Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s new book, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity explains the inner working of India, and brings that ideology to the Western world. In his book Sen smashes the sterotypes and myths around India, and places the idea of India and it’s Indianess in its righteous and well-deserved context.
Zoo Station quotes from The Guardian, in their review titled, Beyond the call centre:
This is a book that needed to have been written. The perception of India in the West and, indeed, among Indians themselves has never been more amorphous as it is now. The Argumentative Indian will provide a new dimension and perspective to that perception. It would be no surprise if it were to become as defining and as influential a work as Edward Said’s Orientalism.
In this superb collection of essays, Sen smashes quite a few stereotypes and places the idea of India and Indianness in its rightful, deserved context. Central to his notion of India, as the title suggests, is the long tradition of argument and public debate, of intellectual pluralism and generosity that informs India’s history.
A quick byte of trivia: Sen still possesses the blue colored Indian passport, even after living abroad for more than 5 decades.