Ever since he became the 52nd human to receive the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel” at the hands of His Majesty, Amartya Sen has attained a thick coating of polytetrafluroethylene, impenetrable at the hands of lesser mortals.
Nobody dares to find a hole in his turgid output because no one gets to that point of the story anyway, and nobody should because, like “Dr” A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prof Sen is hovering somewhere in the vicinity of the other Nobel laureate from Calcutta in the divinity orbit.
R. Jagannathan, the executive editor of the Bombay newspaper DNA, makes a brave and laudable attempt, skewering Prof Sen’s latest jargon-filled work The Idea of Justice, especially in the manner in which it lionises Ashoka (“No thinking person should presume that the historical Ashoka was the same as the Ashoka of the rock edicts”) and deifies Akbar (“the tacit presumption that secularism or tolerance was not a part of the Indian ethos before him”).
Jagannathan pulls his best punches for Prof Sen’s other pet, Arjuna.
“Amartya Sen, the peacenik, obviously prefers Arjuna‘s reasons for avoiding war at Kurukshetra to Krishna‘s call to duty. Sen casts Arjuna in the role of unwilling warrior when he had no qualms fighting other wars before Kurukshetra. By implication, Krishna is the agent provocateur.
“Dead wrong.
“First of all, Krishna’s message in the Gita was not to go to war, but to do one’s duty when needed. The Kurukshetra war was not a whimsical call to arms. It became inevitable when Duryodhana and his advisors thwarted all efforts to achieve an honourable peace.
“Now picture the World War II allies suing for peace with Hitler on the basis of Arjuna’s specious reasoning, complete with worries about how many people will get killed. It would have been “peace in Arjuna’s time”, but of the kind Neville Chamberlain achieved in Munich with Hitler. It made the Second World War more horrific.
“In our history, we have seen how Nehru pulled defeat from the jaws of foolish diplomacy in the 1962 war. He played Arjuna, the pacifist, till he could no longer maintain the charade in the face of Chinese perfidy. Peace with honour is achievable only if you are prepared to go to war.
“Amartya’s Ashoka, Arjuna and Akbar are great historical characters who contributed to India’s cultural nationhood, but Amartya Sen has reduced them to cardboard characters of dubious authenticity. He hasn’t done them or Indians much justice.”
Illustration: courtesy The Little Mag
Photograph: DNA
Read the full article: Ashoka, Arjuna, Arjuna, Amartya
peace is an end, not a means.
actually, AS has been waxing thick and thin about justice for a while( see the hindu archives and outlookindia). and himself has been applying his theory about judgements in totally duplicitous ways.
ofcourse we all know why ashoka, akbar are all projected. i might not necessarily disagree that they were some of the most important people, but level of fan following leaves a bad taste and makes one suspicious of their aura. especially they are chosen for not what they actually did, but they could mean. totally artificial creation and totally blind to the follies of these men. sort of secular deities. atleast for religious folks the diety is for personal salvation. for these guys they are tools to peddle their will on the meek.
or in the iconography of an american kid, AS be pimpin’ his hoes – akbar ‘n ashoka.
Peace unfortunately only works when it comes from a position of strength. India, unfortunately, just does the talk and the world knows it.
TS,
Nice one! I would like to clean up your ebonics a little more:)
Mutha-Fokah MC-Sen is Da Man! He be the mack daddy of ‘bad ass’ economics and he be giving the big ups to ancient fly hos akbah and aawshok!
I dont get why this Economist is trying to be a Historian. In a country where professional spinmasters like Ramachandra Guha and Romila Thapar are having a hard time selling their garbage as facts…where is
the need for this Bong to sell his history bhang.?
The author makes a valid point on Nehru’s policy on China. I’m off on a tangent here, But the point I’m going to make is relevant. It has been forty five years since India’s humiliation at the hands of China, yet India has not learned her lessons. What does it say about India’s bureaucratic structure that it still does not have a coherent strategy against China?
The civil services exam should look for leadership skills, creative vision and the ability to execute and manage projects as opposed to testing on
the number of counties/districts in some Scandinavian country!
Prediction: India will lose most of the northeast to China in another decade. When the Dragon breathes fire, India will bleed through her ass
and ears.
A question on the services exam in 2020 will read something like this: Name all the new states that China has acquired in the last decade. Please list their mandarin names, “extra MARKS” for using Chinese characters! Further, Please elaborate on the importance of Amartya Sen’s seminal theory, as propounded in “The Idea of justice”(through the role of Arjuna), in helping China acquire vast tracts of territory!
Clowns.
R Jagannathan should shut up and keep quite.
Conversations between RA Mashelkar and Amartya SEn a few lines , judge for yourself.
From this web site
http://www.csir.res.in/External/Heads/aboutcsir/leaders/DG/noble.pdf
IT WAS IN JUNE 1998 THAT I MET AMARTYA SEN FOR
the first time at India International Centre in
New Delhi. At the end of our brief conversation,
I said: “I hope this will be the year for the big
one.” My reference was to the Nobel Prize.
He laughed and said: “Do you know Dr
Mashelkar, you have to be 10 times as good to win the
Nobel Prize if you are an Indian!” In the same year, in
October 1998, the Nobel Prize for Economics was declared.
Amartya Sen won the prize. I remember sending
him a one-line congratulatory message: “After
all, you were 10 times as good!”
Comments : 10 times as good , is a very bad discourse, for a man of such a stature. It shows his slavishness and RA Mashelkar in one line gave a good congrats after all you were 10 times as good.
Now this 10 times as good , if you apply to Satyen Bose of Bose Einstein theory or JC Bose , who was before Marconi to do the invention of wireless. They were far superior in intellect than many of their counterparts that time , but because they did not kow tow like Sen or to be more Crastian did this http://www.richardcrasta.com/impressing_the_whites.htm
they missed all the accolades.
In his Idea of Justice , which I am in finishing stages , he missed out the Upanishads , esp Sandilya Upanishads, which teaches , forbearance of the highest order. Jusy type in google Sandilya Upanishad , you will get the reference.
Either Sen is trying for the Nobel Peace Prize by being Crastian or he is going to enter politics in India.