When I was a student at Cambridge, and this I have mentioned very many times, an old book of Prof. Pigou influenced me a great deal and that was the opening chapter of his Economics of Welfare in which he stated, ‘when we study economics our impulse is not philosopher’s impulse – knowledge for the sake of knowledge but for the healing touch that knowledge directly or indirectly may help to bring’. I think, in our times we have seen Prof. Sen’s writings have influenced not only national policies but also the way the world thinks about issues of development, about poverty, about inequalities, gender inequalities in particular. In all these areas Prof. Sen has been a great pathfinder.
Wonder, I believe, Carlyle once said, is the beginning of philosophy and I go back to Pigou when he said ‘it is not wonder but the social enthusiasm which revolts against the joylessness of withered life and the sordidness of mean streets which is the beginning of the economic science’.
Prof. Sen is no ordinary economist. He has contributed a great deal to the world of philosophy, our understanding of our past, culture andcivilisation. But his written work has always been inspired by what, I believe, is the ultimate purpose of the study of social science. So it is for me a real pleasure to be associated with this function for yet another reason.
When I went to Washington I came to know in a manner which was not known to me before, how much the world looks upto India as a laboratory for the successful functioning of a democracy in a country of billion people with a great diversity, where all religions of the world are represented, where we take pride in having twenty different languages as our national languages. When the President of the United States introduced me to his wife and he said to her ‘Laura do you know of any other country of a billion people trying to seek its salvation in the framework of a democraticpolity? 150 million Muslims but not one of them has joined the rank al Qaeda.' So it was with deep sense of pride that I heard all that. But we have to practice tolerance, respect for diversity which is ourheritage if the 21st century is to be Indian century -- and I do believe that this century, in many ways, will be Indian century because distances are losing their old significance.
Advances in science and technology have made it possible as never before that chronic poverty not to be the inevitable lot of a majority of human kind also most societies of the future thanks to the revolution in transport in communication will be multi-cultural and multi-ethnic and how then to reconcile the management of this globalisation processes with the quest inherent in all human beings, of searching for their roots and, I think, in that quest our culture our civilisation our history I do believe will have important guides.
India is on the threshold of great opportunities and great challenges. As I have said that poverty removal is an attainable goal and here works of Prof. Sen and his colleagues have illuminated the pathwaysof how this can be realised. I think, today, more and more people recognize that that’s the route to deal with our social and economic problems. But India’s message to the world is that diversityand pluralism are the way of the future.
We have lots of challenges at home. At times scepticism, to which Prof. Sen has so brilliantly referred in this new book, takes us in many directions; sometime iteven breeds cynicism. I recall, I was, in 1975, in Paris attending the meeting of the Aid India Consortium and I think the declaration of emergency was introduced whilethe meeting was on and a French social scientist friend of mine said, " Dr. Singh, wellthe inevitable has happened. Liberal democracy is not meant for people at low standards of living that India has. So this is a luxury you cannot afford and you have provedthat sceptics were right"
For 57 years we have kept the faith with some aberrations but a lot has to be done. I think the thinking segment of our population has to give this lead. The eternal India and essence of Indian culture and civilisation-- and here Prof. Sen has captured the true essence of what has made our culture and civilisation a living civilisation for thousand and thousand years. So, therefore, this is a book for all Indian to read becauseif India is to regain its place in comity of nations in this 21st century, it can be only along the lines the pathways illuminatedand so brilliantly described in this book.
So I am truly privileged to associate myself with this book which I do believe is something which is of seminal importance to understanding and illuminating the processes of social change in our country-- and if India succeeds we will have lessons for the rest of the world. After all, we are one-sixth ofthe humanity and if one-sixth of humanity makes up its mind, our influence is going to be felt more and more in the comity of the nations.
So I thank Prof. Sen for having done me the honour of letting me preside over this function.He and I have been friends for 50 years and this is a friendship that I value themost.
