| Title | : | Home in the World: A Memoir |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1324091614 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781324091615 |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 480 |
| Publication | : | First published July 8, 2021 |
In Home in the World, these “homes” collectively form an unparalleled and profoundly truthful vision of twentieth- and twenty-first-century life. Here Sen, “one of the most distinguished minds of our time” (New York Review of Books), interweaves scenes from his remarkable life with candid philosophical reflections on economics, welfare, and social justice, demonstrating how his experiences—in Asia, Europe, and later America—vitally informed his work. In exquisite prose, Sen evokes his childhood travels on the rivers of Bengal, as well as the “quiet beauty” of Dhaka. The Mandalay of Orwell and Kipling is recast as a flourishing cultural center with pagodas, palaces, and bazaars, “always humming with intriguing activities.”
With characteristic moral clarity and compassion, Sen reflects on the cataclysmic events that soon tore his world asunder, from the Bengal famine of 1943 to the struggle for Indian independence against colonial tyranny—and the outbreak of political violence that accompanied the end of British rule. Witnessing these lacerating tragedies only amplified Sen’s sense of social purpose. He went on to study famine and inequality, wholly reconstructing theories of social choice and development. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contributions to welfare economics, which included a fuller understanding of poverty as the deprivation of human capability. Still Sen, a tireless champion of the dispossessed, remains an activist, working now as ever to empower vulnerable minorities and break down walls among warring ethnic groups.
As much a book of penetrating ideas as of people and places, Home in the World is the ultimate “portrait of a citizen of the world” (Spectator), telling an extraordinary story of human empathy across distance and time, and above all, of being at home in the world.
Home in the World: A Memoir Reviews
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আত্মজীবনী মানে যদি বড়ো বড়ো অর্থনীতিবিদদের সাহচর্য, বিখ্যাত বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে পড়া আর পড়ানোর ইতিবৃত্ত এবং ঢাকা ও কলকাতায় বেড়ে ওঠার স্মৃতি বোঝায় তাহলে আমার কিছু বলার নেই।
আত্মসমালোচনার ছিঁটেফোঁটা নেই। এমন কোনো ঘটনা পাইনি যা পাঠক হিসেবে আমাকে আলোড়িত করেছে। লোকে নিন্দেমন্দ করতে পারে জেনেও সততার সাথে ব্যক্তিজীবনের অস্বস্তিকর ঘটনার বর্ণনা পাইনি।
মোটকথা, ভীষণ একঘেয়ে আর গড়পড়তা মানের স্মৃতিকথা এটি। নোবেল বিজয়ী বিশ্বখ্যাত অর্থশাস্ত্রবিদ অমর্ত্য সেনের বদলে মোকলেসপুর যদুচন্দ্র বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় কলেজের অর্থনীতির মাস্টার অমর্ত্য সেন বই লিখলে হয়তো এমন অগুরুত্বপূর্ণ ঘটনার ভরা স্মৃতিকথাই লিখবে! -
This year I undertook a reading marathon of the books written by Dr. Amartya Sen. As I was finishing his previous literature one by one, curiosity filled me as to how such a novel approach to philosophy and economics was developed by Dr. Sen which was heavily in contrast to the approach of his contemporary counterparts. Much of his previous works had emphasized his relationship with Rabindranath Tagore and his formative years in Santiniketan as the root cause for his intellectual valor. As I waited patiently for the autobiography this year, when his memoir was first released, I quickly grabbed a copy of it and began reading.
In the backdrop of the 1934 earthquake with Bihar as its epicenter, tremors were felt in Kolkata where baby Amartya Sen was merrily asleep when his family was seeking protection. This incident was the first-ever memory of his childhood, as told by his grandparents. For the people who have read Tagore’s rebuttal to Gandhi’s proclamation that this earthquake was an act of God to punish the sinners, Dr. Sen’s journey begins right there. Much of this memoir has captivating references to Tagore's work and how the Santiniketan shaped Dr. Sen’s intellect in his childhood.
