early-1990s he became the chairman of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
After returning to India he accepted the professorship in economics at the newly established Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He was the chief economic adviser and later chairman of the Agricultural Prices Commission, both of the Government of India. He was finance minister of West Bengal from 1977–87. In the mid-1990s he became a member of the Rajya Sabha and was chairman of the Parliament's Standing Committee on Industry and Commerce.
He authored the "Calcutta Diary" in Economic and Political Weekly and "Terms of Trade and Class Relations". He contributed articles regularly to the Calcutta-based national daily newspaper, The Telegraph. He also wrote short stories in Bengali. He was conferred the Sahitya Academi Award in 1996 for his Esseys entitled Tal Betal. His publications include China-Issues in Development and From the Ramparts, Prattler's Tale: Recollections of a Contrary Marxist (which has also been published in Bengali as Apila Chapala).
He founded a journal entitled Arek Rakam.
Mitra was married to Gouri, who died aged 79 in May 2008. He died on 1 May 2018 at the age of 90. Ashok Mitra is survived by his only sibling, Sreelata Ghosh(nee Mitra),sister.
After completing his graduation from the University of Dacca, he came to India following the partition of India in 1947. Although he attended postgraduate classes in economics at the University of Calcutta, he was refused admission there. He moved to Banaras Hindu University where he earned an M.A. in economics. He joined the newly established Delhi School of Economics in the early 1950s. Later, he attended the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands. Under the guidance of Professor Jan Tinbergen of the University of Rotterdam, he was awarded a doctorate in economics there in 1953.
Mitra taught as a lecturer in economics at the University of Lucknow for two years before proceeding to the Netherlands to complete his Ph.D. thesis. He taught at the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East in Bangkok, Thailand before returning to Delhi in 1961. He joined the Economic Development Institute in Washington, DC, as a faculty of economics during the early 1960s. He also worked for the World Bank in the 1960s. In the early-1990s he became the chairman of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
After returning to India he accepted the professorship in economics at the newly established Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He was the chief economic adviser and later chairman of the Agricultural Prices Commission, both of the Government of India. He was finance minister of West Bengal from 1977–87. In the mid-1990s he became a member of the Rajya Sabha and was chairman of the Parliament's Standing Committee on Industry and Commerce.
He authored the "Calcutta Diary" in Economic and Political Weekly and "Terms of Trade and Class Relations". He contributed articles regularly to the Calcutta-based national daily newspaper, The Telegraph. He also wrote short stories in Bengali. He was conferred the Sahitya Academi Award in 1996 for his Esseys entitled Tal Betal. His publications include China-Issues in Development and From the Ramparts, Prattler's Tale: Recollections of a Contrary Marxist (which has also been published in Bengali as Apila Chapala).
He founded a journal entitled Arek Rakam.
Mitra was married to Gouri, who died aged 79 in May 2008. He died on 1 May 2018 at the age of 90. Ashok Mitra is survived by his only sibling, Sreelata Ghosh(nee Mitra),sister.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 8, 2022
Calcutta Diary by AM
It was almost a passion during my younger days. I used to wait for the week to end; so that Economic and Political Weekly will be published and despite being very short of cash those days, I would somehow manage my purse to ensure that I get a copy of the weekly EPW and rush to AM's Calcutta Diary. Half a century later, the excitement was still the same. The author's encyclopediac knowledge of almost every subject and his enviable command of the English language turned his columns into political poetry. Miss him.
It was almost a passion during my younger days. I used to wait for the week to end; so that Economic and Political Weekly will be published and despite being very short of cash those days, I would somehow manage my purse to ensure that I get a copy of the weekly EPW and rush to AM's Calcutta Diary. Half a century later, the excitement was still the same. The author's encyclopediac knowledge of almost every subject and his enviable command of the English language turned his columns into political poetry. Miss him.
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September 5, 2018"More poets per square kilometer than even football fans."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews