JLF Retrospective Pt 2: Amartya Sen, A Living National Treasure

JLF keynoter Amartya Sen

After hearing from Amartya Sen twice on the opening day of JLF, I tweeted that India ought to declare him a living national treasure, as the Japanese do for some of its greatest artists and thinkers. I wasn’t kidding. Of course, there could be a down side to such an act, as he seems now on permanent loan the U.S. as a professor at Harvard (and take that, Cambridge!), and perhaps he’d be called back to India full time. In any event, he’s a cosmopolitan man and a real gem. He comes across as humble, generous, humorous, and brilliant. In his keynote address, he imagined a conversation with the “goddess of medium things” to ask seven wishes for India. I’ll share my notes about those wishes below. Indians and the rest of the world would do well to keep them constantly in mind:

1.      Sen asks for a renewed concern for classical education and the humanities. In his interview during a later session, this Nobel prize-winning economist told his audience that he studied Sanskrit and mathematics in college. If you read a book like The Argumentative Indian, his collection of essays about India, you appreciate his knowledge of India that extends back into the classical era. Against this, India is awash in engineers and IT guys without such grounding. A new balance is needed. Sen mentioned that Tagore (whose school Sen attended) emphasized the need for science education. Now the positions are reversed. By the way, I’ll make the same wish for America and the rest of the world.

2.      Sen wishes for a pro-business party on the right that is not associated with communalism (which we Americans would consider a religious or ethnic party). While not mentioned by name, he probably was thinking of the BJP, the Hindu nationalist party that scares non-Hindu Indians (and there are millions of them, mostly Muslim). But like the Republican Party in the U.S., it is an amalgam of business interests and voters who believe that they can advance only if someone else gets trampled upon. In the U.S., white men tend to vote Republican although Republican policies favor plutocrats over working people. So, again, I’ll take Sen’s wish to the U.S. with me.

3.      Sen wishes for a stronger party on the Left, one genuinely concerned for the severely deprived (millions in India) and not chasing the boogieman of “American imperialism”. I got a good chuckle out of this comment, as I believe that he was making an oblique reference to The (Khodograbe) Arrest. More than one commentator about that affair noted that the old guard in India still wants to man the barricades with the old Marxist rhetoric of anti-imperialism. The young, I think, look upon this as so much nonsense, although as with many of the young, you can expect a strong nationalist streak. In any event, the really poor should be the concern of the Left according to Sen. I say ditto for the U.S. If the Democrats have any concern for the poor (and they do have—some, they are ahead of the Republicans, but that’s not saying much at all. Both the Left  in India and  Democrats in the U.S. are too beholden to wealthy donors and middle-class interests to do what’s really best for the really poor, but Sen’s next suggestion addresses this problem.

4.      Sen wishes for a better media. The media must overcome its reluctance to investigate and reveal abuses that strike close established interests, such as subsidies for petroleum and electricity that mainly benefit the wealthy and middle-class and that do little for the really poor. The really poor don’t have access or much use for electricity or much in the way of petroleum. The media conveniently ignores these abuses of the public purse. Sen wants to see subsidies ended and funds directed to health care, immunizations, infrastructure, and other public goods. Sen suggests that funds are best spent for better schools, better higher education, toilets for all, and gender equality, among other things. While economic growth has allowed some improvements in each of these areas, economic growth without a political sector that provides for public goods will fail to allow for the improvement of everyone’s life. For models, Sen suggests that India look to the East Asians (whom, I must say, have left India behind).

5.      Sen asks for an end to the criminalization of homosexuality, a vestige of mid-19^th century British attitudes. (Here is one area in which the U.S. has made some very real gains and seems well underway to ending this discrimination.) \

6.      Sen asks for an improvement in the political culture of India and a better recognition of issues. He, like many, is heartened that corruption has become a political issue. Improved governance is a good that needs reinforcement and that can aid in many other causes, such as the eradication of polio and improvements in the condition of women.

7.      Sen requests that India become less “defeatist”. I would say “fatalist”, but the intention is the same. Far too often I perceive that Indians take a “what’ya gonna do?” attitude. But I believe—and hope—that demonstrations  and elections in Delhi and elsewhere about corruption and the abuse of women indicate a new activism that might lead India to address its many failures of governance. Of course, we in the U.S. take too much for granted, and for every “gov’ment can’t do nothing right” yahoo in the U.S. I meet, I’d like to bring them to India and say:  “Here’s what it looks like with little or no effective government”. What unreconstructed Indian lefties and American anti-government types don’t ponder enough is why Indians emigrate to the U.S. (and U.K. and Australia) and not vice versa. It’s all a package, and right now Indian’s package of opportunities and goods remains far short of that of the U.S. and even China. However, if India grants Amartya Sen his seven wishes—as only Indians and not the goddess can—then watch out, India could stand astride the world stage. 

The more that I think about it, maybe somebody should wise-up and invite Amartya Sen to make seven wishes for America, where he now lives (part-time) and teaches. We, too, could use a dose of his good advice.