Home in the world - A Memoir (Amartya Sen)

This book is an autobiography. I loved Amartya Sen's prose in “The Argumentative Indian” and this book did not disappoint either. The description of Burma and Shantiniketan seemed very beautiful to me. The mindbending argument in Shantiniketan about terming most of Northern India as the biggest fresh-water island is impeccable and stands out for the understated humour. I got introduced to the great Kshitimohan Sen through this book. There is a lot of humble bragging by Sen and why not?! He is undoubtedly an academic prodigy. And I like his type of bragging much more than the brash and tasteless bragging that goes around nowadays. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

But I don’t like Sen’s Muslim appeasement tendencies. A sample of that is in the post-script. I noticed such tendencies in his other writings as well. But I don’t let this dislike come in my way of enjoying the rest of his work. I look forward to more of his works.

Postscript:

• I bought this book in July 2021, at the peak of the Wuhan flu pandemic. 
• Chapter 6, section 8 (page 107): The sacking of Nalanda by Islamic invasion is obfuscated. Sen refers to "invaders from the Middle East" without naming the religion. However, he mentions about resumption of higher studies later under Muslim rulers explicitly. I would have granted Sen a civility that he does not want to humiliate a community by explicitly associating the entire community with bad deeds. But Sen does not extend the same courtesy to Hindus. He explicitly mentioned Hindutva and political Hinduism ruining the plans of the Nalanda restoration.