John Kenneth Galbraith: Last of the Old-Style Liberals
John Kenneth Galbraith (center) was presented with India’s second-highest civilian award by Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh (left) in 2001. Also present on the occasion was Galbraith’s wife, Kitty. (photo courtesy Harvard University Gazette)
John Kenneth Galbraith, former US envoy to India, who died on Sunday (April 30) at the age of 97, wrote in his book Ambassador’s Journal that he always wondered why most women in underdeveloped nations had overdeveloped bosoms.
This and many other interesting articles have appeared remembering Galbraith who is still fondly remembered in India for his excellent rapport that he built with the leaders and people here.
India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “During his tenure as US ambassador in New Delhi, he laid the foundation of an enduring friendship between our two countries on which we are now attempting to build a new edifice defined by trust and mutual benefit. More than an Ambassador, he was a friend of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.”
During Galbraith’s two years in New Delhi, the good times rolled, wrote the Hindustan Times . The Indian Institutes of Technology and Management (which now enjoy international reputation) were established. PL 480 grain poured into India. Galbraith, Nehru and Kennedy shared great personal chemistry with a common interest in wit, pedigree and beautiful women.
It all fell apart within months of Galbraith’s return to Harvard. In seven months, both Kennedy and Nehru were dead. The US sank into the Vietnam quagmire. India inched closer to the Soviet Union.
Modern India has forgotten Galbraith, but during the 1960s and 1970s he was almost a household name, recalls India’s Business Standard. He had served as the US ambassador to India during John F Kennedy’s presidency, and as his friend, he gave India access of the kind it has never enjoyed. As JFK’s friend, he enjoyed access here as well, and could drop in on Jawaharlal Nehru almost at will. As he has recorded in his Ambassador’s Journal, the two had long chats and clearly enjoyed each other’s company. Ever the master of the bon mot, he dubbed India a ‘functioning anarchy‘. He remained India’s friend till the end.
An adviser to US presidents from Roosevelt to Kennedy and Johnson, this Canadian-born economist has long been recognised as America’s leading public intellectual, wrote Jonathan Steele on April 6, 2002 in
The Guardian. He added that Galbraith’s ideas are being taken up by the anti-globalisation movement.
“When John F Kennedy was elected president in 1960 Galbraith turned down the chance to be an economic administrator again, opting instead to be ambassador in India, the foreign country he loves most. From New Delhi he bombarded the president with astonishingly forthright letters about economic and foreign policy…
“In The Affluent Society he criticised the cult of consumerism and explained how advertising and marketing created artificially high demand, leading to a ‘dependence effect’ among consumers. Another result was the neglect of public sector goods. The book also invented the phrase ‘the conventional wisdom’ in chapters that showed how liberals and conservatives clung to ideas which had become out-of-date but no one dared challenge…”
Galbraith has always had a controversial reputation among academic economists and never won the Nobel prize for economics, but he is lavishly praised by many who did. “His is an artistic, speculative mind. He sets up hypotheses which go beyond the data, and some of the greatest scholars in history have been of that type,” says Professor Paul Samuelson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard’s neighbour and rival, author of a famous textbook for undergraduate economists.
The Nobel economics prize-winner Amartya Sen, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, calls Galbraith “the most widely read economist in the world”, adding “he doesn’t get enough praise. The Affluent Society is a great insight, and has become so much a part of our understanding of contemporary capitalism that we forget where it began. It’s like reading Hamlet and deciding it’s full of quotations. You realise where they came from,” Sen says.
In 1969, Galbraith wrote Ambassador’s Journal: A Personal Account of the Kennedy Years, a book based on the diary he kept during his time in India. A year earlier Galbraith co-authored Indian Painting: The Scenes, Themes and Legends. A connoisseur of Indian art, he donated most of his collection to the Harvard University Art Museums.
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3 Responses to “John Kenneth Galbraith: Last of the Old-Style Liberals”
Joe, your Galbraith piece (nicely done) ties into the Kennedy mystic spot below. The fact is that JFK’s 1000 days, while alive in the minds of many Boomers, are passing quietly into history, becoming more and more irrelevant to most Americans. A person born in 1960 (with no conscious memory of JFK) is now 46. For millions of younger Americans, Camelot means little. Whether that’s good or bad, it’s simply a fact. The Kennedy influence extended to Clinton and Kerry, certainly, so it’s not entirely gone. But to many, JFK is ancient history.
An aside: George Will (I think) noted that Galbraith, an extremely tall man and 97 at death, didn’t compete in economic stature to his rival, Milton Friedman, who’s 5 feet tall and 93 years young.
Swaraaj! A good piece!!!! If you did not do this it would be sad. Remember! In the Univ, we were invited (courtesy of Dr. Gilpatrick of DUMADS!) to some kind of a cultural evening, where the chap spoke. It was overwhelming!!!!
The guy was abs unconventional!
Just to refresh memory, I will need to read the “Journal” – most interesting book.
Good job!
Galbraith’s Affluent Society and critique of consumerism is even more relevant today as India and China’s exploding middle classes binge on crass consumerism, without the necessary reinvestment into the public domain. So instead of all around development, you see pockets of private wealth surrounded by public squalor.
Also, the motor-vehicle led development is leading to a dangerous over-dependence and over-consumption of oil. More pollution, more unhealthy sedentary lifestyles, and a faster speed of life might mean mobility, but at a huge cost.
In addition to Galbraith, Jane Jacobs also recently passed away. Galbraith, a Canadian who settled in the US, and Jacobs, an American who settled in Canada, represent two visions that must be heeded as our global civilization approaches a turning point.