realised that Sanjay Gandhi's obscene
Once There Was a CSDS
SHIV VISVANATHAN
The Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies completed
The spelt of storyspeltDeveloping
50 years recently. Here one
former member of the faculty
a simple frame. To me what made csds
recounts what made the csds
special and why it changed later.
Shiv Visvanathan ( svcsds@gmail.com ) is at the
Jindal School of Government and Public Policy.
14 DECEMBER 29, 2012 vol XLVii no 52 i*¡avi Economic & Political weekly
attempts sought to eliminate the poor
rather than eradicate poverty. Second, it
was clear that it was the middle class
that supported the Emergency as an
order-enforcing mechanism celebrating
the fact that trains and bureaucrats ran
of Developing Societies (csds) on time. Third, many intellectuals, espe-
out in theoutOutlook
of the and
in Centre the Societies Outlook for the (csds) Study and cially in the left, saw virtues in the
Seminar magazine issues recently, creates Emergency that was difficult to recon-
struct a few months later.
famous was that it was a quarrel, a con- The Emergency created a crisis for
versation and one with much causality. the intellectual. One recollects Ramnath
The csds was one of the serious attempts Goenka's response to Girilal Jain saying
to construct a social science outside eco- that when journalists were asked to bow,
nomics, which could provide a different they preferred to crawl. Worse, one of
imagination for democracy in India.the iconic figures of Indian economics
Visualised by Rajni Kothari, Gopal Krishna and Indian intellectual life, Sukhamoy
and other scholars, the csds grew as a Chakravarty, was ambiguous about the
part of the Nehruvian imagination, an Emergency. Today such an event might
attempt to professionalise electoral studies. be irrelevant but Sukhamoy Chakravarty
Inspired by American social science andstrode the planning scene like a colossus.
especially by scholars like Robert Dahl, He was a folklore figure before the Emer-
Karl Deutsch and Myron Weiner, the csds gency, a man who read Lukacs, dreamt
created a world of electoral studies as a about Kant and yet felt at home in the
social style combining quantitative rigourcorridors of power. In that era, he was
and analytical insight. seen as intellectual equal to Amartya Sen.
Election studies was method, a tech- Sukhamoy Chakravarty's private doubts
nique, a site for the drama of social sciencefaded before his public support for the
and democracy and of the choices andEmergency. It was not that economists
decisions democracy demanded. One mustlike Raj Krishna, Dharma Kumar, Mrinal
confess that this by itself could not haveDutta-Chaudhuri did not critique the
created a vision of political India in theEmergency. Individual forays however
Nehruvian era. The missing gestalt wascould not match the public presence of
provided by Rajni Kothari's classic bookChakravarty. As a result, official econo-
Politics of India. Horribly written and mics was devalued as a public vehicle for
superbly analysed, it provided a master- democracy. The Emergency raised the
work that people could attack and praise. question about the democratic nature of
It was a landmark and still remains aplanned development, a question that
economists were slow to answer or even
milestone in the annals of politics. In
this book, Rajni took over the key ideas
react to.
of Gopal Krishna, that the Congress wasThe other social sciences led by the
a coalition of interests and representedcsds
a entered the fray with flair. By that
notion of plural India. The Congress astime
a social science movements and civil
microcosm of India sustained the idea ofsociety were challenging the state as a
dominant social imagination. Kothari
Nehruvian India. Politics of India gave
Indian political science a masterwork,coined a the idea and project of "non-party
politics" and created Lokayan.
claim to identity, a flag, a totemic identity,
a sense of a paradigm and an exemplar. Lokayan, a dialogue with the people
was one of these legendary thought
A sociological study of the Emergency
must focus not just on the nature of experiments. It transformed social science
tyranny but on how a group of social and altered the Centre irrevocably. So
intense was the enthusiasm that many
science intellectuals read the implication
of tyranny for India. Some things were
failed to realise that the biggest opposition
clear. It was the people, especially the
or scepticism about these projects also
originated from the Centre. Bashiruddin
poor who voted Indira Gandhi out. They
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Ahmed, Gopal Krishna, Sudhir Kakar become cosier for many of them. A middle- few drinks down, suddenly looked at me
remained islands of dissent during this aged activist suddenly confronts everyday- and said "if one Tamil Brahmin can be
period. There was a sadness to it because ness in a middle class way. When funding the most celebrated hawk (he was refer-
all three of them were very talented, ceased, many showed their true colours. ring to his old friend K Subramanyam, a
very civilised people. They added to the More critically, many of Lokayan's original legendary defence expert), then another
imagination of the Centre while main- actors had become larger than life figures Tamil Brahmin shall be the peacenik as
taining a ritual distance from the domi- ready to launch out on their own. Lokayan foil". He asked me to take over as de-
nant idea of the place, quietly playing became too small a space for this con- fence expert from that day. I knew noth-
what one wag called, the recessive gene federation of egos. As one noted then, ing but he said, "learn, learn about
pools of the CSDS. Lokayan was an organisation where the peace" and that was that.
