Home in the World

Viac o knihe

Where is 'home'? For Amartya Sen, home encompasses various places: Dhaka in modern Bangladesh, Santiniketan where he was raised by his grandparents, Calcutta where he studied economics and engaged in student movements, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he arrived at nineteen. He vividly recreates the atmosphere of each location. Central to his development was the intellectually stimulating school in Santiniketan, founded by Rabindranath Tagore, who bestowed upon him the name Amartya. Engaging conversations in the renowned Coffee House on College Street in Calcutta further shaped his thinking. As an undergraduate at Cambridge, he interacted with many leading intellectuals of the time. This narrative intertwines ideas—particularly those of Marx, Keynes, and Arrow—with personal experiences. In a memorable chapter, Sen reflects on 'the rivers of Bengal' that he traveled with his parents between Dhaka and their ancestral villages. The book explores Bengal's rich culture and the political tensions of Hindu-Muslim relations, alongside Sen's firsthand experience of the devastating 1943 Bengal famine. The imprisonment of some family members for opposing British rule highlights the complex relationship between Britain and India, another central theme. Remarkably, forty-five years after his arrival at Trinity, Sen became its Master.