Nobel laureate Amartya Sen stated that his confidence in the invulnerability of secularism in India has weakened. Addressing a Kerala government conference, he noted that secularism remains strong in Kerala but faces a threat in other parts of the country. Sen praised Kerala's human development model and emphasized the need to resist organized efforts to impose smallness on the nation.
Renowned economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen addressed an international conference on development and democracy organized by the Kerala state planning board online on Sunday. He stated, “As I grew older, I asked myself whether I have been able to hold on to the ideals that I had strongly held as a young man. I feel not all of them. I must acknowledge the weakening of my confidence in the invulnerability of secularism in India. The future of secularism depends on whether we can resist the well organised thrusting of smallness on this country.”
Sen welcomed the state's achievements in human development indices. He said his optimistic expectations regarding human development did not prove wrong. “Things have been as I hoped. But I would have been happier still if we could add to that also the safeguarding and further advancement of secularism which has remained strong in Kerala, but weakened in India. We have to see whether Kerala can make a definitive contribution to India as a whole.”
Sen recalled the formation of Kerala in 1956 and the subsequent Assembly election in which Communists came to power. Staying in Kolkata at the time, he was told by skeptics that Kerala, one of India's poorest states, lacked funds for human development. Now, Kerala has improved in per capita income, poverty removal, basic education, and fertility control. The conference inauguration was done by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