Lokayan was an idea whose time had whole was less than the sum of the parts. No narrative of the Centre will be
come. Rajni made it into a commons of The generosity required to sustain this complete without tribute to the office
hospitality open to every variant of every nursery of explosive talent was missing. staff. They were with, one or two excep-
social movement. A whole kaleidoscope Lokayan died, but before it did, it scarred tions, a wonderful bunch of people who
of intellectuals helped fashion the imag- the idea of the Centre as an institution. served as tuning forks for the debates at
ination of Lokayan. There was Claude The project overwhelmed the Centre. It the Centre. They acted and behaved as
Alvares, the historian of colonial science, made one re-explore the distance and intellectuals. The morning rituals at the
who introduced the ideas of C V Seshadri contiguity between the activist and the library often saw each huddled around
and Dharam Pal to the popular press. academic. Lokayan's obsessiveness with his favourite newspaper debating politics.
His critique of M S Swaminathan as a the everydayness of the political, its The quality of the debate was often
foe of gene diversity left traces which detailed analysis of Congress and Janata sceptical of official predictions. The older
could be irritating. Gossip and gospel stalwarts could often brush away a
could not be rubbed out decades later.
There were Vandana Shiva and Jayanta
often combined in this analysis, some- Kothari or a Ramashray Roy prediction
times undermining the academic frame.
Bandyopadhyay playing out Chipko as an and offer an alternative interpretation.
A larger than life project can marginalise They were acute observers and often
ecological creation myth, Achyut Yagnik
other issues, other perspectives. The
who added the exuberance of Nav Nirman, defined how younger social scientists
Vijay Pratap who provided Lohia as anCentre became a desiccated shell. Its ideas were received. The site of the rite of pas-
needed separate spaces and to adapt sage was the library and the high priest
irrepressible panacea to every problem,
Robert Frost's words, "good fences would was Sujit Deb, a confident leftist among
and the more thoughtful and even tem-
have made good neighbours".
pered G Narendranath, who left a bank a parade of liberals. Deb valued books
job to think through agriculture by prac- and valued those who read books in a
The Institution Builder and Others
tising it. Crucial to this core competence particular way. He read vociferously and
was Harsh Sethi, an oral historian ofI want to reflect on Rajni the manwould
and greet each person with a reference
social movements, who left a PhD degree to some article that should be read. Often
the institution builder. As a person Rajni,
in Cambridge because there was little
was accessible and wonderfully open. the Ireference was the only greeting as
to learn. Harsh was the munshi of the
remember when he was chairman of the people read newspapers quietly over a
non-party movements giving it an every-Indian Council of Social Science Research much awaited tea. The staff would rate
day reflexivity by editing the Lokayan(icssr) and came to intervene in a crisis articles likes a tutorial class.
Bulletin with Smitu Kothari. Lokayanat the sociology department of the Delhi What was obvious was that they loved
which began as a thought experiment,School of Economics. He said he wanted the Centre and social science, and imbibed
a project of the Centre, soon startedto meet the young man in the middle ofthe aesthetic of the place. Bhuvan Chandel
the trouble. He met me and asked me to
cannibalising its imagination. Its state of typed but it was clear whose writings he
join the csds. One of my senior colleagues, preferred to type. He loved elegant prose
visibility, debate and intellectual ferment
put into shade the slower processes ofB S Baviskar, warned him that he was and consulted dictionaries to correct our
academe at the Centre. hiring an intellectual thug. Rajni's re- writings with a quiet glee. Pratap Singh,
sponse was bland, almost easy. He said a jack of all trades, had a mordant wit.
The Demise of Lokayan "I am looking for more of them". He put He labelled a truant group of fellows as
How does one look at the end of the idea an intuitive faith in people and backed the Wednesday intellectuals as it invoked
institutionally? Part of the injury was them up. I remember once we sat arguing their ritual occasion to visit the Centre.
self-inflicted. Lokayan was a purist search half the night in Kathmandu. The discus- Their views of social science were deep
which felt the project did not need foreign sion was around the establishment of a and the office staff was as crucial in their
funding. An acrimonious debate followed new unit for militarisation and demilitari-opposition to the Emergency as the faculty.
and the project returned part of the sation for the United Nations UniversityThis group required its own anthropology.
money to its funders. Sadly as money (unu) project. The first recruits wereOften it had a touch of the comic. The
shrunk, tensions increased. Activists still foreign imports and turned out to be poorchowkidar of the csds also had a parallel
had expectations from csds. Life had transplants. Rajni, who was more than a career as astrologer and wise man. This
Economic & Political weekly HTiTfl December 29, 2012 vol xlvii no 52 IS

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gentleman conducted his business in The other name was D L Sheth. I never when one of his colleagues wanted to
Gopal Krishna's room between seven and knew him well and found him unmusical,lime wash some ruggedly beautiful stones
nine. I remember when I inherited the a tactician rather than a theorist, a manin the csds garden. Sometimes, given the
room, he told me. "We both do chochalacclaimed by a later generation as bril-performative nature of Nandy's career,
science, you in afternoon and I in theliant and original, dl was a doubles player, people saw him as a set of events rather
morning. I do astrology and you dothe Leander Paes of social science. He than a person. He often contributed to
election studies. Work hard." I remember combined with others to create ideas the misreading. He was trickster, irritant,
one day an irate sardar stormed into myand his most creative collaboration was clown, one of the dominant figures of the
room complaining that the Pudis givenwith Harsh. The two were pioneers in the1990s, a frequent soloist in the symphony
to him had not worked. His wife had run understanding of social movements. The of ideas Rajni Kothari conducted.
