In Memorium: Prof. Amitabha Gupta
ALI deeply mourns the loss of Prof. Amitabha Gupta, founding member of ALI and member of the ALI Council, who passed away at his residence at Powai, Mumbai on 19 September 2025. Prof. Gupta was a Retired Professor of Mathematical Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay from 1973 to 2004, and the Head of the Department from 1995 to 2001. His pioneering efforts in starting ICLA and ISLA in 2005 and 2006 respectively at IIT Bombay led to the formation of ALI in 2007 and have left behind a lasting legacy for logic in India.
Obituary by R. Ramanujam (Professor, Azim Premji University; Council Member, ALI)
Prof Amitabha Gupta was a philosopher of logic, with an active research interest in nonmonotonic reasoning.
Amitabha played an important role in building the logic community in India. Wit the help of Rohit Parikh (City University of New York), Amitabha organized the inaugural conference of what was to become a series: Indian Conference on Logic and Applications (ICLA) in IIT, Bombay in January 2005. This conference saw the participation of many leading logicians of the day including Parikh, Johan van Benthem, Haim Gaifman, Yuri Gurevich, Daniele Mundici, Benedikt Loewe, and many more, who interacted with faculty and students from India, starting off many collaborations then on. The conference also saw the participation of several researchers in systems of logic in the Indian tradition, giving a focus to ICLA as a forum for conversations between logicians coming from mathematics, philosophy, computer science and historic Indian traditions.
Amitabha followed this up with another inaugural effort, the two week long Indian School on Logic and Applications (ISLA) in IIT, Bombay in January 2006. The seeds for this had already been sown during the 2005 conference, pointing to the need for longer tutorial lectures, preparing graduate students for research. This initiated the biennial series, ICLA during the odd years and ISLA during the even years, which has helped in building a strong logic community in the country. Courses by Larry Moss, Melvin Fitting and several other logicians gave many graduate students a strong foundation and motivation for research in logic.
In January 2007, Amitabha organized the second ICLA in IIT Bombay, and then again the fourth ICLA in Delhi University in January 2011. He was one of the founders of the Association for Logic in India (ALI).
Amitabha canvassed funding for ISLA and ICLA from Infosys Foundation and similar sources as well as Indian government agencies, pointing to the need for building such systemic support. He set up a strong link for ALI with the Indian Council for Social Sciences Research, co-editing a volume with Johan van Benthem and Eric Pacuit titled “Logic at the Crossroads”.
Amitabha Gupta’s sincere commitment to bringing the best of logic research to India, and setting up institutional means for community building, was remarkable. ALI salutes his memory for his contributions in the early difficult years.
Obituary by Johan van Benthem (University Professor Emeritus, University of Amsterdam; Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University; Professor of Logic, Tsinghua University; Council Member, ALI)
Remembering Amitabha Gupta
I first met Amitabha at IIT Bombay where he organized a wonderful international logic meeting. This event introduced me for the first time to many Indian colleagues and students that I have come to know and respect since. Among the many further things that impressed foreigners at this venue was the setting, with a quintessentially Indian and (therefore) exquisitely beautiful lake bordering the campus.
I had traveled in India as a student (mostly in crowded general class train compartments with wooden benches in those days), looking from the outside and circulating along the usual tourist attractions. Now the door opened to inside. At a personal level, I immediately resonated with this true scholar and gentle personality. From the start, it seemed as if we had known each other for a long time.
This resonance quickly turned into concrete collaboration. We co-edited a research book on “Logic at the Crossroads” with Rohit Parikh, our distinguished colleague and a lively presence at many of these early conference meetings. Later on, together with Eric Pacuit, we were also involved in further book publication ventures emanating from these international meetings.
Amitabha cared deeply for the future of logic in India. While things were already in full upward swing at the country’s interface of logic, mathematics and computer science (as they still are today), he felt that a parallel public effort was needed to introduce philosophers in India to the best that modern logic has to offer. The result was our co-editing two journal issues and a book with College Publications called “Logic and Philosophy Today”. We managed to attract a galaxy of international contributors, largely also because many of them had been at one or other of the meetings organized so well by Amitabha. I also remember a conference in Delhi where the two of us could finally present the results of our joint efforts with some (I hope) justifiable pride.
As I write this, many other memories come flooding back, such as a lively dinner meeting with Amitabha’s wife Chaitali, whose practical bent as a doctor complemented his more scholarly inclinations. She told me about her early reservations about having to spend her life under the same roof as a philosopher — indeed a daunting prospect which only the strongest can face. Of course those reservations melted fast in a long and happy marriage. I am also reminded of several conversations with Amitabha on the long cultural past of India. He gave me some of his favorite history books to read, and make me understand how he saw the past that had brought us here.
But most of all, with the unfortunate news still fresh in my mind, I feel sad about having lost such a kind, constructive, and often self-effacing colleague.
Johan van Benthem
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