Includes bibliographical references and index.

Parts: Voice and heterodoxy -- Culture and communication -- Politics and protest -- Reason and identity.

The argumentative Indian -- Inequality, instability, and voice -- India: large and small -- The diaspora and the world -- Tagore and his India -- Our culture--their culture -- Indian traditions and the Western imagination -- China and India -- Tryst with destiny -- Class in India -- Women and men -- India and the bomb -- The reach of reason -- Secularism and its discontents -- India through its calendars -- The Indian identity.

India is a country with many distinct traditions, widely divergent customs, vastly different convictions, and a veritable feast of viewpoints. In The Argumentative Indian, Amartya Sen draws on a lifetime study of his country's history and culture to suggest the ways we must understand India today in the light of its rich, long argumentative tradition. The millenia-old texts and interpretations of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Muslim, agnostic, and atheistic Indian thought demonstrate, Sen reminds us, ancient and well-respected rules for conducting debates and disputations, and for appreciating not only the richness of India's diversity but its need for toleration. Though Westerners have often perceived India as a place of endless spirituality and unreasoning mysticism, he underlines its long tradition of skepticism and reasoning, not to mention its secular contributions to mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, medicine, and political economy.