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Charvaka - Wikipedia

Charvaka - Wikipedia

Charvaka

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Charvaka (Sanskrit: चार्वाक; IAST: Cārvāka), also known as Lokāyata, is an ancient school of Indian materialism.[1] It is considered as one example of the atheistic schools in the Hindu tradition.[a][3][b][5][c] Charvaka holds direct perception, empiricism, and conditional inference as proper sources of knowledge, embraces philosophical skepticism and rejects ritualism.[4][6][7][8][9] It was a popular belief system in ancient India.[d]

Brihaspati, a philosopher, is traditionally referred to as the founder of Charvaka or Lokāyata philosophy, although some scholars dispute this.[10][11] During the Hindu reformation period in the first millennium BCE, when Buddhism was established by Gautama Buddha and Jainism was re-organized by Parshvanatha.[12] Its teachings have been compiled from historic secondary literature such as those found in the shastras, sutras, and the Indian epic poetry.[13]

In other words, the Charvaka epistemology states that whenever one infers a truth from a set of observations or truths, one must acknowledge doubt; inferred knowledge is conditional.[14]

Charvaka is categorized as one of the nāstika or "heterodox" schools of Indian philosophy.[15][16]

Etymology and meaning[edit]

The etymology of Charvaka (Sanskrit: चार्वाक) is uncertain. Bhattacharya quotes the grammarian Hemacandra, to the effect that the word cārvāka is derived from the root carv, 'to chew' : "A Cārvāka chews the self (carvatyātmānaṃ cārvākaḥ). Hemacandra refers to his own grammatical work, Uṇādisūtra 37, which runs as follows: mavāka-śyāmāka-vārtāka-jyontāka-gūvāka-bhadrākādayaḥ. Each of these words ends with the āka suffix and is formed irregularly."[17] This may also allude to the philosophy's hedonistic precepts of "eat, drink, and be merry".[18]

Others believe it to mean "agreeable speech" or pejoratively, "sweet-tongued", from Sanskrit's cāru "agreeable" and vāc "speech" (which becomes vāk in the nominative singular and in compounds). Yet another hypothesis is that it is eponymous, with the founder of the school being Charvaka, a disciple of Brihaspati.[19]

As Lokayata[edit]

According to claims of Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, the traditional name of Charvaka is Lokayata.[20] It was called Lokayata because it was prevalent (ayatah) among the people (lokesu), and meant the world-outlook of the people. The dictionary meaning of Lokāyata (लोकायत) signifies "directed towards, aiming at the world, worldly".[18][e]

In early to mid 20th century literature, the etymology of Lokayata has been given different interpretations, in part because the primary sources are unavailable, and the meaning has been deduced from divergent secondary literature.[22] The name Lokāyata, for example, is found in Chanakya's Arthashastra, which refers to three ānvīkṣikīs (अन्वीक्षिकी, literally, examining by reason,[23] logical philosophies) – Yoga, Samkhya and Lokāyata. However, Lokāyata in the Arthashastra is not anti-Vedic, but implies Lokāyata to be a part of Vedic lore.[24] Lokāyata here refers to logic or science of debate (disputatio, "criticism").[25] Rudolf Franke translated Lokayata in German as "logisch beweisende Naturerklärung", that is "logically proving explanation of nature".[26]

In 8th century CE Jaina literature, Saddarsanasamuccaya by Haribhadra,[27] Lokayata is stated to be the Hindu school where there is "no God, no samsara (rebirth), no karma, no duty, no fruits of merit, no sin."[28]

The Buddhist Sanskrit work Divyavadana (ca. 200–350 CE) mentions Lokayata, where it is listed among subjects of study, and with the sense of "technical logical science".[29] Shantarakshita and Adi Shankara use the word lokayata to mean materialism,[30][31] with the latter using the term Lokāyata, not Charvaka.[32]

In Silāṅka's commentary on Sūtra-kṛtāṅgna, the oldest Jain Āgama Prakrt literature, he has used four terms for Cārvāka viz. (1) Bṛhaspatya (2) Lokāyata (3) Bhūtavādin (4) Vāmamārgin.[33]

Origin[edit]

The tenets of the Charvaka atheistic doctrines can be traced to the relatively later composed layers of the Rigveda, while substantial discussions on the Charvaka is found in post-Vedic literature.[30][34][f] The primary literature of Charvaka, such as the Brhaspati Sutra, is missing or lost.[30][34] Its theories and development has been compiled from historic secondary literature such as those found in the shastras (such as the Arthashastra), sutras and the epics (the Mahabharata and Ramayana) of Hinduism as well as from the dialogues of Gautama Buddha and Jain literature.[30][36]

In the oldest of the Upanishads, in chapter 2 of the Brhadāranyaka (ca. 700 BCE), the leading theorist Yājnavalkya states in a passage often referred to by the irreligious: "so I say, after death there is no awareness."

This declaration arises in a discussion with his female philosophy interlocutor, Maitreyi, who notices that this might mean there is no afterlife – no religion: "After Yājñavalkya said this, Maitreyi exclaimed: 'Now, sir, you have totally confused me by saying 'after death there is no awareness'."[37]

Substantial discussions about the Charvaka doctrines are found in texts during the 6th century BCE because of the emergence of competing philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism.[30][34][38] Bhattacharya posits that Charvaka may have been one of several atheistic, materialist schools that existed in ancient India during the 6th century BCE.[39] Though there is evidence of its development in Vedic era,[40] the Charvaka school of philosophy predated the Āstika schools as well as being a philosophical predecessor to subsequent or contemporaneous philosophies such as Ajñana, Ājīvika, Jainism and Buddhism in the classical period of Indian philosophy.[41]

The earliest Charvaka scholar in India whose texts still survive is Ajita Kesakambali. Although materialist schools existed before Charvaka, it was the only school which systematised materialist philosophy by setting them down in the form of aphorisms in the 6th century BCE. There was a base text, a collection sūtras or aphorisms and several commentaries were written to explicate the aphorisms. This should be seen in the wider context of the oral tradition of Indian philosophy. It was in the 6th century BCE onwards, with the emergent popularity of Buddhism, that ancient schools started codifying and writing down the details of their philosophy.[42]

E. W. Hopkins, in his The Ethics of India (1924), claims that Charvaka philosophy predated Jainism and Buddhism, mentioning "the old Cārvāka or materialist of the 6th century BC". Rhys Davids assumes that lokāyata in ca. the 5th century BC came to mean "skepticism" in general without yet being organised as a philosophical school. This proves that it had already existed for centuries and had become a generic term by 600 BCE. Its methodology of skepticism is included in the Ramayana, Ayodhya kanda, chapter 108, where Jabāli tries to persuade Rāma to accept the kingdom by using nāstika arguments (Rāma refutes him in chapter 109):[43]

O, the highly wise! Arrive at a conclusion, therefore, that there is nothing beyond this Universe. Give precedence to that which meets the eye and turn your back on what is beyond our knowledge. (2.108.17)

