Author: Narmadeshwar Jha
Bio: Dr. Narmadeshwar Jha was Professor and Head of the Department of Economics, Bhagalpur University, Bihar (India) during the late 1960’s and 1970’s. He was also the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Bhagalpur University and later the Vice Chancellor of Bihar University.

Professor Jha did his MA from Patna University. Subsequently, he did his PhD in the University of Leeds, UK, where he worked under the supervision of Professors A.J. Brown and L.G. Johnson. His doctoral work was published, with a commendatory foreword by Sir Dennis Holme Robertson, as “The Age of Marshall. Aspects of British Economic Thought, 1890-1915” (Patna: Novelty and Co., 1963 and later edition London: F. Cass, 1973). 

Among the correspondence papers of Sir Dennis H. Robertson with Professor Jha (see Janus, a self-funded project, established in October 2002 to provide a single point of networked access to catalogues of archives and manuscript collections held throughout Cambridge) we find three documents dated back to the period 1953-60. Those documents relate to the research work of professor Jha. In another letter, dated June 24th 1957, Professor Jha acknowledges his indebtedness to Professor Robertson and thanks him for help on his thesis.  In his letter dated March 4th 1963, Professor Jha requested Professor Robertson to write a foreword to his book “The Age of Marshall. Aspects of British Economic Thought, 1890-1915” to be published.  The book turned out to be one of the most authentic research documentations on the history of economic thought and since its publication it has been used as a reference book by a large number of authors in the subject. 

In appreciation of the work of Professor Jha, Sir Dennis H. Robertson  wrote:
“Dr. Jha has, in my view, deserved well of students of Economics, not only in India but elsewhere, by the patient thoroughness with which he has worked through twenty-five solid volumes of the Economic Journal, and the discerning and temperate judgment with which he has sought to present an ordered account of what he has found there. ... Of course the range of his scholarship extends far beyond the bounds of the Journal. … it is also among his purposes to show in what manner what was thought and written in 1891 – 1915 differed from what had been thought and written earlier, and how far it foreshadowed what was to be thought and written in later years.” (Foreword: The Age of Marshall, p. xiii)
 
Professor Jha was also deeply interested in literature and education. One of his important works is summarized in his paper “Rabindranath Tagore” published by UNESCO.  This paper is available in several European languages also. 

Since 1986, after his retirement from the University Service, Professor Jha was living in Deoghar (a small township in Bihar). He passed away in 2007 (0r 2008). 

For more see

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1275073