At this time of ever-growing narrow-mindedness and parochialism, reading Dr. Sen’s school life in Santiniketan makes us believe that true open-mindedness begins from exploring the world without letting it cloaked by jingoism and identity, rather by letting in tolerance, acceptance, and curiosity. As the narration moves forward to his days in Presidency College, Dr. Sen had penned relevant chapters on the history of West Bengal, Bengali, and Bangladesh starting from early India to the Battle of Plassey, followed by the rise of left-wing politics within the freedom movement and finally to the murderous Bengal Famine.
Even though he identifies himself as an atheist, his grandfather Kshitimohan Sen’s profound impact on him in the subject of Hinduism/Charvaka epistemology/Lokayata is yet another factor that molded Sen’s approach to Justice through the lens of Nyaay and Niti, which later got published in 2008. Throughout the narration, Dr. Sen makes the reader believe in two things: (a) his commitment to secularism from an early age and (b) his deep interest in seeing the world as a curator than as a clash of civilization or power struggle between the classes. As far as I understood, this was due to the presence of multi-party adherents within his family, his multicultural connections in Santiniketan, and his conscious distance from active political engagements.
Astonishingly, when he turned twenty-three, he was ready to submit his Ph.D. thesis and has agreed to set up the economics department at Jadavpur University. Yet another interesting narration was on his willingness to try philosophy after economics when he quickly changed his domain working on philosophical arguments by continuing the idea from Kennet Arrow’s Social Choice Theory interlinking it with economics to further create a new field termed as welfare economics, which as a subject was though initially rejected by American Universities, but was later awarded Nobel Prize for it.
There is a particular chapter in the book titled 'What to make of Marx' which developed a rather peculiar interest in me to read a bit more of Karl Marx in the coming days, especially after reading Sen’s citation of the ‘Critique of the Gotha Program’ referring to Marx’s commitment to multiple identities, free speech, and liberty which the later communist powers failed to recognize and present post-modernists fail to promote. This memoir was too small to hold all the names of men and women who influenced Amartya Sen, starting from Tagore in his childhood to his landlady with an aversion for brown people who later became a strong proponent of racial equality. But this memoir is dense in detailing and carries sprinkles of wisdom from a wise man who learned his lessons from multiple people as he navigated his life.
Reading Amartya Sen had always ignited a passion for intellectual arguments in me that I can quickly point to him as an inspiration for my interests in economics, moral philosophy, and ethics. There were many life lessons one could take from this memoir. Firstly, it had deep insights on diverse subjects explained lucidly by a man who self-diagnosed his cancer at the age of eighteen with a few oncology books borrowed from the city library. Secondly, it inspires one to learn, learn more, and learn without boundaries from everyone from the narration of a self-proclaimed atheist who took his idea of Justice from Indian origin religious texts and epics. Finally, it persuades us to view the world as our home as Tagore once persuaded Dr. Sen with his “Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls”. -
Like a grandfather reminiscing about his childhood and younger years- that is how Amartya Sen's 'Home In The World' reads.
I dreaded Economics the one year I studied it in school, scoring the least in it. But the Nobel laureate in Economics has written a book that is surprisingly accessible. Few bits are funny, it is mostly witty and comprehensively erudite the book's lilting tenor lulled me into a trance. When it would break, without effort I would have read so many pages.
English is Sen's third language after Bengali and Sanskrit (!!). He even dreams in Bengali.
Sen has led a privileged life, a fact he acknowledges with humility. His mother was Rabindranath Tagore's student, Sen was named 'Amartya' by the great man himself. He makes a passing mention of his achievements, never pausing to add more weight to them.
My favourite incident from his life would be with the one with his landlady. At 'Porter Lodge', the lady worries that his brown colour would wash off with the water ruining her white bathtub. He assures her it will not. Interactions with him change her as much that she becomes a supporter of racial equality-she dances with an African for two hours straight when he can't find a partner. It is the African who gets fatigued first.