There are alternate theories behind the origins of Charvaka. Bṛhaspati is sometimes referred to as the founder of Charvaka or Lokāyata philosophy, although other scholars dispute this.[10][11] Billington 1997, p. 43 states that a philosopher named Charvaka lived in or about the 6th century BCE, who developed the premises of this Indian philosophy in the form of Brhaspati Sutra. These sutras predate 150 BCE, because they are mentioned in the Mahābhāṣya (7.3.45).[43]

Arthur Llewellyn Basham, citing the Buddhist Samaññaphala Sutta, suggests six schools of heterodox, pre-Buddhist and pre-Jain, atheistic Indian traditions in 6th century BCE, that included Charvakas and Ajivikas.[44] Charvaka was a living philosophy up to the 12th century in India's historical timeline, after which this system seems to have disappeared without leaving any trace.[45]

Philosophy[edit]

The Charvaka school of philosophy had a variety of atheistic and materialistic beliefs. They held perception and direct experiments to be the valid and reliable source of knowledge.[46]

Epistemology[edit]

The Charvaka epistemology holds perception as the primary and proper source of knowledge, while inference is held as prone to being either right or wrong and therefore conditional or invalid.[14][47] Perceptions are of two types, for Charvaka, external and internal. External perception is described as that arising from the interaction of five senses and worldly objects, while internal perception is described by this school as that of inner sense, the mind.[14] Inference is described as deriving a new conclusion and truth from one or more observations and previous truths. To Charvakas, inference is useful but prone to error, as inferred truths can never be without doubt.[48] Inference is good and helpful, it is the validity of inference that is suspect – sometimes in certain cases and often in others. To the Charvakas there were no reliable means by which the efficacy of inference as a means of knowledge could be established.[49]

Charvaka's epistemological argument can be explained with the example of fire and smoke. Kamal states that when there is smoke (middle term), one's tendency may be to leap to the conclusion that it must be caused by fire (major term in logic).[14] While this is often true, it need not be universally true, everywhere or all the times, stated the Charvaka scholars. Smoke can have other causes. In Charvaka epistemology, as long as the relation between two phenomena, or observation and truth, has not been proven as unconditional, it is an uncertain truth. In this Indian philosophy such a method of reasoning, that is jumping to conclusions or inference, is prone to flaw.[14][48] Charvakas further state that full knowledge is reached when we know all observations, all premises and all conditions. But the absence of conditions, state Charvakas, can not be established beyond doubt by perception, as some conditions may be hidden or escape our ability to observe.[14] They acknowledge that every person relies on inference in daily life, but to them if we act uncritically, we err. While our inferences sometimes are true and lead to successful action, it is also a fact that sometimes inference is wrong and leads to error.[39] Truth then, state Charvaka, is not an unfailing character of inference, truth is merely an accident of inference, and one that is separable. We must be skeptics, question what we know by inference, question our epistemology.[14][34]

This epistemological proposition of Charvakas was influential among various schools of Indian philosophies, by demonstrating a new way of thinking and re-evaluation of past doctrines. Hindu, Buddhist and Jain scholars extensively deployed Charvaka insights on inference in rational re-examination of their own theories.[14][50]

Comparison with other schools of Hinduism[edit]

Charvaka epistemology represents minimalist pramāṇas (epistemological methods) in Hindu philosophy. The other schools of Hinduism developed and accepted multiple valid forms of epistemology.[51][52] To Charvakas, Pratyakṣa (perception) was the one valid way to knowledge and other means of knowledge were either always conditional or invalid. While the Charvaka school accepted just one valid means for knowledge, in other schools of Hinduism they ranged between 2 and 6.[51][52] Advaita Vedanta scholars considered six means of valid knowledge and to truths: Pratyakṣa (perception), Anumāna (inference), Upamāna (comparison and analogy), Arthāpatti (postulation), Anupalabdhi (non-perception, cognitive proof) and Śabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts).[51][52][53]

Metaphysics[edit]

Since none of the means of knowing were found to be worthy to establish the invariable connection between middle term and predicate, Charvakas concluded that the inference could not be used to ascertain metaphysical truths. Thus, to Charvakas, the step which the mind takes from the knowledge of something to infer the knowledge of something else could be accounted for by its being based on a former perception or by its being in error. Cases where inference was justified by the result were seen only to be mere coincidences.[54]

Therefore, Charvakas denied metaphysical concepts like reincarnation, an extracorporeal soul, the efficacy of religious rites, other worlds (heaven and hell), fate and accumulation of merit or demerit through the performance of certain actions.[42] Charvakas also rejected the use of supernatural causes to describe natural phenomena. To them all natural phenomena was produced spontaneously from the inherent nature of things.[55]

The fire is hot, the water cold, refreshing cool the breeze of morn;
By whom came this variety ? from their own nature was it born.[55]

Consciousness and afterlife[edit]

The Charvaka did not believe in karma, rebirth or an afterlife. To them, all attributes that represented a person, such as thinness, fatness, etc., resided in the body. The Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha states the Charvaka position as follows,[56]

There is no world other than this;
There is no heaven and no hell;
The realm of Shiva and like regions,
are fabricated by stupid imposters.

— Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha, Verse 8[56]

Pleasure[edit]

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Charvaka believed that there was nothing wrong with sensual pleasure. Since it is impossible to have pleasure without pain, Charvaka thought that wisdom lay in enjoying pleasure and avoiding pain as far as possible. Unlike many of the Indian philosophies of the time, Charvaka did not believe in austerities or rejecting pleasure out of fear of pain and held such reasoning to be foolish.[46]

The Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha states the Charvaka position on pleasure and hedonism as follows,[57]

The enjoyment of heaven lies in eating delicious food, keeping company of young women, using fine clothes, perfumes, garlands, sandal paste... while moksha is death which is cessation of life-breath... the wise therefore ought not to take pains on account of moksha.

A fool wears himself out by penances and fasts. Chastity and other such ordinances are laid down by clever weaklings.

— Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha, Verses 9-12[58]

The scholar Bhattacharya argues that the common belief that "all materialists are nothing but sensualists" is a misconception, as no authentic Carvaka aphorism have been cited by the movement's opponents to support this view.[59]

Religion[edit]

Charvakas rejected many of the standard religious conceptions of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Ajivakas, such as an afterlife, reincarnation, samsara, karma and religious rites. They were critical of the Vedas, as well as Buddhist scriptures.[60]

The Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha with commentaries by Madhavacharya describes the Charvakas as critical of the Vedas, materialists without morals and ethics. To Charvakas, the text states, the Vedas suffered from several faults – errors in transmission across generations, untruth, self-contradiction and tautology. The Charvakas pointed out the disagreements, debates and mutual rejection by karmakanda Vedic priests and jñānakanda Vedic priests, as proof that either one of them is wrong or both are wrong, as both cannot be right.[60][61][62]

Charvakas, according to Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha verses 10 and 11, declared the Vedas to be incoherent rhapsodies whose only usefulness was to provide livelihood to priests. They also held the belief that Vedas were invented by man, and had no divine authority.[55]

Charvakas rejected the need for ethics or morals, and suggested that "while life remains, let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee even though he runs in debt".[55]

