Amartya sen

Amartya Sen
Indian traditions &

the Western imagination
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This essay is concerned with Western ty has perhaps the largest atheistic and
materialist literature of all the ancient
images of Indian intellectual traditions
and the interactions between those rep- civilizations. To be sure, this account-
resentations and a contemporary “inter- ing of the amount of unorthodox writing
nal” understanding of Indian culture.1 I may be a little misleading, since Indian
focus particularly on the elementary di- traditions are characterized by some
versities that characterize Indian society prolixity. For example, the Sanskrit epic
and its intellectual traditions, as well as Mahabharata, which is often compared
on the biases that result from paying in- with the Iliad and the Odyssey, is in fact
adequate attention to them. In an obvi- seven times as long as the Iliad and the
ous way, this applies to seeing India as Odyssey put together. One of the more
a “mainly Hindu” country (as Western striking Bengali verses I remember from
newspapers often describe India, as do my childhood is a lamentation about the
the newly powerful Hindu political par- tragedy of death in a nineteenth-century
ties within India); this “mainly Hindu” poem: “Just consider how terrible the
country is also the third-largest Muslim day of your death will be. / Others will
country in the world (with nearly 110 go on speaking, and you will not be able
million Muslims). to respond.” But even this extreme fond-
Less conspicuously, the contrast ap- ness for speech is associated with an
plies also to Indian intellectual tradi- enormous heterogeneity of programs
tions. This home of endless spirituali- and preoccupations. Irreducible diversi-
ty is perhaps the most important feature
Amartya Sen, recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize of Indian intellectual traditions.
in Economics, has been a Fellow of the American The self-images (or “internal identi-
Academy since 1981. Sen is Lamont University ties”) of Indians have been extremely af-
Professor and Professor of Economics and Philos-
ophy at Harvard University, positions he held at 1 This essay draws on an earlier article entitled
the time of this essay’s appearance in the Spring “India and the West,” The New Republic (June 7,
1993). For helpful discussions, I am grateful to
1997 issue of “Dædalus.” He also served as Mas-
Akeel Bilgrami, Sugata Bose, Barun De, Jean
ter of Trinity College in Cambridge, U.K., be- Drèze, Ayesha Jalal, Dharma Kumar, V. K. Ra-
tween 1998 and 2004. machandran, Tapan Raychaudhuri, Emma
Rothschild, Lloyd Rudolph, Suzanne Rudolph,
© 2005 by the American Academy of Arts Ashutosh Varshney, Myron Weiner, and Nur
& Sciences Yalman.
168 Dædalus Fall 2005

fected by colonialism over the past cen- rialist history of India and the Hindu na- Indian
traditions
turies and are much influenced–both tionalist picturing of India’s past, even & the
collaterally and dialectically–by the im- though the former image is that of a gro- Western
pact of outside imagery (what we may tesquely primitive culture whereas the imagination
call “external identity”). However, the latter representation is dazzlingly glori-
direction of the influence of Western ous.
images on internal Indian identities is The special characteristics of the
not altogether straightforward. In re- Western approaches to India have en-
cent years, separatist resistance to West- couraged a disposition to focus partic-
ern cultural hegemony has led to the cre- ularly on the religious and spiritual el-

ation of signi½cant intellectual move- ements in Indian culture. There has al-
ments in many postcolonial societies– so been a tendency to emphasize the
not least in India. This has particularly contrast between what is taken to be
drawn attention to the important fact “Western rationality” and the cultiva-
that the self-identity of postcolonial so- tion of what “Westerners” would see
cieties is deeply affected by the power as “irrational” in Indian intellectual tra-
of the colonial cultures and their forms ditions. While Western critics may ½nd
of thought and classi½cation. Those “antirationalism” to be defective and
who prefer to pursue a more “indige- crude, and Indian cultural separatists
nous” approach often opt for a charac- may ½nd it cogent and penetrating (and
terization of Indian culture and society perhaps even “rational” in some deeper
that is rather self-consciously “distant” sense), they nevertheless agree on the
from Western traditions. There is much existence of a simple and sharp contrast
interest in “recovering” a distinctly In- between the two heritages. The issue
dian focus in Indian culture. that has to be scrutinized is whether
I would argue that this stance does not such a bipolar contrast is at all present
take adequate note of the dialectical as- in that form.
pects of the relationship between India I will discuss these questions and ar-
and the West and, in particular, tends gue that focusing on India’s “special-
to disregard the fact that the external ness” misses, in important ways, crucial
images of India in the West have often aspects of Indian culture and traditions.
tended to emphasize (rather than down- The deep-seated heterogeneity of Indian
play) the differences–real or imagined– traditions is neglected in these homoge-
between India and the West. Indeed, I nized interpretations (even though the
propose that there are reasons why there interpretations themselves are of differ-
has been a considerable Western incli- ent kinds). My focus will be particular-
nation in the direction of “distancing” ly on images of Indian intellectual tradi-
Indian culture from the mainstream of tions, rather than on its creative arts and
Western traditions. The contemporary other features of social life. After distin-
reinterpretations of India (including the guishing between three of the dominant
speci½cally “Hindu” renditions), which approaches in Western interpretations
emphasize Indian particularism, join of Indian intellectual traditions, I will
forces in this respect with the “external” consider what may appear to be the
imaging of India (in accentuating the overall consequence of these approaches
distinctiveness of Indian culture). In- in Western images of India and its im-
deed, it can be argued that there is much pact on both external and internal iden-
in common between James Mill’s impe- tities.
Dædalus Fall 2005 169

Amartya
Sen
A dissimilarity of perceptions has been talism and its ideas about the Orient.”3
an important characteristic of Western I would argue that unless one chooses
interpretations of India, and several dif- to focus on the evolution of a speci½c
ferent and competing conceptions of conceptual tradition (as Said, in effect,
that large and complex culture have been does), “internal consistency” is precise-
influential in the West. The diverse in- ly the thing that is terribly hard to ½nd
terpretations of India in the West have in the variety of Western conceptions
tended to work to a considerable extent of India. There are several fundamen-
in the same direction (that of accentuat- tally contrary ideas and images of India,
ing India’s spirituality) and have rein- and they have quite distinct roles in the