The book twinkles with anecdotes and his reflections. The greats of the world with whom he has rubbed shoulders walk through his stories with as much ease as the reader does. Sen takes you along on his journey from being a little boy growing up in Dacca(as it was known then) and Santiniketan to his adulthood. You witness the evolution of his thinking, analytical mind- his intellectual trajectory.
Hop on, it's an interesting cruise. -
A significant contributor to the field of economics, Amartya Sen’s weighty memoir delves deep into his memory bank to give the reader insights into his home in the world. Much of the book harkens back to his childhood in Dhaka, Mandalay, Calcutta, and Santiniketan, as well as his early formative years in school and university. I found the early parts interesting as Sen describes his family’s association with the Nobel Poet Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and Tagore’s significant contribution and influence on Bengal and India on numerous fronts. Tagore’s groundbreaking philosophy on education and the cultural world were key factors in Sen’s education and outlook. They left an indelible stamp on the author. Also noteworthy is Sen’s focus on the struggle for India’s independence and the challenges of religious strife in a secular India, stirred constantly by politicians for their gain. I particularly appreciated his ability to convey how people of different religions in India do live in harmony most of the time, despite the fact that we tend to frequently hear more about religious acrimony and conflict. He waxed eloquently about his line of work, what influenced his thinking and approach, and his path to success. From a writing style perspective, I found the book to be excruciatingly bogged down in overly minute details, a laundry list of names of who’s who in what seemed like every encounter he had in his entire life. It felt like he wanted to acknowledge everyone he’d ever met or was testing himself on how many people he could remember going back to his childhood days, which works for him, but not to me, the reader. Overall I found the book interesting in some parts, in others, not so much. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
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Fascinating account of not just the leading economist of our times but a glimpse into the social life of an elite section (Upper Caste-Upper Class) of India. I'm glad that Dr. Sen allowed himself to be poetic, demonstrated in some few elegant turns of phrases. This book also lays out his major themes of economic and philosophical work including social choice theory and realisation-based ideas of justice. The chapter on Karl Marx is one of the most lucid analysis of his ideas I have ever come across. Other minor interests of his including Sanskrit, identity and, most importantly, Buddhism have been discussed in enough detail. One disappointment is that for all his intellectual and moral commitment to the problem of inequality, there is very little discussion about the strictly social aspect of inequality in the Indian context, that is, Caste; more so considering his other major interest Buddhism, which was as much a rebellion against social inequity (read Caste System) as it was a tussle with the major metaphysical debates of the time. I felt the book ended abruptly. It ends when Dr. Sen was 30 years old. He is 88 now. I hope there is another part coming up soon about the remaining 58 years, at least. Strongly recommend.
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This memoir is a remarkable story of the journey of a brilliant mind. Sen speaks lucidly of diverse difficult subjects: economics of course, but also philosophy, hinduism, literature and so many other things that caught his interest on the way. The story of how he came to find himself at home, not in one corner of the world but in myriad settings ,is peppered with stories of people and places told with love passion and wit. What shines through the book is not just his intellect but his deep humanity.
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This memoir spans the sweep of Amartya Sen’s life from his childhood in Burma, what is now Bangladesh and Shantiniketan in West Bengal through his academic life in Kolkata, Cambridge (England), Cambridge (Massachusetts), Stanford and his return to India in the early 1960s. It spans an era that includes the Bengal famine, the Japanese attack on India’s border in World War II, India’s independence and the violence of Partition that followed, the rise of Communism through to the creation of post-war welfare states and the beginnings of European unification. It shares in intimate, at times excessive, detail his family relationships and his wide and eclectic range of academic and social relationships and illuminates the roots of his liberal, cosmopolitan views. It traces the evolution of his thought - economic, political and philosophical - and the many influences that shaped it. A fascinating read, if long, with wonderful insights into a great life that embodies great erudition across domains and strength of conviction grounded in values of equity, liberty and dignity with a love of argumentation, deep empathy, an openness to contrary points of view and grace under fire.
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When I read aloud that passage from Smith in a lecture at the D-school, I remember the relief- and indeed the thrill- that could be detected from the class. My students in Delhi may not have know much about people from the coast of Afica, but there was an immediate solidarity with ill-treated human beings from far away as well as nearby. They were not persuaded by Smith’s words; they took pride in them.
