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krayfish1's review against another edition
3.0
The book is a very long argument against Hindutva, the BJP, and other people who say that India should prioritize the Hindu religion in its laws. Many of the arguments for India being Hindu are based in cherry-picked historical events, and so the author dives into a historical look at the multi-religious, multicultural history of India.
Repeatedly made points:
Akbar (a muslim emperor of India from ~1500) held several meetings of people of different religions to promote religious harmony in the empire.
Alberuni (Iranian astronomer & mathematician from ~1000) translated Indian scientific and mathematical works and brought them to the Arabic speaking world
Ashoka (emperor, 3rd century BCE) developed rules for public discussion between people with very different views, and was Buddhist
The great Indian epics have large sections talking about atheism
"Asian values" (meaning Confucian hierarchy & tradition) are being touted by authoritarian governments, and are very narrow in scope; actual Asian values are much more varied.
Chapters:
1. Indians have always been prone to long public debates, everybody gets to debate, including women, atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Parsees, Sikhs, Baha'is, etc.
3. Hindutva & the BJP suck
5. Rabindranath Tagore is the coolest.
7. The West talks about India in really biased ways and it affects the way India sees itself, so lets take a look at that. (Exoticism emphasizes what's different, curiosity emphasizes whats different, preparing British people to go rule there is super dismissive) (dismissiveness and exoticism combine to say that India is not very rational or scientific even though that's not true).
8. China and India had lots of trade and relations with each other. It wasn't just information about Buddhism that was traveling back and forth, there was public health, mathematics, linguistics, technology, etc. traveling between them as well.
10. When attempting to fix inequality, sometimes policies have unintended consequences, i.e. government buys up food to have a stock of emergency food and also tries to keep food prices high to help farmers, but there are a lot of people who can't afford food and are undernourished. Or: teachers were being oppressed and so teacher protections were increased, but now poor parents can't do anything when teacher just decide not to show up for work.
11. India has to do better about gender inequality. Efforts to increase agency of women, like literacy seem to be effective. The author did a lot of research on how many women are "missing" due to sex-selective abortions or inadequate health care (compared to men).
12. It was really stupid of the BJP to do nuclear testing in 1998.
15. The Hindu calendar isn't the oldest calendar in India, the Buddhist one is probably older, also one of the other Hindu calendars was based off of work done by a Muslim emperor, we have always had exchanges of ideas going on, why are y'all being separatist, isolationist, my-culture-is-better-than-your-culture jerks??
Repeatedly made points:
Akbar (a muslim emperor of India from ~1500) held several meetings of people of different religions to promote religious harmony in the empire.
Alberuni (Iranian astronomer & mathematician from ~1000) translated Indian scientific and mathematical works and brought them to the Arabic speaking world
Ashoka (emperor, 3rd century BCE) developed rules for public discussion between people with very different views, and was Buddhist
The great Indian epics have large sections talking about atheism
"Asian values" (meaning Confucian hierarchy & tradition) are being touted by authoritarian governments, and are very narrow in scope; actual Asian values are much more varied.
Chapters:
1. Indians have always been prone to long public debates, everybody gets to debate, including women, atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Parsees, Sikhs, Baha'is, etc.
3. Hindutva & the BJP suck
5. Rabindranath Tagore is the coolest.
7. The West talks about India in really biased ways and it affects the way India sees itself, so lets take a look at that. (Exoticism emphasizes what's different, curiosity emphasizes whats different, preparing British people to go rule there is super dismissive) (dismissiveness and exoticism combine to say that India is not very rational or scientific even though that's not true).
8. China and India had lots of trade and relations with each other. It wasn't just information about Buddhism that was traveling back and forth, there was public health, mathematics, linguistics, technology, etc. traveling between them as well.
10. When attempting to fix inequality, sometimes policies have unintended consequences, i.e. government buys up food to have a stock of emergency food and also tries to keep food prices high to help farmers, but there are a lot of people who can't afford food and are undernourished. Or: teachers were being oppressed and so teacher protections were increased, but now poor parents can't do anything when teacher just decide not to show up for work.
11. India has to do better about gender inequality. Efforts to increase agency of women, like literacy seem to be effective. The author did a lot of research on how many women are "missing" due to sex-selective abortions or inadequate health care (compared to men).
12. It was really stupid of the BJP to do nuclear testing in 1998.
15. The Hindu calendar isn't the oldest calendar in India, the Buddhist one is probably older, also one of the other Hindu calendars was based off of work done by a Muslim emperor, we have always had exchanges of ideas going on, why are y'all being separatist, isolationist, my-culture-is-better-than-your-culture jerks??
tanvika's review against another edition
4.0
Amartya sen is a noted economist.but he is not only a specialist.his influences are varied and unorthodox.schooled at shantinektan, his interaction with art and history, makes his work very rich in diversity and heterodoxy.it does throw new light to old subjects.