forced each other in their effects on in- Western understanding of the country
ternal identities of Indians. But this is and also in influencing self-perceptions
not because the distinct approaches to of Indians.
India are not fundamentally different; Attempts from outside India to under-
they certainly are very disparate. The stand and interpret the country’s tradi-
similarity lies more in their impact–giv- tions can be, I would argue, put into at
en the special circumstances and the di- least three distinct categories, which I
alectical processes–than in their con- shall call exoticist approaches, magisterial
tent. approaches, and curatorial approaches.4
The analysis to be pursued here would The ½rst (exoticist) category concentrates
undoubtedly invite comparison and con- on the wondrous aspects of India. The
trast with Edward Said’s justly famous focus here is on what is different, what is
analysis of “Orientalism.” Said analyzes strange in the country that, as Hegel put
the construction of the “Orient” in it, “has existed for millennia in the imag-
Western imagination. As he puts it, “The ination of the Europeans.”
Orient is an idea that has a history and The second (magisterial) category
a tradition of thought, imagery, and vo- strongly relates to the exercise of imperi-
cabulary that have given it reality and al power and sees India as a subject terri-
presence in and for the West.”2 This essay tory from the point of view of its British
has a much narrower focus than Said’s, governors. This outlook assimilates a
viz. India, but there is clearly an overlap sense of superiority and guardianhood
of subject matter since India is a part of needed to deal with a country that James
the “Orient.” The main difference is at Mill de½ned as “that great scene of Brit-
the thematic level. Said focuses on uni- ish action.” While a great many British
formity and consistency in a particular- observers did not fall into this category
ly influential Western characterization (and some non-British ones did), it is
of the Orient, whereas I shall be dealing hard to dissociate this category from the
with several contrasting and conflicting task of governing the Raj.
Western approaches to understanding The third (curatorial) category is the
India. most catholic of the three and includes
Said explains that his work “deals
principally not with a correspondence 3 Ibid., 5.
between Orientalism and Orient, but
with the internal consistency of Orien- 4 In the earlier article “India and the West” on
which this essay draws, the third category was
2 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: called “investigative” rather than “curatorial”;
Random House, 1978; Vintage Books, 1979), 5; the latter is more speci½c and I believe some-
italics added. what more appropriate.

various attempts at noting, classifying, unfamiliar things is certainly among the Indian
traditions
and exhibiting diverse aspects of Indian possible reasons. It need not be seen as a & the
culture. Unlike the exoticist approaches, ½gment of the deluded scientist’s imagi- Western
a curatorial approach does not look only nation, nor as a tactical excuse for some imagination
for the strange (even though the “differ- other, ulterior preoccupation. Nor does
ent” must have more “exhibit value”), the pervasive relevance of different types
and unlike the magisterial approaches, of motivation have the effect of making
it is not weighed down by the impact of all the different observational ½ndings
the ruler’s priorities (even though the equally arbitrary. There are real lines to
magisterial connection would be hard be drawn between inferences dominated

to avoid altogether when the author is al- by rigid preconceptions (for example, in
so a member of the ruling imperial elite, the “magisterial” approaches, to be dis-
as they sometimes were). For these rea- cussed presently) and those that are not
sons, there is more freedom from pre- so dominated.
conceptions in this third category. On There is an interesting methodological
the other hand, the curatorial approach- history here. The fact that knowledge is
es have perspectives of their own, with a often associated with power is a recogni-
general interest in seeing the object–in tion that had often received far too little
this case, India–as very special and ex- attention in traditional social theories
traordinarily interesting. of knowledge. But in recent social stud-
Other categories can be proposed that ies, the remedying of that methodologi-
are not covered by any of the three. Also, cal neglect has been so comprehensive
the established approaches can be reclas- that we are now in some danger of ig-
si½ed according to some other organizing noring other motivations altogether that
principle. I am not claiming any grand may not link directly with the seeking
de½nitive status of this way of seeing the of power. While it is true that any use-
more prominent Western approaches to ful knowledge gives its possessor some
India. However, for the purpose of this power in one form or another, this may
essay, I believe this threefold categoriza- not be the most remarkable aspect of
tion is useful. that knowledge, nor the primary reason
for which this knowledge is sought. In-
I shall begin by considering the curator- deed, the process of learning can accom-
modate considerable motivational varia-
ial approaches. But ½rst I must deal with
a methodological issue, in particular, the tions without becoming a functionalist
prevalent doubts in contemporary social enterprise of some grosser kind. An epis-
theory about the status of intellectual temic methodology that sees the pursuit
curiosity as a motivation for knowledge. of knowledge as entirely congruent with
In particular, there is much skepticism the search for power is a great deal more
about the possibility of any approach cunning than wise. It can needlessly un-
to learning that is innocent of power. dermine the value of knowledge in sat-
That skepticism is justi½ed to some ex- isfying curiosity and interest; it signi½-
tent since the motivational issues under- cantly weakens one of the profound
lying any investigation may well relate to characteristics of human beings.
power relations, even when that connec- The curatorial approach relates to sys-
tion is not immediately visible. tematic curiosity. People are interested
Yet people seek knowledge for many in other cultures and different lands, and
different reasons, and curiosity about investigations of a country and its tradi-

Amartya tions have been vigorously pursued investigations, there are a great many
Sen
throughout human history. Indeed, the examples of serious Arabic studies of
development of civilization would have Indian intellectual traditions around
been very different had this not been the that time.6 Brahmagupta’s pioneering
case. The exact motivation for these in- Sanskrit treatise on astronomy had ½rst
vestigations can vary, but the inquiries been translated into Arabic in the eighth
need not be hopelessly bound by some century (Alberuni retranslated it three
overarching motivational constraint centuries later), and several works on
(such as those associated with the exoti- medicine, science, and philosophy had
cist or magisterial approaches). Rather, an Arabic rendering by the ninth cen-

the pursuit may be driven primarily by tury. It was through the Arabs that the
intellectual interests and concerns. This Indian decimal system and numerals
is not to deny that the effects of these in- reached Europe, as did Indian writings
vestigative pursuits may go well beyond in mathematics, science, and literature.
the motivating interests and concerns, In the concluding chapter of his book
nor that there could be mixed motivations on India, Alberuni describes the motiva-
of various kinds, in which power relation behind his work thus: “We think
tions play a collateral role. But to deny now that what we have related in this
the role of curiosity and interest as pow- book will be suf½cient for any one who
erful motivational features in their own wants to converse with [the Indians],
right would be to miss something rather and to discuss with them questions of
important. For the curatorial approach- religion, science, or literature, on the
es, that connection is quite central. very basis of their own civilization.”7 He
is particularly aware of the dif½culties of
A ½ne example of a curatorial achieving an understanding of a foreign
land and people, and speci½cally warns
approach to understanding India can
be found in Alberuni’s Ta’rikh al-hind the reader about it:
(The History of India), written in Arabic . . . in all manners and usages, [the Indi-
in the early eleventh century.5 Alberuni, ans] differ from us to such a degree as to
who was born in Central Asia in a.d. frighten their children with us, with our
973, ½rst came to India accompanying dress, and our ways and customs, and as
the marauding troops of Mahmud of to declare us to be devil’s breed, and our
Ghazni. He became very involved with
India and mastered Sanskrit; studied
6 See Wilhelm Halbfass, India and Europe: An
Indian texts on mathematics, natural Essay in Understanding (New York: State Univ-
sciences, literature, philosophy, and reli- ersity of New York Press, 1988), chap. 2.
gion; conversed with as many experts as
he could ½nd; and investigated social 7 Alberuni’s India, pt. ii, chap. lxxx, 246. The
conventions and practices. His book on same Arabic word was commonly used for
“Hindu” and “Indian” in Alberuni’s time. While
India presents a remarkable account of the English translator had chosen to use “Hin-
the intellectual traditions and social cus- dus” here, I have replaced it with “Indians” in
toms of early eleventh-century India. view of the context (to wit, Alberuni’s observa-
Even though Alberuni’s was almost tions on the inhabitants of India). This is an is-
certainly the most impressive of these sue of some interest in the context of the main
theme of this essay, since the language used
here in the English translation to refer to the
5 See Alberuni’s India, trans. E. C. Sachau, inhabitants of India implicitly involves a cir-
ed. A. T. Embree (New York: Norton, 1971). cumscribed ascription.