The Jain scholar Haribhadra, in the last section of his text Saddarsanasamuccaya, includes Charvaka in his list of six darśanas of Indian traditions, along with Buddhism, Nyaya-Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Jainism and Jaiminiya.[63] Haribhadra notes that Charvakas assert that there is nothing beyond the senses, consciousness is an emergent property, and that it is foolish to seek what cannot be seen.[64]

The accuracy of these views, attributed to Charvakas, has been contested by scholars.[65][66]

Public administration[edit]

An extract from Aaine-Akbari (vol.III, tr. by H. S. Barrett, pp217–218) written by Abul Fazl, the famous historian of Akbar's court, mentions a symposium of philosophers of all faiths held in 1578 at Akbar's instance. The account is given by the historian Vincent Smith, in his article titled "The Jain Teachers of Akbar". Some Carvaka thinkers are said to have participated in the symposium. Under the heading "Nastika" Abul Fazl has referred to the good work, judicious administration and welfare schemes that were emphasised by the Charvaka law-makers. Somadeva has also mentioned the Charvaka method of defeating the enemies of the nation.[67][68]

Mention in Mahabharata[edit]

In the epic Mahabharata, Book 12 Chapter 39, a rakshasa who dresses up like a Brahmin and appoints himself as spokesperson for all Brahmins is named Charvaka. Charvaka criticizes Yudhishthira for killing his kinsmen, superiors, and teacher, and claims that all the Brahmins are uttering maledictions to him. Yudhishthira is ashamed of this, but the Brahmin Vaishampayana reassures him. The Brahmins, now filled with rage, destroy Charvaka with the power of their mantras.[69]

Mention in other works[edit]

No independent works on Charvaka philosophy can be found except for a few sūtras attributed to Brihaspati. The 8th century Tattvopaplavasimha of Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa with Madhyamaka influence is a significant source of Charvaka philosophy. Shatdarshan Samuchay and Sarvadarśanasaṅ̇graha of Vidyaranya are a few other works which elucidate Charvaka thought.[70]

One of the widely studied references to the Charvaka philosophy is the Sarva-darśana-saṅgraha (etymologically all-philosophy-collection), a famous work of 14th century Advaita Vedanta philosopher Mādhava Vidyāraṇya from South India, which starts with a chapter on the Charvaka system. After invoking, in the Prologue of the book, the Hindu gods Shiva and Vishnu ("by whom the earth and rest were produced"), Vidyāraṇya asks, in the first chapter:[71]

...but how can we attribute to the Divine Being the giving of supreme felicity, when such a notion has been utterly abolished by Charvaka, the crest-gem of the atheistic school, the follower of the doctrine of Brihaspati? The efforts of Charvaka are indeed hard to be eradicated, for the majority of living beings hold by the current refrain:

While life is yours, live joyously;
None can escape Death's searching eye:
When once this frame of ours they burn,
How shall it e'er again return?[71]

Sanskrit poems and plays like the Naiṣadha-carita, Prabodha-candrodaya, Āgama-dambara, Vidvanmoda-taraṅgiṇī and Kādambarī contain representations of the Charvaka thought. However, the authors of these works were thoroughly opposed to materialism and tried to portray the Charvaka in an unfavourable light. Therefore, their works should only be accepted critically.[42]

Loss of original works[edit]

Main article: Barhaspatya sutras

There was no continuity in the Charvaka tradition after the 12th century. Whatever is written on Charvaka post this is based on second-hand knowledge, learned from preceptors to disciples and no independent works on Charvaka philosophy can be found.[42] Chatterjee and Datta explain that our understanding of Charvaka philosophy is fragmentary, based largely on criticism of its ideas by other schools, and that it is not a living tradition:

"Though materialism in some form or other has always been present in India, and occasional references are found in the Vedas, the Buddhistic literature, the Epics, as well as in the later philosophical works we do not find any systematic work on materialism, nor any organised school of followers as the other philosophical schools possess. But almost every work of the other schools states, for refutation, the materialistic views. Our knowledge of Indian materialism is chiefly based on these."[72]

Controversy on reliability of sources[edit]

Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 10, 29–32 states that the claims against Charvaka of hedonism, lack of any morality and ethics and disregard for spirituality is from texts of competing religious philosophies (Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism). Its primary sources, along with commentaries by Charvaka scholars, are missing or lost. This reliance on indirect sources raises the question of reliability and whether there was a bias and exaggeration in representing the views of Charvakas. Bhattacharya points out that multiple manuscripts are inconsistent, with key passages alleging hedonism and immorality missing in many manuscripts of the same text.[65]

The Skhalitapramathana Yuktihetusiddhi by Āryadevapāda, in a manuscript found in Tibet, discusses the Charvaka philosophy, but attributes a theistic claim to Charvakas - that happiness in this life, and the only life, can be attained by worshiping gods and defeating demons. Toso posits that as Charvaka philosophy's views spread and were widely discussed, non-Charvakas such as Āryadevapāda added certain points of view that may not be of the Charvakas'.[73]

Buddhists, Jains, Advaita Vedantins and Nyāya philosophers considered the Charvakas as one of their opponents and tried to refute their views. These refutations are indirect sources of Charvaka philosophy. The arguments and reasoning approaches Charvakas deployed were so significant that they continued to be referred to, even after all the authentic Charvaka/Lokāyata texts had been lost. However, the representation of the Charvaka thought in these works is not always firmly grounded in first-hand knowledge of Charvaka texts and should be viewed critically.[42]

Likewise, states Bhattacharya, the charge of hedonism against Charvaka might have been exaggerated.[65] Countering the argument that the Charvakas opposed all that was good in the Vedic tradition, Riepe 1964, p. 75 states, "It may be said from the available material that Cārvākas hold truth, integrity, consistency, and freedom of thought in the highest esteem."

Influence on Europe and China[edit]

According to reports, the Europeans were surprised by the openness and rational doubts of the Mughal emperor Akbar and the Indians. In Pierre De Jarric's Histoire (1610), based on the Jesuit reports, the Mughal emperor is compared to an atheist himself: "Thus we see in this Prince the common fault of the atheist, who refuses to make reason subservient to faith (…)"[74]

Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski writes this concerning the Jesuit descriptions in the paper "East-West Swerves: Cārvāka Materialism and Akbar's Religious Debates at Fatehpur Sikri" (2015):

…The information they sent back to Europe was disseminated widely in both Catholic and Protestant countries (…) A more detailed understanding of Indian philosophies, including Cārvāka, began to emerge in Jesuit missionary writings by the early to mid-seventeenth century.[75]

The Jesuit Roberto De Nobili wrote in 1613 that the "Logaidas" (Lokayatas) "hold the view that the elements themselves are god". Some decades later, Heinrich Roth, who studied Sanskrit in Agra ca. 1654–60, translated the Vedantasara by the influential Vedantic commentator Sadananda (14th). This text depicts four different schools of the Carvaka philosophies.

Wojciehowski notes: "Rather than proclaiming a Cārvāka renaissance in Akbar's court, it would be safer to suggest that the ancient school of materialism never really went away."

