Gouranga P Chattopadhyay

1931 -

Emeritus Professor Gouranga P. Chattopadhyay, a scion of the families of Raja Rammohun Roy, Pundit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar and Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, was born in his ancestral home at 2 Palm Place, Kolkata. All the families living in Palm Place in those days were related. The life style of that period amidst a vast joint and extended family, with regular literary and musical evenings, indoor and outdoor games galore, vanished forever during the communal riots of 1946 engineered by the British colonial government and its puppet Bengal (also Punjab) ministry to justify the division of the empire in to India and Pakistan. All the families had to leave the neighbourhood and their houses were looted and vandalised. Only the Chattopadhyays returned to 2 Palm Place in 1948. By then, inspired by his freedom fighter father, Gouranga had entered student politics. It led to his getting beaten up by British police in the early forties and by Indian police in the early fifties and spending two short terms in jail. Gouranga graduated with a first class honours degree in social anthropology from Calcutta University and followed it up with a first class Master's degree as a Jubilee Scholar of the same university. After being an employee of the Anthropological Survey of India for two years, pursuing research as a Senior Research Scholar of Calcutta University he received a doctoral degree in anthropology. Gouranga then switched over to sociology, taught in the Delhi School of Economics and then did a stint with the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation as a Senior Community Organiser. There he met Colin Rosser, a Welsh social anthropologist working for the Ford Foundation, who persuaded Gouranga to go for the Leverhulme Fellowship that resulted in his spending a little over one year with the Social Administration Department of University College of Swansea. Thereafter he reinvented himself as a behavioural scientist and joined the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He took leave of absence from IIMC for two years twice and taught at the Manchester Business School and worked as a UNDP/CFTC Advisor in East Africa. Eric Miller happened to be a professorial fellow at the Manchester Business School at that time and he invited Gouranga to be on the staff of a working conference for students, under the impression that Gouranga had the requisite skills. For Gouranga it was an invitation to make yet another foray into the unknown. The result was Gouranga's fights with all his staff colleagues till at last the penny dropped for him and he applied to be a member of the "A" Conference at Leicester in 1971. Also they discovered that had the authorities not put an end to the Calico Mills project in Ahmedabad, Eric and Gouranga would have become colleagues there during the late nineteen fifties! After Leicester 1971 he was on the staff of several working conferences directed by John Allaway and one directed by Pat Beahan. As an external consultant on the long-term change project for the Carrington Works of Shell International, led by Michael Armstrong, part of which was a series of working conferences, he had the opportunity to work with John Bazalgette and Jean Hutton. Back in India he directed working conferences sponsored by the IIMC from 1973 to 1992. After retiring from the IIMC (1991) at the statutory age of 60 he continues consulting and counselling work by creating Chattopadhyay Associates. He also both directs, and works as staff of, working conferences sponsored mainly by industry, several NGOs and two business schools. From 1996 to 1998 he was a visiting professor of management with Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. In his present incarnation he calls himself a socio-analyst. He has worked as a teacher and consultant in five continents and contributed to the group relations movement in Australia, Holland, UK and Trinidad. He is a Karma Sannyasin (Tattwaratna) of Bihar School of Yoga initiated by Paramahamsa Niranjanananda Saraswati. He has no religion. His hobbies include translating Bengali literature into English and making walking sticks.

His publications so far include five books related to his profession, 15 social anthropological/sociological journal articles, 92 journal articles in his current professional area, five volumes of poems (in English), English translation of Bengali poems and a Bengali novel (Nabankur as the Seedling's Tale). Gouranga lives with his wife in Kolkata and Santiniketan - when he is in India. Their three sons, two of them with families, live in Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai, respectively.

4 honorary fellowships: FRAI - London, FASc&T - Kolkata, FAISA & FCSA - Melbourne.
festschrift "Dare to think the Unthought Known", ed. Ajeet N. Mathur, Aivoirut Publishing, Tampere, 2006, with contributions from Ajeet Mathur, Alastair Bain, Allan Shafer, Shelly Ostroff, John Bazalgette (with Bruce Irvine and Colin Quine), Jane Chapman (with Sally Eastoe), Susan Long, Sari Joutsimaki, and Anil Sengupta.

