Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Sweden's Uppsala university confers prestigious political science prize on Amartya Sen

By Amit Roy

NOBEL Prize winner Amartya Sen has been awarded the 2017 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science worth 500,000 Swedish krona (about £44,000) by Uppsala University, one of Europe’s most prestigious seats of learning.


The prize is given “to the scholar who in the view of the (Johan Skytte) Foundation has made the most valuable contribution to political science”, last week’s announcement said.

“I do of course feel happy to be awarded a political science prize even though perhaps it is not really deserved!” professor Sen, 83, told Eastern Eye. He is the first Indian winner.

Explaining the choice of winner this year, Michal Smrek, information officer at the Skytte Foundation, said: “The prize was overdue.”

It was acknowledged that a prize for political science was being given exceptionally to an economist, but Smrek pointed that the judges felt that Sen's work had profoundly influenced the study of political science.

“In every undergraduate course in political science his books are studied,” said Smrek.

In the citation, it said Sen, who is a Thomas W Lamont Professor at Harvard University, is “awarded the prize for his multi-sided scholarship, combining insights on the vulnerabilities of humankind with knowledge on the unique capacities of democratic political power to mitigate and diminish this exposure”.

It added that Sen used money from the Nobel Prize for economics he won in 1998 “to start the Pratichi Trust in India and Bangladesh that works to improve women’s access to education and health care”.

“Sen is an economist by training, but his conviction that democratic institutions play a fundamental role in making a difference in people’s lives makes him a worthy recipient of this highly esteemed Prize in political science,” the citation went on.

“His notable scholarly works include Poverty and Famines (1981) where he explores the link between famine and lack of democracy and highlights the crucial role democracy plays in alleviating extreme poverty. In Development as Freedom (1999), he argues that political, social and economic freedoms are both the means and the ends of development.

“He sees development not only in one’s material well-being, but also one’s ability to make free choices and act independently on them. In his 2009 book, The Idea of Justice, Sen addresses questions of how justice may be increased or how injustices may be removed, rather than offering resolutions of questions about the nature of perfect justice. Sen’s contribution spans the fields of political economy, social choice theory, public health, political philosophy, as well as the sub-discipline of development studies.”

Uppsala University, ranked among the 100 best in the world, was founded in 1477 with the Latin motto, Gratiae veritas naturae (Truth through the grace of God and through nature).

In 1622, Johan Skytte, then Vice-Chancellor of the university, made a generous donation and established the Johan Skytte chair in Eloquence and Government, which is “probably the world’s oldest active professorship in political science.

The lands included in the original donation continue to finance research and the Johan Skytte Prize”.

Although the prize, started in 1995, is meant to be open, all but three of the winners have been academics in America – and the three have been in Germany and Italy.

Uppsala has some strong Indian links.

During his state visit to Sweden in June 2015, the first by an Indian president, Pranab Mukherjee went to Uppsala University, where he gave a well-attended lecture, “Tagore and Gandhi: Do they have Contemporary Relevance for Global Peace?”

Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, the first non-European to do so, was feted when he visited Uppsala in 1921 during his first visit and even spoke in the same magnificent hall as the president. Tagore returned to Sweden in 1926.

In 2014, the university installed Tagore’s bust and also signed an agreement with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations for a chair in Indian Studies.

Tagore and Sen come from the same village in India's West Bengal state - Santiniketan. It is now the site of Visva-Bharati University, which was started by Tagore in 1921 on land donated by Lord Sinha of Raipur, the only foreigner ever to have been given a hereditary peerage in the House of Lords. Tagore invited members of the Swedish Academy and scholars to visit him in Santiniketan – which they did.

Uppsala university, which has about 44,000 registered students and 2,300 doctoral scholars, prides itself on the fact that 28 per cent of its 716 professors are women.

In fact, the chair of the six-strong judging panel which picked Sen is a woman – Li Bennich-Björkman, the current Johan Skytte Professor in Political Science and Eloquence.

Sen said he will collect the prize in person, at the ceremony which will take place in Uppsala in Sweden on September 30.

It will start with a solemn wreath laying ceremony and music recital in Uppsala Cathedral before moving to a more select gathering of 120 academics.

It is hoped Sen will be deliver a lecture which is open to the public and traditionally held at the University Main Building.

More For You

Starmer scraps NHS England to cut costs and improve care

Keir Starmer speaks with medical staff during a visit to the Elective Orthopaedic Centre at Epsom Hospital in Epsom, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Starmer scraps NHS England to cut costs and improve care


HUNDREDS of millions of pounds could be saved and patient waiting lists reduced as prime minister Keir Starmer announced plans to abolish NHS England, the body overseeing the state-funded health system.

In a speech delivered in Hull, Starmer explained his decision to streamline the National Health Service's management structure: "I can't, in all honesty, explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy."

Keep ReadingShow less
Early risers in the UK witness stunning Blood Moon eclipse

The lunar eclipse of Friday may not have been as dramatic as the total eclipses seen in other parts of the world

iStock

Early risers in the UK witness stunning Blood Moon eclipse

In the early hours of Friday morning, stargazers across the UK were treated to a partial lunar eclipse, with many enthusiasts rising before dawn to catch a glimpse. The celestial event, which saw the Earth's shadow partially covering the Moon, began at 05:09 GMT. Although only partial for most UK observers, it still presented a spectacular sight, with western parts of the country and regions further afield, such as the Americas and some Pacific islands, witnessing the eclipse.

For some, like Kathleen Maitland, the experience was magical. Stargazing from Pagham Harbour in West Sussex, she described the beauty of watching the Moon gradually darken and transform into a reddish hue, with the sunrise unfolding behind her. The eclipse gave rise to the so-called "blood Moon," a phenomenon that occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow, turning a dusky red as sunlight is refracted through the Earth's atmosphere.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sangam Foundation celebrates Women's Day

From L - Reetu Kabra, Sudha Sanghani, Parul Gajjar,Maya Sondhi,Shobu Kapoor, Meera Syal,Piyusha Virani, Sadhana Karia and Shobhna Shah during Sangam Foundation's Women's Day celebrations.

Sangam Foundation celebrates Women's Day

HUNDREDS of women gathered for the International Women's Day celebrations of Sangam Foundation last week. Prominent actresses Meera Syal, Shobhu Kapoor and Maya Sondhi have attended the event, a statement said.

The British Asian celebrities shared their experiences of breaking into an industry rife with misogyny and prejudice. The industry veterans also talked about challenges they faced in a male-dominated field.

Keep ReadingShow less
Asian tycoon Sudhir Choudhrie  backs Liberal
Democrats with £23,000

Sudhir Choudhrie

Asian tycoon Sudhir Choudhrie  backs Liberal Democrats with £23,000

BUSINESSMAN Sudhir Choudhrie has emerged as one of the biggest British Asian donors to the Liberal Democrats in the last quarter of 2024, according to the latest data from the Electoral Commission.

Choudhrie, currently an advisor on India to the leader of the Liberal Democrats, contributed on six different occasions to the party between October and December 2024, totalling more than £23,000. He contributed in a similar fashion in the previous quarter as well.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sunak is ‘content in his MP role
and has no desire to move to US’

(From left) Rishi Sunak with wife Akshata Murty, and parents Usha and Yashvir Sunak

Sunak is ‘content in his MP role and has no desire to move to US’

RISHI SUNAK “loves being an MP” and has no intention of flying to California to begin a new life in America, as his enemies alleged during the general election campaign last year.

And, unlike Boris Johnson, he is not striving to be prime minister again, even though he is still only 44.

Keep ReadingShow less