doings as the very opposite of all that is
ing year had established the Asiatic Soci- Indian
traditions
good and proper. By the bye, we must con-ety of Bengal with the active patronage & the
fess, in order to be just, that a similar de-
of Warren Hastings. In collaboration Western
preciation of foreigners not only prevails
with scholars such as Charles Wilkins imagination
among us and [the Indians], but is com- and Thomas Colebrooke, Jones and the
mon to all nations towards each other.8 Asiatic Society did a remarkable job in
translating a number of Indian classics
While Arab scholarship on India pro-
–religious documents (such as the Gita)
vides plentiful examples of curatorial
as well as legal treatises (particularly,
approaches in the external depiction of
Manusmriti) and literary works (such as
India, they are not, of course, unique in

Kalidasa’s Śakuntala).
this respect. Chinese travelers Fa Hsien
Jones was quite obsessed with India
and Hsuan Tsang, who spent many years
and declared his ambition “to know In-
in India in the ½fth and seventh centu-
dia better than any other European ever
ries a.d. respectively, provided extensive
knew it.” His description of his selected
accounts of what they saw. While they
½elds of study included the following
had gone to India for Buddhist studies,
modest list:
their reports cover a variety of Indian
subjects, described with much care and . . . the Laws of the Hindus and the Mo-
interest. hamedans, Modern Politics and Geogra-
Quite a few of the early European phy of Hindustan, Best Mode of Govern-
studies of India must also be put in this ing Bengal, Arithmetic and Geometry, and
general category. A good example is the Mixed Sciences of the Asiaticks, Medi-
Italian Jesuit Roberto Nobili, who went cine, Chemistry, Surgery, and Anatomy
to south India in the early seventeenth of the Indians, Natural Productions of
century, and whose remarkable schol- India, Poetry, Rhetoric, and Morality of
arship in Sanskrit and Tamil permitted Asia, Music of the Eastern Nations, Trade,
him to produce quite authoritative Manufacture, Agriculture, and Commerce
books on Indian intellectual discussions, of India.9
in Latin as well as in Tamil. Another Je-
One can ½nd many other examples of
suit, Father Pons from France, produced
dedicated scholarship among British of-
a grammar of Sanskrit in Latin in the
½cers in the East India Company, and
early eighteenth century and also sent
there can be little doubt that the West-
a collection of original manuscripts to
ern perceptions of India were profound-
Europe (happily for him, the Bombay
ly influenced by these investigations.
customs authorities were not yet in ex-
Not surprisingly, the focus here is quite
istence then).
often on those things that are distinctive
However, the real eruption of Euro-
in India. The specialists on India pointed
pean interest in India took place a bit
to the uncommon aspects of Indian cul-
later, in direct response to British–rath-
ture and its intellectual traditions, which
er than Italian or French–scholarship
were obviously more interesting given
on India. A towering ½gure in this intel-
the perspective and motivation of the
lectual transmission is the redoubtable
William Jones, the legal scholar and of- 9 William Jones, “Objects of Enquiry During
½cer of the East India Company, who My Residence in Asia,” included in The Collect-
went to India in 1783 and by the followed Works of Sir William Jones, 13 vols. (London:
J. Stockdale, 1807; republished, New York:
8 Alberuni’s India, pt. I, chap. I, 20. New York University Press, 1993).

Amartya observers.10 As a result, the curatorial was “to make war on those states and
Sen
approaches could not escape being subdue them.”11
somewhat slanted in their focus. I shall Mill chastised early British adminis-
come back to this issue later. trators (like William Jones) for having
taken “Hindus to be a people of high civ-
I turn now to the second category, the ilization, while they have in reality made
but a few of the earliest steps in the
magisterial approaches. The task of rul-
ing a foreign country is not an easy one progress to civilization.”12 At the end of
when its subjects are seen as equals. In a comprehensive attack on all fronts, he
this context, it is quite remarkable that came to the conclusion that the Indian

the early British administrators in India, civilization was on a par with other infe-
even the controversial Warren Hastings, rior ones known to Mill–“very nearly
were as respectful of the Indian tradi- the same with that of the Chinese, the
tions as they clearly were. The empire Persians, and the Arabians”; he also put
was still in its infancy and was being in this category, for good measure, “sub-
gradually acquired, rather tentatively ordinate nations, the Japanese, Cochin-
(if not in a ½t of absentmindedness). chinese, Siamese, Burmans, and even
A good example of a magisterial ap- Malays and Tibetans.”13
proach to India is the classic book on How well informed was Mill in deal-
India written by James Mill, published ing with his subject matter? Mill wrote
in 1817, on the strength of which he was his book without ever having visited
appointed as an of½cial of the East India India. He knew no Sanskrit, nor any Per-
Company. Mill’s History of British India sian or Arabic, had practically no knowl-
played a major role in introducing the edge of any of the modern Indian lan-
British governors of India to a particular guages, and thus his reading of Indian
characterization of the country. Mill dis- material was of necessity most limited.
puted and dismissed practically every There is another feature of Mill that
claim ever made on behalf of Indian cul- clearly influenced his investigations, to
ture and its intellectual traditions, con- wit, his inclination to distrust anything
cluding that it was totally primitive and stated by native scholars, since they
rude. This diagnosis ½t well with Mill’s appeared to him to be liars. “Our ances-
general attitude, which supported the tors,” says Mill, “though tough, were
idea of bringing a rather barbaric nation sincere; but under the glossing exterior
under the benign and reformist adminis- of the Hindu, lies a general disposition
tration of the British Empire. Consistent to deceit and per½dy.”14
with his beliefs, Mill was an expansion- Perhaps some examples of Mill’s
ist in dealing with the remaining inde- treatment of particular claims of
pendent states in the subcontinent. The
obvious policy to pursue, he explained, 11 Quoted in Eric Stokes, The English Utilitari-
ans and India (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959),
10 I have discussed the “positional” nature of 250.
objectivity, depending on the placing of the ob-
server and analyst vis-à-vis the objects being 12 James Mill, The History of British India (Lon-
studied, in “Positional Objectivity,” Philosophy don, 1817; republished, Chicago: University of
and Public Affairs (1993), and “On Interpreting Chicago Press, 1975), 225–226.
India’s Past,” in Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal,
eds., Nationalism, Democracy and Development: 13 Ibid., 248.
State and Politics in India (Delhi: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1997). 14 Ibid., 247.