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The book was a reminder for me to consider doctoral studies as a beginning of an academic career. The book highlights Dr. Sen's early life. It is clear that Dr. Sen came from a very privileged background but he used it to become more knowledgeable. Dr. Sen writes about a history which I do not know of. He finished his PhD in 1950s. My father was not even born in the 1950s. It is about a different time where things were different. The book takes you to a different time and it is nice to read about his journey. So jealous, that he got appointed as a Professor at 23 at Jadavpur University!
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Amartya Sen is one of the greatest economists of the past 100 years. He has been a huge personal influence and I consider him a thinker of the highest caliber. Every book he has written in his amazingly productive life -- from technical social choice theory (
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) to his irresistibly thought-provoking general audience books, such as Identity and Violence, and The Argumentative Indian -- is worth savoring and re-reading.
His memoir is, alas, not as impressive. There are sparkling moments and there are interesting incidents in his very eventful life. But on the whole, I found it unnecessarily rambling at times; parts of it read like the acknowledgement section of a book. The tone is self-indulgent, especially in the first third. It would have been a better read had it been cut down by about 100 pages. -
{Regretfully I stopped it at half, and I promise myself I'll go back to it as soon as possible.}
The book is a reminiscence that's plotted so wonderfully, I think I can say I cannot love it more than I do now! It is not just his story. It is a story of India, of Bengal, of Tagore, of Viswa Bharati, and of Calcutta and Dhaka. The literary traditions of Bengal, the history of it, colonial backdrop, Hindu-Muslim relationships, The Great Bengal Famines, partition of Bengal, oh my god! The activity of Amartya Sen is enviable! That was a dream! What he went through and what he had witnessed gives him, as we see evidently, the perspectives he develops later in his life. Sen recollects the discussions amid his family, friends, teachers and relatives, who were all kinds of artists, academicians, politicians, poets, and cultural thinkers, giving us a myriad of ideas complimenting and contradicting eachother! An example is between Gandhi and Tagore, who were influential throughout his life, and with whom he had lovely discussions. (Many with Tagore, one or two with Gandhi). Life in Calcutta is described in such one rugged and realistic manner, I'm planning to visit Calcutta this vacation! What more can I say?
This is one wonderful book that will walk you through the most turbulent times of the recent history: The World War 2, Indian Independence Struggle, Indian Partition, Era of Indian Politics, Indian/Bengali Renaissance, and so much more! Life teems up in this work, it'll leave you bewildered, moved, and it'll make you love it to your core!
If I ever say I love some other non fiction more than this, don't believe in me! Amartya Sen is a beautiful writer, and after this book, a dearly friend! -
As a development practitioner, I am a huge fan of Amartya Sen and his writings. I saw him once at LSE. For some reason this memoir reminded me of Russell's autobiography, may be the writing style and the fact that Cambridge played a major role in their lives. I read Sen because it opens up new authors or books to me. In this memoir I came across Maurice Dobb, Pieor Sraffa, Frank Ramsay, among others. I also bought the book Karl Marx Greatness and Illusion, which was highly recommended by Sen. He was influenced by the idea of Objective Illusion, which is a fascinating concept.
The best part was early years in Dhaka and Shanti Niketan, meeting with Tagore/Mujtaba Ali , Kshiti Mohan and so many others. He met Lal Jayawardena, as student in Cambridge, who was one of the founder of UN WIDER. Then there was Mahbubul Haq, who developed the Human Development Index ( who is from Kings College....my college 😊) ; Rehman Sobhan and finally Manmohan Singh was his junior . I did not know that originally Sen was rejected by Trinity and apparently that's the only place he applied! He effectively finished his PhD in 1 year. Published his papers in QJE ( best econ journal) just coming out of Bachelors and studied Philosophy when he was a Prize Fellow, again getting published in philosophy journals. The guy is a genius, reminded me of Feynman! The best memoir I have read in a while.
