Professor R K Amin, member of the Board of Scholars of CCS, passed away on Tuesday, November 30. He was the most ardent and prolific advocate of liberty in Gujarati language. We had the previledge of publishing his Kisan Bole Chhe in Gujarati. He was the first Indian scholar to write in detail about free banking. I still remember discussing with him the ideas of Murray Rothbard, Larry White and George Selgin on banking and then he would borrow all their books to read in Ahmedabad. Next month or so, when the Parliament was back in session, he would bring them back–pages marked that he wanted to xerox for his record! The resultant Money, Markets, Marketwallahs is a one of its kind in Indian literature. Last year we co-edited two volumes of writings of B R Shenoy.
While doing all these, he was writing his magnum opus on the theory and history of socialism and capitalism–in Gujarati! This more than 300 page treatise would become a classic. We were in the process of finalising a suitable publisher in Gujarat/Mumbai since the Delhi publishers do not have a good marketing network in Gujarat. If you know a Gujarati publisher worthy of this masterpiece, do let me know.
I always looked forward to seeing him at the start of the Parliament session. On the first day of the winter session I learned that I won’t be able to. How does one come to terms with such a loss?
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The opinions expressed in this essay are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of CCS.
