Gurdev Singh Gosal in English
Gurdev Singh Gosal : the pioneer of Indian population geography
It is a matter of pride to remember the Indian geographers of great achievements and time and present their contribution to Indian geography to the geography lovers. This post is to pay tribute to the Indian geographers and to present an outline of their geographical works, where the life and geographical contribution of Gurdev Singh Gosal, the pioneer of Indian population geography‘ is discussed.
Gurdev Singh Gosal, the pioneer of Indian population geography
Personal Life: Professor Gurdev Singh Gosal was born on 1st April 1927 in a village called Goslan in Ropar district of Punjab. His father’s name was Sardar Hazara Singh. His paternal surname was Singh, but he loved his birthplace Goslan village in Punjab, the agricultural chief, so much that he used the word Gosal as his surname. Living in the remote areas of Punjab since childhood, he became one with the life and livelihood there. He loved the ancient rural agricultural system of Punjab very much. In his personal life, he was a strong-willed and strict follower of rules. He expressed every matter in his own way through thoughtful judgment. He would discuss various issues of his own life with his father. In his family life, he was an impeccable husband and father. He practiced domestic religion with his wife Balwant Kaur for 64 years with utmost love. His two daughters and one son were one of the highlights of his life. Despite this, he was an ideal teacher, geographical guide and one of the shapers of contemporary Indian geography.
Higher education life: The headmaster of school life, Sardar Bant Singh, was one of the main sources of inspiration for Professor Gurdev Singh Gosal. He encouraged his beloved student to pursue higher education and motivated him to go to Lahore. After completing his master’s degree from Punjab University, Lahore, he went to the United States of America for research. There, he obtained his doctorate in population geography from the University of Wisconsin, one of the United States, under the supervision of the eminent American geographer Professor Glenn T. Trewartha during the period 1953-1956. During this time, he came close to one of his teachers, another famous and talented American geographer Richard Hutshorn, and was influenced by his ideology, which later had a great influence on his life. At this university, he completed his education in cartography under the guidance of Professor Arthur H. Robinson. His first research paper was published in 1956.
Career: Professor Ghosal started his career as a teacher in 1950. He was first appointed as a Geography teacher at Government College, Ludhiana. Three years after publishing his thesis in 1956, on 24 April 1959, he was appointed as a Professor of Geography at Punjab University, Chandigarh. He remained there for 27 years. He was such an ideal for the students during his teaching career that he soon became known as ‘University Man’. Along with his professorship at Punjab University, he spent 24 years as a Member of University Senate from 1968 to 1992. In 1971, he was elected as a Member of University Syndicate and remained in that position for 20 years till 1990. From 1967 to 1972 he held the post of Dean of Student Welfare, 1975-76 Dean of Alumni Relation, 1976-79 Dean of Foreign Students, 1980-82 Dean of University Instruction, 1989-92 Dean of College Development Council. During his university career, he used to inspire his colleagues to give more importance to Geography of Rural Settlement, Agricultural Geography and Urban Geography. He retired from university life on 31 March 1987. In 2005, Panjab University honored him with ‘The Prestigious Status of Professor Emeritus’.
During his career, his various articles were published in various popular journals abroad. Under the guidance of Professor Trewartha, his Ph.D thesis “A Geographical Analysis of India’s Population” was published in 1956 and ‘Population Geography’ as a separate branch of geography was started in India. Till this time, no university in India had a separate undergraduate or postgraduate department for population geography. Under the inspiration of the Ministry of Defence, Government of India, he gave four important reports for the benefit of the army under the ‘Behesht’ programme, these are ‘Terrain Evaluation of Punjab Plain’, ‘Punjab Himalayas’, ‘Shimla-Shipki Tract’ and ‘Rajasthan Border’. One of his contributions under the auspices of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, National Development is the ‘Survey of Research in Geography’. He was elected as the head of the North-Western Regional Center of ICSSR. In 1977, he established the ‘Association of Population Geographer of India’ and in 1978, he started the journal ‘Population Geography’ and became its editor. After conducting extensive research in the vast area of Punjab, he published three important research papers, these are ‘Census Atlas of Punjab’, ‘Agricultural Landuse in Punjab’ and Regional Disparities in Punjab etc. He delivered an important speech on the need for a Green Revolution and proposed a second Green Revolution at a seminar titled ‘Regional Dimension of Population, Agriculture and Environment in India since 1950s’ organized by the Department of Geography, Punjab University on 29 January 2004 at the ICSSR Complex.
One of the architects of Indian geography, Dean of University Instruction and Professor Emeritus of Geography Department, Punjab University, Professor retired from the field of geography on 3 January 2014.
Finally: Professor Ghosal, one of the leading geographers in the Indian Geography school, has made an invaluable contribution to the study of geography, especially to the development of population geography, throughout his life. He has devoted his career to the development of population geography and the future of the field. A major part of his writings cover various aspects of Indian population. His famous quote is ‘Geography of soul is the soul of Geography’. His continuous research and innovative approach have given new colours to the canvas of the Indian Research Department and the Training Department, especially the future of population geography has opened up. Since 1978, several valuable articles have been published in the journal ‘Population Geography’ under his editorship at different times. Some of them are ‘Overcrowding: a behavioral perspective’ (1987, J.Mohan); ‘Migration as a phenomenon and process of population change (1987, S.R.Mehta); ‘National capital region of india : a case of metropolitan growth management'(1988, G.Krishan); ‘Population policy and five year plan'(1989, Chandana); ‘Regional disparities in demographic development in India'(1990, K.N.Dubey); ‘Infant mortality in Indiana'(1996’ G.Krishan); ‘Development and Population Growth : The Indian Experience (1996 Chandana), etc. are some of the works that ensure the future of population geography. After the publication of his Ph.D thesis “A Geographical Analysis of India’s Population”, population geography developed as a separate branch from human geography in Indian geography. Based on this thesis, later on, two scholars of Punjab University, RC Chandana and Sidhu, wrote the textbook ‘An Introduction to Population Geography’ in 1980, which was published as the first Indian textbook on population geography. And it was at his hands that the study of population geography as a separate branch of geography at the undergraduate level in India was started at the Punjab University.
That is, it can be said that the center of Professor-Dean Gosal’s life was population geography, which he pursued until the last day of his life. If we observe and research all his activities, the correctness of obtaining independence as a branch of population geography easily emerges, therefore Professor Gurdev Singh Gosal is considered as the pioneer of Indian population geography and it can even be said that ‘Professor Gurdev Singh Gosal is the father of Indian population geography‘.
First Published : “Mission Geography India” Magazine
Author: Gopal Mandal (Eminent writer and editor)
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