Utsa Patnaik is an Indian

Marxian economist Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian ec ...

. She taught at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in the School of

Social Sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties an ...

(JNU) in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

, from 1973 until her retirement in 2010. Her husband is the Marxian economist Prabhat Patnaik.

Biography

Patnaik obtained her

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

from the

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, I ...

, before returning to India to join JNU. Her main areas of

research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

interest are the problems of transition from

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

and peasant

predominant In music theory, a predominant chord (also pre-dominant) is any chord which normally resolves to a dominant chord.Benward & Saker (2009). ''Music in Theory and Practice: Volume II'', Glossary, p.359. Eighth Edition. . "Any chord in functiona ...

societies to industrial society, both in a historical context and at present in relation to India; and questions relating to food security and poverty.

Selected works

These issues have been discussed in more than 110 papers published as chapters in books and in

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

s. She has authored several books, including ''Peasant Class Differentiation – A Study in Method'' (1987), ''The Long Transition'' (1999) and ''The Republic of Hunger and Other Essays'' (2007). A German translation of selections from the last book appeared in 2009. She has also edited and co-edited several volumes including ''Chains of Servitude – Bondage and Slavery in India'' (1985), ''Agrarian Relations and Accumulation – the Mode of Production Debate in India'' (1991), ''The Making of History – Essays presented to Irfan Habib'' (2000), ''The Agrarian Question in Marx and his Successors'' in two volumes (2007, 2011) and ''A Theory of Imperial Capitalism''.

Book reviews

* Bagchi, Amiya Kumar. On A Theory of Imperialism. ''Social Scientist'', edited by Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik, vol. 45, no. 3/4, Social Scientist, 2017, pp. 87–91. * Vijay, R. The Agrarian Question and the Marxist Method. ''Economic and Political Weekly'', edited by Utsa Patnaik, vol. 48, no. 35, Economic and Political Weekly, 2013, pp. 27–30. * Pratt, Brian. ''Development in Practice'', edited by Utsa Patnaik and Sam Moyo, vol. 22, no. 7, Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 2012, pp. 1060–1061. * Gopinath, Ravindran. ''Social Scientist'', edited by Utsa Patnaik, vol. 36, no. 1/2, Social Scientist, 2008, pp. 94–97. * Bose, Sugata. ''The Journal of Asian Studies'', edited by Jan Breman et al. , vol. 47, no. 4, ambridge University Press, Association for Asian Studies 1988, pp. 912–914, doi:10.2307/2057913.

Selected journal articles

2010–2019

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2000–2009

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References

Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Marxian economists 20th-century Indian economists Indian Marxists Living people Women historians Indian women economists Indian Marxist historians Indian political writers 20th-century Indian women scientists 21st-century Indian women scientists 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers 20th-century Indian educators English-language writers from India 20th-century Indian historians Indian women historians Indian women political writers 21st-century Indian economists 21st-century non-fiction writers Women writers from Delhi Women scientists from Delhi Year of birth missing (living people) Women educators from Delhi Educators from Delhi 20th-century women educators {{India-economist-stub