Book review: “Identity and Violence - The Illusion of Destiny” by Prof.

Amartya Sen
Dr.Vibhuti Patel
26 May 2006
“Identity and Violence - The Illusion of Destiny” by Prof. Amartya Kumar Sen
Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2006, pp. XX + 215. Price: Rs. 295/-

A Book Review by Dr. Vibhuti Patel

This is an extremely important contribution by the Nobel laureate, Prof. A.K. Sen addressed to global
civil society with a strong plea for reason and choice. It is written in a lucid and persuasive style to
make a convincing case in favour of recognition of multiple identities determined on basis of class,
caste, ethnicity, race, gender, faith, profession, interest in science, fine arts, music and so on and so
forth.

Although not a lofty philosophical work, it delves on real life issues faced by human civilization
through out history. It makes a point, as advertised in the blurb of the book, that brutalities are driven
as much by confusion as by inescapable hatred. Conflict and violence have been sustained by the
illusion of unique identity as witnessed in savagery in the contemporary period in Bosnia, Rwanda,
Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan and India.

This book provides a wealth of material sourced from interdisciplinary streams of knowledge and
belief - history, economics, literature, anthropology, social psychology, science and sports - to convey
that on the one hand ‘a sense of identity can be a source not merely of pride and joy, but also of
strength and confidence’; at the same time, ‘identity can also kill - and kill with abandon’. (p.1)

The book begins and ends with poignant deconstruction of the author’s painful childhood memories of
hatred that spiraled towards violence and killing at the time of partition of India and Pakistan. He
vividly describes ‘the massive identity shifts that followed divisive politics’. (p.9)

In his scathing criticism of Samuel Huntington’s controversial book, The Clash of Civilisations and
the Remaking of the World Order for its foggy perception of world History, Prof. Sen shows the
limitations of unique categorization along so called civilisational lines (p.11) and makes us see
ourselves not as people with ‘diverse diversities’ but as ‘federation of religions and civilisations’. (p.
13) As against this, he emphasizes that the people of the world can be classified with systems that have
‘far reaching relevance in our lives such as nationalities, locations, classes, occupations, social status,
languages, politics and many others.’(p.10)

While explaining the plight of immigrants, he makes an apt remark, “The adversity of exclusion can
be made to go hand in hand with the gift of inclusion.”(p.3) Ghettoisation of migrants deprive them of
opportunities offered by the mainstream.

The author succinctly exposes the hollowness of the term “the moderate Muslim” and with historical
examples of Emperor Akbar and his grandson Emperor Aurangzeb shows that though both had strong
faith in Islam, the former was tolerant and respectful of other religions while the later was intolerant
and hostile towards other religious faiths. He poses important question, why do we use such adjective
only for Muslim politicians? Is moderation in political beliefs co-terminus with moderateness of
religious faith?

He pleads for …‘a recognition that identities are robustly plural’(p.19) as a sense of belonging and
loyalty among human beings come from different groups generated as a result of birth in a particular
family, neighbourhood association, affiliation with professional groups, religious communities and
political alliances. These plural identities can be either ‘contrasting’ or ‘non-contrasting’ depending on
conflicting or complimentary nature of the priorities and demands of different identities. (p. 29) In this
context, he makes a plea for reason.

In a chapter on ‘Civilizational Confinement’he exposes the sectarian approach that describes India as a
“Hindu civilization” and Pakistan as “the Muslim world” and tells us the futility of dividing
civilization on a communal line. Numerically speaking, India has 145 million Muslims, which is more
than the whole French and British populations put together.

Moreover, ‘the nature and range of Indian art, literature, music, films or food’ are the result of
‘contributions coming from both Hindus and Muslims in a thoroughly intermingled way.’ (p.47) He
also proves with historically accurate data that democracy has global roots with contribution of Greek,
African, the Middle Eastern and oriental societies that encouraged public debates and propagation of
ideas.

He also explains how the bogey of ‘civilizing mission’ imposed by the West in Afghanistan, Iraq and
several Latin American & Central Asian countries has created media machinery in which ‘democracy
is seen as a quintessentially Western idea which is alien to the non-Western world. (p. 51)

The history of science touted by the Western world does not the project contribution of non-Western
scholars from Chinese, Indian, Iranian, Arab world in the development of mathematics (for example
the decimal system in the early centuries of the first millennium in India), science, technology
(printing, irrigation and dam construction developed in the Arab world), medicine and philosophy. He
is intellectually honest in acknowledging the occidental world for renaissance, enlightenment and the
19th century industrial revolution.

Some less known information on ‘Religious Affiliation and Muslim History’ is worth mentioning as it
helps to counter xenophobia against the Muslims.

It was a Chicago based engineer from Bangladesh, Fazlur Rahman Khan, who used the tubular
concept in designing the World Trade Centre (a building with 110 floors that was attacked on 11th
September, 2001 by terrorists), John Hancock Centre (100-story) and Sears Tower (110-story) of the
USA. Muslim engineers, both Arab and Berber, were responsible for the development and use of the
irrigation technology when Spain was ruled by the Muslim rulers during the second millennium.

Muslim mathematicians and scientists (Arab and Iranian) globalised technical knowledge of decimal
system, trigonometry through two distinct steps, going first from Sanskrit (theories of Aryabhatta,
Varahamihira and Brahmagupta) to Arabic and then to Latin.
Prof. Mahbul ul Haq, a Pakistani economist and former finance minister of Pakistan propounded
Human Development Approach (popularized by the UNDP) to assess the deficiencies of public
policies pursued by the nation states.