achievement may be useful to illustrate speci½cally the argument for a rotating Indian
traditions
the nature of his extremely influential earth and a model of gravitational attrac- & the
approach. The invention of the decimal tion (proposed by Aryabhata, who was Western
system with place values and the placed born in a.d. 476, and investigated by, imagination
use of zero, now used everywhere, as among others, Varahamihira and Brah-
well as the so-called Arabic numerals magupta in the sixth and seventh cen-
are generally known to be Indian devel- turies). These works were well known in
opments. In fact, Alberuni had already the Arab world; as was mentioned earli-
mentioned this in his eleventh-century er, Brahmagupta’s book was translated
book on India,15 and many European as into Arabic in the eighth century and

well as Arab scholars had written on this retranslated by Alberuni in the eleventh.
subject.16 Mill dismisses the claim alto- William Jones had been told about these
gether on the grounds that “the inven- works in India, and he in turn reported
tion of numerical characters must have that statement. Mill expresses total as-
been very ancient” and “whether the tonishment at Jones’s gullibility.18 Af-
signs used by the Hindus are so peculiar ter ridiculing the absurdity of this attri-
as to render it probable that they invent- bution and commenting on the “preten-
ed them, or whether it is still more prob- sions and interests” of Jones’s Indian in-
able that they borrowed them, are ques- formants, Mill concludes that it was “ex-
tions which, for the purpose of ascer- tremely natural that Sir William Jones,
taining their progress in civilization, are whose pundits had become acquainted
not worth resolving.” with the ideas of European philosophers
Mill proceeds then to explain that the respecting the system of the universe,
Arabic numerals “are really hieroglyph- should hear from them that those ideas
ics” and that the claim on behalf of the were contained in their own books.”19
Indians and the Arabs reflects the con- For purposes of comparison it is useful
founding of “the origin of cyphers or to examine Alberuni’s discussion of the
numerical characters” with “that of hi- same issue nearly eight hundred years
eroglyphic writing.”17 At one level Mill’s earlier, concerning the postulation of a
rather elementary error lies in not know- rotating earth and gravitational attrac-
ing what a decimal or a place-value sys- tion in the still-earlier writings of Aryab-
tem is, but his ignorant smugness can- hata and Brahmagupta:
not be understood except in terms of his
implicit unwillingness to believe that 18 Mill found in Jones’s beliefs about early In-
a very sophisticated invention could dian mathematics and astronomy “evidence of
have been managed by such primitive the fond credulity with which the state of socie-
people. ty among the Hindus was for a time regarded,”
Another interesting example concerns and he was particularly amused that Jones had
made these attributions “with an air of belief.”
Mill’s reaction to Indian astronomy and Mill, The History of British India, 223–224. On
the substantive side, Mill amalgamates the dis-
15 Alberuni’s India, pt. I, chap. xvi, 174–175. tinct claims regarding 1) the principle of attrac-
tion, 2) the daily rotation of the earth, and 3)
16 For a modern account of the complex his- the movement of the earth around the sun.
tory of this mathematical development, see Aryabhata and Brahmagupta’s concern were
George Ifrah, From One to Zero (New York: mainly with the ½rst two, on which speci½c
Viking, 1985). assertions were made, unlike on the third.
17 Mill, The History of British India, 219–220. 19 Mill, The History of British India, 223–224.

Amartya Brahmagupta says in another place of the Macaulay’s own approach and inclina-
Sen same book: “The followers of Aryabhata tions echoed James Mill’s:
maintain that the earth is moving and
I have no knowledge of either Sanskrit or
heaven resting. People have tried to re-
Arabic . . . . I am quite ready to take the Ori-
fute them by saying that, if such were the
ental learning at the valuation of the Ori-
case, stones and trees would fall from the
entalists themselves. I have never found
earth.” But Brahmagupta does not agree
one among them who could deny that a
with them, and says that that would not
single shelf of a good European library
necessarily follow from their theory, ap-
was worth the whole native literature of
parently because he thought that all heavy
India and Arabia.23

things are attracted towards the center of
the earth.20 This view of the poverty of Indian in-
tellectual traditions played a major part
Alberuni himself proceeded to dispute
in educational reform in British India,
this model, raised a technical question
as is readily seen from the 1835 “Minute
about one of Brahmagupta’s mathemati-
on Indian Education,” written by Ma-
cal calculations, referred to a different
caulay himself (the quoted remark is
book of his own arguing against the pro-
actually taken from that document).
posed view, and pointed out that the rel-
The priorities in Indian education were
ative character of movements makes this
determined, henceforth, by a different
issue less central than one might ½rst
emphasis–by the need, as Macaulay
think: “The rotation of the earth does
argued, for a class of English-educated
in no way impair the value of astrono-
Indians who could “be interpreters be-
my, as all appearances of an astronomic
tween us and the millions whom we gov-
character can quite as well be explained
ern.”24
according to this theory as to the oth-
The impact of the magisterial views
er.”21 Here, as elsewhere, while arguing
of India was not con½ned only to Brit-
against an opponent’s views, Alberuni
ain and India. Modern documents in
tries to present such views with great
the same tradition have been influen-
involvement and care. The contrast be-
tial elsewhere, including in the United
tween Alberuni’s curatorial approach
States. In a series of long conversations
and James Mill’s magisterial pronounce-
on India and China conducted by Har-
ments could not be sharper.
old Isaacs in 1958 with 181 Americans–
There are plenty of other examples of
academics, professionals in mass media,
“magisterial” readings of India in Mill’s
government of½cials, missionaries and
history. This is of some practical impor-
church of½cials, and of½cials of founda-
tance, since the book was extremely in-
tions, voluntary social-service groups,
fluential in the British administration
and political organizations–Isaacs
and widely praised. It was described by
Macaulay as “on the whole the greatest lished, Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
historical work which has appeared in 1975), viii.
our language since that of Gibbon.”22
23 T. B. Macaulay, “Indian Education: Min-
20 Alberuni’s India, pt. I, chap. xxvi, 276–277. ute of the 2nd February, 1835”; reproduced in
G. M. Young, ed., Macaulay: Prose and Poetry
21 Ibid., 277. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1952), 722.
22 Quoted in John Clive’s introduction to
James Mill, The History of British India (repub- 24 Ibid., 729.

