The narrative naturally begins with Dr. BR Ambedkar, whose life was marked by the harsh realities of caste discrimination. Those early experiences forged in him a determination to secure dignity and justice through state action.
Significantly, as the work demonstrates, ‘Jana Gana Mana’, even before it became the nation’s anthem, was adopted by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army.
In travelling this ground, we also need to understand the relationship between science and technology. The most advanced technological products we use are also the products of science. Significant advances, for example, in electronics, utilize ultraviolet (UV) or extra-UV lasers to produce chips, in which the transistor size is measured in nanometres.
The writing is breezy and engrossing for mature readers who have some background knowledge of and interest in the thought paradigms of different religions and philosophies. Each chapter gives you much to learn and much to reflect on, examples chosen from ancient history and religious and spiritual traditions.
In this book, Sen takes on the challenge of presenting the Bhagavad Geeta to a young audience. Instead of approaching it as a commentary, Sen adopts a creative narrative frame: an extended dialogue between a grandfather and his two grandchildren with occasional interventions from the mother.
In my three decades of teaching Economics, I have often felt that the subject as taught in schools, or at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels in India, is almost entirely the Economics of the West, specifically British and American.
Policymakers too are largely trained in the western tradition,