Abstract
The obituaries were replete with epithets: an “iconoclastic”, “formidable” economist, “Mr Economics” personified; “party whip for heterodox economists”; “a diligent tormentor of the established order”, “a firebrand”, “soul of the left”, “a Sikh Castro”; “a stout defender of student rights”; “the most renowned Sikh academic outside India”; Ajit Singh was all these and a thorough gentleman besides. Sartorially elegant and soft spoken, he was a delightful raconteur of delicious gossip dispensed with naughty humour, devoid of malice, drawing laughter but never red. In intellectual or political exchanges, he invariably fought the idea never the person. He was fiercely competitive in sports; passionate about cricket, with “an encyclopaedic knowledge”; and addicted to his Punjabi cuisine, with the proficiency of an amateur chef. When young, he composed poetry in Sanskrit, which he had studied for nationalist reasons; despite the passage of decades, he remained the proud Indian, irrespective of the colour of his passport.
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Notes
- 1.
Personal communications, Professor Pritam Singh of Oxford Brookes University, dated 10 December 2017.
- 2.
Personal communication, email dated 20 December 2017. Professor S. S. Gill knew Ajit well from the time when he was in Chandigarh as the Manmohan Singh Chair holder.
- 3.
Personal communication, 10 August 2015.
- 4.
“With Malice Towards One and All”, was the title of Khushwant Singh’s much-read column on the editor’s page of the Illustrated Weekly of India.
- 5.
At Queens’, Ajit had the company of two aficionados of the game: Vani Borooah , the thoughtful pipe-puffing umpire, and the smooth-as-silk demon fast bowler, Andy Cosh . Geoff Harcourt , on reasonable grounds, fancied himself as the senior pro of the Faculty team.
- 6.
Somehow I do not think John Eatwell , a director of the Royal Opera House, ever managed to bring him up to speed on this, or any musical, score; nor did Wynne Godley , also Director of the Royal Opera House for over a decade, though he might have done his best to entice Ajit. Wynne, in his other incarnation, was principal oboist of the BBC Welsh Orchestra, and oboe notes would often delightfully waft through the DAE corridors—to no effect on the impervious Ajit.
- 7.
“If you put some ghee on a pizza, it becomes like a tandoori paratha”.
- 8.
“Morale holding up, mate?”.
- 9.
In London, the establishment he favoured was, predictably, called Punjab on Neal Street that had been dishing out the traditional Punjabi fare since the 1940s.
- 10.
It wasn’t the same at the local Chinese, though! “The hostility towards him in the local Chinese restaurant puzzled me until Ajit explained that the British had used Sikhs to police the Chinese and I understood how the legacy of imperialism continued to divide long after political dominion had ended” Sheila Rowbotham (2001, p. 98). Ajit was quite accurate: see, for instance, Qureshi and Osella (2015).
- 11.
Chandigarhi Dahi Lamb Chops à la Ajit: Four plump lamb chops , fat trimmed; 250 ml creamy plain yogurt; two-inch length fresh ginger; two cloves of garlic; one teaspoon coriander seeds; one teaspoon cumin; half teaspoon chilli flakes; tiny pinch turmeric; three tablespoons sunflower oil, one tablespoon ghee; salt. Chop ginger into fine half-inch shreds; crush the garlic into a rough paste; crush and crunch coriander and cumin seeds in a mortar, more than just broken but not powdered; stir the yogurt smooth in a mixing bowl and season with salt. Place a chop on a chopping board; sprinkle and pat in a quarter of the ginger, garlic, crushed coriander and cumin, with a generous shake of chilli flakes; use a tenderising mallet, pushing in the spices into the lamb chop; a few strikes only. Place on a dish. Repeat for remaining chops. Pour oil and ghee into a non-stick frying pan and bring to medium heat; add the pinch of turmeric. Pat each side of each chop in the yogurt and place in frying pan; wait for the chops to brown; turn over and brown the other side; not for too long, or the lamb will not remain tender. Pour the remaining yogurt on the chops, stir a little, and cover the frying pan, reduce heat to low medium. Distract student with faculty folklore and anecdotes till the yogurt reduces; this should take a couple of minutes. Test seasoning. To be had with a kuchumber salad of finely diced tomatoes, cucumber and red onion; rough chopped fresh coriander leaves; finely chopped green chilli; salt and pepper; blended with juice of half a fresh lime. Dish out to starving and suitably appreciative student, with further lashings of well-spiced just-in gossip and corridor whispers from college or Faculty as applicable.
- 12.
I can also recall the acute frustration I felt when the crack-of-dawn Shatabdi Express that I had boarded in Delhi was interminably held up due to the dreadful Delhi winter fog, delaying my arrival at Ajit’s Chandigarh home.
- 13.
Ajit the rationalist might for once have jestfully cited Pareto optimality as a justification: nobody was made worse off, but his mother was delighted. Shamsher Singh (2015) also mentions how Ajit was the one to perform the ritual of giving amrit at the sikh baptism of his son.
- 14.
The marriage ended in divorce in July 2011 (and not in 2012 as reported in various obituaries ).
- 15.
As an example, see Singh and Zammit (2000).
- 16.
- 17.
Munda translates into Punjabi as “boy” or “lad”.
- 18.
Shamsher Singh (2015), personal communication.
- 19.
Personal communication from one of the nominators provided confidentially, email dated 10 December 2017.
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Saith, A. (2019). A Man for All Seasons. In: Ajit Singh of Cambridge and Chandigarh. Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12422-9_9
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