found that the two most widely read self was severely attacked in the book, Indian
traditions
literary sources on India were Rudyard but given his campaign against caste and & the
Kipling and Katherine Mayo, the au- untouchability, he might have actually Western
thor of the extremely derogatory Moth- welcomed even her exaggerations be- imagination
er India.25 Of these, Kipling’s writings cause of its usefully lurid portrayal of
would be more readily recognized as caste inequities. But while Gandhi may
having something of the “magisterial” have been right to value external criti-
approach to them. Lloyd Rudolph de- cism as a way of inducing people to be
scribes Mayo’s Mother India thus: self-critical, the impact of the “magiste-
rial approach” certainly gives American
First published in 1927, Mother India was

perceptions of India a very clear slant.28
written in the context of of½cial and un-
of½cial British efforts to generate sup-
port in America for British rule in India.
I turn now to the “exoticist” approach-
It added contemporary and lurid detail to
es to India. Interest in India has often
the image of Hindu India as irredeemably
been stimulated by the observation of
and hopelessly impoverished, degraded,
exotic ideas and views there. Arrian’s
depraved, and corrupt. Mayo’s Mother
and Strabo’s accounts of Alexander the
India echoed not only the views of men
Great’s spirited conversations with vari-
like Alexander Duff, Charles Grant,
ous sages of northwest India may or may
and John Stuart Mill but also those of
not be authentic, but ancient Greek liter-
Theodore Roosevelt, who glori½ed in
ature is full of uncommon happenings
bearing the white man’s burden in Asia
and thoughts attributed to India.
and celebrated the accomplishments of
Megasthenes’s Indika, describing In-
imperialism.26
dia in the early third century b.c., can
claim to be the ½rst outsider’s book on
Mahatma Gandhi, while describing India; it created much Greek interest, as
Mayo’s book as “a drain inspector’s can be seen from the plentiful references
report,” had added that every Indian to it, for example, in the writings of Dio-
should read it and seemed to imply, as dorus, Strabo, and Arrian. Megasthenes
Ashis Nandy notes, that it is possible had ample opportunity to observe India
“to put her criticism to internal use” since, as the envoy of Seleucus Nicator
(as an overstern drain inspector’s re- to the court of Chandragupta Maurya,
port certainly can be).27 Gandhi him- he spent nearly a decade (between 302
and 291 b.c.) in Pataliputra (the site of
25 See Harold Isaacs, Scratches on Our Minds
(Cambridge, Mass.: mit Press, 1958); repub- modern Patna), the capital city of the
lished as Images of Asia: American Views of India Mauryan empire. But his superlatively
and China (New York: Capricorn Books, 1958). admiring book is also so full of accounts
See also the discussion of this issue in the “In- of fantastic objects and achievements
troduction” in Sulochana Glazer and Nathan in India that it is hard to be sure what
Glazer, eds., Conflicting Images: India and the
United States (Glen Dale, Md.: Riverdale, 1990). 28 On this, see Glazer and Glazer, eds., Con-
flicting Images. The influence of magisterial
26 Lloyd I. Rudolph, “Gandhi in the Mind of readings on American imaging of India has
America,” in Glazer and Glazer, eds., Conflict- been somewhat countered in recent years by
ing Images, 166. the political interest in Gandhi’s life and ideas,
a variety of sensitive writings on India (from
27 Ashis Nandy, Traditions, Tyranny, and Uto- Erik Erikson to John Kenneth Galbraith), and
pias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness (Delhi: the Western success of several Indian novelists
Oxford University Press, 1987), 8. in English.

Amartya is imagined and what is really being ob- lent depth of the soul characterize their
Sen
served. work and their pleasure, their morals
There are various other accounts of and mythology, their arts.”30 Frederich
exotic Indian travels by ancient Greeks. Schlegel not only pioneered studies of
The biography of Apollonius of Tiyana Indo-European linguistics (later pur-
by Flavius Philostratus in the third cen- sued particularly by Max Muller) but
tury a.d. is a good example. In his also brought India fully into his critique
search for what was out of the ordinary, of the contemporary West. While in the
Apollonius was, we are assured, richly West “man himself has almost become
rewarded in India: “I have seen men liv- a machine” and “cannot sink any deep-

ing upon the earth and not upon it; de- er,” Schlegel recommended learning
fended without walls, having nothing, from the Orient, especially India. He
and yet possessing all things.”29 How also guaranteed that “the Persian and
such contradictory things can be seen German languages and cultures, as well
by the same person from the same ob- as the Greek and the old Roman, may all
servational position may not be obvious, be traced back to the Indian.”31 To this
but the bewitching charm of all this for list, Schopenhauer added the New Tes-
the seeker of the exotic can hardly be tament, informing us that, in contrast
doubted. with the Old, the New Testament “must
Exotic interests in India can be seen somehow be of Indian origin: this is at-
again and again, from its early history tested by its completely Indian ethics,
to the present day. From Alexander lis- which transforms morals into asceti-
tening to the gymnosophists’ lectures cism, its pessimism, and its avatar (i.e.,
to contemporary devotees hearing the the person of Christ).”32
sermons of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Not surprisingly, many of the early
Shri Rajneesh, there is a crowded line- enthusiasts were soon disappointed in
age. Perhaps the most important exam- not ½nding in Indian thought what they
ple of intellectual exoticism related to had themselves put there, and many
India can be seen in the European philo- of them went into a phase of withdraw-
sophical discussions in the eighteenth al and criticism. Some of the stalwarts,
and early nineteenth century, among the Schlegel in particular, recanted vigor-
Romantics in particular. ously. Others, including Hegel, outlined
Important ½gures in the Romantic fairly negative views of Indian traditions
movement, including the Schlegel and presented loud denials of the claim
brothers, Schelling, and others, were of preeminence of Indian culture–a
profoundly influenced by rather mag-
ni½ed readings of Indian culture. From
30 J. G. Herder, Auch eine Philosophie der Ge-
Herder, the German philosopher and a schichte: Samtliche Werke, translated by Halb-
critic of the rationalism of the European fass, India and Europe, 70.
Enlightenment, we get the magni½cent
news that “the Hindus are the gentlest 31 Translations by Halbfass, India and Europe,
branch of humanity” and that “moder- 74–75. Halbfass provides an extensive study
ation and calm, a soft feeling and a si- of these European interpretations of Indian
thought and the reactions and counterreac-
tions to them.
29 Quoted in John Drew, India and the Romantic
Imagination (Delhi and New York: Oxford Uni- 32 A. Schopenhauer, Parerga und Paralipomena;
versity Press, 1987), 95. translated by Halbfass, India and Europe, 112.

