> Skip to content
  • Published: 27 July 2006
  • ISBN: 9780141964799
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

The Argumentative Indian

Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity




The most important book published about India for many years, and a No. 1 bestseller in India. Staggering reception, including:

India is a very diverse country with many distinct pursuits, vastly different convictions, widely divergent customs, and a veritable feast of viewpoints. The Argumentative Indian brings together an illuminating selection of writings from Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen that outline the need to understand contemporary India in the light of its long argumentative tradition.

The understanding and use of this rich argumentative tradition are critically important, Sen argues, for the success of India's democracy, the defence of its secular politics, the removal of inequalities related to class, caste, gender and community, and the pursuit of sub-continental peace.

  • Published: 27 July 2006
  • ISBN: 9780141964799
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

About the author

Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen is Professor of Economics and Professor of Philosophy at Harvard. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1998 to 2004, and won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998. His many celebrated books including Development as Freedom (1999), The Argumentative Indian (2005), Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (2007), and The Idea of Justice (2010), have been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2012 he received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama and in 2020 he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade by President Steinmeier.

Also by Amartya Sen

See all