The most refreshing argument is made in India itself. The idea of an old,traditional, mystic India is incomplete.india has always harbored the eccentric ones like Buddha,mahavira.even materialism was a major school of philosophy: carvaka.
Nextly,i was impressed by his view of the Hindu religion. it is an inclusive, accommodative religion which has been able to intermix with different cultures. it also attacks the narrow,ultranationalism hindutva version.
Then, there is also an fresh take on the issue of ' identity'. sen states that identities isn't a static monolithic since birth.an individual has multiple identities which take precedence according to the situation.he clearly is an advocate for multiculturalism and harmonious coexistence
The essay on gender talks about the missing girl child in India.a national dataset is quite simplistic.regional data is used to show the skewed sex ratio in prosperous states. interestingly Bangladesh does perform better than India in social indicators. the gender inequality solution suggested by sen lays emphasis not only on economic empowerment but also pschyological growth of women.
There is also some in-depth and warm chapters on Tagore and satyajit raj.
It's a sober,sensitive, well written work relevant in the present era marked by phobias and fanatism.
The most refreshing argument is made in India itself. The idea of an old,traditional, mystic India is incomplete.india has always harbored the eccentric ones like Buddha,mahavira.even materialism was a major school of philosophy: carvaka.
Nextly,i was impressed by his view of the Hindu religion. it is an inclusive, accommodative religion which has been able to intermix with different cultures. it also attacks the narrow,ultranationalism hindutva version.
Then, there is also an fresh take on the issue of ' identity'. sen states that identities isn't a static monolithic since birth.an individual has multiple identities which take precedence according to the situation.he clearly is an advocate for multiculturalism and harmonious coexistence
The essay on gender talks about the missing girl child in India.a national dataset is quite simplistic.regional data is used to show the skewed sex ratio in prosperous states. interestingly Bangladesh does perform better than India in social indicators. the gender inequality solution suggested by sen lays emphasis not only on economic empowerment but also pschyological growth of women.
There is also some in-depth and warm chapters on Tagore and satyajit raj.
It's a sober,sensitive, well written work relevant in the present era marked by phobias and fanatism.
adamjcalhoun's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure what to say about this book; it got a bit boring and repetitive so I stopped reading halfway through. There are a lot of Indians that like to argue, apparently, and they've done so for a while. It goes into different intellectual traditions, etc, etc, but you really only need to read the first three or so essays to get the gist of the whole book.
joanacanada's review against another edition
5.0
A very good read to people interested in knowing India. Touches on a vast variety of topics like history, religion, identity, discrimination, society, politics, culture, etc. Sometimes gets hard to read, but I really recomend it
rekhainbc's review against another edition
5.0
Amartya Sen is the closest I have to a hero, enough said...
rick_sam's review against another edition
1.0
I'm afraid, all essays were botched and he had put pieces together.
shrutibhati's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
“the identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute”
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“The Vedas may be full of hymns and religious invocations, but they also tell stories, speculate about the world and – true to the argumentative propensity already in view – ask difficult questions. A basic doubt concerns the very creation of the world: did someone make it, was it a spontaneous emergence, and is there a God who knows what really happened?”
.
.
I’ve listened to some speeches and talks by Amartya Sen but this was my very first book. The book is published in the form of 16 independent essays. The first few chapters seem a little repetitive and Sen seems to talk more about what and why of the essay rather than the actual topic. Push through the elaborate long-winded sentences and you walk away with some serious food for thought. Looking back, I really regret not taking enough notes while reading this book. Let me try and summarize some of the topics that stood out to me. .
Sen underlines the importance of viewing India as a melting pot of different religions and cultures. And more importantly it is the prevalence of healthy debates, conversations and arguments which has enabled the people to thrive around these cultures. He gives examples from Akbar and Ashoka’s rule. Be warned - you might see quite of bit an anti-BJP/anti-Hindutva vibe to the essays. I picked this up at an odd time too - smack in the middle of the 2019 Kashmir crisis which was followed by the very controversial NRC/CAB bills put forth by the Indian Government.
.
Sen goes onto to talk about the importance of bringing Indian culture to the foreign lands. He claims that a lot of the modern ideas of democracy and tolerance(despite what the media/current events will have you believe) originated in the Indian subcontinent and were adopted largely by other countries. His discussions on societal divisions on the basis of caste, gender, class are really hard hitting and enlightening. A lot of these topics seem rather bland and boring but the urgency and optimism with which Sen talks about makes you interested. He is extremely honest in his views and opinions. The book is filled with a lot of footnotes - this is a scholarly work and should be approached with that mindset. The next time I pick this up for a re-read, I’m definitely going to keep a notebook by my side :)
.
