Retracing Culture in Amartya Sen’s, Argumentative Indian, Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity

Name of Author : Parvathy J, Dr. S Remadevi

Abstract: It is now agreed that the voice from the third world is urgent and has a role to perform in the articulations of knowledge arising in european and american academics, as also within wider public discourse in the first world. It is however, curious that the discourses of postcolonialism and cultural studies, where the concern with the third world subject has gained prominence and has been pursued with commitment, have inadvertently either polarised localisms and nativisms, or stressed dialogic engagement largely in relation to colonial encounter. As a result, only a partial view is obtained of complex global interactions within the third world experience. In this context amartya sen’s text “argmentativeindian”,offers a very reasoned, incisive and critical outlook, presenting the readers with the possibility of looking the third world on more reflective terms. Throughout the essay sen gives an outline to understand contemporary india in the light of its long argumentativetradition. So the proposed aim in this paper is to discuss sen’s “argumentative indian” in the light of cultural studies.

Keywords : Culture, Tradition, Democracy, Knowledge, Discourse, Third World

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