I wonder whether you can do commerce without knowing book-keeping? : HUG speaks to Amlan Dasgupta

Humanities Underground speaks to Amlan Dasgupta about work and non-work. ——————– Prasanta Chakravarty: What has been your sense of institutional life in India? Amlan Dasgupta: My teaching life began at RKM College, Narendrapur and then at Scottish Church College. And then I had a fairly long stint at Calcutta University. For nearly 15 years there was a kind of continuity in my day to day existence among students who came from diverse backgrounds. Many of the students had little connection with academic life; others were extremely able and motivated. I expect that much of what we talked about was their problems in general—about passing an exam, or finding a book or perhaps about studying literature itself. I came to know many students who would arrive from the smaller places and from nondescript colleges. In Calcutta University I spent a lot of time in the departmental library which I helped to run. It was a meeting place of a different kind, outside of the very formal classroom setting. All these helped to have a more hands-on and diversified sense of West Bengal education, I’d say. When I joined Jadavpur University in 1995, I was excited and apprehensive at the same time. It was obviously a very strong department at that time. I could see that I had the opportunity to practice a more focused set of interests in my new work place. There was an integrated sense of departmental life. Two things stood out. The quality of teaching was very high and we got very good students. But I wonder whether I had any actual effect in the institutional space. I do not think I made much of difference in the destinies of the students’ lives and trajectories here. I was directing students differently in Calcutta University. It was an intervention of a different kind, more humbling and more matter of fact. See, I consider myself to be a teacher foremost and not a researcher. I prepared the students in Calcutta University by making another kind of intervention which possibly may have made an actual difference in the lives of at least a few, or at least I would like to believe that. I thoroughly enjoyed my 22 years in Jadavpur, make no mistake. In fact, I could change the way I taught. I had more space to maneuver and improvise in the classroom space. Earlier I used to meticulously prepare each lecture. Here teaching was more exploratory. But this was possible due to the structure of courses and the nature of students. The syllabus has always been fluid and permeable. When we started the semester system, I found that I could teach a course on the English Revolution here! Besides, there was more scope of discussing academics outside of the class. We used to have long informal sessions on whatever took our fancy. That was not all: I could always consult my colleagues, barge into their offices and ask for any bit of information or share a thought and exchange ideas. That was different in my earlier life. My senior colleagues in Calcutta University—like Jyoti Bhattacharya or Arun Kumar Dasgupta were always receptive and encouraging and I used to turn to them continually for advice. In Jadavpur, the mode of interaction was different. At least till a few years ago. Things are changing. Prasanta: A large number of people who have interacted with you or have just seen you operate day to day have noticed right from the beginning how you make your presence felt, an ameliorating one, across the institutional space. I mean outside of the department, in the nooks and crannies and then outside of the university where you work, to other places and spaces. Amlan: There is a way that one espouses, not always in a programmatic manner. But there is way of just speaking with people and spending time with them. Just talking to people, perhaps, and conducting a course jointly or running a seminar together even. To read a book or hear a piece of music together and argue and feel about such things is always rewarding. All kinds of things will happen in the institution; all kinds of people will be around and students of every kind will pass by you. One cannot give up. This I have learnt right from my early days of teaching. It is important to do as much as you can and reach out to people who might have a need. It is a shared kind of responsibility. If you spend a long time in a place you need to be resilient and extract life out of the place. Actually you do all this for your own sanity! One also goes out and sees the world. In my case, places like Delhi and Pune have provided me with a different perspective on life. Just travelling to places for academic or other reasons is not bad at all. Just to travel, see and know people. Renew some bonds; get to know some new faces. If I am called for a lecture or two, I usually go, unless there is some problem. You get perspective. That is all. Prasanta: There is particular flavor that you bring to the teaching of literature; a distinct mood and method in the classes you teach, into the questions you highlight and the scholarly universe that you straddle. Amlan: I expect that has much to do with the training I had. My teachers have had had an important impact upon me, right from school. There were so many of them. I have been exceptionally fortunate in my teachers. My school teacher Aniruddha Lahiri, for instance, introduced me to an amazing range of books. This has been a relationship of a lifetime. I had a great deal of interest in history. It is largely owing to him that my taste in literature took shape. Mr. Lahiri not only provided me with directions but also, most crucially, provided each of the readings with a context. Each text turned