Amartya Sen (1933 - ) (Amartya Kumar Sen) is a British Indian American Economist of Bengali Origin who mostly worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 1998. He was the first Indian to win Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences. Sen was one of the Worlds 9 best Economist. Amartya has worked in the American, Indian, and British Democratic. Sen first worked in United Kingdom. In 1971, he moved to San Francisco, United States. Then in 1976, Sen moved to Boston, Massachusetts. He mostly lived in New York City in USA. Amartya Sen's first name was given by Rabindranath Tagore. He is a Thomas W. Lamont professor. Sen has served as President of the Econometric Society, the American Economic Association, the Indian Economic Association, The British Economic Association, and the International Economic Association. Amartya Sen worked from 1956 - 2015.
Early Life and Education[]
Amartya Sen was born in Calcutta to a Bengali Bhadiya Brahmin family. His father Ashutosh Sen was from Dhaka, then His father's whole family came to Kolkata to live in when Sen's father was 12. Sen's father grew up in Dhaka and Kolkata, same with his uncle's and aunt on his dad's side. His mother Amita Sen was from Kolkata. His father was a professor at the University of Calcutta (formerly the University of Dhaka until 1927). He was a only child. His uncle was Ashoke Kumar Sen. Atttended Hare School in Kolkata. His First Language was Telugu, then Bengali. Last, it was English. He s a Indian fellowship to Trinity College, Cambridge in Cambridge, England. He lived close to Robindranath Tagore.
Life in England[]
At Cambridge University[]
In 1953 when Sen was 19 years old, He moved to Cambridge to study Economics. He met Joan Robinson. Robinson was Sen's Doctoral Advisor. He was at Trinity College. In Cambridge, He was Studying Economics and Philosophy Science. Sen was wanting to know about the ways to help the world. He Studied and told the story about the poor families in India. He also wanted to known and study Welfare economics, Social choice theory, Development economics.
Life in London/Working in London[]
Amartya Sen in London
In 1956, Sen moved to London. He was Starting to work at a Economics School there called the London Economics School. He also worked at the University of London. 4 years later, he was on a visit to Harvard University and worked their for 4 months.
Sen was first a Teacher in London. In 1962, Amartya was on a little visit in Oxford at the University of Oxford. 2 months later, he came back to London. He mostly worked at the London Economics school.
In 1960, he married Nabaneeta Dev Sen, the got Divorced in 1964. The he married Eva Colorni. They moved to Oxford together in 1968. His son Kabir Sen was born on 1965 and Indrani Sen was born in 1967. In 1967, He became is British Citizen.
Amartya Sen's office in London School of Economics
=Oxford[]
In 1968, Sen and his family moved to Oxford, England at the University of Oxford. He worked at the University of Oxford for 3 years until 1971. He taught there for a little while in Oxford.
Life/ Working in the United States[]
San Francisco, California[]
Amartya Sen in San Francisco
In 1971, Sen moved to San Francisco, California with his wife and 2 kids. He was working at the University of California in San Francisco. During his is there, it was his first time working in USA. In California, he was on the Economics working. He signed a lot of paper. He was doing the work of Collective Choice and Social Welfare.
Amartya Sen office in University of California in San Francisco.
He was on a visit in California in 1975 to work. He lived in California for 4 years.
Boston, Massachusetts[]
In 1975, Amartya Sen moved to Boston, Massachusetts. He started to work at Harvad University. Sen worked at a proffesor in Harvad for 4 years.
New York City, New York[]
In 1983, Sen moved to New York City. He worked at the Columbia University. Sen was mostly living in New York.
Research[]
Sen Researched about the Welfare economics, Social choice theory, Development economics, Capability approach, Arrow's impossibility theorem, Price gouging, Human Development Report. He Researched the Social choice theory, Price gouging, and Famine while he was At London. Choice of Techniques of Sen's work. In Newark, He worked with Kenneth Arrow. In 1981, Sen published Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (1981), a book in which he argued that famine occurs not only from a lack of food, but from inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food. Sen also argued that the Bengal famine was caused by an urban economic boom that raised food prices, thereby causing millions of rural workers to starve to death when their wages did not keep up. His best economics book was Development as Freedom which the story is taking place in British Raj. In 1998, Amartya got a Nobel Prize for Economical Sciences in New York City. He won it because "For his contributions to welfare economics." In 2000, Sen went to Harvard University in Massachusetts. He wrote a controversial article in The New York Review of Books entitled "More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing.
Working in the Democratic[]
United States[]
Amartya Sen in 2011 met Barack Obama for the award national humanities medal in Washington D.C. Amartya Sen sometimes come's to visit to work. He mostly worked in the American government. He worked with Barack Obama.
Amartya in the American government
United Kingdom[]
Amartya Sen came to London for a visit and work with the Economics and talk to government. Sen sometimes came back to London. He also visited Oxford.
Sen in the British Government
India[]
Sen giving inaugural parliamentary lecture at Parliament House (India).
In 2012, Sen went to New Delhi to met Pranab Mukherjee and Manmohan Singh. He also gave speeches in New Delhi.
