Harvard hedge

Harvard Alumni Association's meet in Delhi was an affirmation of the brand's values.

Among the hopes expressed by Professor Amartya Sen at the symposium organised by Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) last weekend in New Delhi, perhaps the most surprising was his hope that "the hugely significant broadening of Harvard" begun by the university's outgoing president Larry Summers would continue.

Surprising because Summers had recently been forced out of office on charges of gender-bias illiberalism, the last thing Sen could be expected to support.

But then again, all Summers had arguably done was refuse to consider impossible what was merely improbable (that gender makes a difference to scientific and mathematical aptitude), given the existing evidence on the issue.

It's just that the broader public perception "" not always discerning of such fine matters of academic nuance "" of Summers' position on the issue came to be seen as posing an unacceptably high risk to the cause of gender equality.

All the same, the Delhi HAA session was an affirmation, if one were needed (doubtful), of the university's commitment to liberal education.

Summers, an economics professor of eminence, said something to the effect that "if and when" economics comes to be called the "hopeful" science rather than "dismal", Sen would get a large part of the credit.

Manmohan Singh, a self-described "product of the other Cambridge" (the one in England instead of Massachussets), spoke of Harvard's commitment to "liberalism and humanism" being somewhat "less recognised" than its commitment to "excellence" per se.

Among other things, India's prime minister also made a passionate appeal for a "confluence of civilisations" to negate the "clash" made famous by a Harvard professor's book.

Homi K Bhabha, literature professor and director of Harvard's Humanities Center, gave the hall a literary gist of the "South Asia" talks being held on Harvard's campus.

He spoke of the post-Midnight's Children experience, and drew attention to Sen's emphasis on "global doubt" "" not to be confused with luddite defeatism, nor with a failure of the Westphalian system, but a stimulus to "test truth conditions" afresh.

Amartya Sen spoke on globalisation, highlighting India's contribution to mathematics and suchlike.

Sugata Bose, director of the South Asia initiative at Harvard and oceanic history professor, drew inspiration from Tagore. "The idea of India is much more imaginative in its conception than the Indian nation state with its territorial borders," he said.

Was there anyone around to contest any of that?

Sort of. "After having read The Argumentative Indian, no Indian can agree with another Indian "" it's bad form," quipped Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

But his current worry, he added, was that there was very little he'd found to disagree with. The deputy chairman of India's Planning Commission quoted Alberuni, and urged Indians to travel overseas for knowledge while staying receptive to what comes India's way.