The Argumentative Indian

by Amartya Sen

  Indian civil codes 20f, 304–6, 388n

  Indian identity xiv, xvi, 50–51, 63, 73, 77, 139, 298, 307, 309, 334–6, 336–8, 339–56

  Indian Institutes of Management 344

  Indian Institutes of Science 340

  Indian Institutes of Technology 343–4

  Indian National Congress 6, 7, 50, 71, 83, 234f, 305, 307, 365

  Indian Standard Time, historical roots, xiv–xvi, 318, 329

  Indo-China 85

  Indonesia 48, 54, 85, 118, 310

  Indus valley civilization (5th to 3rd millennium BCE): achievements as a pre-Vedic civilization 65–6, 310, 366–7n; attempts by Hindutva theorists to claim its Vedic origin 66–9; urban civilization and town planning 65

  industrialization: ancient industrial history 335, 339–40; cotton textile 334–6, 336–7; domestic policies, importance of 197–8, 343–4; education, importance in industrialization 113–14, 197–8, 343–4; globalization and the role of industries 339–40, 341–5, 391n; iron and steel industry 337–8, 339–40, 363–4, 390n, 391n; modern industrialization 117–18, 182, 331–5, 336–40; political nationalism and industrial development 336–8, 339–41; selective reluctance of British investment 335–6, 339; Tatas and the development of modern industries 333–6, 336–7, 338–40; Tatas and Indian nationalism 336–8, 343, 356

  information technology 84, 182, 196–7, 267, 343–4

  Iran and Persia 11, 17, 61, 78, 84, 90, 107, 144, 147, 172, 288, 292, 308, 314, 328, 331

  Islam, influences on Hinduism 11, 19, 315–16

  Islamic fundamentalism 74, 165, 165f

  isolationism, external and internal 65–6, 84, 85–6, 347–9

  Italy xix, 110, 111–12, 131, 145, 207

  Jainism x, xii, 10, 15, 16–17, 18, 57, 76, 254, 274, 288, 289, 308, 310, 321–2, 326, 330–31, 353, 354–5, 356, 387n

  Japan: Buddhism in 56, 81, 86, 169, 182–3; education, the role of 81f, 344; gender relations 220, 234; Indian judge’s dissent on war trial 110; influence on India 109, 130, 138, 340–41, 344; nationalism and militarism in 109–11, 252–3; Oe, Kenzaburo’s view of contemporary Japan 253, 276, 386n; painting and drama 130, 138; printing, development of 182–3, 347; public reasoning, early history 81–2, 182, 369n; Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army 110–11; Tagore’s relation with 94, 109–11, 115, 371n;

  Jāvāli, atheist sceptic, lectures Rama in the Rāmāyaṇa xi–xii, 26, 29, 47, 159, 310

  Jewish communities from ancient times 16, 17, 18, 35, 49, 57, 76–7, 108, 274, 288, 322, 331, 359n

  Kaliyuga calendar and its zero point 320, 321–3, 324, 325

  Kargil conflict 260–61, 264

  Kashmir 15, 42, 260, 264, 311f

  Kerala 17, 38f, 116, 157, 186–7, 188, 195f, 200–201, 228–9, 231, 235, 245–7, 322

  Korea, 56–7, 81f, 82, 85, 182–3, 195, 196–7, 199f, 226, 227, 228, 239, 341, 347f, 382n

  Krishna xvii, xix, 3–6, 9–10, 24f, 47, 138, 154–5

  Kumārajīva, Chinese translations of Sanskrit texts 82, 183, 183f, 369n

  literacy 81, 112–13, 116–17, 157, 183–4, 197, 200–201, 210–11, 238, 239, 243–5, 246–7, 260

  Lokāyata philosophy and the sceptical tradition 23–4, 26, 27, 46, 159, 308–9, 355, 360n, 361n

  magisterial interpretation and colonial dominance 78, 141–2, 143, 144, 146–50, 153–4, 155–60

  Mahābhārata x, 3, 4–6, 9, 10, 24n, 47, 60, 166, 320, 325, 357n

  Malaysia and old Malaya 85, 123, 134, 147, 181

  mathematics: decimal system 47–8, 147–8, 345–6; early developments in India xiv, xv, 25, 26, 28–30, 41, 58, 66–7, 69, 75, 78–80, 132–3, 144, 147–9, 157–8, 161–4, 169, 177–80, 292, 314, 317–18, 323, 324–5, 328–9, 345–7, 374n, 390n; interaction with Arab and Iranian mathematicians 29–30, 78–9, 144, 147–8, 178–9, 292, 314; interactions with Babylonian, Greek and Roman mathematicians 28, 178, 346; interactions with Chinese mathematicians 161–4, 172, 175, 177–80; sine, from Āryabhaṭa’s ‘jya’to the Latin ‘sinus’ 178–9

  medicine and medical practice 144, 161, 164, 168, 169, 184–5, 185–9, 342

  Mill, History of India: inaccuracies and biases in 79, 140, 147–9, 368, 374n; influence of 78, 79, 142, 146–7, 149, 316, 368–9n

