Remembering Lord Meghnad Desai

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Eminent economist Lord Meghnad Desai lived not for accolades or adulation but for the harmony of ideas across borders, ideologies, and disciplines
Lord Meghnad Desai's passing is a deeply personal loss. I will always remember him with the utmost respect and fondness — not just as an eminent economist, thinker, and parliamentarian, but as someone with a rare zest for life.
As someone who could chat as effortlessly and animatedly about finances and fundamental rights as he could about food and films. As someone who crossed thresholds with clarity and purpose, building unseen bridges that spanned worlds and ideas. His passing at 85 marks the conclusion of a remarkable life that consistently defied easy labels and ideological boxes.
July 2025 marked the first summer in over a decade that I didn't meet him in London. During my annual trips, a lunch at the House of Lords and his birthday celebration — always held the weekend after July 10 — had become a permanent fixture in my calendar. Over the years, he graciously attended several of our Foundation's events, not only in Delhi but in other cities as well.
In public, be it at book launches, policy discussions, or leadership summits, Desai invariably was the centre of attention. The sparkle in his eyes revealed a man who wore his intellect lightly. Whenever he rose to speak, the atmosphere in the room changed. Here was a man who could quote Marx and Milton in the same breath, pivot effortlessly to Bollywood, and lace it all with wit sharp enough to provoke but never wound. Desai was not just a scholar but a sage who refused to play the part of one.
He had the rare courage to embrace contradiction, to call himself a Marxist while celebrating market reforms, to critique both Left and Right without fear of alienation. His classes at the London School of Economics were legendary, not merely because of his erudition but because of the way he welcomed dissent. Students often recalled how he would turn a pointed challenge into the start of a new debate, ensuring that no one ever left his classroom intellectually unchanged.
His writings have stayed with me. Largely because his books, including his masterpiece, Marx's Revenge, are designed not for blind agreement but deeper engagement. He constantly urged us to re-examine economic orthodoxies, to understand that ideologies must be tested against lived realities.
Then there was Nehru's Hero, his extraordinary biography of Dilip Kumar. Only Desai could have drawn such a compelling parallel between the world of cinema and the sociopolitical fabric of India. In discussing Dilip Kumar's films, he offered us a new way of seeing India itself — its aspirations, anxieties, and its evolving identity. He had seen some of these films more than 15 times. Knowing him, it wasn't an obsession, it was simply fieldwork!
NOT CAGED BY ANY ONE IDENTITY
Desai was not one for grandstanding, focused as he was on the silent power of a gesture. This was evident in the typical humility with which he underplayed his work with the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust, which ensured that Mahatma Gandhi's likeness found its place at Parliament Square in London.
Desai's journey from his birthplace in Vadodara to London was itself the story of modern India's intellectual diaspora — anchored in our soil, yet bold enough to shape the world stage. He never lost sight of India, even as he debated in the hallowed halls of the UK's House of Lords. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned in his tribute, 'Shri Meghnad Desai Ji… always remained connected to India and Indian culture. He also played a role in deepening India-UK ties."
Humour was Desai's unassuming weapon. His quips, delivered without any superiority complex, had a way of transforming the mood of a room. He wielded wit not as a shield but as a scalpel — cutting through complexity, disarming tension, and leaving his audience with both laughter and a deeper truth.
His scholarship was staggering, of course. Over 35 books, countless papers, and contributions that touched everything from Marxist theory to global governance. Yet, he refused to be caged by any one identity — Indian economist, British Lord, Labour peer, crossbench intellectual. He was all these things and more, and yet somehow always just himself.
I found inspiration in the way he constantly challenged conventional wisdom. At a time when so many seek comfort in ideological certainties, Desai insisted that the world is too complex for easy answers. He was a firm believer in the idea that presupposing one's own opinion before examining the evidence was the sign of a mind that had stopped thinking. This rule of thumb has remained with me as a kind of intellectual compass.
SCHOLARSHIP AS A LIVING DIALOGUE WITH SOCIETY
With Desai's demise, India and the UK have lost more than a voice. They have lost a conduit. In his public and private conversations, Desai would often underline the importance of cultural diplomacy — how ideas, art, and history can weave bonds far more enduring than treaties. This belief was not abstract for him. It was why he worked tirelessly to ensure that India's heritage was visible in Britain, and Britain's debates accessible in India.
In his death, I feel a personal void. Not only because we will no longer hear his original speeches in the Lords, nor read his latest provocation in print, but because individuals like him are rare. He belonged to a vanishing tradition of public intellectuals who saw scholarship not as ivory-tower work but as a living dialogue with society.
As I reflect, I am reminded of a line from Rabindranath Tagore: 'The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence." Meghnad Desai's life embodied that spirit. He lived not for accolades or adulation but for the harmony of ideas across borders, ideologies, and disciplines. The last I heard from him was when he mentioned he wouldn't be in London this summer. I never imagined it would be a goodbye forever.
We will miss you, Lord Meghnad Desai.
(A columnist and author, Sundeep Bhutoria is passionate about the environment, education, and wildlife conservation. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views)
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New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
August 04, 2025, 00:25 IST
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