An argumentative Indian can sometimes be a surprisingly passionate man. Here,the words 'surprisingly' and 'passionate' are used with some deliberationbecause the Indian in question, caught mid-argument, is none other than AmartyaSen. After all, 'passion' is not necessarily the first thing that springs tomind when you think of the good professor. You think of a measured, reasonable,persuasive voice, that marshals evidence, lays out a case, and constructs anedifice of ideas entirely through logical steps, causal connections, elegantequations and a mass of statistical and empirical data. That is what people whowin Nobel prizes for economics are usually expected to do.