  ‘missing women’ 35, 35f, 225–6, 382n

  modernity and anti-modernism 32f, 75–6, 81, 98, 98, 104, 117–18, 123, 129–30, 131–2, 132–4, 138, 237, 244, 299–300, 312–15

  music 19, 57, 59, 75, 90, 107, 115, 130, 134, 136, 175, 180, 288, 308, 315, 332, 370n

  Muslims: arrival of early traders 17, 56; Babri mosque demolition x, 48, 209, 310; conquest and integration 58–9; contributions to Indian culture x–xi, 38–9, 57, 58–61, 61f, 75, 287–8, 308–9, 315, 332–3, 375; Gujarat riots (2002) 52, 54f, 70, 71, 188f; Hindus and Muslims in history x–xi, xi f, 11, 19, 58–61, 308, 315–16, 332; Hindutva thesis of ‘favouritism’ towards 298, 303–4; size and importance 54, 119, 308, 309, 315; ‘two nation’ theory 51, 62, 299, 307

  Nālandā, ancient centre of higher education 173–5, 353

  national anthems of Bangladesh and India 90, 107

  Netherlands 46

  newspapers and the media 43, 43f, 53, 64, 117, 150, 188, 194, 202–3, 209, 355

  nuclear weapons: BJP’s policy and other factors 254–5, 256, 263; Chinese nuclear power, relevance of

  253, 256–8, 265–6; costs of nuclearization 259–60; Cuban missile crisis 262; deterrence, fragility of 260–61; ethical issues 251–2, 256–7; global issues on nuclear weapons 258, 262, 267–8; Indian tests, 1974 and 1998: Pokhran I (1974) 253–4, 264; Pokhran II (1998) 253, 254, 264; initial development, enthusiasm and doubts 5, 255–6, 357; Pakistan’s nuclear development 254–5, 256, 263–5, 268–9; possibility of accidental war 261; public discussion and protest 42, 42f, 256–7, 267–9

  Ocampo’s personal relations with Tagore 102–3

  Orientalism 141, 373n

  Pakistan: conflict with India 42–4, 260–64; its economic prosperity and political stability, importance for India 268–9; Kargil conflict 260–61, 264; Kashmir issue 42, 260, 264; laws on blasphemy 300, 302; media’s role 43f; need for cross-border dialogue 42–4; nuclear tests 254–5, 256, 258, 263–5, 268–9

  parochialism, critique of 65–6, 84, 85–6, 289–90, 347–9

  Parsees x, 16–17, 18, 35, 49, 57, 76, 108, 254, 274, 288–9, 308, 310, 322, 331, 350, 353, 356, 376

  Philippines, the 85

  Portugal 59, 132, 287

  Pratichi Trust 216–19

  printing, development of 82, 82f, 182–4, 345

  public health care, China-India comparison 185–9, 199–200

  Rāmāyaṇa x, xi, 3, 26, 47–8, 60, 159, 310, 354

  recognition or acceptance (swīkriti) by others 34–6

  Rigveda xi, 22, 22f, 67, 325, 355

  Rome 14, 28, 76, 111–12, 359n

  Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 61f, 145

  Śaka calendar 321, 326

  Sangh Parivar 52, 62, 63, 74

  Sanskrit’s role as a global medium 84–5, 85f, 168

  Santiniketan, Tagore’s school and educational centre 45, 90–91, 100, 114–17, 119, 130

  scepticism, tradition of xii, 10, 11, 21, 22, 23–5, 26–30, 31, 37, 46, 47, 69, 71–2, 75, 142–3, 282, 288–9

  science and the role of scepticism 23–4, 26–30, 46, 159, 308–9, 355, 360n, 361n

  science and society, Gandhi-Tagore debates 104–5

  scientific work and early accomplishments 26, 28–30, 75, 78–9, 132–3, 144–5, 148–9, 161–4, 172, 177–80, 314f, 316, 323–5, 329, 344–6, 347, 374n

  secularism: contrast between different interpretations 16–21; emergence of secularism in India 16, 18–19, 21, 54–5, 287–9, 352–4; importance of x, xiii, 12, 16–19, 20, 294–316

  sex-selective abortions 226–8, 229–32, 239–40, 239f, 250, 382n

  Shah Bano judgment 304–5, 388–9n

  Sikhs x, 16, 57, 70, 74, 76, 57, 70, 74, 76, 209, 254–5, 298, 301,
302, 308, 351, 365n