I loved it!! -
Amartya Sen makes a very genial companion, wearing his learning lightly. It's easy to believe him when he says the most important identity among the various he cleaves to is that of teacher; the telling of his life is inseparable from his intellectual development, and he manages to bring his readers (or at least this one, for the most part) with very lucid explanations of sometimes difficult topics. He's very interesting on topics from famine in Bengal to wartime rationing in Britain (sharing was possible with Britons but not with Indians) to the place of individual liberty in Marxism to the importance of the role of debate in a nation's politics -- and a more enthusiastic, skilled and generous debater you couldn't hope to find.
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What a sublime read. What an insight into a truly great mind.
Sen is a wonderful person, economist, and as this memoir shows, a fabulous and entertaining writer as well. Growing up in a crazy period (30s and 40s undivided India) shapes a person very differently. More so if it is in a place like Bengal, which in that time saw much that was very good and very bad about this place. Add to that a few formative years in the influence of Tagore, and you have a heady mix.
By the time he was 30, Sen had probably lived a fuller life than most people do in a 100 years. He is now 88 and going strong. What an influence this man has been on development economics. A gem. Most fitting that he and the person who named him have Nobels to their name.
Do get this book and read and re-read it. -
I received my copy free through Goodreads Giveaways
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A very inspiring and interesting read. Traversing the history of Bengal, India and the world in general, Amartya Sen tells the story of his growing up in a wonderful and lucid prose. The book has inspired me to learn more about many great individuals, for example, the author's grandfather, Kshitimohan Sen.
Highly recommended. -
Biography of Nobel prize winning Amartya Sen, his journey from Bangladesh to India and then Cambridge, educating and inspiring groundbreaking learning across social theory and the entire economics field.
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Simply put, this is a profound book.
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One of the greatest public intellectuals and savants of modern times recounting approximately a third of his life, in flowing and beguilingly clear prose. The academic in him comes to the fore occasionally, that may be heavy going for the average reader. One comes away marvelling at Sen's humanity, generosity and infallible good cheer, as he lives a full life in the company of giants.
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The first 2/3s of the book was wonderful, the last 1/3 felt rushed and not as insightful (it also stops in the 1960s)
That said, overall read like an intellectual history of Amartya Sen himself - an exploration of his influences, and how his early ideas and worldviews developed. I loved it!
Some ideas/thoughts I found memorable:
- Santiniketan sounds like a magical place to study and grow up - especially in those years. Hearing the sort of people Amartya grew up surrounded by, the pedagogical style of the place (which thankfully he also realizes was unique given his time in a Dhaka school whose vibe sounded very familiar), the intellectual freedom he was given etc. Reminded me of how Rishi Valley alums describe their experiences...
- Learned far more than I realized about Tagore and his contributions. Unfortunately haven't engaged/explored Tagore's life and work enough (attempted Gitanjali in high school and totally didn't get it then), so glad for this unintended introduction. The parts about Tagore's arguments with Gandhi, the different ways in which he was perceived by the West (an alleged mysticism and rejection of reason) and Bengali/Indian society (a champion of reason and rationality) etc.
- Funnily enough, the part of Sen's autobiography I loved most was his biography of his grandfather Kshiti Mohan. Sad that I hadn't heard of him until this book. He partly seemed like what I believe Indian political thought needs today - an individual who's a deeply credible expert in classical and scriptural Sanskrit literature while also being progressive in their worldview. Something Hindutva has done is to appropriate ownership of ancient Hindu scriptures -- there's hardly anybody in mainstream politics who has a liberal and lenient interpretation of Hinduism, and is able to draw on it in political conversation today. And if two people can read a vanilla novel and come out with radically different takes, I can't imagine how many diverse viewpoints there can be from reading the pantheon of Sanskrit and Pali literature. For example, Sen claims that Kshiti Mohan's books show the tenuous link Hindu scriptures have to the caste system, how women in ancient India enjoyed far more freedoms that medieval and modern India afforded them etc etc. Maybe I'm being naively hopeful that these interpretations are credible, but for now, will try and get my hands on Kshiti Mohan's works (Jatibhed, Prachin Bharate Nari, Bharater Sanskriti)...