away. I pretended I did not know whatCentre's crisis destroyed a friendship,
The Decline
was going on. The staff created the ecol-and what could have been one of the
ogy of the place allowing the fauna ofmost creative collaborations of social If the Centre was a creative place during
science. I now turn to the most idiosyn-the Lokayan and unu years, the res-
intellectuals to play their role. They
were the first to sense entropy. cratic figure of csds, the irrepressibleponsibility belongs to this quartet. Yet as
Kothari left soon after to become and incorrigible Ashis Nandy. they grew older, one saw their flaws. They
Ashis Nandy is a mellow man today,were poor planners for the future. In fact
professor at Delhi University. He had an
almost zero impact but he returned to athe
statesman of the intellect. But in an they secretly thought they would never
earlier phase, he was a more ebullient
Centre with a vengeance to create another age. They insisted everyone should retire
epic drama around the unu project.character,
By at 60 and yet clung to their rooms and
witty, even incorrigible, and
playful, with a sense of fun. He hatedtheir posts. The Centre was their home.
the time Lokyan had shrunk to a preten-
tious shell, the unu project arrivedbores
to and in fact hid from them. I re- They had no other place to go to. As
sustain the grand visions of Kothari. member
The once when I went to meet him, retirement approached, they appeared
discovered him hiding in the bathroomvulnerable, worried about their children.
unu project created a huge volume of Iex-
desperately asking, "have those guys Their friendship was strong but could not
pectations but as a behemoth it was more
left?". Nandy was irreverent to the core. provide the normative basis of a growing
tiring and more bureaucratic. Fragments
Once at the Delhi School of Economics he institution and newer entrants saw then
like the cccgf worked creatively. There
were some interesting work but was
theirritated with one of those repetitiveas arbitrary and hollow. Partly, their own
project ended in a whimper. There Marxists
was who would always ask "what theory of the csds and its success was
and class?". Nandy sauntered into oneflawed. The folklore they created was
tiredness to Rajni. Even his courage about
patience was not enough to combat of the Friday seminars, looked benignly interesting but illusory. They had no
his
health problems. I must add that csdsaround and said "Mr Chairman, I have aconcept of succession and they virtually
suggestion to make". People looked expect- "mediocritised" the middle generation.
was a collection of friendships, nurtured
antly. Nandy paused and said "ProfessorThe Centre which spoke democracy to the
over evening drinks and passionate lunch
debates. The Centre was more than an Hira Singh asks the same question at everyworld was not the most democratic of
seminar". He suggested "why not allowplaces. The flaws became chinks as the
organisation; it was the story of a friend-
ship between Rajni, Dhirubhai, Giri
Mr Singh to ask the question first, so thatinstitution dealt with two major sets of
the group could proceed undisturbed exits. In the first, Kakar, Pillai and Ali
Deshingkar and Ashis Nandy. They were
called "the uncles". One needs to look at the
with the seminar". The suggestion had Baquer were asked to leave. In the second
many votaries, but ritual prevailed.
institutional creativity and failures of this Harsh and I left tired by what we saw.
quartet. One has to collectively psycho- Ashis Nandy was no anarchist. As a When your heroes shrunk to pettiness, it
scholar he was a disciplined craftsman.is time to leave. I will stop here because
analyse them to understand the strength
and failures of what was an unorthodox He would rewrite his papers with an ob- the Centre which emerged after the drama
form of institution building. sessive patience. He was intensely curiousof two exits was a new place and for me a
One must mention the other individuals and deeply private. He loved music butdistant one. It was like a snake which in-
in the quartet. Giri Deshingkar played considered his fascination with music a differently sloughed off an old skin. It is
the priest and clerk maintaining the every- private space and I do not think hebest that the other story is told by another
dayness of the group. He was a stickler ever wrote about it. He loved stories and teller. For me, the Centre was a fable, a
for rituals. Each morning he read Chinese doted on storytellers. He enjoyed cricket parable of how great visions can collapse
meticulously, each afternoon he marked but hated the nationalistic fervour that if they continually evade normativeness
newspapers with diligence. If morality accompanied it. He would search out and everydayness. While the vision lasted
was a time table, then Giri's life embod- people who were interesting and flicked it was compelling one. I enjoyed my stay
ied it. He had enormous information on aside those he thought were dull. He was there; I enjoyed life more after my exit. It
China and defence. Yet his skill was the an aesthetician at heart. He would spend is best to leave the narrative here. Here is
8oo-word article. He could never dream hours designing the csds letterhead. Once a fragment and I hope it adds something
in terms of a book length idea. he was almost perplexed, and in tears, to the other stories.

l6 December 29, 2012 vol XLVii no 52 GOES Economic & Political WEEKLY

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