Enjoyed very much this long read (a couple of months old) by the great Amartya Sen at The Guardian; adapted from his memoir, Home in the World: A Memoir , that was published in the UK this summer by Allen Lane. This particular extract, which is memoir only in that it harks back to the India of his youth, resembles more a miniature lesson in post-colonial imperatives, and one in which Sen refutes some of the spurious arguments in defense of the Raj that regularly do the rounds.
For example, the oft spun notion of the inherent isolationism of the sub-continent, regional kingdoms and ethnic and religious fragmentation; purportedly to be solved only through imperialism. Sen offers instead alternative narratives of what might have been from which follows an imagined history, but nevertheless one that inspires a more thoughtful awareness of how India’s long history was (and still is, he would suggest) embellished and appropriated to fit a particular world view. Contrary to the social and economic arguments that show British rule in a good light, Amartya Sen emphasizes the two centuries of, amongst other things, economic stagnation and low literacy rates that all the virtues of parliamentary governance and public service can not recast. Of course, the East India Company can not help but make its ugly presence known, and this reminds me of William Dalrymple’s 2019 book The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, reviewed here at The Guardian. (Dalrymple also contributed a very worthy long read on the aforesaid in 2015.)
Amartya Sen was on my mind not so long ago – well, on reflection, longer than I thought, last year actually – when he was awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade – clumsy, I know, but their English translation not mine!); usually a very big deal in Germany – lots of fanfare, sometimes controversy, and the presentation televised on the final day of the Frankfurter Buchmesse. Unfortunately, the 2020 honouring of Sen got somewhat lost in the cancellation of the Book Fair (Covid!) but, through the wonders (!) of our digital second-life, the laudatory remarks from the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeir (but delivered by Burkhart Klaußner because …you guessed it – Covid quarantine!) and Sen’s gracious acceptance speech are available here.