Tribute to Michael Harrington

I first came to really know Mike Harrington in 1976 on a lecture tour in India arranged by the USIA for International Women’s Year. My tour included a small conference on “Social Diversity, Economic Inequality and Political Integration” at a remote place called Gupalpur-on-sea on the south coast. Waiting before 6:00am in the Calcutta airport, I saw a man who towered over the other passengers; unbelievably it was Michael Harrington, who was also scheduled to attend.

The conference was small, situated in a remote hotel. The talk was intense. It was attended by a handful of Indians and American Fulbright scholars, mostly political scientists with a radical past who seemed to have been deeply affected by their year i...