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Chicago: Today Raaj Sah, with his roots in Bihar/Jharkhand, is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Chicago. As a scholar, he has accomplished great heights. The Government of Japan has conferred on him the Imperial honor “The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon.” This honor was for his contributions to the Japanese government’s economic and financial policies. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He previously held faculty positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.
But all these achievements could not have been possible without a worthy teacher, who could guide him and mould his career early in his life. Sah was lucky that his teacher was none other than the legendary Father Camille Bulcke!
Fr. Bulcke, a Belgium-born Jesuit, and a pre-eminent Hindi scholar transcended cultures and languages and became an architect of modern Hindi literature. His contributions include those on the epics of Lord Rama, and on the peerlessness of Goswami Tulsidas. He came to be known as “India’s most renowned Christian Hindi scholar” who went on to write an English-Hindi Dictionary in Ranchi. It to date is considered one of the most authentic dictionaries. Yet, he had also taught Mathematics for five years at Gumla (now in Jharkhand).
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After arriving in India as a young Jesuit, Father Bulcke spent most of his life at St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi, until he passed away in 1982. The Indian government had conferred on him the nation’s third highest civilian award, the on him the Padma Bhushan.
As a mark of gratitude to his teacher, Sah has gifted a plaque in gratitude for Father Bulcke’s mentorship, which was unveiled this month at his birthplace Ramskapelle, a village in Knokke-Heist in Belgium. It has been a grateful pupil’s tribute to his worthy mentor!
Sah’s gesture for his mentor is appreciated by one and all.
Count Leopold Lippens, Mayor of Knokke-Heist, said “It is important for us Belgians to appreciate, and to pass on to our future generations, the magisterial heritage that Father Bulcke created in India. We are grateful to Professor Sah for memorializing the virtuous legacy of his mentor at his birthplace.”
Father Nicholas Tete, former Principal of St. Xavier’s College Ranchi, observed that “Father Bulcke strived to integrate intellectual work with wisdom and virtue. The teacher-student bond between him and Dr. Sah was phenomenal. The present commemoration reflects that tangible and intangible bond. It inspires us and warms our hearts.”
“In the Indian preceptor-pupil relationship, the pupil’s gratitude is lifelong, and its expression is unaffected by the passage of time, or by the preceptor having passed away years ago,” remarked Dr. Ralph Nicholas, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.
– globalbihari bureau
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