ABOUT THE SESSION
Professor Ram Ramaswamy will talk about his book D.D. Kosambi: One Life, Many Worlds.
Historian, mathematician, Marxist, polymath, D.D. Kosambi defied labels. The range and intellectual heft of his scholarship was truly astounding, with fundamental contributions in differential geometry and analyses in mathematics, the Kosambi distance in genetics, a statistical analysis of ancient coin hoards, a radical reinterpretation of Indian history and stellar compilations of the poetry of Vidyakara and Bhartrhari-all this in addition to a firm commitment to world peace and environmental activism.
Yet, for a man who contributed so much to the Indian intellectual tradition, he remains largely unknown. Sixty years after his passing, there is scant recognition of his talents-he is quoted more often than he is read and praised more often than he is analysed.
Ram Ramaswamy’s remarkable biography of Kosambi seeks to correct this lapse. Set against the backdrop of fascinating social, political, scientific and historiographical transformation in the subcontinent, and drawing from letters, journal entries, family accounts and unprecedented archival material, D.D. Kosambi: One Life, Many Worlds reveals a rare incandescent genius and a fearless independent spirit with boundless curiosity-whose relevance in the fields of pedagogy, research and invention can be seen even today.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Professor Ram Ramaswamy taught at the Jawaharlal Nehru University from 1986 till his retirement in 2018. Between 2011 and 2015 he was Vice Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad. Educated at Madras University, IIT Kanpur and Princeton University, Ram’s research interests have largely been in the physical sciences. An elected Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy, and the Indian Academy of Sciences, he served as President of the Indian Academy of Sciences from 2016 to 2018.
D.D. Kosambi: One Life, Many worlds is his first work of nonfiction.
