Amartya Sen's Hindu Bash

by V.S. Sardesai

The volume is an erudite work on Nobel Laureate Prof. Amartya Sen's perception of Hinduism and the Hindus as evident in his books The Argumentative Indian and Identity and Violence. It examines Sen's stinging views on Hindutva and Hindu culture. The author argues that the works engage in Hindu-baiting and scrutinizes certain discrepancies that have crept in as a result of accepting theories, such as Sri Rama was a myth and Ramayana is a parable, uncritically. The book also comments on Prof. Sen's allegations that Hindu political activists nowadays pay little heed to the 'tolerant' Hindu tradition and are bent upon rewriting history to suit their own ideologies.

This painstaking analysis will prove extremely interesting to a wide variety of readers: the scholars of Indology and religion, historians and to the general readers as well.

Contents:

1. Preface
2. Are not Buddhism and Jainism off-shoots of Sanatana Dharma?
3. Is not Ayodhya Rama's Birth Place?
4. Indian secularism--Minorityism
5. Hindu Civilization
6. Rewriting of Indian History-but by whom?
7. Sen's allegations against Hindutva
8. Aryan Invasion of India reconsidered
9. Paradoxes of Aryan Invasion Theory considered
10. The reasons for inventing the theory
11. The reasons for rejecting the theory
12. Sen's analysis for BJP's failure in 2004 elections considered
13. Bibliography
14. Index.