Bhikhu Parekh

Bhikhu Chotalal Parekh, Baron Parekh (born 4 January 1935 in Amalsad, Gujarat)[1] is a political theorist and Labour member of the House of Lords.

Biography

Parekh was born in the village of Amalsad in the province of Gujarat, India;[1] his father was a goldsmith with a basic education.[2] Parekh was admitted to the University of Bombay at the age of 15,[1] and earned a bachelor's degree there in 1954 and a Master's in 1956. He began his graduate studies at the London School of Economics in 1959, and received his Ph.D. in 1966.[3]

He taught at the London School of Economics and at the University of Glasgow before finding a long-term position at the University of Hull.[3] Between 1981 and 1984 he was Vice-Chancellor at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in India.[1][3] He also held the Centennial Professorship in the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics[1] and a professorship of political philosophy at the University of Westminster.[4] In 2002, he served as president of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences.[3] Parekh has also served on the Commission for Racial Equality (including a spell as Vice-Chairman) and has held membership of a number of bodies concerned with issues of racial equality and multiculturalism - most notably as Chairman of the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain from 1998 to 2000. The report of this body (often referred to as the "Parekh Report") has been the basis for much of the debate on multiculturalism in the UK in the early 21st century.

Awards and honours

Parekh became a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1988, and of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences in 1999.[3]

He was appointed a life peer on 10 May 2000 as Baron Parekh, of Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire.[3][5]

He became a fellow of the British Academy in 2003,[6] the same year in which he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Essex.[3]

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2007.[1]

On 11 July 2011, Parekh was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Social Sciences (DSoc Sci) from Nottingham Trent University.

On 20 July 2011, Parekh was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from Edge Hill University.[7]

Writings (selection)

Author

As well as this he wrote an account of "The Rushdie Affair and the British Press; Some Salutary Lessons" for the Commission for Racial Equality in 1990.

Editor

References

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