In Classical Indian Philosophy (2020), by Peter Adamson and Jonardon Ganeri, they mention a lecture by Henry T. Coolebrooke in 1827 on the schools of the Carvaka/Lokayata materialists.[76] Adamson and Ganeri compare the Carvakas to the "emergentism in the philosophy of mind," which is traced back to John Stuart Mill.

They write that Mill "sounds like a follower of Brhaspati, founder of the Cārvāka system, when he writes in his System of Logic that 'All organised bodies are composed of parts, similar to those composing inorganic nature (…)'"

The historian of ideas Dag Herbjørnsrud has pointed out that the Charvaka schools influenced China: "This Indian-Chinese materialist connection is documented in a little-known but groundbreaking paper by professor Huang Xinchuan, "Lokayata and Its Influence in China," published in Chinese in 1978 (English version in the quarterly journal Social Sciences in March 1981). Xinchuan, a senior researcher at the China Academy of Social Science, demonstrates how the Indian Lokāyata schools exercised an influence on ancient Chinese over the centuries. He lists 62 classical texts in China that refer to these Indian material-atheistic schools, from the Brahmajala Sutra translated by Zhi Qian (Chih Chien, 223–253), of the Kingdom of Wu, to An Explanation for Brahmajala Sutra written by Ji Guang (Chi-kuang, 1528–1588) of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, Xinchuan mentions four texts on Lokayata in Chinese by Japanese Buddhist writers."[74]

Xinchuan's paper explains how the Buddhists regarded the Lokayatikas as fellow-travellers of the Confucian and the Taoist Schools, and how they launched an attack on them because of their materialistic views. Xinchuan cites, as also Rasik Vihari Joshi noted in 1987, dozens of texts where Chinese classical works describe Lokayata either as "Shi-Jian-Xing" ("doctrine prevailing in the world"), "Wu-Hou-Shi-Lun" ("doctrine of denying after-life"), or refers to "Lu-Ka-Ye-Jin" (the "Lokāyata Sutra").[citation needed]

Commentators[edit]

Aviddhakarṇa, Bhavivikta, Kambalasvatara, Purandara and Udbhatabhatta are the five commentators who developed the Carvaka/Lokayata system in various ways.[77][78]

Influence[edit]

  • Dharmakirti, a 7th-century philosopher deeply influenced by Carvaka philosophy wrote in Pramanvartik.[79]
  • Pyrrho
  • The influence of this heterodox doctrine is seen in other spheres of Indian thought.

Organisations[edit]

  • The Charvaka Ashram founded by Boddu Ramakrishna in 1973 has stood the test of time and continues to further the cause of the rationalist movement.[80]

Criticism[edit]

Ain-i-Akbari, a record of the Mughal Emperor Akbar's court, mentions a symposium of philosophers of all faiths held in 1578 at Akbar's insistence[81] (also see Sen 2005, pp. 288–289). In the text, the Mughal historian Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak summarizes the Charvaka philosophy as "unenlightened" and characterizes their works of literature as "lasting memorials to their ignorance". He notes that Charvakas considered paradise as "the state in which man lives as he chooses, without control of another", while hell as "the state in which he lives subject to another's rule". On state craft, Charvakas believe, states Mubarak, that it is best when "knowledge of just administration and benevolent government" is practiced.[81]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "some of the ancient Hindu traditions like Carvakas have a rich tradition of materialism, in general, other schools..."[2]
  2. ^ "Of the three heterodox systems, the remaining one, the Cārvāka system, is a Hindu system."[4]
  3. ^ For a general discussion of Charvaka and other atheistic traditions within Hindu philosophy, see Frazier 2013, p. 367
  4. ^ "Aside from nontheistic schools like the Samkhya, there have also been explicitly atheistic schools in the Hindu tradition. One virulently anti-supernatural system is/was the so-called Charvaka school."
  5. ^ See loka and ayata, Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Germany; (लोक, loka which means "worlds, abode, place of truth, people", and आयत, āyata means "extended, directed towards, aiming at"[21]
  6. ^ "These atheistical doctrines existed from the earliest times as their traces are visible even in the Rigveda in some hymns of which Prof Max Muller pointed out the curious traces of an incipient scepticism. (...) Two things are therefore clear that the Brihaspatya tenets also called Charvaka tenets are of a very old standing..."[35]
  1. ^ Seema Chishti (21 August 2018). "Indian rationalism, Charvaka to Narendra Dabholkar". The Indian Express.
  2. ^ Thomas 2014, pp. 164–165.
  3. ^ Raman 2012, pp. 549–574.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b Tiwari 1998, p. 67.
  5. ^ Cooke 2006, p. 84.
  6. ^ Perrett 1984, pp. 161–174.
  7. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 21–32.
  8. ^ Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, pp. 187, 227–234.
  9. ^ Flint 1899, p. 463.
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b Bhattacharya 2002.
  11. ^ Jump up to:a b Jeaneane Fowler (2015). A. C. Grayling (ed.). The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Humanism. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 114 with footnote 17. ISBN 978-1-119-97717-9.
  12. ^ Quack 2011, p. 50:See footnote 3
  13. ^ Balcerowicz, Piotr (2016), "Jayarāśi", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 8 July 2020
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h Kamal 1998, pp. 13–16.
  15. ^ Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, pp. 1–3, Contents.
  16. ^ Flood 1996, p. 224.
  17. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 166–167.
  18. ^ Jump up to:a b Isaeva 1993, p. 27.
  19. ^ Sharma 1987, p. 40.
  20. ^ Chattopadhyaya 1992, p. 1.
  21. ^ Stöwe 2003.
  22. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 187–192.
  23. ^ Hacker 1978, p. 164.
  24. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 188–190.
  25. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 27, 189–191.
  26. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, p. 188.
  27. ^ Chapple 2003, p. 2.
  28. ^ Haribhadrasūri 1989.
  29. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 193–195.
  30. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, pp. 227–249.
  31. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 196.
  32. ^ Bhattacharya 2002, p. 6.
  33. ^ Joshi 1987.
  34. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Koller 1977, pp. 155–164.
  35. ^ Vaidya 2001, p. 503.
  36. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 21–44, 65–74.
  37. ^ Herbjørnsrud, Dag (16 June 2020). "The untold history of India's vital atheist philosophy". Blog of the APA. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  38. ^ Riepe 1964, p. 53-58.
  39. ^ Jump up to:a b Bhattacharya 2013, p. 133-149.
  40. ^ Sinha 1994, pp. 235–241.
  41. ^ Bhattacharya 2011, p. 9.
  42. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Bhattacharya 2011a.
  43. ^ Jump up to:a b Schermerhorn 1930, pp. 132–138.
  44. ^ Basham 1981, pp. 11–17.
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  46. ^ Jump up to:a b Acharya 1894, p. 3.
  47. ^ Bhattacharya 2010, pp. 529–542.
  48. ^ Jump up to:a b Bhattacharya 2011, pp. 55–67.
  49. ^ Acharya 1894, p. 5.
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  76. ^ Colebrooke, H. T. (1837). Miscellaneous Essays. Vol. 1. H. Allen.
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References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Bhatta, Jayarashi. Tattvopaplavasimha (Status as a Carvaka text disputed)
  • Gokhale, Pradeep P. The Cārvāka Theory of Pramāṇas: A Restatement, Philosophy East and West (1993).
  • Nambiar, Sita Krishna (1971). Prabodhacandrodaya of Krsna Misra. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass.