claim that was of distinctly European a chorus of adoration at the lyrical spiri- Indian
traditions
origin. When Samuel Coleridge asked: tuality of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry & the
“What are / These potentates of inmost but followed it soon afterwards with a Western
Ind?”33 he was really asking a question thorough disregard and ½rm denuncia- imagination
about Europe, rather than about India.34 tion. Tagore was a Bengali poet of tre-
In addition to veridical weakness, the mendous creativity and range (even
exoticist approach to India has an ines- though his poetry does not translate eas-
capable fragility and transience that can ily–not even the spiritual ones that were
be seen again and again. A wonderful so applauded) and also a great storytell-
thing is imagined about India and sent er, novelist, and essayist; he remains a

into a high orbit, and then it is brought dominant literary ½gure in Bangladesh
crashing down. All this need not be such and India. The versatile and innovative
a tragedy when the act of launching is writer that the Bengalis know well is not
done by (or with the active cooperation the sermonizing spiritual guru put to-
of ) the putative star. Not many would gether in London; nor did he ½t any bet-
weep, for example, for Maharishi Ma- ter the caricature of “Stupendranath
hesh Yogi when the Beatles stopped li- Begorr” to be found in Bernard Shaw’s
onizing him and left suddenly; in an- “A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Frank-
swer to the Maharishi’s question of why lyn Barnabas.”
were they leaving, John Lennon said,
“You are the cosmic one; you ought to
know.”35
These different approaches have had
very diverse impacts on the understand-
But it is a different matter altogether ing of Indian intellectual traditions in
when both the boom and the bust are the West. The exoticist and magisterial
thrust upon the victim. One of the most approaches have bemused and befud-
discouraging episodes in literary recep- dled that understanding even as they
tion occurred early in this century, when have drawn attention to India in the
Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, and others led West. The curatorial approaches have
33 See John H. Muirhead, Coleridge as a Philoso- been less guilty of this, and indeed his-
pher (London: G. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1930), torically have played a major part in
283–284, and Drew, India and the Romantic bringing out and drawing attention to
Imagination, chap. 6. the different aspects of Indian culture,
including its nonmystical and nonexotic
34 The nature of exoticist reading has typical-
ly had a strongly “Hindu” character. This was,
features. Nevertheless, given the nature
in some ways, present even in William Jones’s of the curatorial enterprise, the focus in-
curatorial investigations (though he was him- evitably leans towards that which is dif-
self a scholar in Arabic and Persian as well), but ferent in India, rather than what is simi-
he was to some extent redressing the relative lar to the West. In emphasizing the dis-
neglect of Sanskrit classics in the previous peri-
ods (even though the version of the Upanishads
tinctiveness of India, even the curatorial
that Jones ½rst read was the Persian translation approaches have sometimes contributed
prepared by the Moghul prince Dara Shikoh, to the accentuation of contrasts rather
Emperor Akbar’s great-grandson). The Euro- than commonalities with Western tradi-
pean Romantics, on the other hand, tended to tions, though not in the rather extreme
identify India with variants of Hindu religious
form found in the exoticist and magiste-
thought.
rial approaches.
35 William Davis, The Rich (London: Sidgwick The magisterial approaches played
and Jackson, 1982), 99. quite a vigorous role in the running of

Amartya the British Empire. Even though the Raj some years ago, near the Aldwych sta-
Sen
is dead and gone, the impact of the asso- tion in London, viewing with disgust a
ciated images survives, not least in the thousand posters pasted everywhere car-
United States (as discussed earlier). To rying pictures of the obese–and holy–
some extent, the magisterial authors also physique of Guru Maharajji (then a great
reacted against the admiration of India rage in London). Our dedicated racist
that can be seen in the writings of cura- was busy writing “fat wog” diligently
torial observers of India. For example, under each of the pictures. In a short
both Mill and Macaulay were vigorous- while that particular wog would be gone,
ly critical of the writings of authors such but I do not doubt that the “disgusted of

as William Jones, and there are some im- Aldwych” would scribble “lean wog” or
portant dialectics here. The respectful “medium-sized wog” under other
curatorial approaches painted a picture posters now.
of Indian intellectual traditions that was It might be thought that since the
much too favorable for the imperial cul- exoticist approaches give credit where
ture of the nineteenth century, and con- it may not be due and the magisterial
tributed to the vehemence of the magis- approaches withhold credit where it may
terial denunciations of those traditions. well be due, the two might neutralize
By the time Mill and Macaulay were each other nicely. But they work in very
writing, the British Indian empire was asymmetrical ways. Magisterial cri-
well established as a lasting and exten- tiques tend to blast the rationalist and
sive enterprise, and the “irresponsibili- humanist aspects of India with the great-
ty” of admiring the native intellectual est force (this is as true of James Mill as
traditions–permissible in the previous of Katharine Mayo), whereas exoticist
century for early servants of the East admirations tend to build up the mysti-
India Company–was hard to sustain as cal and extrarational aspects with par-
the favored reading of India in the con- ticular care (this has been so from Apol-
solidated empire. lonius of Tyana down to the Hare Krish-
Turning to the exoticist approaches, na activists of today). The result of the
the outbursts of fascinated wonder two taken together is to wrest the under-
bring India into Western awareness in standing of Indian culture forcefully
big tides of bewildering attention. But away from its rationalist aspects. Indi-
then they ebb, leaving only a trickle of an traditions in mathematics, logic, sci-
hardened exoticists holding forth. There ence, medicine, linguistics, or episte-
may well be, after a while, another tide. mology may be well known to the West-
In describing the rise and decline of ern specialist, but they play little part in
Rabindranath Tagore in London’s liter- the general Western understanding of
ary circles, E. M. Forster remarked that India.36 Mysticism and exoticism, in
London was a city of “boom and bust,” contrast, have a more hallowed position
but that description applies more gener- in that understanding.
ally (that is, not con½ned only to literary
circles in London) to the Western appre-
ciation of exotic aspects of Eastern cul-
W estern perceptions and character-
izations of India have had considerable
tures.
36 On this issue, see Bimal Matilal, Perceptions
The tides, while they last, can be hard (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986). See also
work though. I remember feeling quite Ronald Inden, Imagining India (Oxford: Black-
sad for a dejected racist whom I saw, well, 1990).

