Malcolm Sathiyanathan Adiseshiah (18 April 1910 – 21 November 1994) was an Indian development economist and educator. In 1976 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award. In 1998, UNESCO created the Malcolm Adiseshiah International Literacy Prize in recognition of his contribution to education and literacy. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, in 1978.
Early years and education Adiseshiah was born on 18 April 1910 in Vellore, Tamil Nadu. He is the second of the five children of Paul Varanasi Adiseshiah and Grace Nesamma Adiseshiah. His father was a professor of philosophy and the first Indian principal of Voorhees College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu State, India. His mother was a musician who had studied up to the Senior Cambridge (High School) and was the first woman Councilor of the Vellore Municipality. She taught her five children until they were ten years of age. Malcolm Adiseshiah obtained a doctorate in economics at the London School of Economics, William, the eldest brother, in philosophy at Cambridge, Padmini in education, and Noble in medicine.
Adiseshiah studied in Voorhees High School, where he obtained two double promotions. He completed his secondary school education at the age of thirteen to join Voorhees College for his 'intermediate' course (equivalent to +2 course now.) Then he shifted to Loyola College, Chennai, for his BA (Honours), where Ramaswamy Venkataraman, the former President of India, was his classmate. After a six-year teaching interregnum at the St. Paul's Cathedral Mission College in Calcutta (now Kolkata), he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge, for his MA (Banking) and then to the London School of Economics (1937–40) for pursuing his doctoral research with specialization in currency. Late Dr. R. N. Poduval, who served in FAO and then was Chairman of Centre for Research in Economic and Social Development, Chennai, was two years his junior in LSE.
In later life, after his retirement from UNESCO, Adiseshiah recalled his training and research"
Teaching career In 1930 Adiseshiah joined as a lecturer in St. Paul's Cathedral Mission College, an affiliate of the University of Calcutta, and continued until 1936. He worked on planning a rural service program in the college in cooperation with the Visva-Bharati University associates at Sriniketan and Santiniketan.
In 1940, after obtaining his doctorate at the age of thirty, he joined Madras Christian College, Chennai, as its first professor and head of the economics department. His role and support for the British government in the notorious and deadly Bengal famines of 1940s is controversial. He remained there until 1946. Prof. K. N. Raj, founder of Centre for Developmental Studies, Tiruvananthapuram, and G. Jagathpathy, former Chief Secretary of the government of Madhya Pradesh, were his students in the 1941-44 batch of BA Honours course. Raj recalled this experience:
His publications in the 1940s included books on banking, rural development, and agricultural transformation. He was engaged, with his fellow economists in the Madras University, in work on planning the future industrialization of India and Madras State.
Personal life Adiseshiah married Helen Paranjothi, with whom he had a son and a daughter. The separation process with Helen Paranjothi started in 1946, and the annulment of the marriage came in 1956. Adiseshiah then married Elizabeth Pothen, a history professor he met at the Madras Women's Christian College.
UNESCO and UN service From 1946 to 1948, Adiseshiah served as Associate General Secretary of the World University Service in Geneva. This association later helped him to support steps for the construction of the World University Service Centre in Chennai and women's hostels in Delhi and Rajasthan. During that period, he was also connected with the World Student Christian Federation and Student Volunteer Service.
From 1 to 16 November 1945, a United Nations Conference was convened in London to establish of an educational and cultural organization (ECO/CONF). In the conference, a new organization was created to establish the "intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind" and thus prevent the outbreak of another world war. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded by thirty-seven countries. Its Constitution to promote collaboration between member states in the fields of education, science and culture was signed on 16 November 1945 and came into force on 4 November 1946. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, former President of India, was a former student of Adiseshiah's father. He made a referral to Sir Julian Huxley, then Director-General of UNESCO, who invited Adiseshiah to the organization in 1948. He was posted as deputy director of the department of exchange of persons. In that capacity, Adiseshiah signed the UNESCO Fellowship letter in 1949 to M. S. Swaminathan, eminent scientist, and administrator, to pursue research at the Agricultural University in Wageningen, the Netherlands, which was the starting point illustrious career.
In March 1950, Adiseshiah was promoted to the Director of technical assistance department, and he was one of its six top executives. Adiseshiah was authorized to represent the Director-General at the technical assistance board set up by the UN.
Rene Ochs, a fellow member of staff, who later rose to be a Director at UNESCO, wrote about this period:
UNESCO's tentative proposals were submitted for Technical Assistance for Economic Development in 1950–51. Adiseshiah organized the new department, established area desks corresponding to UN geographical regions, instituted the procedures and methods of operation, and set up a 'report and information unit' which periodically produced a technical assistance bulletin.
