The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity
by Amartya Sen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Amartya SenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-10-12
ISBN: 0374105839
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Book Reviews of The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity
Book Review: A Different India
Summary: 5 Stars
Amartya Sen's dispassionate, closely reasoned and utterly convincing essays reveal an India that should be much better known: a civilization with a long history of public debate and vibrant heterodoxy that goes back at least to the Vedas, and that informs many aspects of civic life today in the world's largest democracy.
Sen's Argumentative Indian argues against Western interpretations of India as a land of airy mysticism and religious speculation whose democratic traditions were imposed by the British; at the same time, with a firm but even hand he corrects the more recent Hindu fundamentalist view that wants to impose a narrow, `miniaturized' version of the nation that excludes the contributions of Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and thinkers of no particular religious persuasion at all.
Sen addresses the fact that this cultural predilection for argument and debate (along with a healthy respect for opposing points of view) has done little to change the vast social inequalities in India. But his book isn't so much about looking backward as it is about finding a usable past that Indians can take pride in as they look forward to a more global future. Along the way, Sen makes a lucid and compelling case for pluralism in all its forms in a century where fundamentalisms, East and West, are sadly on the rise. Sen's India is one I think the rest of the world could learn a lot from.
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