Professor Who Predicted Pakistan Breakup Dies

Kolkata: National Research Professor Jayanta Kumar Ray, who predicted the breakup of Pakistan as inevitable and immediate in a 1968 book, has passed away in his Kolkata home.

A revered mentor to a whole generation of researchers in contemporary history and international relations, Ray came out with his seminal work ” Democracy and Nationalisn in Trial” on what was then East Pakistan.

He wrote in an unambiguous terms Pakistan was headed for an ‘ inevitable and immediate breakup’ because its West Pakistani power elite would never accept Bengalis at the helm and Bengalis would nit accept the exploitation and marginalisation as a fait accompli.

” That the breakup came within three years of the publication of the book bears testimony to how well Prof Ray read the tea leaves in the region,” said Ray’s friend and former foreign secretary Krishnan Srinivasan.

Prof Ray started his teaching career in Jadavpur University’s International Relations Department and then was Centenary Professor at Calcutta University.

He headed the Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Studies in Kolkata and elevated it to a pioneering research institution in the region.

He was one of the pioneers of the Kunming Initiative, a track2 effort to improve relations with China which hit a wall after the 2017 Doklam crisis.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM