An argumentative Indian

This compendium of essays, brought out on the occasion of his 80th birthday, has been penned by authors, philosophers, economists, all of whom have enjoyed 'civic friendships' with Mr Nandy

Ashis Nandy: A Life in Dissent 

Ramin Jahanbegloo and Ananya Vajpeyi (ed)

Oxford University Press, 

384 pages; Rs 750

In a political climate where questioning is often met with suspicion and sometimes equated with treason, a new book Ashis Nandy: A Life in Dissent celebrates the scholarly oeuvre of one of India’s last great public intellectuals. Over his prolific career, Mr Nandy has underscored the importance of the act of questioning in the pursuit of knowledge. He has been equally critical of missionary-style modernism, as he has been of dogmatically ossified traditionalism; he has questioned the notion of a nation-state while laying bare