Kerala must lead India in defending secularism, says Amartya Sen

Economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen recalled arguments at the Coffee House on whether Kerala’s Left politics would really be able to move people towards innovative approaches to human development

Thiruvananthapuram: Economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has said that while Kerala has made remarkable advances in human development, it should also make a definitive contribution to strengthening secularism in India.

He was addressing a gathering via online as part of the three-day "Vision 2031" conference organised by the Kerala government here on Sunday.

Sen said that as he grows older, he often asks himself whether he has been able to hold on to the ideas he strongly believed in as a young man.

"I fear not all of them. For example, I must acknowledge a weakening of my confidence in the invulnerability of secularism in India. The future of secularism will depend on whether we can resist the well-organised thrusting of smallness on this country," he said.

He noted that some of his early convictions have remained as strong today as ever.

"As it happened, some of these ideas are closely related to Kerala’s history in general and the emergence of an independent Kerala in particular, its astonishing economic and social achievements by empowering human capabilities through education, healthcare and social cooperation," he said.

Referring to the state's history, Sen said it may be surprising that Kerala featured in international comparisons as early as the 14th century, even in faraway Africa.

He said the great traveller Ibn Battuta visited the country called Walata, located between present-day Ghana and Mali.

He was astonished to find that women’s independence was locally valued, including their positive social role and rights there, Sen said.

Battuta noted that similar women’s rights, including matrilineal inheritance, were seen only in one other country during his extensive travels, and that place was Kerala in India, Sen said.

"What has been written about the role of women in Kerala’s astonishing economic and social advancement in modern times also has a historical background," he said.

Another historical achievement of Kerala was its openness to the world at large, Sen said.

According to him, there is a lot of propaganda these days about Indian intellectual greatness and Sanatan heritage.

There were indeed intellectual achievements in ancient India, but these were typically open-minded creations that did not discard ideas coming from outside, he said.

"The idea of give and take is well illustrated by the history of ancient Indian mathematics," Sen said.

He said Indian mathematics took off around 2,000 years ago, particularly under the influence of Greek and Babylonian mathematics.

He added that Indian mathematics later had a gigantic influence on world mathematics.

The transformative figure in this extraordinary transition was Aryabhata in the fifth century, who lived mostly in Pataliputra, now known as Patna.

"But there is considerable evidence that he came from Kerala, which had many mathematicians and astronomers involved in work at home and abroad," Sen said.

He said Kerala’s role as a gateway to India has not only been of value to the country as a whole but has also been important in allowing the state to remain open-minded and experimental.

At the time of Kerala’s formation as a state in 1956 and its first election in 1957, Sen said he was mostly in Kolkata.

He recalled long arguments at the Coffee House on whether Kerala’s Left politics would really be able to move people towards innovative and experimental approaches to human development and enrichment of humanity through education, medical care and social cooperation.

There were people in the Coffee House who were sceptical about Kerala, as it was one of the poorest states in India with little money for human development, he said.

He said that now Kerala has climbed to being among the richest states in India even in terms of income, not to mention the removal of absolute poverty, life expectancy, basic education, medical attention and low fatality rates.

"I am ready to offer free cups of coffee to all those sceptics. That optimistic expectation needed no reservation regarding human development. Things have been as good as I hoped," he said.

Sen said he could have been happier still if Kerala could add safeguarding and further advancement of secularism, which remains strong in the state but has weakened in India.

"We have to see whether Kerala can make a definitive contribution for India as a whole," he said.