PUBLICATIONS - Books

Ranjana : A Village in West Bengal, (A Sociological Study), Bookland Pvt. Ltd., Calcutta, 1964.

In Disarray (Collection of poems), Writers Workshop, Calcutta, 1983.

When the Twain Meet : Western Theory and Eastern Insights in Exploring Indian Oraganisations, (With Zahid H. Gangjee, M. Linda Hunt & W. Gordon Lawrence), A. H. Wheeler & Co. Ltd., Allahabad, 1986.

Experiencing the Void (Collection of poems), Writers Workshop, Calcutta, 1986.

Organisational Culture, Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi, 1991.

A Daughter Happened to Me (Collection of poems), Writers Workshop, Calcutta, 1991.

Bhagavat Geeta : A Treatise on Managing Critical Decisions, Eureka Publishers, Kolkata, 1997.

Managing Organisational Process : The Individual, the Enterprise, the Nation & Beyond, Eureka Publishers, Kolkata, 1999.

Nabankur - The Seedling's Tale (English translation of a Bengali novel by Sulekha Sanyal), Gender, Culture, Politics Series, STREE, an imprint of Bhatkal & Sen, Kolkata, 2001.

Poems Picked Up On The Journey, (Collection of poems), Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 2001.

Managing Unconscious Processes: The Self, the Organisation and Beyond, (In progress).

The Journey Continues, (Collection of Poems), Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 2008.

PUBLICATIONS - Articles
(a) Social Anthropology/Sociology:

"A magico-religious ceremony in connection with the disease of a Ho boy", Man in India, (34), 3, Ranchi.

"Religious beliefs of the Hos", Man in India, (34), 3, Ranchi.

"An annual festival of the Hos", Man in India, (34), 3, Ranchi.

"The festival ‘Jatra’ of the Hos", Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Science (JASB, SC.), (22), 1, Calcutta.

"The festival ‘Maghe’ of the Hos", JASB, Sc, (22), 1, Calcutta.

"Divination of cause of disease among Hos", JASB, Sc., (22), 1, Calcutta.

"Some changes in Oraon marriage customs", JASB, Letters, (24), 1, Calcutta.

"The name-giving ceremony of the Hos", Eastern Anthropologist, (11), 2, Lucknow.

"Application of anthropology to administration", Journal of Social research, 1060 – 1171, Ranchi.

"A short note on the Lepchas of Kalimpong", Adibasi, 3, Delhi.

"Lepchas of Kalimpong and Sikkim", Vanyajati, (10), 3, Delhi.

"A post-marital ceremony of the Hindus", Bulletin of Cultural Research Institute, (1), 2, Calcutta.

"Carak festival in a village in West Bengal", Aspects of Religion in Indian Society, Ed. L.P. Vidyarthi, Ranchi, 1961.

"Some thoughts on Social Mobility in Indian Society", Bull. Cult. Res. Instt., (2), 1, Calcutta.

"The Ho system of kinship and marriage", Bull. Cult. Rel. Instt., (3), 2, Calcutta.

Management and Organisation Behaviour:

"Social Anthropology and Management Studies", Behavioural Sciences in Management, Ed. Suresh Srivastava, Asia Publishing House, Calcutta, 1967.

"Growth of a disciplined labour force in India - A case study of social impediments", (With Anil Sengupta), Economic and Political Weekly, Special Number, July, 1969, 1209-1216, Bombay.

"Redundancy - A sociological approach", The Industrial Times, August, 1969, Bombay.

"Student unrest - symptom of a maladjusted system", The Statesman, 9 December, 1969,Calcutta.

"The problem of tribal integration to urban industrial society - a theoretical approach", (with Barun De), Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. IV, No. 52, December, 1968, Bombay.

"On the concept of a committed work-force in Indian industry", Current Dynamics, I, 1, April, 1970, Calcutta.