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Charvaka.
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Amartya Sen, Home in the World

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Rediff.com » Business » Amartya Sen, Home in the World


Amartya Sen, Home in the World
By Omkar Goswami
August 11, 2021 

Amartyada, says Omkar Goswami, thank you for being the humane, caring and socially concerned economist that you are.


All Illustrations: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com



More like this

The Amartya Sen Lecture



'It is high time to jettison Amartya Sen'

Born in 1933, Amartya Sen is over 87 years old. At that age, most people of letters tend to relax and ruminate. Not Sen.


With COVID-19 having taken away his incessant travels and lecturing and battened him down at his house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sen has written his memoir -- which is either his 30th or 31st book, a list that began with his PhD thesis, Choice of Techniques, published by Basil Blackwell in 1960.



This book consists of five parts -- comprising a combination of pure memoir with chapters on fundamental philosophical, political or economic issues.

Part One deals with Sen's early life, from childhood to his schooling at Santiniketan.

It is interspersed with three excellent non-memoir-like chapters on the rivers of undivided Bengal, on Tagore and his arguments especially with Gandhi, and on Sen's long association with Sanskrit that started under his grandfather's tutelage in Santiniketan.

I found his chapter on the company of grandparents particularly interesting, especially his close relationship with his maternal grandfather, the Sanskrit scholar, Kshiti Mohan Sen, whose classic, Hinduism, Sen translated from Bengali to English in 1961.


Part Two is thematic. It deals with the devastating Bengal Famine of 1943, the idea of Bangladesh, nationalist political resistance to British colonialism up to the division of India and Britain in India under the Raj.

Part Three returns to the autobiographical framework.

This is after Sen finished school at Santiniketan and moved on to do his BA at Presidency College, Calcutta in 1951.

Living at the YMCA hostel at Mechua Bazar, Sen came into his own -- not just in academics but in enjoying a sense of freedom and making many friends in the course of long addas at the Coffee House and elsewhere, covering every topic under the sun.



There is a great story in Chapter 12 that involves Sen, his college friend Sukhamoy Chakravarty, and Dasgupta's Bookshop which was the bibliophile's haunt.

Sukhamoy had borrowed Kenneth Arrow's classic, Social Choice and Individual Values and passed it on to Sen to read.



In it, Arrow set out his stunning 'Impossibility Theorem'. The question was this: Can individual choices of people be translated into a consistent social choice?

Arrow proved that with four extremely basic conditions that needed to be satisfied, one could not map individual preferences through any non-dictatorial social choice mechanism to yield consistent social decisions. Thus, the 'Impossibility Theorem'.

This discovery led to what I consider to be the greatest period of Sen's formal theoretical work which resulted in his masterpiece, Collective Choice and Social Welfare, published in 1970.

Part Three also deals with Sen's early battle with oral cancer.



In the summer of 1952, when he was not even 19 years old, Sen was treated at the Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital with seven days of gruelling, old-fashioned radium radiation and suffered incredible post-radiation pain; thankfully, the malignant tumour disappeared.


Thereafter, he underwent numerous treatments at the Radio Therapy Centre in Cambridge between 1953 and 1963.

Part Four, consisting of nine chapters, mostly deals with Sen's first ten years at Trinity College, Cambridge, first doing his second BA degree and then as a Prize Fellow and eventually as a lecturer and staff fellow.

After suffering some introductory sherry parties -- a drink he hates with a passion -- Sen went to meet his Gods, Piero Sraffa and Maurice Dobb.

Sraffa taught Sen various aspects of economics and the merits of ristretto.

'What was intended to be a two-year stay at Trinity for a rapidly earned BA degree... ended up being my first period of ten years there, from 1953 to 1963.'

Sen returned to Cambridge in 1998 as the Master of Trinity College, where he served for six years, and where he was when he received the Nobel Prize for economics.

Much of this section is about the deep friendships made -- such as Mahbub ul Haq of Pakistan, Lal Jayawardena from Sri Lanka, Michael Nicholson -- and Sen's interactions with Sraffa, Dobb and Joan Robinson; of Sen being elected as an Apostle, an exclusively “small intellectual aristocracy of Cambridge”; and his two-year stint in between as a professor at Jadavpur University so that he could complete the minimum number of years needed to submit his PhD thesis.



Part Five is short, consisting of two chapters: A philosophical one called 'Persuasion and Cooperation' and the other 'Near and Far', which deals with Sen's days as a professor at the Delhi School of Economics from 1963 to 1971.

After that he left to take up a professorship at the London School of Economics. The book abruptly ends there.



Which is a pity. Because between 1971 and now, he was at the LSE for six years; at Oxford for eleven; as the Master of Trinity for six; and at Harvard from 1987-88 and then from 2004 till date.

It was also when Sen's social, ethical and political conscience spoke out like never before. He had much to share about this highly productive period.

Let me end with a personal anecdote. Sen was my D Phil examiner at Oxford in 1982, and we communicated off and on in the pre-Internet days.

In 1989, while at Rutgers, I was re-reading his Poverty and Famines, which demonstrated that the Bengal Famine of 1943 was not on account of any food availability decline (FAD) but solely due to failure in exchange entitlements (FEE).

Looking at the same data that Sen had used, but treating these somewhat differently, I found that there was significant FAD and, hence, FEE.

So, I typed a draft and sent it to him for his critical comments.


Five days later he called back and said, 'I've gone through your paper carefully and checked all your calculations. You are right. Go ahead and publish it.' Such was, and is, the academic grace of the man.

Amartyada, thank you for being the humane, caring and socially concerned economist that you are. The profession is blessed for that.

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
===





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: A Memoir Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
Amartya Sen (Author), & 2 more
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Brought to you by Penguin.

The extraordinary early life in India and England of one of the world's leading public intellectuals.

Where is 'home'? For Amartya Sen home has been many places - Dhaka in modern Bangladesh, where he grew up; the village of Santiniketan, where he was raised by his grandparents as much as by his parents; Calcutta, where he first studied economics and was active in student movements and Trinity College, Cambridge, to which he came aged 19.

Sen brilliantly recreates the atmosphere in each of these. Central to his formation was the intellectually liberating school in Santiniketan founded by Rabindranath Tagore (who gave him his name Amartya) and enticing conversations in the famous Coffee House on College Street in Calcutta. As an undergraduate at Cambridge, he engaged with many of the leading figures of the day. This is a book of ideas - especially Marx, Keynes and Arrow - as much as of people and places.

