A Gandhian in the Netherlands

GANDHI Jayanti brought back memories of my interaction with a Gandhian in the Netherlands five decades ago. He was Jan Tinbergen (1903-94), the first recipient — along with Norwegian Ragnar Frisch — of the Nobel Prize in economic sciences. I was doing MTech at the Delft Institute of Hydraulics Engineering near Hague at that time.

In November 1974, we received a written message in the class, stating that ‘Prof Jan Tinbergen will arrive in the institute tomorrow to deliver a lecture at 11 am. All are requested to attend it.’ Surprisingly, the staff made no preparations to give a red-carpet welcome to the Nobel laureate.

Next day, precisely at 11 am, Prof Salz, the secretary to the institute director, entered the hall along with Tinbergen and briefly introduced the guest. Then, he said, ‘Over to Dr Tinbergen’, and sat down on the dais.

Tinbergen, 71 at that time, delivered a one-hour-long lecture in simple and lucid English, covering world affairs, hyperinflation in the wake of the four-fold hike in crude oil prices by OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) members and the turbulence caused by the Cold War. In the closing minutes of his address, he said, ‘If nations want to live in peace, they must adhere to the Gandhian philosophy of truth and non-violence as there is no other way to achieve that objective.’

I felt proud on hearing these words. Students of 50 other countries, too, seemed electrified to learn that Gandhi continued to inspire people even 25-odd years after his death. Thereafter, Tinbergen left the institute without any fanfare.

Later, I met Prof Salz to find out why a low-key reception had been accorded to the renowned guest. He told me that Westerners generally despised pomposity, and Tinbergen, being a Gandhian, preferred extreme simplicity on all occasions. He did not own a car and used to travel by tram or train. He took a flight only while travelling to foreign countries for meetings and conferences. That day, he had walked from the tram station to reach the institute. Like Gandhi, he was a vegetarian.

I met Tinbergen at his residence in March 1975. He lived in a modest house; all three rooms were stuffed mostly with books. I gifted him a classic, Lala Har Dayal’s Hints for Self-Culture.

Tinbergen suggested that India should act as a brand ambassador to spread the Gandhian message of truth and non-violence around the world amid the dangers posed by the Cold War. He also talked about Indian economists like Tarlok Singh and Sukhamoy Chakravarty; the latter was a member of the Planning Commission.

The Nobel laureate informed me that he was heading the committee that was preparing the third report of the renowned Club of Rome. Spending half an hour with this great intellectual and an adherent of Gandhian philosophy was an unforgettably stimulating experience.