"Social, organisational and interpersonal relevance of Sensitivity Training", (with D.P. Sinha), Industrial Relations, Vol. XXII, No. 4, Calcutta, 1970.

"Computer for non-computer executives", Current Dynamics, I, 8, 1970, Calcutta.

"Executive Culture of Calcutta", Ed. Surajit C. Sinha, Indian Anthropological Society, Calcutta, 1972.

"The use of group dynamics laboratory in process consultation : a case study set in the Bank of Calcutta", Journal of Management Studies, Part 1 in Vol. 9, No.3, 1972 and Part 2 in Vol.10, No.1, 1973, Manchester.

"Race Relations - in search of a Superordinate Goal", IIMC Working Paper Series, No.2, Calcutta.

"Review", of R. Hacon's "Personnel & Organisational effectiveness", Personnel Review, Vol.1, No.3, 1972, Manchester.

"Review" of Andre Beteille's "Social Inequality", Econ, No.8, 1973, Calcutta.

"Review" of Chris Argyris'es "Intervention Theory and Method", Personnel Review, Vol.3, 1973, Manchester.

"Dependency in Indian Culture - From Mud Huts to Company Board Rooms", Indian Management, September & October Issues, 1975, New Delhi.

" An Executive Development Programme - Process Interpretations", ISABS Newsletter, 1974, Calcutta.

"Training in Industry", (With Sandip K. Sen), Management Annual, 1973, joint publication of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta & Calcutta Management Association, Calcutta.

Management Annual, Edited, Publication : as above.

"Time, Task, Territory and Role Boundary", (With Zahid Hussain Gangjee), Journal of ISABS, July, 1977, Hyderabad.

"The so-called human management of enterprise - the problem of managing the irrational", (With W. Gordon Lawrence & Sandip K. Sen), All India Management Association Short Study Series, No. 2, 1977, New Delhi.

"Workers participation in management", Decision (journal of the IIMC), Vol.V, No.3. 1978, Calcutta.

"Behavioural Scientists : An appraisal of their role", The Economic Times, XX, 41, April 1980, Bombay, New Delhi, Calcutta.

"Creative Decision Making, False Self and the 'I'", The Economic Times, V, 118 & 119, August, 1980, Bombay, New Delhi, Calcutta.

"Immature Dependency - problem of the Indian personality", Research Gaps in Management in the Indian Environment, Eds. A.K. Choudhury et al, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, 1980, Calcutta.

"The Identity of the East African Manager : some implications for management education", Managerial Psychology, I, 1, 1980, Hyderabad.

"Omnipotence and Impotence - two faces of immature dependency", Indian Management, November Issue, 1980, New Delhi.

"Psychological Integration for Task Performance: a case study", Decision, January Issue, 1981, Calcutta.

"Some experiential learning techniques for the discovery of personal potentiality", Indian Management, July, 1981, New Delhi.

"Work ethics and work motivation", The Economic Times, VI, 222,223 and 224, August, 1981, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta.

"Is living today a destructive hypothesis?", The Economic Times, XX, 296, 299 and 300, December, 1981, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta.

"The Invader in the Mind in Indian Metaculture", The Economic Times, VII, 137 & 138, 1981, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta.

"Transfer of Joint Family Image to Industry", Business Standard, VIII, 52 & 55, 1982, Calcutta.

"To err is human, to forgive is to be the Company Chairman!", The Economic Times, XXII, 292, 1982, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta.

"Man-Management in Indian Organisations :Towards a Theory of Organic Resonance - Some Comments", Decision, X, 2, April, 1983, Calcutta.

"Institutionalised Education of Today : a dead process", The Economic Times, XXIII, 223, 224 & 225, October 14-16, 1983, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta..

"Motivation and leadership styles in Indian enterprises", Managerial Psychology, IV, 1 & 2, 1983, Hyderabad.

"Review" of Managing Conflict and Collaboration by Udai Pareek, Decision, October, 1984, Calcutta.

