Subimal Dutt (সুবিমল দত্ত),

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

ICS ICS may refer to: Computing * Image Cytometry Standard, a digital multidimensional image file format used in life sciences microscopy * Industrial control system, computer systems and networks used to control industrial plants and infrastructu ...

(5 December 1903 - 2 March 1992) was an Indian diplomat and

officer. He served as India's Commonwealth Secretary and later as

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

under

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

and was also India's ambassador to the Soviet Union,

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

Early life and career

Subimal Dutt hailed from the village Kanungopara near Chittagong in the Bengal Province. He was educated at the

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London and joined the ICS in 1928. He served in various capacities in Bengal districts. In 1938 he was transferred to Delhi to the Imperial Council of Agricultural Affairs to become an Additional Under-Secretary in the Department of Education, Health and Lands thereafter. In 1941, he was appointed the Government of India's Agent in Malaya. After his return in December 1941 he held various posts with the Government of Bengal, from April 1944 until 22 July 1947 as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1946 Birthday Honours.

Diplomatic career

In August 1947 he was appointed Commonwealth Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, From 1952-54, he was India's first ambassador to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. He returned as Commonwealth Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs (1954–55) and from 12 October 1955 to 11 April 1961 was the longest serving Foreign Secretary of India. As Commonwealth Secretary, along with V.K. Krishna Menon, Dutt was India's representative on the Political Committee at the

Bandung Conference The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference ( id, Konferensi Asia–Afrika)—also known as the Bandung Conference—was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–2 ...

. As Foreign Secretary in the years leading up to the

Sino-Indian War of 1962 The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibe ...

, Dutt was closely involved in policy formulation regarding

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

and China. He was also involved in shaping India's response to the

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same b ...

and Hungarian crises which happened while he was the foreign secretary. He was appointed Indian Ambassador to the Soviet Union in June 1961, succeeding K.P.S. Menon. After his retirement from the Foreign Service in November 1962 he became Secretary to the President for two years. In 1964 he was appointed as the first Vigilance Commissioner of West Bengal, from 1968 to January 1972 he held the post of the Central Vigilance Commissioner. Indira Gandhi in January 1972 on short term asked him to become India's first High Commissioner to Bangladesh in 1972. Dutt retired in April 1974 protesting against the visit of Pakistani Prime Minister

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the four ...

to Bangladesh.

Post retirement

Between 1964 and 1968, Dutt served as the Vigilance Commissioner of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...

where, appalled at how corruption had become endemic in public life, he coined the term 'speed money' noting that it had become a way of life. He chaired the Industrial Licensing Policy Inquiry Committee, known as the Dutt Committee, whose report in 1969 led to the enactment of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act in India. Between 1968 and February 1972, he held the post of Central Vigilance Commissioner. He also authored ''With Nehru in the Foreign Office'' in 1977.

Death

Subimal Dutt died on 2 March 1992 in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

following a prolonged illness. He was 89.

Literature

1. Amit Das Gupta, ''Serving India. A political biography of Subimal Dutt (1903-1992), India's longest serving Foreign Secretary'' (New Delhi: Manohar, 2017). 2. Amit R. Das Gupta, "Foreign Secretary Subimal Dutt and the prehistory of the Sino-Indian border war", in: Das Gupta, Amit R., und Lüthi, Lorenz M., ''The Sino-Indian War in 1962: New Perspectives'' (New Delhi: Routledge, 2017): 48-67.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutt, Subimal 1903 births 1992 deaths Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Indian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Ambassadors of India to West Germany Ambassadors of India to the Soviet Union High Commissioners of India to Bangladesh University of Calcutta alumni