influence on the self-perceptions of In- past has extensively focused on the ob- Indian
traditions
dians themselves. This is clearly con- jects of exoticist praise, concentrating & the
nected to India’s colonial past and con- more on the mystical and the antira- Western
tinued deference to what is valued in the tionalist, for which many in the West imagination
West.37 However, the relationship need have such admiration.39
not take the form of simple acceptance– Second, the process ½t into the poli-
it sometimes includes strategic respons- tics of elitist nationalism in colonial In-
es to the variety of Western perceptions dia and fed the craving for a strong intel-
of India that suit the interests of inter- lectual ground to stand on to confront
nal imaging. We have to distinguish be- the imperial rulers. Partha Chatterjee

tween some distinct aspects of the influ- discusses the emergence of this attitude
ence that Western images have had on very well:
Indian internal identities.
. . . anticolonial nationalism creates its
First, the European exoticists’ inter-
own domain of sovereignty within colo-
pretations and praise found in India a
nial society well before its political battle
veritable army of appreciative listeners,
with the imperial power. It does this by
who were particularly welcoming given
dividing the world of social institutions
the badly damaged self-con½dence re-
and practices into two domains–the
sulting from colonial domination. The
material and the spiritual. The material
admiring statements were quoted again
is the domain of the “outside,” of the
and again, and the negative remarks by
economy and of statecraft, of science
the same authors (Herder, Schlegel, Goe-
and technology, a domain where the West
the, and others) were systematically
had proved its superiority and the East
overlooked.
had succumbed. In this domain, then,
In his Discovery of India, Jawaharlal
Western superiority had to be acknowl-
Nehru comments on this phenome-
non:
39 While the constitution of independent In-
There is a tendency on the part of Indi- dia has been self-consciously secular, the ten-
an writers, to which I have also partly dency to see India as a land of the Hindus re-
succumbed, to give selected extracts and mains quite strong. The confrontation between
“secularists” and “communitarians” has been
quotations from the writings of European
an important feature of contemporary India,
scholars in praise of old Indian literature and the identi½cation of Indian culture in main-
and philosophy. It would be equally easy, ly Hindu terms plays a part in this. While it is
indeed much easier, to give other extracts certainly possible to be both secular and com-
giving an exactly opposite viewpoint.38 munitarian (as Rajeev Bhargava has noted in
“Giving Secularism Its Due,” Economic and Po-
In the process of accepting the exoticist litical Weekly, July 9, 1994), the contemporary
praise, the Indian interpretation of the divisions in India tend to make the religious
and communal identities largely work against
37 On this issue in general, and on the hold of India’s secular commitments (as Bhargava also
“a predominantly third-person perspective” in notes). I have tried to scrutinize these issues in
self-perception, see Akeel Bilgrami, “What Is a my paper “Secularism and Its Discontents,” in
Muslim? Fundamental Commitment and Cul- Kaushik Basu and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, eds.,
tural Identity,” Critical Inquiry 18 (4) (1992). Unravelling the Nation: Sectarian Conflict and In-
dia’s Secular Identity (Delhi: Penguin, 1996). See
38 Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India also the other papers in that collection, and the
(Calcutta: Signet Press, 1946; centenary edi- essays included in Bose and Jalal, eds., National-
tion, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989), ism, Democracy and Development: State and Poli-
158. tics in India.

Amartya edged and its accomplishments careful- of colonial history, focusing more on
Sen
ly studied and replicated. The spiritual, the rural masses and the exploited ple-
on the other hand, is an “inner” domain beians–a broad group often identi½ed
bearing the “essential” marks of cultural by the capacious term “subalterns.”41
identity. The greater one’s success in imi- The move is entirely appropriate in its
tating Western skills in the material do- context (in fact, much overdue), and in
main, therefore, the greater the need to understanding colonial history, this is a
preserve the distinctiveness of one’s spiri- very important corrective.
tual culture. This formula is, I think, a fun- While this shift in focus rejects the
damental feature of anticolonial nation- emphasis on elitist intellectual traditions

alisms in Asia and Africa.40 in general (both of the materialist and
the nonmaterialist kind), it is in many
There was indeed such an attempt to
ways easier to relate the religious and
present what was perceived to be the
spiritual traditions of the elite to the
“strong aspects” of Indian culture, dis-
practices and beliefs of the nonelite. The
tinguished from the domain, as Chatter-
cutting edge of science and mathematics
jee puts it, “where the West had proved
is inevitably related to formal education
its superiority and the East had suc-
and preparation. In this context, the im-
cumbed.”
mense backwardness of India in mass
Chatterjee’s analysis can be supple-
education (an inheritance from the Brit-
mented by taking further note of the
ish period but not much remedied yet)
dialectics of the relationship between
compounds the dissociation of elite sci-
Indian internal identity and its external
ence and mathematics from the lives of
images. The diagnosis of strength in that
the nonelite. Acceptance of the achieve-
nonmaterialist domain was as much
ments of Indian spirituality tends to
helped by the exoticist admiration for
look less “alienated” from the masses
Indian spirituality as the acceptance of
than the achievements in ½elds that de-
India’s weakness in the domain of sci-
mand more exacting formal education.
ence, technology, and mathematics was
Thus, the exoticists’ praise of India is
reinforced by the magisterial dismissals
more easily accepted by those who are
of India’s materialist and rationalist tra-
particularly careful not to see India in
ditions. The emphases on internal iden-
elitist terms.
tity that emerged in colonial India bear
The fact remains, however, that illit-
powerful marks of dialectical encounters
eracy is a deprivation. The issue of in-
with Western perceptions.
terclass justice cannot be a matter only
Third, as the focus has shifted in re-
of recognizing the real role of the subal-
cent decades from elitist colonial histo-
terns in history (for example, in antico-
ry to the role of the nonelite, the concen-
lonial national movements), important
tration on the intellectual traditions of
the elite has weakened. Here we run into
one of the most exciting developments 41 The most effective move in that direction
in historiography in India. There has came under the leadership of Ranajit Guha;
see his introductory essay in Subaltern Studies I:
been a signi½cant shift of attention from Writings on South Asian History and Society, ed.
the elite to the underdogs in the writing Ranajit Guha (Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1982). See also the collection of “subaltern”
40 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Frag- essays edited by Ranajit Guha and Gayatri
ments (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Chakravorty Spivak, Selected Subaltern Studies
Press, 1993), 6. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).

