A Tribute to late Professor Paul R Brass by Harsh Singh Lohit

Paul Brass was a renowned academic of political science, with the finest reputation as a leading American scholar on modern Indian society. Paul built this sterling reputation over 50 painstaking years of field-work in North India that resulted in the publication of a score of respected and well-read books, and hundreds of articles and talks on the nature of Indian politics and communalism in India. Behind this incisive, analytical mind and gruff exterior was a caring man, a side that few in India were exposed to. I was one of the lucky few. 

My unlikely bond with this eminent man of letters began in 2012: Paul was 76, I was 52. I had little knowledge of the social sciences or academia, having just exited a business career helping produce software in India for world markets. In hindsight, it was our love for Chaudhary Charan Singh that brought us together. Singh was Paul’s favourite Indian politician, and my maternal grandfather. It was a startling, and pleasant, realisation for me in 2012 on reading Paul’s freshly published Volume 1 of Charan Singh and Congress Politics : 1937 to 1961 that erudite Paul found Singh to be an exceptionally principled man with intellectual depth and vision. Thus commenced my very personal journey of exploring my grandfather’s soul, and in many ways discovering and re-defining my thinking as I commenced farming on 2.5 acres near my home in Gurgaon. Paul’s scholarship enabled me ground my admiration and respect for Charan Singh in facts and careful analysis, beyond loyalty and personal experience.