Traversing the age old connection of Literature and Economics.
Literature especially English Literature has had a close relationship with Economics.
Economics is a social science recognised in 1776 with the publication of Adam Smith’s revolutionary book “An enquiry into the Nature and Causes of Wealth of Nations” . But that was just an institutionalisation of a science that prevailed since time immemorial.
Language is the vehicle of any civilization and Economics is the language of trade be it during the barter system or monetary system or the new regime of cryptocurrency.
Literature is the essential counter part of any language and to understand any language we need to understand its literature and that takes scholarly efforts.
The Nobel Prize in Economics started in the year 1969 because it was then widely acknowledged that it is a social science that does justice to humanity by understanding the very human behaviour. So from Microeconomics to now having a link with Physics, this social science has certainly matured from its nascent stage to understand both human mind and the universe because both are intertwined and interconnected and the thread of connection is literature.
Many writers had a premonition about the future for instance Emily Dickinson, George Orwell, Kamala Das, Sarojini Naidu, Shakespeare, Jane Austen to name a few. And in a technology driven world of AI and Chat GPT one has to be wise enough to handle it. Technology has always been value neutral and it is humanity that wanted to use technology as its saviour is now a slave to the same .
Technological Colonization I would call it. But what technology cannot take away is original ideas and that where the realm of Innovation or Madness Economics begin.
Madness and genius are one and the same thing. Two sides of the same thing.
You have to be insane enough to be able to receive the truth in its naked form.
And that is what I call enlightenment with Buddha and Mahaveer attained.
There is sanity in insanity
Order in disorder
Only an observer can understand that and only patience can lead to that understanding.
So truth reveals itself only when it has to and that is the moment of revelation and the Oppenheimer moment.
Thank you ma’am for teaching the subjects well enough to come to this understanding.
Manvi Mehta
Department of Economics