Meghnad Desai, Indian-origin economist, dies at 85

Meghnad Desai, an India-origin economist and a member of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, passed away on Tuesday. He was 85.

Born in Gujarat’s Vadodara, Desai studied economics at the University of Mumbai before completing his PhD in economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

He wrote and edited more than 20 books, along with over 200 articles for academic journals.

Desai’s early works focused on the Marxian way of thought, including his first book Marxian Economic Theory (1973), which was followed by Applied Econometrics (1976) and Marxian Economics (1979).

In 1981, he wrote a critique on monetarism, an economic theory that emphasises the role of money supply in influencing economic activity and price levels.

In 2014, Desai wrote the book Who Wrote The Bhagavadgita?

He argued that some themes in the Hindu text “reinforce social inequality and lack of concern for the other and to that extent he finds Gita to be toxic”.

Desai taught at the London School of Economics from 1965 to 2003 and later became an emeritus professor.

He was also a member of the House of Lords and a leader of the Labour Party. He served as the chairperson of the party between 1986 and 2002 and received the title of Baron in the City of Westminster in 1991.

Desai resigned as a member of the Labour Party in 2020 over its alleged failure...

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