interview
BR Shenoy’s Early Life and Association with Independence Movement
2019
Summary
Subodh Shenoy narrates the early life of his father, the economist B.R. Shenoy, framing it as both a personal and a national story. Born one of around eleven children of a farmer in the northern Kerala village of Bellicote, the young Raghunath was swept up in the independence movement led by Gandhi, ran away from home before finishing school, and was arrested and jailed by the British for carrying the Congress flag in Bombay. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, needing a boy to cook and clean, took him in and encouraged him to finish his schooling and come to the university he had founded.
Shenoy recounts how his father made his way to Banaras Hindu University, where Malaviya remembered him and granted him full scholarships for undergraduate and MA studies in economics, in which he was a topper. He then won a scholarship to the London School of Economics for a BSc Econ, where Friedrich Hayek was among his teachers, and published one of the first papers by an Indian in a refereed international economics journal before returning to India.
Key points
- B.R. Shenoy was one of around eleven children of a farmer in the northern Kerala village of Bellicote.
- He was caught up in the independence movement, with Gandhi as its driving force.
- He ran away from home young and was jailed by the British for carrying the Congress flag in Bombay.
- Madan Mohan Malaviya took him in to cook and clean and encouraged him to study at the university he had founded.
- He studied at Banaras Hindu University on full scholarships and topped his economics degrees.
- He won a scholarship to the London School of Economics for a BSc Econ.
- Friedrich Hayek was among his teachers at the LSE.
- He published one of the first papers by an Indian in a refereed international economics journal.
Transcript
BR Shenoy’s Early Life and Association with Independence Movement
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZisXLxXWTUw Duration: 266.8s
Speaker 1 (00:00): It’s an interesting story which has also impacted my own life and my children and so on. It’s interesting because it’s an individual story but it is also linked up with the story of the nation. And of course, as perhaps you know, he was involved in the independence movement at quite a young age. He was one of around 11 children, the son of a farmer in Kerala, northern Kerala, a village called Bellicote. And as you know in many South Indian names the name of the village is kind of linked in with the first few names of the person. So this village of Bellicote was small, his father was I think educated up till 5th class.
Speaker 2 (00:55): And so if he survived in that framework, I would probably not be speaking to you here, I’m a professor of physics at National Institute here. But I would be a village school teacher somewhere teaching science somewhere. What made a difference was the independent movement, which like young Raghunath, So many others were caught up in this kind of, kind of aandhi, which picked up leaves
Speaker 1 (01:29): from all over and Gandhiji kind of was the motor and they ended up all over the country and they ended up thinking, thinking of a country which did not yet exist. So young Raghunath ran away from home at a very early age. I think had not yet finished his school education and got arrested carrying the Congress flag in Bombay, I believe, and was put in jail by the British.
Speaker 2 (02:03): And it turned out that Pandit Madanmohan Malabya ji needed a boy to cook and clean for him.
Speaker 1 (02:12): And so young Rughanath was inducted and spoke about his story that he wanted to study more etc. and so on. And apparently Malavidya said, I’ve just started a university in the north. So when you go back and finish your school education, why don’t you come and see. So eventually the British kind of let him off that he’s too young and he went back,
Speaker 2 (02:36): his SSC or school education and with a few rupee or two in his pocket went on this remarkable journey to Varnasi where the university that Malaveji had founded of course was Banaras Hindu
Speaker 1 (02:52): University. Fortunately Malaveji remembered him and gave him a full scholarship for undergraduate And he did economics and then a full scholarship for MA economics. I think he was a topper or one of the toppers. And then it turned out that, I am not sure exactly how, but he got a scholarship to go to the London School of Economics. And they had a degree, it is called BSc Econ. So he did that. And one of his teachers there was Professor Friedrich Hayek. So after that, yeah, somewhere along that time he published one of the first papers by an Indian in a referee in international economics jail. And then he came back to India and was involved in other activities.
Speaker (03:56): Thank you.
Metadata and summary are AI-extracted from the source PDF and reviewed for editorial accuracy. The original work is available via the Read PDF tab above (where present); paragraph-level citation inside the PDF is deferred to a future engagement.