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I'm Satisfied for a Lifetime: Galbraith

Receiving the Padma Vibhushan has made him "satisfied for a lifetime", says Professor John Kenneth Galbraith, the renowned economist who served as ambassador of the United States to India from 1961 to 1963 under the late President John F Kennedy.

On June 12, India's Ambassador to the US Lalit Mansingh travelled to Galbraith's residence in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to present him with the award, which is India's second highest civilian decoration and is rarely given to foreigners.

The award was conferred on Galbraith for his immense contribution to strengthening ties between India and the US.

In an exclusive telephone interview with India Abroad from his home, Galbraith, who is now 92 and professor emeritus of economics at Harvard University, where he taught for 52 years, thanked Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee "and the people of India for bestowing upon me this great honour.

"I feel that having the Medal of Freedom and the Indian award, I am satisfied for a lifetime."

Galbraith said it was extremely gracious of Mansingh to have travelled to his home to personally deliver the award. "It was a delightful occasion and I must say he was a delightful man. Be sure to say that."

During the ceremony that was attended by a small gathering of friends and family, Galbraith said, "Nothing gives me more pride than looking back on my two stays on what we will one day call not only the world's largest democracy, but also the most successful democracy, both politically and economically."

Mansingh in his brief remarks told Galbraith, "You were a great ambassador. We remember you with fondness and love."

In the interview, Galbraith, known internationally for his development of Keynesian and post-Keynesian economics and for his active involvement in American politics during the Kennedy era and thereafter, noted, "It's 40 years since I served in India, but it continues to be in my mind".

He described his tenure in New Delhi as "both the most useful and happiest years of my life.

"Many of the things the Indian government was doing at that time are now part of the evidence of India's success. I take no credit for that myself."

Galbraith recalled that "steps were underway 40 years ago that are very much evident today, and I emphasize, I don't take credit for them. This was the great enterprise.

"The most spectacular case of course is food production," he said, and spoke of the near famine in India "when I went out there". He still remembers the "loads of wheat coming into Bombay every week. Somebody starved."

But in an amazing turnaround, India today "has a food surplus. This is an incredible achievement of the most important single product, other than perhaps rice and a few other crops."

Galbraith, who has received 45 honorary degrees from institutions worldwide, said former president Bill Clinton's trip to India in March 2000, and again this year as a private citizen to commiserate with the people of India in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Gujarat, had completely transformed Indo-US relations.

"It was a really great journey that he made" both as president and as part of the American-Indian Foundation, he said. "It showed our sympathy and help and need for help for the people who were devastated by the earthquake."

While acknowledging that there were still some Cold Warriors in the US and India who did not want relations between them to blossom to their full potential, Galbraith felt that both countries shared too many common interests and values to be anything but "natural allies", as Vajpayee had said.

"We shouldn't attribute too much importance to a few officials in the United States and a few officials in India," he said. "The reality is an enormous interest in India about the United States and a fascination in the United States with India."

Thus, Galbraith declared, "That is the ultimate relationship between the two democracies and that is what we should look for."

He said that when he hears that various contentious issues "might be damaging to the Indian-American relationship, I just close my ears".

According to Galbraith, relations today "are very good and they will continue to be good and that was manifest in President Clinton's trips" both in 2000 and 2001.

In the early 1940s, Galbraith, as deputy administrator to the office of price administration under President Franklin D Roosevelt, oversaw the wartime price control system. He also directed the US strategic bombing survey in 1945.

EARLIER REPORT:
Galbraith receives his Padma Vibhushan
Slide Show: Honouring a friend of India

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