In one memorable chapter, Sen evokes 'the rivers of Bengal' along which he travelled with his parents between Dhaka and their ancestral villages. The historic culture of Bengal is wonderfully explored, as is the political inflaming of Hindu-Muslim hostility and the resistance to it. In 1943, Sen witnessed the Bengal famine and its disastrous development. Some of Sen's family were imprisoned for their opposition to British rule: not surprisingly, the relationship between Britain and India is another main theme of the book. 

Forty-five years after he first arrived at 'the Gates of Trinity', one of Britain's greatest intellectual foundations, Sen became its Master.

©2022 Amartya Sen (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Listening Length 16 hours and 45 minutes
Author Amartya Sen
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Review

Sen is so engaging, so full of charm and has such a clear gift for the graceful sentence. It's a wonderful book, the portrait of a citizen of the world ... full of its author's beguiling personality, elegance and wit of presentation, and joyous in its celebration of the life of the mind. -- Philip Hensher ― Spectator

Sen's sensibility still seems Tagorean. There is the same affinity for freedom and imagination, a similar commitment to the vulnerable and the downtrodden, but most of all a shared sense that we don't yet know all there is to know about the world. -- Abhrajyoti Chakraborty ― Guardian

The clarity of Sen's thought and the lucidity of his prose are delightful and entertaining but the lightness of his touch can often be deceptive because it sometimes conceals the depth and range of Sen's erudition, the intensity and the passion of his commitment to certain values and ideas and his relentless quest to bring together the home and the world. -- Rudrangshu Mukherjee ― The Wire India

a charming, immensely readable, and very enjoyable voyage through the making of a great mind ... we are just led with rare good humour and gentle wit through the formative years of his life ... This is a very accessible book, "fun" to use one of Sen's favourite words, written in beautifully constructed short sentences that explain the most profound observations with commendable brevity ... It is Sen's capacity to maintain a simple style while telling amusing stories or explaining complex issues (as he does occasionally) that is both unique and captivating ... This memoir is an unforgettable story of the evolution of a thinking and enquiring and all too human a mind, as also a tribute to one who has harnessed his abundant academic talent to the needs of the humblest and poorest -- Mani Shankar Aiyar ― Open the Magazine

Amartya Sen's Home in the World is really three books in one. 
A sensitively written memoir of the first thirty years of his life, 
it is interspersed with sharp commentaries on history and politics 
as well as intellectual disquisitions on economic theory and philosophy.
 -- Sugata Bose ― Harvard Magazine

hypnotic ... Amartya Sen's exemplary life is a lesson in engagement with the world in which he is so at home; he is a real advertisement for someone who is happy being "a citizen of nowhere", or everywhere. -- Ferdinand Mount ― Prospect

it strikes me that Sen is more than an economist, a moral philosopher or even an academic. He is a life-long campaigner, through scholarship and activism, via friendships and the occasional enemy, for a more noble idea of home - and therefore of the world. -- Edward Luce ― Financial Times

This charming and absorbing book ... has the flavour of a relaxed conversation with a gifted raconteur ... Sen's memoir traces the experiences, encounters, and relationships that determined his conceptual concerns and intellectual evolution. It is also a deeply humane appreciation of what life can offer, filled with respect and empathy for other humans. -- Jayati Ghosh ― The Lancet

captivating ... This is not, though, just a book of ideas. Home in the World can't help but be the work of an intellectual. But, as its title implies, it is the work of an intellectual who acknowledges that ideas grow out of - are imbricated with - phenomena external to the self. -- Christopher Bray ― Tablet



[full of] raconteurial energy ... Sen writes with an elegance and wit ... His accounts of his own work are characteristically succinct and fluent ... His evocation of post-war Cambridge and the towering figures of 20th-century economics are affectionate but just. Even more vivid is the picture of his undergraduate days in Calcutta, with its student revolutionaries and generous booksellers. ... It is striking just how much of Sen's own large-hearted liberalism turn out to have been prefigured in the freedoms of his unusual childhood.-- Nikhil Krishnan ― Daily Telegraph

Home in the World is the chronicle of an early life well lived and well considered. -- David Gilmour ― Literary Review

Amartya Sen's memoir Home in the World beautifully conveys the immense, curious charm of his unapologetic high intelligence. -- Philip Hensher ― Spectator Books of the Year

graceful and hopeful ... Home in the World focuses on Sen's formative years, revealing the roots of his academic interests in his early experiences ... Sen is such a charming and engaging narrator -- Barbara Spindel ― Christian Science Monitor

A charming, lively account of Sen's remarkable adolescence -- Zareer Masani ― History Today

Sen's gentle memoir shed[s] light on the distant nooks of a long life of distinction. ... There is something of Tagore in the judicious Mr. Sen. He is an un?inching man of science but also insistently humane. -- Tunku Varadarajan ― Wall Street Journal

warmhearted, clear-eyed account of the formative years of his life, a book that reaches from Myanmar to Berkeley ... a testament to just how far, in one life, one man might go into that vast world ... Sen's writing style is even-keeled and gently humorous. -- Mythili G. Rao ― Washington Post



PRAISE FOR AMARTYA SEN― -

With his masterly prose, ease of erudition and ironic humour, Sen is one of the few great world intellectuals on whom we may rely to make sense out of our existential confusion -- Nadine Gordimer

Amartya Sen is one of the most distinguished minds of our time [who] enjoyably mixes moments of profundity with flashes of mischievous provocation -- William Dalrymple ― New York Review of Books

The world's poor and dispossessed could have no more articulate or insightful a champion -- Kofi Annan

An accessible and exceptional humanitarian -- Jon Snow ― New Statesman

Sen is one of the great minds of both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We owe him a huge debt -- Nicholas Stern

A distinguished inheritor of the tradition of public philosophy and reasoning - Roy, Tagore, Gandhi, Nehru ... if ever there was a global intellectual, it is Sen -- Sunil Khilnani ― Financial Times

Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen Lane; 1st edition (21 October 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 480 pages

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Sophie Baker - contemporary of Carly Simon
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the world's most brilliant men writing fascinatingly about his childhood and early years.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 April 2023
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Great book, to reread and reread.
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Alp
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for everyone-Reviewed in Spain on 2 August 2021
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This is a beautiful book not just about the author's memoir, but about how we are all connected as humanity, the beautiful history of India, and the wealth of knowledge they have. The forward-thinking of the Indians and the fact that the earth is not something that needs to be divided up into countries and separate us by borders.

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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a treat to readReviewed in the United States on 29 March 2022
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It's a must read for any native Bengali speaker and anyone who resided in the state of West Bengal for a considerable period of time. It's captivating read on the thought processes of some of the intellectuals of the 40's and 50's who shaped India into what it is today. It also gives one a nuanced glimpse into the great mind of Sen and how vast his knowledge is on a great range of subjects. It's shameful that the current Indian government and its supporters humiliated him in such a gross and unprovoked manner

6 people found this helpfulReport




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Arupratan
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March 17, 2023
World War II was then in full swing. Almost the whole world is in unprecedented destruction. Amartya Sen was only a boy of ten at that time. After leaving his ancestral home in Old Dhaka and St. Gregory's School in Laxmibazar, Dhaka (mainly because of the war) he joined the school in Santiniketan. was living with his grandparents (grandfather was the proverbial Pandit Kshitimohan Sen). No direct impact of World War II had yet reached Santiniketan.