  Singapore 123, 134, 226, 227

  South Asians for Human Rights 43

  Soviet Union and Tagore 112–14

  Spain 112, 286

  Sri Lanka 43, 81f, 85f, 168–9, 207, 234, 326

  Tagore, Rabindranath, views: see also Tagore in the Index of Names; arguments with Einstein 104, 371n; arguments with Gandhi 72, 86, 91–2, 98–9, 100–105, 114, 347, 348; criticism of British administration 105–8, 112–14; critique of nationalism and parochialism 91–2, 97, 98–9, 100, 105–9, 109–11; on epistemology and observation 104; focus on education 93, 112–3, 113–5; ‘idea of India’ 72, 86, 347, 348, 349; relation with Japan 94, 109–11, 115, 252, 371n; and Santiniketan 45, 90–91, 100, 114–17, 119, 130; universalism 89–90, 94–5, 106, 107–8, 118–19

  Taiwan 195, 226, 227, 341

  Ta’rikh al-hind of Alberuni 78–9, 144–5, 172–3, 292, 373n

  Tarikh-ilahi calendar of Akbar 41, 319, 330, 341

  Tatas and Indian identity 336–8, 343, 356

  Tatas and Indian modern industries 333–6, 336–7, 338–40

  Thailand 48f, 56, 81f, 85, 197, 310

  Ujjain (Ujjayinī): as an ancient urban centre xv–xvi, 40–41, 329, 330, 355, 363n; and identification of India’s principal meridian xv, 40–41, 329–30; and Kālidāsa 41, 330, 355

  undernourishment, causes and consequences 93, 199, 199f, 202, 212–15, 218, 219f, 247, 248–9, 381n

  Upaniṣads xi, 7, 23, 56–7, 61, 68, 354

  Vedas x, xi, 17, 22, 22f, 47, 53, 66, 67–8, 84, 325, 326

  Vikram Saṃvat calendar 320, 324–5

  well-frog (kūpamaṇdūka), lessons from 85–6

  women: active participation and leadership in arguments 7–10; agency and well-being 220–21, 221–2; child mortality rates and women’s agency 243–4; co-operative conflicts within the family 236, 240–42, 383n; emancipation and critical agency 237–40, 244–7; mortality and fertility rates 238, 243–4, 244–7; gender inequality, different aspects 220–50; housework and inequality 235–6, 243–4; literacy and education, importance 116–17, 195, 238–9, 243–5, 246–7; political leadership 6–7, 37, 201, 234, 234f; property ownership, importance of sharing 234–5, 290–91; sex-selective abortions 226–32, 239f, 250

  *As is also discussed in Essay 3, the first translation of the Upaniṣads – the most philosophical part of the Vedic Hindu literature – that caught the attention of European intellectuals was the Persian translation produced in the seventeenth century by the Moghal prince Dara Shikoh, the eldest son (and legitimate heir) of Emperor Shah Jahan and of Mumtaz Mahal (the beautiful queen on whose tomb the Taj Mahal would be built). Dara was killed by his more sectarian brother, Aurangzeb, to seize the Moghal throne.

  *See Essays 1 and 3 for fuller discussions of these and other examples of ancient scepticism and dialogic combats.

  *I was impressed to find, on arriving at Harvard in the late 1980s, that all books on India in the bookshop of the famous ‘Harvard Coop’ were kept in the section called ‘Religions’.

  †In my Foreword to the reissue of my grandfather K. M. Sen’s book on Hinduism (London: Penguin Books, 2005), I discuss the different ways in which that capacious religion can be seen.

  *As a high-school student, when I asked my Sanskrit teacher whether it would be permissible to say that the divine Krishna got away with an incomplete and unconvincing argument, he replied: ‘Maybe you could say that, but you must say it with adequate respect.’ I have presented elsewhere a critique – I hope with adequate respect – of Krishna’s deontology, along with a defence of Arjuna’s consequential perspective, in ‘Consequential Evaluation and Practical Reason’, Journal of Philosophy 97 (Sept. 2000).

  *The Presidentship of the Congress Party was not by any means a formal position only. Indeed, the election of Subhas Chandra Bose (the fiery spokesman of the increasing – and increasingly forceful – resistance to the British Raj) as the President of Congress in 1938 and in 1939 led to a great inner-party tussle, with Mohandas Gandhi working tirelessly to oust Bose. This was secured – not entirely with propriety or elegance – shortly after Bose’s Presidential Address proposing a strict ‘time limit’ for the British to quit India or to face a less nonviolent opposition. The role of the Congress President in directing the Party has remained important. In the general elections in 2004, when Sonia Gandhi emerged victorious as the President of Congress, she chose to remain in that position, rather than take up the role of Prime Minister.

