The Argumentative Indian
Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity
Sen's case that India's long tradition of public argument, not any single faith, is the real inheritance worth defending.
Sen’s case is that India’s defining inheritance is not any one religion but a very long habit of public disagreement, between Hindu and Muslim and Buddhist and atheist, and within each. The essays range from Akbar’s court to modern secularism, and the target throughout is the idea that India has a single, settled identity.
Recommended by 2 People
Pankaj Mishra
There is a lot of defective and persisting Western knowledge about pre-colonial India, which makes it seem like a setting for Oriental despots and superstitious and irrational people. Sen wants to overturn these clichés. He resurrects people from ancient and medieval India, such as Emperor Ashoka and Akbar, and shows how liberal and pluralist in temperament and practice they were.
Interview · March 2011
William Dalrymple
India is multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-lingual. And it’s this pluralism and then endless debate going on between these different ways of looking at the world, different value systems: Islam, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, atheist. It’s a wonderful vision of India, and of how India has this long, argumentative tradition of fighting about everything. So it’s a great title, it’s very true.
As an Amazon Associate, bookstoread.org earns from qualifying purchases. Links to Amazon on this page may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Spotted an error on this page? Tell us and we will fix it.