John Kenneth Galbraith, the leading US economist, scholar and diplomat died on Saturday at the age of ninety seven. I was a young girl in middle school when Galbraith was appointed the US Ambassador to India by President John F. Kennedy. I had no idea what his politics and scholarship were about. But I remember that our parents and teachers spoke of him fondly and the phrase most used to describe him was "A Friend of India". The other distinct recollection I have of him is that I had until then, never seen a man so tall. No other US ambassador has been as well liked in India as Mr. Galbraith was. Here is a tribute to him from the Indian daily, The Hindu. The article by Harish Khare is not surprisingly, named "A Friend of India."
A friend of India
Harish Khare
| Very few Americans have endeared themselves to Indians. John Kenneth Galbraith was an honourable exception. |
TO STATE the obvious, John Kenneth Galbraith, who died on Saturday aged 97, was the greatest American friend of India. No American Ambassador to India, before or after him, brought so much empathy and appreciation to his job as did Professor Galbraith. And no one enjoyed the job so much as he did; nor was anyone else as effective (both in New Delhi and Washington).
By far the most academically brilliant of the U.S. envoys (with Patrick Moynihan running a close second), Ambassador Galbraith had a robust and sensible understanding of India’s problems. His association with India began years before he came as President John F. Kennedy’s Ambassador. He was among the brilliant group of economists gathered by Professor P.C. Mahalanobis at the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta to help in the formulation of the Second Five Year Plan….By the time he took up his ambassadorial assignment, Prof. Galbraith had a fairly good idea of what needed to be done to help India achieve the Nehruvian dreams of industrialising a backward economy.
Prof. Galbraith was also perhaps the only Ambassador to earn the confidence and respect of Jawaharlal Nehru. Indeed no other envoy has enjoyed that kind of relationship with any of the Indian Prime Ministers. His Ambassador’s Journal, a delightfully-written diary-like account of his stay in New Delhi, tells the reader of the easy relationship with Nehru and even easier access to Teen Murti House….. But Prof. Galbraith was never indiscreet, as is the wont of the current American Ambassadors in New Delhi.
Prof. Galbraith left Roosevelt House in July 1963, but he remained concerned and interested in India and Indians. Though his economic ideas ceased to be respected much in the United States since the 1980s, his basic argument remains valid: "Economics does indeed concern the fundamental issue of how societies and civilisations work." His concern for "equality" and "justice," are best reflected, according to his authorised biographer, Richard Parker, in Amartya Sen’s works.
Very few Americans — and only a handful of American envoys — have endeared themselves to Indians, partly because of the U.S.’ record of "dirty Americanism." Prof. Galbraith was an honourable exception.
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