"Action Research for Social Action", Journal of Madurai Management Association, 1984, Madurai.

"National Character, Values and Social Organisation in India", Madras Management Association, 1984, Madras.

"Towards Culture Specific Education", Decision, October, 1984, Calcutta.

"Industrial Sickness : A Psychodynamic Interpretation", The Economic Times, XI, 205, 1984, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Reproduced in the In-house journal of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, 1990, London.

"Public Enterprises, Society and Organisational Culture", Management of Human Resources in Public Enterprises, Eds. R. Ravishankar & R.K. Mishra, Vision Books, New Delhi, 1985.

"Conflict Resolution: an introductory essay", Growth, XII, 1, 1984, Ranchi, 1-4.

"Indian Management Style: Myth and Reality", Jour. Calcutta Management Assoc., Annual Number, 1985, Calcutta.

"Some Speculations on Unconscious Roots of Organisational Culture", Management and Labour Studies, X, 4, 1985, Jamshedpur.

"The Relationship Between Developed and Developing Nations : Speculations on the nature of unconscious dynamics", Decision, July-September, 1985, Calcutta.

"Private Nature of the Public Sector in India", (With W. Gordon Lawrence), Decision, October-December, 1985, Calcutta.

"Children of the Kapos", Management and Labour Studies, XI, 4, 1986, Jamshedpur.

"Ethnicity and Identity: Bases of Conflict in India", Asian Studies, IV, 1, 1986, Calcutta.

"The Change Agent and Management of Change", Growth, XIV, 1, 1986, Ranchi, 1-10.

"Speculation on the nature of unconscious dynamics in Indian society vis a vis the Underprivileged Community", Journal of the Anthropological Society, 21, 1986, Calcutta 129-156.

"Towards alternative organisations for the 21st Century", Management and Labour Studies, XIII, 4, 1987, Jamshedpur.

"Citizenship Values in India today", (With Leena Chatterjee), Growth, XVI, 1 & 2, 1988, Ranchi.

"The isssue if individual excellence versus team building : a non- starter present in every team", The Economic Times, XXVII, 314, 1988, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta.

"Management Development Programmes for Industry", Journal of Educational Technology, I, 1, 1988.

"Management of Helping Relationship as an Approach for Collaboration for Productivity", (with Prithviraj Chattopadhyay), Decision, XV, 2, 1988, Calcutta.

"Review Article" on Values and Ourselves by Swami Yuktananda, Decision, XVI, 3, 1989, Calcutta (Reproduced in Indian Management, XXIX, 7, 1990).

"Working woman in a man's world", (With Leena Chatterjee), The Economic Times, XXVII, 224, 1989, Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta.

"Education : the unfulfilled promise", Management and Labour Studies, XIV, 3, 1989, Jamshedpur.

"Education : the authority to learn or the authority of the Bowl of Hemlock", Decision, XVI, 1, 1989, Calcutta.

"The Illusion that was India", Contribution to Social and Political Science, Eds. F. Gablenick and A.W. Carr, The A.K. Rice Publication, 1988, Washington DC, 241-265.

"Hierarchy and Modern Organisation: A Paradox Leading to Human Wastage", The Indian Journal of Social Work, LII, 4, 1991, Bombay, 561-584 (Reproduced as a summerised version in Turbulance, Ed. Susan Long, Swinburne University & Australian Institute of Socio-Analysis Joint Publication, 1997, Melbourne).

"Exploring Some Symbols Commonly Used in Group (Process) Work and the Probable Associated Fantasies", Occasional Paper Series No. 1, Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science (ISABS), 1991, Bangalore.

"Indian Culture and HRD", Indian Management, XXX, 1991, New Delhi, 12-22.

"Personal Growth", Human Resources Management - A Corporate Action Perspective, Ed. George J. Neelankavil, ISTD Madras Chapter, 1991, Madras, 91-110.

"Understanding what Happens in Organisations - The Tavistock Approach", (With Zahid Hussain Gangjee), Management and Labour Studies, XVII, 1, 1992, Jamshedpur, 1-16.

