Growth and choice

The eight essays collected in this volume have been written by former students of the Economics Department of Presidency College, Calcutta, in honour of their teacher, Professor Upendra Nath Ghosal, who was Professor of Economics and later, Professor of Political Science at the College for over thirty years (1930 to 1964). He joined the Economics Department of the College at a time when Sir Jehan gir Coyajce had already built up a unique position for Presidency College as a centre for the study of Economics. The University of Calcutta instituted a separate Honours degree course in Economics in 1909 and an M.A. degree course in the subject in 1911. From the beginning, the task of building up the new generation of econo mists was taken up by Professor Coyajee and practically all serious students of Economics in Eastern India passed through his hands. Mr Ghosal was one of the band of students who attended Coyajce's lectures in the early twenties. After taking his B.A. degree with Honours in Economics in 1926, he joined the London School of Economics and returned to India in 1930 with a B.Sc. (Econ.) Almost immediately after his return, he was offered a post at his old college. He accepted it with enthusiasm and worked devotedly almost without a break until his retirement in 1964.

The position that was built up by Professor Coyajee in the second and third decades of the century was made stronger in the succeed ing decades by Professor Ghosal and his colleagues. The students who came out of the Economics Department of the College in the twenties became famous later as teachers of Economics in different colleges and universities or as administrators. The students who came out in the forties and fifties were equally outstanding in teaching and in administration. A new dimension was however added as a good number of the students started distinguishing themselves all over the economists' world as outstanding research workers and contributors to the growth of knowledge.