IN CLIVE STREET || R. N. SEN

In 1940, in the anomalous position of senior European assistant, R.N. Sen joined the distinguished firm of Price Waterhouse Peat & Co., chartered accountants, in Calcutta and found himself in the exclusive world of British business-Clive Street, Calcutta. The very centre of British commerce in India, Clive Street was the place where sahebs were officers and Indians lowly clerks or at best Burra Babus. Relating his experiences in forthright terms, the author goes on to describe the departure of the British business community as ‘an army in retreat’ and the startling changes in Clive Street after independence, a period which saw his own role as the first Indian senior partner of Price Waterhouse Peat & Co.
R.N. Sen then gives a succinct account of his experiences in the public sector, based on his years as chairman of Jessop, Richardson & Cruddas, BBJ, and of his involvement as a director with Shaw Wallace and other leading firms. He discusses the famous Government of India vs Sahu Jain case where he was appointed to lead the government side and his one-man committee to look into the IRCI. Tying the many strands of his dynamic and varied career together with his sharp observations on the changing India, he presents a controversial, thought-provoking memoir.