Re: Amartya Sen: democracy is not "Western"

[ravi <gadfly@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A while ago I posted bits from Sen's "The Argumentative Indian" which
address this idea that Democracy or Liberalism are Western notions.
Joanna was kind enough to forward the quotes to LBO for me (I was
motivated to compile the Sen quotes by the frequent +ve references on
LBO to "Western" democracy/liberalism).

FWIW, here's the link to my blog entry:

http://platosbeard.wordpress.com/2006/01/16/is-western-liberalism-so-uniquely-western/

Here is a bit:

> It is at this time rather common in Western political
> discussions to assume that tolerance and the use of
> reason are quintessential — possibly unique –
> features of “Occidental values”: for example, Samuel
> Huntington has insisted that the “West was West long
> before it was modern” and that the “sense of
> individualism and a tradition of individual rights and
> liberties” to be found in the West are “unique among
> civilized societies”. Given the fair degree of ubiquity
> that such perceptions have in the modern West, it is
> perhaps worth noting that issues of individual rights
> and liberties have figured in discussions elsewhere as
> well, not least in the context of emphasizing the
> importance of the individual’s right of
> decision-making, for example about one’s religion.
>
> There has been support as well as denial of such rights
> in the history of both Europe and India, and it is hard
> to see that the Western experience in support of these
> rights is peculiarly “unique among civilized societies”.
> For example, when Akbar was issuing his legal order
> that “no man should be interfered with on account of
> religion, and anyone is to be allowed to go over to a
> religion that pleases him”, and was busy arranging
> dialogues between Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains,
> Parsees, Jews and even atheists, Giordano Bruno was
> being burnt at the stake in Rome for heresy, in the
> public space of Campo dei Fiori.


        --ravi