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Question
It is important to see that the Indian argumentative tradition has frequently crossed the barriers of gender, caste, class, and community. List the examples cited by Sen to highlight this.
Solution
Sen points out that some of the important positions in Indian politics were led by women, such as Sarojini Naidu, Nellie Sengupta, etc. He also states that women have raised some important questions, even at earlier times, as early as the Upanishads that were composed in the 8th century BCE, such as the women Scholar, Gargi, and Yajnavalkya’s wife, Maitreyi.
The barriers of caste and religion have also been crossed several times. For instance, when the Brahman domination was questioned by other castes and when Buddhism and Jainism evolved as rebellious religious movements. The medieval age also saw the poets, both Hindus and Muslims rejecting the social barriers.
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This essay is an example of argumentative writing. Supporting statements with evidence is a feature of this kind of writing.
For each of the statements given below state the supportive evidence provided in the essay
(i) Prolixity is not alien to India.
(ii) The arguments are also, often enough, substantive.
(iii) This admiration for the Gita, and Krishna’s arguments, in particular, has been a lasting phenomenon in parts of European culture.
(iv) There remains a powerful case for ‘faring well’, and not just ‘forward’.
Examine the noun phrases in these sentences from the text
- The second woman head of the Indian National Congress, Nellie Sengupta, was elected in 1933.
- This concerns the relation—and the distance—between income and achievement.
- This may be particularly significant in understanding the class basis of the rapid spread of Buddhism, in particular, in India.