- Also had a lot of interesting anecdotes and stories about Calcutta and Bengal, and how Partition affected the Eastern part of the subcontinent....
Overall, mostly enjoyed it! -
This memoir is, of course, first and foremost, full of economics. It is a first-hand account of actual happenings in the academic world of economics during the fifties into the seventies of the last century. The author, Amartya Sen, outlines his life, beginning with his early years spent in Mandalay in Burma, then Dacca, finally settling into school without walls in Santiniketan, West Bengal in India. He mentions how he was influenced by his scholar grandfather and the Tagorean philosophy and system of education. He attends college in Calcutta graduating to study further at Trinity College, Cambridge. He returns back to India to teach at Jadavpur University. Later, he teaches at D-School at Delhi, the capital of India. The book is about a distinguished journey by a brilliant scholar and thinker who has more than one home in this world and is comfortable in all his diverse homes.
This book is for economists. There are many references to well-known economists of the mid-20th century and their work. Books are referred to which will make for further reading, both for economists and for readers like us, who know no economics. This book is for Bengalis, the people of the state of West Bengal, India and the people of Bangladesh. There is a lot of history which they would find interesting. The Rivers of Bengal and The Urbanity of Calcutta are particularly interesting to read. Sen has spoken eloquently on them. The ancient remains found scattered around the general Calcutta region indicates why the British founded the city in the place where they did. And, if you happen to be a Vaidya then you definitely need to read this book written by the most globally honored Vaidya of all.
Amartya Sen comes from a family of professors and scholars. He says that he was more comfortable in expressing himself in Bengali and Sanskrit till he mastered English. So, he proves that it is more important to be a good student of a language rather than to be a ‘native speaker’ of it. The book is most eloquently written. The style is simple and easy to read. The tone is friendly and young. One can go through the almost 400 pages quickly and easily.
This is a truly global book. For world citizens this book is a must read, not only for knowing about economics from a Nobel Prize winner but for knowing about Bengal and about British India. The book ends rather abruptly. We hope that that means there will be a sequel soon. -
As I was reading through, the doubt I got was what’s the difference between an Autobiography and a Memoir. One key thing is Unlike autobiographies and biographies, memoirs focus more on the author’s relationship to and feelings about his or her own memories. Obviously, Mr.Sen has barrowloads of them who is going strong at 88. A Nobel laureate, Bharat Ratna, an unrivaled expert in his areas of interest Economics & Philosophy. Put Mathematics into it, it’s an awesome combination indeed to make one a multifaceted genius.
Now let’s come to book. The title is “beautiful” including the cover pic. It tries to capture his life across 3 continents. The book is boring though not drudgery. I wanted to drop it but kept going. Whilst the reminiscence is gratifying, he gets into too many details of the person/things/situation. From the mid of PART 3, there were surprises of an early battle with cancer and his voyage to England and life after. It is not an immersive read but it is not upright of me to say that because I have not read or been exposed to any of Amartya Sen’s work. But from a layman’s point of view, the book can get tedious unless one finds some nuggets which might interest them. Mentions on his economics/philosophic/political discussions with his colleagues and friends were interesting. Are there any takeaways from the book? Hmmm… Young men senesce. It’s a very bland, non-controversial book with no spice & some humor in it. No mention of his 3 marriages or how he received or perceived all the laurels. Maybe a 3rd party should have written his actual Biography because this man deserves the story of his life to be told in a better manner. Nobel prize-winning professors at top-tier universities can be boring for god sake. Time to pick some of his other works & check if it interests me.
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Home in the World is the wonderful title of Amartya Sen's first autobiography.The title is in itself an homage to Tagore's Home and the World, which was also immortalized by Satyajit Ray's later movie. A taste of what is to come. I was glued from thence.