though it is. It is also a matter of reme- with the typically classical understand- Indian
traditions
dying the immense inequalities in edu- ing of the intellectual heritage of the & the
cational and other opportunities that se- West produces a false contrast between Western
verely limit, even today, the actual lives the respective intellectual traditions. In imagination
of the subalterns. comparing Western thoughts and cre-
Interestingly enough, even by the elev- ations with those in India, the appropri-
enth century, the seriousness of this loss ate counterpoints of Aristotelian or Sto-
was noted by Alberuni himself (one of ic or Euclidian analyses are not the tradi-
the major curatorial authors whose work tional beliefs of the Indian rural masses
was referred to earlier). Alberuni spoke or of the local wise men but the compa-

of the real deprivation of “those castes rably analytical writings of, say, Kautilya
who are not allowed to occupy them- or Nagarjuna or Aryabhata. “Socrates
selves with science.”42 This substantive meets the Indian peasant” is not a good
deprivation remains largely unremedied way to contrast the respective intellectu-
even today (except in particular regions al traditions.
such as Kerala), with half of the adult
population of India (and nearly two-
thirds of the adult women) still remain-
The internal identities of Indians draw
on different parts of India’s diverse tra-
ing illiterate.43 In understanding the na- ditions. The observational leanings of
ture of Indian cultures and traditions, Western approaches have had quite a
focusing mainly on the achievements major impact–positively and negative-
–rather than deprivations–of the In- ly–on what contributes to the Indian
dian subaltern can yield a deceptive con- self-image that emerged in the colonial
trast. period and survives today. The relation-
This shift in emphasis has also, to ship has several dialectical aspects, con-
some extent, pushed the interpretation nected to the sensitivity towards selec-
of India’s past away from those achieve- tive admirations and dismissals from
ments that require considerable formal the cosmopolitan West as well as to the
training. While this move makes sense mechanics of colonial confrontations.
in some contexts, a comparison of a self- The differences between the curatori-
consciously nonelitist history of India al, magisterial, and exoticist approaches
to Western understanding of Indian in-
tellectual traditions lie, to a great extent,
42 Alberuni’s India, chap. ii, 32.
in the varying observational positions
43 Indeed, in conceptualizing “the good life” from which India has been examined
even from the perspective of the deprived un- and its overall images drawn. The de-
derdog, it would be a mistake to ignore alto- pendence on perspective is not a special
gether the intellectual achievements of the elite, characteristic of the imaging of India
since part of the deprivation of the exploited
alone. It is, in fact, a pervasive general
lies precisely in being denied participation in
these achievements. While Marx might have feature in description and identi½ca-
exaggerated a little in his eloquence about “the tion.44 “What is India really like?” is
idiocy of the village life,” there is nevertheless
a substantial point here in identifying the na- 44 I have tried to discuss this general issue in
ture of social deprivation. There is, in fact, no “Description as Choice,” Oxford Economic Pa-
basic contradiction in choosing the subaltern pers 32 (1980) (reprinted in Choice, Welfare and
perspective of history and taking systematic Measurement [Oxford: Blackwell; Cambridge,
note of the scholarly accomplishments of the Mass.: mit Press, 1982]), and in “Positional
elite. Objectivity,” Philosophy and Public Affairs (1993).

Amartya a good question for a foreign tourist’s (Buddhism) is of Indian origin, and, fur-
Sen
handbook precisely because the descrip- thermore, the atheistic schools of Carva-
tion there may sensibly be presented ka and Lokayata have generated exten-
from the particular position of being a sive arguments that have been serious-
foreign tourist in India. But there are ly studied by Indian religious scholars
other positions, other contexts, other themselves.46 Heterodoxy runs through-
concerns. out the early documents, and even the
The three approaches investigated ancient epic Ramayana, which is often
here have produced quite distinct views cited by contemporary Hindu activists
of Indian intellectual history, but their as the holy book of the divine Rama’s

overall impact has been to exaggerate life, contains dissenting characters. For
the nonmaterial and arcane aspects of example, Rama is lectured to by a world-
Indian traditions compared to its more ly pundit called Javali on the folly of his
rationalistic and analytical elements. religious beliefs: “O Rama, be wise,
While the curatorial approaches have there exists no world but this, that is cer-
been less guilty of this, their focus on tain! Enjoy that which is present and
what is really different in India has, to cast behind thee that which is unpleas-
some extent, also contributed to it. But ant.”47
the bulk of the contribution has come What is in dispute here is not the rec-
from the exoticist admiration of India (par- ognition of mysticism and religious ini-
ticularly of its spiritual wonders) and the tiatives in India, which are certainly
magisterial dismissals (particularly of its plentiful, but the overlooking of all the
claims in mathematics, science, and ana- other intellectual activities that are also
lytical pursuits). abundantly present. In fact, despite the
The nature of these slanted emphases grave sobriety of Indian religious preoc-
has tended to undermine an adequately cupations, it would not be erroneous to
pluralist understanding of Indian intel- say that India is a country of fun and
lectual traditions. While India has inher- games in which chess was probably
ited a vast religious literature, a large invented, badminton originated, polo
wealth of mystical poetry, grand specu- emerged, and the ancient Kamasutra told
lation on transcendental issues, and so people how to have joy in sex. Indeed,
on, there is also a huge–and often pio- Georges Ifrah quotes a medieval Arab
neering–literature, stretching over two poet from Baghdad called al-Sabhadi,
and a half millennia, on mathematics, who said that there were “three things
logic, epistemology, astronomy, physiol- on which the Indian nation prided it-
ogy, linguistics, phonetics, economics, self: its method of reckoning, the game
political science, and psychology, among of chess, and the book titled Kalila wa
other subjects concerned with the here Dimna [a collection of legends and fa-
and now.45
46 For example, the fourteenth-century book
Even on religious subjects, the only Sarvadarsanasamgraha (Collection of All Philos-
world religion that is ½rmly agnostic ophies) by Madhava Acarya (himself a good
Vaishnavite Hindu) devotes the ½rst chapter
45 This contrast is discussed in my joint paper of the book to a serious presentation of the
with Martha Nussbaum, “Internal Criticism arguments of the atheistic schools.
and Indian Rationalist Traditions,” in Michael
Krausz, ed., Relativism: Interpretation and Con- 47 English translation from H. P. Shastri, The
frontation (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Ramayana of Valmiki (London: Shanti Sadan,
Notre Dame Press, 1989). 1959), 389.

bles].”48 This is not altogether a differ- Indian
traditions
ent list from Voltaire’s catalog of the & the
important things to come from India: Western
“our numbers, our backgammon, our imagination
chess, our ½rst principles of geometry,
and the fables which have become our
own.”49 These selections would not ½t
the cultivated Western images of Indian
historical traditions, which are typically
taken to be ponti½cally serious and un-

compromisingly spiritual.
Nor would it ½t the way many Indians
perceive themselves and their intellectu-
al past, especially those who take a “sep-
aratist” position on the nature of Indian
culture. I have tried to discuss how that
disparity has come about and how it is
sustained. I have also tried to speculate
about how the selective alienation of
India from a very substantial part of its
past has been nourished by the asym-
metrical relationship between India and
the West. It is, oddly enough, the ratio-
nalist part of India’s tradition that has
been affected most by this alienation.
The impact of the West on internal iden-
tities in India has to be seen in funda-
mentally dialectical terms.
48 Ifrah, From One to Zero, 434.
49 Voltaire, Les ouevres completes, vol. 124;

translated by Halbfass, India and Europe, 59.

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Amartya Sen

Indian traditions &

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168 Dædalus Fall 2005

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48 Ifrah, From One to Zero, 434.

49 Voltaire, Les ouevres completes, vol. 124;

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