In the spring of 1943, the time of the year when Shantiniketan usually has its festival season, suddenly one day a madman appeared there. An unnaturally insane man. As boys do, they started teasing the madman. According to the inquiry, the man is not crazy at all. He has been starving for more than a month. Due to lack of food for a long time, he has temporary brain deformity. Amartya Sen's first direct contact with the terrible famine of 1943 was thus. This autobiography of Amartya Sen is very different from other five autobiographies.

 Many readers may not think of it as an autobiography (or be disappointed after reading it). In this book, the "secret" of family or personal life. He refrained from making bold self-disclosures, or confessionals. He kept his personal life very private. What is the use of reading this autobiography if nothing surprising and exciting information is to be found? 

With the publication of the book, the theoretical foundations of "classical economics" were laid. Freed from the chains of monarchical and feudal economic systems that had been going on for a long time, the people of Europe welcomed the market capitalism economy. Capital. The purpose of this economy was to maintain coexistence between these two conditions - demand and supply. In essence, it is called "classical economics". But at the beginning of the 20th century, after the occurrence of a terrible event like the First World War, a radical change in the economic dynamics of the whole world began. All responsibility for the war was placed on the shoulders of Germany by a system called Balkhila. The consequences of this humiliating treaty were far-reaching and the treaty was one of the main causes of World War II. When the Second World War, the most devastating in human history, ended, the economic world was split into two.

In part, the basic theories of capitalist market-based economy have been slightly modified and named as neo-classical economics. In another part, it is said, "Money is strong, market is strong" - this fixed rule of capitalist economy has created serious inequality in the society. The distance between the rich owners and the poor workers is increasing. So the socialist (socialist) economy was recognized as an alternative to the capitalist economy.

It goes without saying that the main creator of the rules of this socialist economy was a German gentleman living in London named Karl Heinrich Marx. After World War II, much of the last century was spent between the theorists of the market economy and the socialist economy. No one has won the battle, but one very important thing has been understood.

The important thing is that neither of these two economies care about the common man. Common people means you, me, and a bunch of insignificant human beings like us. Capitalism wants the big guys to be bigger. Increase the number of markets. Socialist economics wants the overall economic development of the country through government intervention (the word "development" scares me these days). Let the difference between rich and poor disappear. But in the socialist economy, individualism has no special value! Here comes the question, What do I want? If the country improves my what horse eggs will be?

Many people here will say, is this a thing? If the country improves, the people of that country will also improve. Well is that really so? Let's say for example, if the overall GDP of India increases or if the average income of the people increases according to the government calculations, do we have to assume that there is an equal distribution of wealth among all the people of the country? All the people of the country are enjoying the same benefits? There is no need to argue about this again, because even a child has understood the difference between the calculation of the GDP of the state and the living conditions of the common people of the state. Besides, a third option has gradually emerged. Theoretical economists began to think about this third option when Amartya Sen went to Cambridge University to study economics. During the global economic crisis of the 1930s, a British economist named John Maynard Keynes sowed the seeds of this third option. Before going abroad, Amartya Sen inquired about this alternative theory, read books, from the time he was studying at Presidency College, Calcutta. He himself commented in his autobiography that his intellectual hero during his student days in Calcutta was the Italian economist Piero Sraffa. This Sraffa was a very close friend of John Maynard Keynes. While studying at Cambridge, Amartya Sen had Piero Sraffa as his academic supervisor. How fortunate!

Amartya Sen made full use of this good fortune. I have read earlier in Amartya Sen's various writings, he highly respects the ethnic nature of Bengali discussion-argument-debate. Argument is an ancient variant of traditional Indian philosophical reasoning and education. He mentions numerous times in the book how much his early life at Santiniketan and then at the coffeehouses and other hangouts of College Street in Calcutta contributed to the development of his own intelligence and thinking. . Where people of diametrically opposed ideologies engage in discussion among themselves—not just to win the argument—but to sharpen their own ideas. To learn something new. It is in the context of this discussion that Amartya Sen narrated the stories of his education and career to countless teachers, friends, classmates and students. About their strange thinking. This is the most interesting feature of this autobiography of Amartya Sen. As I read the book, I repeatedly felt that the attractive world of free, liberal and constructive discussion has departed from the earth today. What has changed is the troll, meme, status, tweet, post-based system of social media, which is sick, shallow and flashy. In this system, the more instant jokes one can deliver, the more people one can hurt, the more people one can talk about, the more likes or followers one gets (and that's their salvation). We now have an "exchange" of thoughts. Don't, just "pay" I do And those whose opinions do not agree with our own, we immediately snap their necks. I am so cool and the rest are fools. All, of course, is hidden behind a computer or mobile screen.However, another major achievement of this book is its direct account of the time and environment when the third alternative economy is slowly gaining mainstream acceptance. Given by Amartya Sen. He himself associated his thoughts and career with that third option. The third option is called: "Welfare Economics" (welfare economics). The characteristic of this economy is that it gives importance to another thing beyond capital, market, development, state, profit, its name - people. Human means not only the entire human society, but also a single individual is given importance. "A stupid common man!"What the whole society wants, cano wants, how it behaves — is more important than what a single man wants, cano wants, how it behaves. Because each of us has many different identities. And each identity has its own value. You can simultaneously be a Bengali, a Hindu, a girl, a graduate, unemployed, a poet, a lover of so-and-so, a sister of so-and-so, a daughter of so-and-so, a homosexual, a believer in God, and a supporter of the Argentina football team (the number of identities can grow much more). No one else understands, you know, that each of these identities is important to you. Your whole life, your actions, your decisions,These identities drive your past-present-future. None of these can be omitted.

How do these individual identities and individual preferences affect the economy? Very generally speaking, this was the subject of Amartya Sen's original research. Where it is difficult to calculate the overall likes and dislikes of the people of a country, how can only one person be given importance? Because, importance should be given. This is the main purpose of welfare economics.

When these different human identities are not given importance separately, then we call someone "he is a Muslim" Or "He is an Indian" Or "He is an atheist" Or "he is a vegetarian" Or "He's a fan of the Brazil football team"—we started calling such broken identities. Even if called, there is no problem, it is a problem, I started to judge them in a broken way. That's when the trouble started. That's when we become aggressive. That's when we become small. That's when we say "holier than thou" become Then we say: The man is praying, that means he is not a Muslim. And Muslim means... he is just Muslim. He has no identity! There is no other entity! Nothing! All the rest of the identity of the whole person then disappeared. Only one word remains. "Muslim". Personally, I am greatly enriched after reading this book. My thoughts have been elegant. Economics is one of my interests. I have been trying to understand Amartya Sen's thoughts and work for a long time. A lost time, a lost world, a few lost brilliant men and their thoughts, and personalities like Amartya Sen will be a missing link between today's complex and strange times. whose number is rapidly decreasing. He did not express envy or hatred towards anyone in the book of four hundred pages. For once the "Nobel Prize" did not pronounce the word. There was a light of witty humor spread throughout the book. After finishing the book, I realized that "modesty" - this word suits only learned people. This deeply resonant word has no place in today's troll, status, reel, meme-culture! There is no room!Where the desert of trivial ritualThe stream of justice has not been swallowed up,The man has not done the hundred; Eternally whereYou are the leader of all action thoughts and joy—I strike mercilessly with my own hands, Father,Awake in that heaven in India.