One of my favorite parts of the book was his essay on Tagore and Gandhi - how the two sometimes vastly differed in their approaches/opinions to India’s freedom but staunchly supported each other too. I followed this book up by reading Tagore’s essays on Nationalism(a separate post to follow for that).
.
.
“The Vedas may be full of hymns and religious invocations, but they also tell stories, speculate about the world and – true to the argumentative propensity already in view – ask difficult questions. A basic doubt concerns the very creation of the world: did someone make it, was it a spontaneous emergence, and is there a God who knows what really happened?”
.
.
I’ve listened to some speeches and talks by Amartya Sen but this was my very first book. The book is published in the form of 16 independent essays. The first few chapters seem a little repetitive and Sen seems to talk more about what and why of the essay rather than the actual topic. Push through the elaborate long-winded sentences and you walk away with some serious food for thought. Looking back, I really regret not taking enough notes while reading this book. Let me try and summarize some of the topics that stood out to me. .
Sen underlines the importance of viewing India as a melting pot of different religions and cultures. And more importantly it is the prevalence of healthy debates, conversations and arguments which has enabled the people to thrive around these cultures. He gives examples from Akbar and Ashoka’s rule. Be warned - you might see quite of bit an anti-BJP/anti-Hindutva vibe to the essays. I picked this up at an odd time too - smack in the middle of the 2019 Kashmir crisis which was followed by the very controversial NRC/CAB bills put forth by the Indian Government.
.
Sen goes onto to talk about the importance of bringing Indian culture to the foreign lands. He claims that a lot of the modern ideas of democracy and tolerance(despite what the media/current events will have you believe) originated in the Indian subcontinent and were adopted largely by other countries. His discussions on societal divisions on the basis of caste, gender, class are really hard hitting and enlightening. A lot of these topics seem rather bland and boring but the urgency and optimism with which Sen talks about makes you interested. He is extremely honest in his views and opinions. The book is filled with a lot of footnotes - this is a scholarly work and should be approached with that mindset. The next time I pick this up for a re-read, I’m definitely going to keep a notebook by my side :)
.
One of my favorite parts of the book was his essay on Tagore and Gandhi - how the two sometimes vastly differed in their approaches/opinions to India’s freedom but staunchly supported each other too. I followed this book up by reading Tagore’s essays on Nationalism(a separate post to follow for that).
rkapil7's review against another edition
2.0
Pity those who never got to know about sensible right wing. Our nobel laureate goes on with his center-left position throughout the book, word 'hindutva' occurs at numerous places.
Lets start with secularism, his holiness enumerates many of Hindutva's problems with secularism, all fine but he completely misses the points discuss on what secularism should function like. Leave alone discussing about govt control of hindu temples, HE got a problem with Hindu right wing's patriarchal position w.r.t. Shah Bano but not with the Shah Bano case itself!
About Nuclearization - Again HE got a problem with right wing's philia with the bomb and he argues that the risk has increased because both the countries have nuclearized but he doesn't realize that there has always been a risk when you got a psycho neighbor. HE discusses India's passion for nuclearization made Pakistan also pursue the same path but would he care to discuss the possibility of Pakistan pursuing the path and reaching the goal before India?
About class - The same stupid arguments to reduce inequality without caring for equality of opportunity and shit loaded with intersectionality theme of social 'scientists'. How about shifting focus from inequality to poverty? As he is an 'economist' he could have delved into Economic reforms necessary to reduce poverty and SHOULD have tirated against leftist policies coming in a way to reduce poverty for decades. Oh well 'welfare economists' don't deal with this shit i guess?
In short this book be titled "Arguments against Hindutva from center-left POV" and not "Argumentative 'Indian'"
Lets start with secularism, his holiness enumerates many of Hindutva's problems with secularism, all fine but he completely misses the points discuss on what secularism should function like. Leave alone discussing about govt control of hindu temples, HE got a problem with Hindu right wing's patriarchal position w.r.t. Shah Bano but not with the Shah Bano case itself!
About Nuclearization - Again HE got a problem with right wing's philia with the bomb and he argues that the risk has increased because both the countries have nuclearized but he doesn't realize that there has always been a risk when you got a psycho neighbor. HE discusses India's passion for nuclearization made Pakistan also pursue the same path but would he care to discuss the possibility of Pakistan pursuing the path and reaching the goal before India?
About class - The same stupid arguments to reduce inequality without caring for equality of opportunity and shit loaded with intersectionality theme of social 'scientists'. How about shifting focus from inequality to poverty? As he is an 'economist' he could have delved into Economic reforms necessary to reduce poverty and SHOULD have tirated against leftist policies coming in a way to reduce poverty for decades. Oh well 'welfare economists' don't deal with this shit i guess?
In short this book be titled "Arguments against Hindutva from center-left POV" and not "Argumentative 'Indian'"