Argumentative Indian

Capacious Advocacy and Inquiry By Rajesh C. Oza, India Currents Advocacy means speaking what you think, speaking for a point of view. Inquiry means looking into what you do not yet know, what you do not yet understand.... Bringing advocacy and inquiry together implies learning how to make explicit the thinking that leads you to say what you say. -- William Isaacs from Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together Brilliant teachers skillfully balance advocacy and inquiry. Using techniques such as Socratic Dialogue, the teacher asks as much as he tells, serving as a facilitator for critical thinking. If his splendid The Argumentative Indian can be thought of as a classroom doubling as a book, then Amartya Sen most certainly is a gifted teacher. The sources of Sen's pedagogy are suggested in his Nobelprize.org autobiography: "I was born in a University campus and seem to have lived all my life in one campus or another.... Born in Santiniketan, on the campus of Rabindranath Tagore's Visva-Bharati,... it was mainly in Tagore's school that my educational attitudes were formed." Outside of Santiniketan, Sen has studied or taught economics at universities in Kolkata, Delhi, London, Boston, and California. While Presidency College, Delhi University, Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and other elite universities have undoubtedly shaped Sen's social choice and human development theories of economics, it is perhaps his early schooling that most informs The Argumentative Indian's collection of essays on Indian history, culture, and identity. Fondly recalling his Santiniketan education, Sen writes, "There was something remarkable about the ease with which class discussions could move from Indian traditional literature to contemporary as well as classical Western thought, and then to the culture of China or Japan or elsewhere." This embrace of dialogue about, and between, different cultures recurs throughout The Argumentative Indian. In the book's preface, Sen writes, "The contemporary relevance of the dialogic tradition and of the acceptance of heterodoxy is hard to exaggerate. Discussions and arguments are critically important for democracy and public reasoning." Beginning with "The Argumentative Indian" and closing with "The Indian Identity," the essays explore what it means to be an Indian. A frisson of intellectual hope, excitement, and curiosity infects the reader upon realizing that Sen avoids "seeing Indian traditions as overwhelmingly religious, or deeply anti-scientific, or exclusively hierarchical, or fundamentally unsceptical." For Sen, "the issue relates directly to the plurality of identities... and to the scope for choice in the determination of identity." Indianness involves a choice for each Indian: matriarchal Keralite or patriarchal Punjabi, Kashmiri pandit or Hyderabadi imam, devotionally religious or skeptically agnostic, solidly rooted to the interior landscape or ever-responding to evolving externalities, high-tech entreprene

It's hard to imagine a tougher assignment than conveying the history and development of a culture in one book, but that's what Sen effectively accomplishes. Sen doesn't simplify the complex diversity of the Indian people and we are rewarded with a particularly rich understanding. I enjoyed this type of treatment (a collection of writings), because articles that appeared later in the book helped reinforce earlier discussion without being overly repetitive. Interesting factoid- one artifact of India's diversity is that all 17 languages are found on Rupee paper currency.

The Argumentative Indian - The contents of this book and the arguments / reasoning presented by Dr. Sen could be argued upon for years to come. I don't necessarily agree with the author, 100 % on all topics. But I am impressed in the succinct manner in which he puts forth his views. This book has a superlative reach and moral vision-spanning history, cultural studies and political economy. Prof. Sen views reverberate with great kings like Ashoka, Akbar and India's visionary first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. His book serves as good source of inspiration for the younger generation to better understand how India's greatness lies in its diversity and tolerance towards people of all countries, caste, creed, religion and color. Sen points out how Hindu fundamentalism hurts Hinduism and the idea of India, because it is the accommodativeness that has been the hallmark of Hinduism. It has given it the resilience that it has shown through its long history. Dr. Sen also does an excellent job and driving the point that India has lot more than the religious, mystical land that has been portrayed over the years. Unfortunately on some topics the argument presented were shallow and/ or too opinionated. Example: Dr. Sen also took India to task for becoming a Nuclear Nation, in spite of poverty. Dr. Sen's arguments would hold water in utopian world and egalitarian society. Unfortunately in today's uni-polar world and with India's "friendly" neighbors (China & Pakistan) increasing there defense spending year after year, India was left with no choice then shield itself. Dr. Sen also mentions Bangladesh to be safer than India after Pokhran II. I wonder what he must be thinking now when after all the media reports of the blasts and terrorist activities. To sum it up in spite of the difference of opinions on some of the contents and reasoning, this book provides excellent food for thought and coerces the reader to ponder.

The Argumentative Indian - The contents of this book and the arguments / reasoning presented by Dr. Sen could be argued upon for years to come. I don't necessarily agree with the author, 100 % on all topics. But I am impressed in the succinct manner in which he puts forth his views. This book has a superlative reach and moral vision-spanning history, cultural studies and political economy. Prof. Sen views reverberate with great kings like Ashoka, Akbar and India's visionary first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. His book serves as good source of inspiration for the younger generation to better understand how India's greatness lies in its diversity and tolerance towards people of all countries, caste, creed, religion and color. Sen points out how Hindu fundamentalism hurts Hinduism and the idea of India, because it is the accommodativeness that has been the hallmark of Hinduism. It has given it the resilience that it has shown through its long history. Dr. Sen also does an excellent job and driving the point that India has lot more than the religious, mystical land that has been portrayed over the years. Unfortunately on some topics the argument presented were shallow and/ or too opinionated. Example: Dr. Sen also took India to task for becoming a Nuclear Nation, in spite of poverty. Dr. Sen's arguments would hold water in utopian world and egalitarian society. Unfortunately in today's uni-polar world and with India's "friendly" neighbors (China & Pakistan) increasing there defense spending year after year, India was left with no choice then shield itself. Dr. Sen also mentions Bangladesh to be safer than India after Pokhran II. I wonder what he must be thinking now when after all the media reports of the blasts and terrorist activities. To sum it up in spite of the difference of opinions on some of the contents and reasoning, this book provides excellent food for thought and coerces the reader to ponder.

This is an important collection of essays by Dr.Amartya Sen for any reader interested in the full range of philosophic viewpoints in India"s cultural heritage. Often portrayed as a land of uncritical religiosity, Dr.Sen brings out India's long tradition of skepticism,doubt and critical reasoning including a considerable body of non-theistic literature. He argues that this rational argumentative tradition has been crucial in the development of India's secular polity and it's application will be essential in the ultimate success of her democratic framework and future social harmony. The book is beautifully written and each essay is a joy to read.A wide range of India's literary,philosophic,religious,scientific and mathematical contributions is comprehensively covered. It should be essential reading for anyone seriously interested in contemporary India and her heritage.