The “multifaceted personality”, Lord Meghnad Desai was an eminent economist, holder of India’s third-highest civilian honour and a member of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords has passed away on Tuesday (July 29th, 2025) at the age of 85.
Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai was born in Vadoravin 1940. After his bachelor degree in economics from University of Mumbai, he went on to finish his Master’s degree from the same university before securing a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed his PhD in economics in 1963— three years after he secured admission there.
Desai’s professional and personal accomplishments were best encapsulated by what Montek Singh Ahluwalia wrote about him in the book ‘Arguing about the World: The Work and Legacy of Meghnad Desai’.
“I have known Meghnad for many years in a staggering variety of avatars: as a one-time Marxist economist, a mainstream economist/econometrician at LSE, a Labour Party activist, a Labour Member of the House of Lords … a keen and surprisingly good cook, an insightful observer of the Indian political scene, a regular columnist in one of India’s leading newspapers, a biographer of one of the best-loved Bollywood icons of yesteryear, most recently a late-blossoming novelist, and above all a wonderful raconteur and bon vivant,” Mr. Ahluwalia wrote in his chapter of the book.
The book, published in 2011, also has eminent economist Jagdish Bhagwati describing Desai as being at the “forefront of discussions on Indian public policy for many years”.
Desai’s early works certainly were focused on the Marxian way of thought, including his first book Marxian Economic Theory (1973),
In total Desai had written or edited more than 20 books and 200 plus articles for academic journals. Notably, in 2002, he wrote Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism in which he argued that the ongoing trend of globalisation would eventually lead in the direction of a revival of socialism.
Commenting on the loss, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to the social media platform X to say he was “anguished by the passing away of Shri Meghnad Desai Ji, a distinguished thinker, writer and economist”.
“He always remained connected to India and Indian culture,” Mr. Modi added. “He also played a role in deepening India-U.K. ties. Will fondly recall our discussions, where he shared his valuable insights. Condolences to his family and friends. Om Shanti.”
