Tuesday, March 14, 2006

The Argumentative Indian ...

... is the book I am reading currently. It has been written by Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize (Economics) winner. It deals with the tradition of public debate in India and its role in improving cultural and communal harmony. Further, he makes the case for public debate being the foundation stone of democracy and declares that Democracy, which is often thought of as a Western concept could potentially have germinated in India, fertilized by the extensive respect given to contrarions, including in the Ramayana, Mahabharatha and the Upanishads.

A fascinating read. Exceedingly well-reasoned and well-laid out.

Its not literature, or he would have been a cinch for a second Nobel.

2 Comments:

Ponnarasi Kothandaraman said...

Hi
I wanted to read that book as soon as it was publoished. But was discouraged saying he talk so much abt feminism.. Is tht so? How was it/.

Wed Mar 15, 03:43:00 AM EST  
Ideamani said...

Ponnarasi, I have not finished it yet, but so far I have not seen much talk about feminism, not more than a page or two, and that mostly on the role of women in public debates and a little bit about the Rani of Jhansi etc.

Wed Mar 15, 06:22:00 PM EST  

Post a Comment

<< Home