Political views[]
Sen was critical of Indian politician Narendra Modi when he was announced as their prime ministerial candidate by the BJP. In April 2014, he said that Modi would not make a good Prime Minister. He conceded later in December 2014 that Modi did give people a sense of faith that things can happen. In February 2015, Sen opted out of seeking a second term for the chancellor post of Nalanda University, stating that the Government of India was not keen on him continuing in the post.
In August 2019, during the clampdown and curfew in Kashmir for more than two weeks after the Indian revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status, Sen criticized the government and said "As an Indian, I am not proud of the fact that India, after having done so much to achieve a democratic norm in the world – where India was the first non-Western country to go for democracy – that we lose that reputation on the grounds of action that have been taken". He regarded the detention of Kashmiri political leaders as "a classical colonial excuse" to prevent backlash against the Indian government's decision and called for a democratic solution that would involve Kashmiri people.
Sen has spent much of his later life as a political writer and activist. He is outspoken about Narendra Modi’s leadership in India. In an interview with the New York Times, he claimed that Modi’s fearmongering among the Indian people was anti-democratic. “The big thing that we know from John Stuart Mill is that democracy is government by discussion, and, if you make discussion fearful, you are not going to get a democracy, no matter how you count the votes”. He disagreed with Modi’s ideology of Hindu nationalism, and advocated for a more integrated and diverse ideology that reflects the heterogeneity of India. Sen also wrote an article for the New York Times documenting the reasons why India trails behind China in economic development. He advocates for healthcare reform, because low-income people in India have to deal with exploitative and inadequate private healthcare. He recommends India implement the same education policies that Japan did in the late 19th century. However, he realizes that there is a tradeoff between democracy and progress in Asia because democracy is a near reality in India and not in China. In an article in The Atlantic, Sen recommended for India a middle path between the “hard-knocks” development policy that creates wealth at the expense of civil liberties, and radical progressivism that only seeks to protect civil liberties at the expense of development. Rather than create an entirely new theory for ethical development in Asia, Sen sought to reform the current development model.
Media and Introductions[]
Amartya Sen had Appeared in a 5 Movies. His special one is where he was in Introduction and of his work in 2017. Amartya Sen is Friends with an Actor named Martin Sheen.
| Films | Director | Year |
|---|---|---|
| The Argumentative Indian | Suman Ghosh | 2018 |
| Nobelity | Turk Pipkin | 2006 |
| The End of Poverty? | Philippe Diaz | 2008 |
The End of Poverty?
The Argumentative Indian
Amartya Sen was a Character portrayed by Gulshan Grover in Midnight Children 2012 when Saleem was in Chicago and in the story when Sen went to Chicago.
Gulshan Grover playing Amartya Sen in Midnight Children.
Sen was on the Movie Midnight Children. He had a Conversation with Salman Rushdie and Deepa Mehta about the Movie and the Indian actor Gulshan Grover.
Working in Universities[]
Sen started having Doctoral Students in 1970. His first Doctoral Student was Norman Schofield at the University of London. He was a teacher and a professor.He visited some other British and American Universities as a Economist Professor. He met with another bengali Economist a Indian born American Economist Abhijit Banerjee.
2020 time of Working[]
Before the Pandemic Happened, he sometimes went in person in New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) to work, mostly on zooms and online giving the students work. Amartya Sen done some videos and posted it on youtube in 2020 in the Pandemic. He has been on TV in his house in New Jersey.
Family[]
Amartya Sen's name was Given by Rabindranath Tagore. His father Ashutosh Sen was from Dacca, Bangal, British India (now Dhaka, Bangladesh). His mother lived close to Rabindranath Tagore. He is a Indian Bengali. He first Married Nabaneeta Dev Sen a Indian writer. They became divorced in 1963. His wife lived in London for 7 years. Then Sen married Eva Colorni after her death in 1985. At last, Emma Georgina Rothschild, But divorced. His 2 kids born with His Indian wife are Indian and one with his british wife are British American.
Awards[]
Sen has received over 90 honorary degrees from universities around the world. In 2019, London School of Economics announced the creation of the Amartya Sen Chair in Inequality Studies.
Adam Smith Prize, 1954
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1981
Honorary fellowship by the Institute of Social Studies, 1984
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 1998
Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, 1999
Honorary citizenship of Bangladesh, 1999
Order of Companion of Honour, UK, 2000
Leontief Prize, 2000
Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service, 2000
351st Commencement Speaker of Harvard University, 2001
International Humanist Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union, 2002
Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, 2004
Life Time Achievement award by Bangkok-based United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)
National Humanities Medal, 2011
Order of the Aztec Eagle, 2012
Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour, 2013
25 Greatest Global Living Legends in India by NDTV, 2013
Top 100 thinkers who have defined our century by The New Republic, 2014
Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize, 2015
Albert O. Hirschman Prize, Social Science Research Council, 2016
Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, 2017
Bodley Medal, 2019
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels, 2020
Princess of Asturias Award, 2021 (January)