Death of Jalal Alamgir: Whose loss was it?

Abdullah Dewan Dr Jalal Alamgir (PhD, Brown University, age 40), Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts) son of Dr Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, MP and Sitara Alamgir drowned while swimming in the sea in Thailand on Saturday December 3. He was on a yearlong sabbatical leave -teaching and research at BRAC University, Dhaka. He was on vacation in Thailand with spouse. I met Jalal for a few minutes in 2009 at a conference at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Boston. I met all members of his family--especially his wonderful loving mother who visited my home in Michigan a little over two years ago. Jalal's maternal aunt, Helen Habib and her husband, Dr. Ahsan Habib -- our close family friends in Michigan - always spoke highly of him. I read some of his thoughtful writings before meeting him and had a few email communications -reciprocating words of appreciating each other's points of view. I found his humility and sober demeanour being equally matched with his scholarly attributes. Jalal's academic and research interest were multilayered which included "Democratisation, economic globalisation, international relations, South Asian politics, and constructivism". His recent book, India's Open-Economy Policy: Globalism, Rivalry, Continuity, (London and New York: Routledge, Dec. 2008; paperback 2010) was selected by Asia Policy as a recommended book for its 2008 "Policymaker's Library." His scholarly articles have been published in the Journal of Democracy, International Studies Review, Asian Survey, Asian Studies Review, Issues and Studies, Pacific Affairs, Brown Economic Review, The Journal of Contemporary Asia, The Journal of Bangladesh Studies, The Journal of Social Studies, Encyclopedia of Globalisation, States in the Global Economy (ed. Linda Weiss, Cambridge University Press), and Globalisation and Politics in India (ed. Baldev Raj Nayar, Oxford University Press). He has also written for different newspapers and magazines, including Foreign Policy, Current History, The Nation, China Daily, Open Democracy, Global Post, The Daily Star, Forum, and Catamaran: Journal of South Asian American Writing. Jalal's last article titled, "Eight Beheadings on Justice Square" that I read was published in one of the most widely read online newspaper, The Huffington Post (October 11, 2011". He observed, "The Kingdom, buttressed by its special relationships, does not waste any opportunity to show who the boss is. A public execution is just such an opportunity. The beheading of the eight was a shameful shock-and-awe tactic, a warning to the millions of other workers to remain submissive, however back-breaking their life may be. The message is clear: obey, and keep your head. Until his recent death he was a fellow at the South Asia Initiative at Harvard University -- working currently on several research projects: on political justice in Bangladesh and Pakistan, foreign policy of Bangladesh, the representation of values in Indian foreign policy, and the relationship between authoritarianism and globalisation in BurmaMyanmar. Prior to joining University of Massachusetts, Jalal held research appointments at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, the Southern Asian Institute at Columbia University, and the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. Aside from his research, he has consulted for the United Nations Population Fund and strategy consulting organisations. These accomplishments in such a short span of time required focused commitment, unhindered dedication -- and most of all unbound interest and love for the discipline. Obviously, he displayed all of that. Honestly speaking, I do not know of any Bangladeshi who has accomplished so much in the field at his age. I sincerely feel Jalal was a promising political scientist - an all-encompassing role model for our younger Bangladeshis - wherever they live. His death is not only an irrevocable loss to his surviving family members- his death is a loss to all of us. Whenever I meet scholarly persons younger than me, I feel elevated. Instead of feeling covetous about hisher successes and promises, I get a sense of nuance -one that rekindles the thinking in me about what was missing in my early age that impeded me to accomplish what this young scholar had achieved in his short life. Jalal was one such young and promising intellectual. The writer, formerly a physicist and nuclear engineer, is a Professor of Economics at Eastern Michigan University, USA. He can be reached at email: adewan@emich.edu