In 1955, he was promoted as one among the three Assistant Directors General of UNESCO and put in charge of development.
The third stage of UNESCO's activities dates from the early sixties, when many African countries became independent and joined it. In 1962, he was promoted to the post of Deputy Director-General of UNESCO. Then he was the sole incumbent to that office. The UNESCO began organizing important regional conferences of ministers of education or ministers of sciences along with economic development ministries. The first Asian Ministers of Education Conference was held in Karachi in 1959 and the first conference for Africa in Addis Ababa in 1960.
In 1991, Sylvain Lourie, Assistant Director General of UNESCO, wrote:
Adiseshiah was responsible for developing the Karachi Plan for Universal Primary Education for Asia, the Addis Ababa and Santiago plans for the African and Latin American educational development, and the corresponding science plans for Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He worked with David Owen, Executive Chairman of the Technical Assistance Board, to convince donor countries since the financing of the expanded program rested on voluntary contributions made by them at pledging conferences. In the need of additional sources, he established relations with the International Development Association (IDA), Inter-American Development Bank, and other regional development banks. In 1962 UNESCO approached the World Bank, also known as International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), for medium trade credit for funding a project in Tunisia. The IBRD, until then, was concentrating on investments in physical capital. Adiseshiah contributed to the persuasion to shift IBRD's focus exclusively from the expansion of physical capital towards the development of human capital, especially the extension of education. In 1964 he participated in negotiating the memorandum of understanding between the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and UNESCO. He introduced flexibility in utilizing multilateral aid. Adiseshiah used a substantial part of USSR's contribution for technical assistance to establish IIT, Mumbai. The expanded technical assistance program was merged with the United Nations Special Fund to form the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which was launched in 1966. He formulated a program of technical and financial assistance in each country, which he started with a global outlay of $3 million per annum in 1950. When he retired from the organization, the outlay had increased to $300 million.
Adiseshiah said:
Adiseshiah kindled efficiency by arousing team spirit. He had mastered the art of training a team to fulfill the aspirations of the mission. He made two rounds of round the world trips each year which took him to as many as twenty-five countries in succession. He organized more than 120 projects in various countries for their economic and social development through education, science, and culture.
Adiseshiah visited the hundred and twenty-seven member states of the UN several times. He visited each one of the Third World countries that were becoming a member of the UNESCO, studied its economic situation first hand, assessed its need for literacy and education, and made recommendations as to how those needs could be met in the 'Mission Reports.' Each of the 'Mission Reports' was reported to be pioneering contributions about the specific regions on which the reports focused on the emerging discipline of development economics.
In 1970 the then Director-General, Rene Maheu, was reluctant to let him retire. Adiseshiah insisted on leaving. Rene Maheu obtained the sanction of the executive board of UNESCO to replace Adiseshiah with two Deputy Director-Generals.
There are in the UNESCO archives 118 Adiseshiah files covering approximately 48,000 pages.
As a UNESCO official, he rendered assistance to Indian projects. The publication of the UNESCO Art Album on Ajantha was mainly due to his yeomen efforts. It was due to his vision that the heritage sites of humankind must be preserved for all posterity.
UNESCO assisted in the setting up of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi: the establishment of first TV broadcasts in India; the reorganization of Films Division of India; the provision of twenty renowned Professors of engineering and science; the supply of $12 million worth of equipment to IITs of Bombay and Kharagpur; the expansion of aeronautical engineering in Madras Institute of Technology; and the provision of experts and equipment to Alagappa Chettiar College of Engineering and Technology in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu.
He was instrumental in rendering such assistance to all member nations of UNESCO, emphasizing to Asian, African, and South American countries.
After his retirement from UNESCO until 1991, he had visited countries of Africa, Latin America, and Asia at their invitation three times a year to advise them on their development plans.
In January 1981, Adiseshiah was elected chairman of the governing board of the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) for a five-year period. In 1986 he was re-elected for a second term for five years. In 1987, 1991, and 1992 he was the chairman of the jury for the selection of the international literacy prize winners. In 1989 he delivered the Presidential Address at the World Literacy Day function in Paris.
Adiseshiah was a member of the UN International Committee of Consultants on Environment. He was the co-coordinator of the UNESCO Working Group on the New International Economic Order. He reviewed India's experience with the UN during the first forty years of its existence in an assessment of the role of the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the powerful interests working behind the scenes in shaping their policies in a book which he edited.
MIDS