  *Maitreyī’s central question (‘What should I do with that by which I do not become immortal?’) was useful for me to motivate and explain an understanding of development that is not parasitic on judging development by the growth of GNP or GDP; see my Development as Freedom (New York: Knopf, and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 1.

  *On this, see Kshiti Mohan Sen, Medieval Mysticism of India, with a Foreword by Rabindranath Tagore, trans. from Bengali by Manomohan Ghosh (London: Luzac, 1930).

  *I have tried to present critical assessments of the contributions of social choice theory and of public choice theory in my Presidential Address to the American Economic Association (‘Rationality and Social Choice’, American Economic Review, 85, 1995) and in my Nobel Lecture (‘The Possibility of Social Choice’, American Economic Review, 89, 1999). Both are included in a collection of my essays: Rationality and Freedom (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002).

  *Alexander, we learn from Arrian, responded to this egalitarian reproach with the same kind of admiration that he had shown in his encounter with Diogenes, even though his own conduct remained altogether unchanged (‘the exact opposite of what he then professed to admire’). See Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, 356–323 B.C.: A Historical Biography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), p. 428.

  *One of the reflections of this diversity can be seen in the survival of the different calendars that are respectively associated with Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam, which have all been flourishing for a very long time in India, along with the different Hindu calendars (as is discussed in Essay 15 below).

  *As will be discussed in the essays that follow, Indian secularism has drawn very severe criticism in recent years from Hindu political activists. While some parts of that attack are based, explicitly or implicitly, on demanding a special place for Hinduism in Indian polity (thereby going against the principle of neutrality), another part of the critique has taken the form of arguing that Indian constitution and practice have not been adequately neutral, and have allowed special treatment of Muslims, for example in exempting some Muslim conventions (such as polygamy) from the legal reach of the civil code that applies to members of all the other communities in India. The issues involved in this critique are discussed – and assessed – in Essay 14. What is important to note here is that the focus of that debate is on the ‘neutrality’ aspect of secularism, rather than on the ‘prohibition’ of all religious associations.

  †The phenomenon of ‘choice inhibition’, when the individual is, in principle, free to choose, but cannot in practice exercise that choice (given the totality of social concerns and asymmetries of implicit power), is an important issue in the analysis of liberty in ‘social choice theory’, which I have tried to investigate elsewhere: ‘Liberty and Social Choice’, Journal of Philosophy, 80 (Jan. 1983); ‘Minimal Liberty’, Economica, 59 (1992); and Rationality and Freedom.

  *When I attended a degree-giving convocation, which was described as ‘secular’, at Dhaka University in Bangladesh in 1999, I was struck by the fact that we had ten minutes each of readings from Muslim, Hindu, Christian and Buddhist texts. While this was a lot of religious thinking at one go, I could see that the ceremony could indeed be described as a ‘secular’ function under the ‘neutrality’ interpretation of secularism (I suppose agnostics would have had to free-ride on the scepticism of Buddhism).

  *Rigveda, 10. 129. English translation by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, in The
Rig Veda: An Anthology (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1981), pp. 25–6. The Vedas also contain many engaging discussions of worldly affairs. For example – in hymn 34 of Rigveda – we get a critical, but rather sympathetic, examination of the many problems that the compulsive gambler faces, who grumbles (‘my mother-in-law hates me’; ‘my wife pushes me away’) and resolves to reform (‘I will not gamble in the future, I am looked down on by my friends’), but who finds it hard to change his old habits (‘I show up there like an adulteress visiting the appointed place’) yet easy to advise others (‘Do not play with dice. Cultivate your field and remain content with whatsoever you earn’).

  *Gautama’s own position on this is, of course, a far cry from the practice of attributing divinity to Buddha himself in some versions of later Buddhism, led by the nirmāṇa-kāya doctrine in Mahāyāna teaching. There is also the more general problem, which Ian Mabbett discusses, that ‘in analyzing the rise of Buddhism we cannot deny a very important role to the way in which the proponents of dhamma interacted with the scattered population of the villages and forest hamlets. From the beginning, Buddhism had to come to terms with these populations’ belief in special beings and special powers, of a sort that we normally call supernatural’, (Ian Mabbett, ‘Early Indian Buddhism and the Supernatural’, in Dipak Bhattacharya, Moinul Hassan and Kumkum Ray (eds.), India and Indology: Professor Sukumari Bhattacharji Felicitation Volume (Kolkata [Calcutta]: National Book Agency, 2004), p. 503).

  *We find references to Cārvāka in the epics also. In the Mahābhārata, Cārvāka causes some shock in the establishment by reproaching Yudhiṣṭhira for killing his clansmen in the central battle of that epic (a persistent subject of moral discussion which we have already encountered twice, in the context, respectively, of the Krishna-Arjuna debates and of Draupadī’s arguments to Yudhiṣṭhira, encouraging him to fight).