The Argumentative Indian Summary

1035 Words5 Pages
Book review – the argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen It takes courage and defiance for a person still learning, to select a work from celebrated author like Mr. Amartya Sen, and accept that one might even require to criticize the work, based on one’s limited yet very personal understanding of it. Even so I was able to gather the courage because the content of ‘The Argumentative Indian’, is so profound, stimulating and overarching, that it compelled me to go beyond a simple reading. Mr. Sen is looking at the History, Identity and culture of India through the lenses of contradictions that have been part of literature, religion, gender conceptions and society the nation. He organizes his study in four sections, dealing with ‘Voice and Heterodoxy’,…show more content…
Amartya Sen might be focusing too much on the religious part, which is great but too narrow a view to even touch the tip of gigantic civilization of India. But as we move forward ‘Gargi’; the female intellectual, ‘Draupadi’; the Mahabharata queen and ‘Rani Laxmi Bai’; who fought the first ‘war of independence’ get mentioned, and we realize that a prolific intellect like Amartya Sen could not have limited himself to one-dimensional study . He presents that argumentation is as much a characteristic of disadvantaged Indian as it is of an elite. He solidifies his argument by mentioning religious movements of Buddhism, Jainism and caste movements for equality. While such an argument is very valid, the proportion of these voices has been abysmally low, and hence one would rather count them as exceptions than recurring themes. He goes on to celebrate the tolerance and diversity of India through usage of panoramic verses from Meghdutam, Mricchakatikam and Mudraraksam of Kalidasa. (pg 19) He explores Akbar’s ‘Din-e-Ilahi’ and Ashoka’s great peace missions to establish how secularism flourished in India despite struggled history. These themes and names are great examples in establishing his point about divergent Indian, but their multiple repetition ends up emphasizing on dearth of examples, thereby giving contradictory
Show More
Related

  • Indian Argumentative India Summary

    966 Words  | 4 Pages

    book “The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity”, written by Amartya Sen, is actually a collections of essays focusing on the tradition of Indian debate, historic development, culture and identity. The book is divided into four main parts named Voice and heterodoxy, Culture and communication, Politics and protest and Reason and identity. Each part contains four sections with individual essay concerning related issues, which gave us wider picture of Indian transition

    Read More

  • Reflection Of Nature In The Nature Of John Keats

    2886 Words  | 12 Pages

    English Project On “Reflection Of Nature In Selected Poems Of John Keats” In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirement For Award Of Degree Of Bachelors Of Arts (Hons.) Submitted By: Meenakshi Sukhija Enrollment No.: A0706113031 Supervised By: Shally Dabra Amity Institute Of English Studies And Research Amity University Uttar Pradesh ACKNOWLEDGEMENT With much joy and appreciation, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who placed their trust and support in to me to make

    Read More

More about The Argumentative Indian Summary

Open Document