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Shadin Pranto
1,251 reviews · 311 followers

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October 22, 2022
If autobiography means association with great economists, history of studying and teaching at famous universities and memories of growing up in Dhaka and Calcutta, then I have nothing to say.

Not a drop of self-criticism. I didn't find anything that moved me as a reader. Knowing that people can be slanderous, I honestly don't get to describe uncomfortable personal life events.

Overall, this is a very boring and mediocre memoir. If Amartya Sen, Master of Economics of Moklespur Yaduchandra University College writes the book instead of Amartya Sen, the world famous economist Amartya Sen might write a memoir full of such insignificant incidents!

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Arun Pandiyan
155 reviews · 34 followers

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November 10, 2021
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 [an ancient school of Indian materialism] epistemology/Lokayata [A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism]  is yet another factor that molded Sen’s approach to Justice through the lens of Nyaay and Niti, which later got published in 2008. 

[Amartya Sen and 'The Idea of Justice'
Niti in Sanskrit legal thinking deals with just rules and institutions, while Nyaya is about their realization. Niti is an abstract exercise that, if ...]

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”.

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Pulkit Singh
35 reviews · 4 followers

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August 11, 2021
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.

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Ru
227 reviews · 12 followers

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October 1, 2023
4.75 / 5.00

This was a marvelously enjoyable read for me.Sen has a great sense of humor which comes across easily in his text. He truly had the life of a 'global intellectual', since his very childhood days at Shantiniketan. The book could have been organized in a better way, I especially found the ending portion to be a bit abrupt; but I suppose more than a book of his memories it is rather a book of the ideas that shaped his life and view of the world, and how he came to hold them mostly through the company and friendship of some brilliant people.

~ 1 October 2023

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Manu
370 reviews · 51 followers

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March 17, 2023
It's really difficult to write anything about a memoir because while it is written for an audience, it is also intensely personal. But I think the perspectives are such that it deserves a larger audience, and I hope even this drop in the ocean can help in that!
The book is more about the life, and less about the work. They obviously intermingle to a large extent, but the focus is on the relationships and the exchange of thoughts. In some cases, the subjects of discussion also manage to creep in, but they aren't inaccessible, except on a couple of occasions.
In the beginning, when I started reading about his background, and his family's relationship with Tagore, I thought he was privileged. What added to it was the seemingly casual mention of historical figures, Gandhi downwards! It would be easy to think of this as incessant name-dropping, but Amartya Sen bends over backwards in acknowledging the privilege, and luck, that shaped his life.
What we actually get is a behind-the-scenes look at how his worldview evolved over time. I am quite amazed by the prodigious memory! Starting with the openness intrinsic in the Shantiniketan pedagogy, to his discussions with extended family and family friends, the debates at Presidency College and then Cambridge, the book is full of personalities and their ideas, and how they shaped the thinking of a Nobel laureate. But more than the awards, what comes out is an unwavering openness to different perspectives, an approach to problem-solving that involves conversations and debates, and most importantly, a sense of justice that follows the tradition of Tagore and Adam Smith.
The narrative has a disarming humility and a sense of humour that will win you over. That, combined with a richness of discourse that is increasingly hard to find, makes this an excellent read.

P.S. Thanks to the book, I learnt that bosons (as made famous by Higgs boson, a.k.a. The God Particle) were named after Satyendra Nath Bose
P.P.S. I found at least three books of different genres to read courtesy this book
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Lisa
447 reviews · 66 followers

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December 16, 2021
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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Pavan Korada
16 reviews · 3 followers

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November 27, 2022
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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Brecht Rogissart
15 reviews · 2 followers

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December 28, 2023
Sen's memoir is a testimony of uncomplicated cosmopolitanism in a politically muddy world. Especially in the first two parts - on his childhood in West Bengal - he displays a caring, universalist identity shaped through political turmoil: the Bengali famine of 1943, the conflicts between Muslims and Hundi's, and the quest for independence from Britain in a divided cast system. Especially his relation to the colonial oppressor was somewhat surprising: Although he was always, of course, a strong supporter of independence, his acknowledgment of 'positive' British influences on Indian thinking and literature is unsettling and admirable at the same time. Through his eyes, I've learned a lot about Indian leftist political debates when the country struggled for independence. During the Second World War, Indian leftists were debating if they should remain loyal to Britain's position (in fact, it were the British who had forced them into alligning with them, without consulting the Indians). Were the British going to give them more independence in exchange? Should they place their bets on a conquering Soviet Union who would help them? Or was the imperialist Japanese power the solution? These were not solely questions of a unified Indian nation: wihtin West Bengal, the possibility of independence within a specific (class) division of Muslims and Hundi's was mingled into the debate as well. Astonishing to see how the global trickled down in the local and morphed into new dimensions I hadn't heard of before. Althusser's "overdetermination" makes more sense when you confront theory with history.

In the later parts, Sen becomes a succesfull academic and his memoir also shifts somewhat. Unfortunately, he doesn't focus on the intellectual debates too much. Sometimes it reads as if he's giving a long list of friends he made at every uni he went to, where he then shortly summarizes their professional career ("as he would later turn out to be a great economist at the Labour party offices"). However, fortunately, his two intellectual tutors, Maurice Dobb and Piero Sraffa (two economists at Cambridge) reoccur constantly, alongside Joan Robinson and "Nicky" Kaldor. It was amusing to read funny anecdotes about them (for example, Sraffa pointing out to Baran that this side of Sraffa's library is only "full of trash", after which Baran points to his books being on that shelf). In addition, Sen is able to switch from anecdotes to really helpful summaries of debates and contributions from people he admires and formed his thinking (he gives a summary of Srafa's thought in one page that is so much more helpful than his endlessly technical Wiki-page).

I especially learned a lot about Piero Srafa! I thought he was just an obscure post-keynesian with a special interest in Ricardo. I had no clue he was a close friend of Gramsci and that he was editor of L'Ordine Nuovo. Apparently, there was something of a Gramsci-Sraffa debate in Italy in the 1920s, on the question for the need of a broad democratic resistance against fascism (Sraffa was in favour of the broad coalition, Gramsci disagreed initially). In addition, Sraffa had an exceptionally big influence on Wittgenstein, and he himself acknowledged that the transition from "young" to "second" Wittgenstein was formed through his weekly talks with Sraffa. According to the myth, it was Sraffa who stroke his two fingers accross his chin (a Neapolitan gesture) saying: "what's the logical identity of this?", indicating that an anthropoligical study of language was so much more important than a strictly logical one. My new year resolution is to finally read "the production of commodities by means of commidities"

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