Bose, Swadesh
Bose, Swadesh (1928-2009) economist, left politician. His full name is Swadesh Ranjan Bose. Swadesh Bose was born on 2 January 1928 at village Kashimpur in Barisal district. He passed IA examination from BM College of Barisal in 1944 and obtained BA degree from Chakhar AK Fazlul Huq College in 1958 and MA degree in Economics from Dhaka University in 1960. He secured Ford Foundation scholarship and got himself admitted into Harvard University in Ph.D course in 1962. But his visa was cancelled due to his alleged involvement in politics. Later, he got his PhD degree from Cambridge University for his research on 'Economic Cooperation among South Asian Countries'.
Swadesh Bose got involved in student politics in 1944 when he was a student of BM College, and participated in swadeshi movement. As an activist of the Barisal district unit of the student front of East Bengal Communist Party he participated in various social, cultural and political movements. At the initial stage of the language movement in 1948 Swadesh Bose organised the movement in Barisal. On 10 March 1948, he was arrested for the circulation of a manifesto in support of the language movement in Barisal and suffered imprisonment till 1953. Swadesh Bose was again arrested in 1954 for his active part in a demonstration against the arrival of Nurul Amin in Barisal. He was released from jail after the election of united front in 1954. With the promulgation of Article 92-A in the country he was arrested once again. He was released from the jail in late 1956. While a student in the Dhaka University Swadesh Bose was kept under strict surveillance of the intelligence department of the government, and he had to give attendance in Lalbagh thana in every week.
In 1961, Swadesh Bose joined the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) in Karachi. He had important role in six-point programme in 1966, and as a spokesman of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, he raised his voice against the economic disparity between the two wings of Pakistan. Swadesh Bose worked as a member of the planning cell of the mujibnagar government during the liberation war of 1971. He was included in the Planning Cell of the Mujibnagar Government aimed at reconstruction of the economic structure of the independent Bangladesh. At the end of the war, Bose prepared a research paper on probable food problem and supply of food in the post liberation Bangladesh.
Swadesh Bose was the first director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). He was a member of the Qudrat-e-Khuda Education Commission in 1973. Swadesh Bose joined the World Bank in 1974 and worked there till mid 1990s. While working in the World Bank, he earned fame for his research work on poverty of South Africa. A good number of his research articles were published in various international journals.
Swadesh Bose died in Dhaka on 3 December 2009.
In recognition of his contribution to the field of Economics Swadesh Bose was awarded posthumously gold medal on 8 April 2010 by Bangladesh Orthaniti Samiti. [Urmee Hossain]
