Vikas Mishra (economist)
Dr Vikas Mishra (10 January 1924 – 22 January 2008) was an Indian Economist and a vice-chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Haryana. He joined the university in the Department of Economics in 1962 after serving in the Delhi School of Economics & the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. With his M.A. in Economics from the University of Manchester, Dr Mishra completed his Ph.D from the London School of Economics and research under the guidance of Nobel laureate Sir William Arthur Lewis.
Struggle for freedom
Dr Vikas Mishra was born in 1924.With the struggle for freedom on its peak and the country united in its fight for independence, Dr Mishra still studying in school formed a village revolutionary cell to fight for Indian Freedom. A small library was established in the remote village from where he belonged to motivate the youth. Attempts were also made to blow off railway bridges. One instance that Dr Mishra always recounted was the demonstration against the British atrocities in Bettiah. A day before the demonstration many people gathered in Bettiah including Dr Mishra and his friend Kedar Pandey (who went on to become the Railway Minister in Independent India).With these two young bloods in the forefront of the procession Pandit Durga Mishra Ji, their uncle knew that they would be in the line of fire by the British, sensing the danger to the young comrades he locked them both in a house and handed over the keys to one of his trusted lieutenants. Many people died in the police firing and the Bettiah Shaheed (Martyr) Memorial is still a testimony to the incident.
Later on he went to jail twice during the freedom struggle. According to Dr Mishra young boys in jail like him were called "Gandhi Boys" by the British Tommies (policemen).