"Comments on 'A Comparison of the Tavistock Institute's Two Main Training Programmes" by Jean Neuman", ISABS Newsletter, VI, 1, 1992, Bangalore, 5.

"Comments on 'The Dynamic Injury in encounter groups' by Robert E. Kaplan", ISABS Newsletter, VI, 2, 1992, Bangalore, 4-5,9.

"The Psychodynamics of Communication", ISABS Newsletter, VII, 2, 1993, Bangalore, 9-11.

"Family - The Stepping Stone to the Society", ISABS Newsletter, VIII, 2, 1994, Bangalore, 3-6.

"The Battle for Boundaries", ISABS Newsletter, VIII, 3-4, 1994, Bangalore, 4-6.

"On the Theme of Death", ISABS Newsletter, IX, 1, 1995, Bangalore, 3-5.

"Man and Environment", Value Orientation, XV, 11, 1996, Calcutta, 101-102.

"The Institution in the Mind", ISABS Newsletter, XI, 2, 1997, Bangalore.

"The Burden of the Barbarian Within", (With Hanna Biran), Free Associations, VII, Part 2, (42), 1997, London, 161-170.

"A Fresh Look at Authority and Organisation: towards a spiritual approach for managing illusion", Group Relations, Management and Organization, Eds. Robert French and Russ Vince, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999, 112-126.

"Identity, Authority and Dreamtime Socio-Analysis", AISA NEWS, Spring, 1998, Melbourne.

"The Illusion of Identity", Socio-Analysis", I, 1, 1999, Melbourne, 65-86.

"Managing Illusion", Free Associations, VIII, Part 1, (45), 2000, London, 120-157.

"Spirituality, Science and Transformation versus Frozen Boundaries of Belief", Free Associations, VIII, Part 4, (48), 2001, London, 653-677.

"Managing Organisational Process - A Threefold Educational Approach", Decision, XXVIII, 2, 2001, Calcutta, 81-126.

"Case Analysis of Meera Seth's 'Where There's a Will'", Business World, XI, 38, 2002, New Delhi, 49-53.

"Saluting the Memory of Dr. S.C.Sinha and the Dalits as I Experienced Them", Journal of Indian Anthropological Society, Surajit Chandra Sinha Memorial Issue, Vol. 38, Nos. 2-3, 2003, Kolkata, 223-234.

"Whose Globe Is It, Anyway!" With Rosemary Viswanath, Relatedness in Global Economy, Edited by Edward B. Klein & Ian L. Pritchard, Karnac Books, London, 2006.

"THE OTHER : In the Politics of Relatedness Between Developed and Developing Nations" (Paper presented at the Annual Symposium of the International Society for Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations in Melbourne, June, 2002), Socio-Analysis, Vol. 5, Dec. 2003, Melbourne, 14-35.

"Unconscious Transactions Across Boundaries: Two Examples", Organisational and Social Dynamics, 4 (1), 2004, London, 133-150.

Review of Complexity and Group Process: A Radically Social Understanding of Individuals by Ralph D. Stacey, Organisational and Social Dynamics, 4 (1), 2004, London, 159-163.

"Managing Oneself in Role in the Indian Context", Revised version of Convocation Address at IMDR, Pune, 2004, communicated to the Journal of Indian Anthropological Society, Kolkata.

"Working towards overcoming psychological consequences of oppression: an example from India", Intervention: International Journal of Mental health, Psychological Work and Counselling in Areas of Armed Conflict, Vol.1, No.1, December 2003, Amstelveen, 28-37.

"Managing Oneself in Role in the Indian Context", Journal of Anthropological Society, Vol. 39, No. 1-2, 2004, 129-137.

"Hierarchy, Guilt and Projective Identification: A Caser Study", Decision, Vol. 34, No. 1, January-June, 2007.

"Learn from Experience", Special Promotion Feature, Businessworld, 5 May, 2008, P. 45.

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