Written with the full force of his usual wit, in this wholesome book, Dr Sen captures some of the very early influences on his thinking and life's work. It is particularly great for people with an interest in India, as the periods between thirties and early fifties in the subcontinent is chronicled through a child's memory supplemented by an adult's analysis. Readers familiar with Dr Sen's non-academic writing will be happy to find scrupulous details about important influences and repeated subject matters- Tagore, Shantiniketan, Sanskrit, Adam Smith, justice, inequality and more. It was particularly enjoyable to read about his University days,as I suspect most memoirs about University days would be. There is a lot of details and warm regard for two of his teachers at Cambridge and this section is great for anyone with an interest in academia. I was pleasantly surprised to read about his political convictions in more detail and a whole chapter is dedicated to the complex question of what to make of Marx. The book finishes as he is starting a job at Delhi School of Economics in the early sixties, leaving more to be wanted.
Inspired by one of many lessons this great philosopher taught me over the years, I will utilise no singular identity to identify with the remarkable answer this book provides to humanity's age-old question "who am I " or আমি কোথা থেকে আসলাম?
Purchased new from @booktopiabooks
Book I have been directed to from this book: The importance of being Awkward by Tam Dalyell -
It was only a coincidence that I finished reading Amitav Ghosh's 'The Glass Palace' featuring vivid descriptions of the last royal palace of the Burmese monarchy in Mandalay, when I decided to read 'Home in the World', which sets off a philosophical voyage first between 'Dhaka and Mandalay' (Chapter 1) and later connecting different parts of the world.
The author's interview with the BBC inspires the reader to believe that the idea of a 'home' to be exclusive is very subjective and that there can be more than one welcoming home. In this book, Sen fondly remembers his river journeys between Dhaka and his ancestral home and explores the rich history and culture of Bengal. The book also impresses upon profound discourses on the struggles during the Raj, including the disastrous unfolding of the Bengal Famine.
Sen graciously writes about his intellectually liberal school, i.e., Santiniketan, which was central to his formation. His message that education alone has the potential to aid humans in ascending to universal truth comes across very clearly. His engagements with Marxist thinkers, including Pierro Sraffa at Cambridge, whom he treated as an 'extra supervisor,' brings us back full circle to Santiniketan in Bengal to only highlight that civilizations should foster and protect the 'Guru-shishya jugalbandi.' Sen writes (pp 339), "Armed with diverse bits of knowledge coming to me from many directions, I felt confident I was receiving quite a balanced education."
Sen ends with a note on universal harmony with some lines put by Tagore (pp 407), "The best and noblest gifts of humanity cannot be the monopoly of a particular race or country; its scope may not be limited nor may it be regarded as the miser's hoard buried underground."
I think this book, with its masterly prose, is an excellent contribution to public philosophy. -
This gives a glimpse into the mind of one of the greatest Economists of our time. His economic thinking is original, rational, and humane. He learned from other great economists of the past who placed human rights and dignity squarely among the parameters of economic success. He advanced their thinking by giving these new measures of economic achievement a rational and mathematical foundation.
I could not fully relate to many of the threads of his Economics discourse because of a lack of background. However, I felt a profound connection to our shared heritage of Bengaliness, to his ideal of egalitarianism, and to his embrace of humanity in other cultures, faith, and societies. This openness and inclusiveness are fully evident in his seamless transition from India to England to the USA, and practically to the whole world. Of course, this was helped by his great intellect that transcends the narrowness of national interests and boundaries. Behind this, a strong and deliberate intent to see the world past its division and animosity is also visible. I also felt vindicated in my own belief that the pursuit of goodness and spirituality can only become universal when separated from religious dogma.
There are a few disappointments though. No surprise that this book presents Dr. Sen's cerebral persona with immense humanity but where is the person that deals with the ordinary? I am also disappointed that the book ended at the time of his return to India after Cambridge and did not go beyond. I hope this is a precursor to a sequel that narrates his experience of a reemergent India. I am interested in how he viewed the divisions, prejudices, and inequalities that emerged with the new affluence. I am also curious how he felt about the denunciation of him by an economically confident, jingoistic, and assertive India of today.
