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The tradition of political debate in India

India has a long history and tradition of respecting the power of debate. Citizens of India would partake and watch debates in public for days at a time. While appearing on Indian Standard Time, Bhikhu Parekh discusses how his interpretation of Indian political philosophy differs that of Amartya Sen. In particular, he cautions against conflating argumentation and debate. Professor Parekh also offers a tease of his upcoming book, Debating India: Essays on Indian Political Discourseby sharing the fact that it includes an imagined correspondence between Gandhi and Osama bin Laden.

Image credit: “Delhi, Tomb of Safdarjung” by Arian Zwegers, CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.

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