Narrowly defined Islamic identity nullifies wide range of contributions made by the Muslims for
peace, prosperity and constructive efforts. The religion centered political approach bolsters and
strengthens ‘the voice of religious authorities’ while it downgrades civil society initiatives and social
movements (p.77) and paves the way for terrorism.

Religious revivalism, cultural nationalism and anti-west feelings should be understood in the context
of last three hundred years of history of slavery in Africa and two hundred years history of
colonization of Asian and Latin American countries by Europe. Devastating effects of humiliation as a
result of racial insults, physical and social injury of slave trade and colonial rule is seen in terms of
destruction of social confidence in Africa. The Independent Commission on Africa has declared this
phenomenon as ‘the war against Africa’. We can say the same about ‘Dalits /the untouchables’ in
India with an uphill task being “winning the war against humiliation”. (p. 86)

‘Dialectics of Colonized Mind’ is such that global ideas of democracy and personal liberty are labeled
as “Western ideas”, intellectual and scientific history of the world that has mixed heritage gets
distorted and touted as “Western” and religious fundamentalism and international terrorism play havoc
with people’s lives and use innocent youth as cannon fodder in attempts to “get even” with the West.

‘The Western leaders have facilitated authoritarianism and militarism, a breakdown of civil order and
educational and health services, and a veritable explosion of local conflicts, intercommunity strife and
civil wars’ not only through diplomatic moves but also through macro economic policies that ensure
super-profit (through neo-colonial exploitation of the poor economies) for the Transnational and
multinational corporations controlled by G8. Poverty and inequality within and between the nations
escalated by economic globalization are creating massive recruiting grounds for the foot soldiers of the
terrorist camp. (p.145)

The author brings out bitter truth of ‘art of blaming the victims’ (p.105) by giving examples from the
history of colonization of Ireland and Nazi Germany. British projection of Irish population as lazy,
alcoholic, slothful through jokes, stories, humorous narratives and media portrayals is not an isolated
example. The Nazis did the same with the Jews. Victorious nations always trivialized and
marginalised the vanquished nations by using similar tactics. Jingoism thrives on racial superiority.

Prof. Sen provides some praiseworthy examples of public policies in S. Korea and Japan. Both the
countries drew inspiration from concept of enlightenment in Buddhism to encourage educational
expansion. “Between 1906 and 1911, education consumed as much as 43 percent of budgets of the
towns and villages for Japan as a whole.” (p. 111)

While talking about culture, the author says that culture is not uniquely significant in determining our
lives and identities; class, race, gender, profession, politics also matter. There are great variations in
the same cultural milieu. (p.112) Culture does not sit still, it changes. Culture interacts with other
determinants of social perception and action. There is a need to examine the exact relation between
cultural liberty and the priorities of multiculturalism. (p.113) Cultural captivity does not help. “There
is a great need for broadening the horizon of understanding of the other people and other group….”.
(p. 117)

The author admires inclusive multiculturalism - full voting rights in Britain immediately even without
British citizenship, non-discriminatory treatment of immigrants in health care, schooling and social
security promoted by the British government. At the same time he has problems with plural
monoculturalism as seen in, for instance, “faith schools”. He reminds us not to confuse
‘multiculturalism with cultural liberty’ with ‘plural monoculturalism with faith based separatism’.
(p.165)

He criticizes the British policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ during colonial period that treated Gandhiji,
Zinnah, Sarojini Naidu, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar as representatives of Hindus, Muslims, Women and
Untouchables respectively. ‘The disastrous consequences of this policy of defining people by their
religious ethnicity and giving predetermined priority to the community based perspective over all other
identities’ (p. 169) were seen in partition in 1947 between India and Pakistan; according to Gandhiji, it
was the ‘vivisection of a nation’.
In the last chapter titled ‘Freedom to Think’, the author emphasizes need for theoretical and
conceptual clarity. Theories can influence social thought, political action and public policy.
Conceptual confusion about people’s identities turns multidimensional human beings into one
dimensional creature, living human beings into cartoons.

The only limitation, I find with the book is neglect of gender concerns in the meta narratives.
Women’s rights groups in all parts of the globe have rallied against myriad issues that play havoc with
women’s lives as a result of identity politics. Family laws based on religion are discriminatory towards
women in matters such as marriage, divorce, custody of child, maintenance, alimony, land rights, as
well as the right to stay in matrimonial and parental home.

African feminists have fought against genital mutilation. Indian women’s rights organizations fought
against Sati (widow-burning). Even while describing wars Bangladesh (1971), Somalia (1993), Bosnia
(1993) and communal riots in India, Prof. Sen does not mention how women were brutalized/
repeatedly raped and forcibly made pregnant by the ‘men from enemy camp’ as a target for ethnic
cleansing. According to Prof. Sen 85% of arms sold internationally in the recent years were sold by G8
( p.140) and the international women’s movement has been at the forefront of anti-war struggle.
Currently wars are waged in 200 places on this planet and for G8 wars have been the most profitable
venture.

This insightful book has come to us at a right moment with right perspective. It will be an eye-opener
for all socially concerned citizens - students and scholars, decision-makers (in governance, criminal
justice system, politics and diplomacy), human rights workers and UN officials

Contact address: Dr. Vibhuti Patel,

Director, P.G.S. R.,
Prof. & HOD, University Department of Economics,
SNDT Women’s University,
Smt. N. Thakersey Road, Churchgate, Mumbai-20.
Phone-26770227®, 22031879 Ext. 243(O)