The Argumentative Indian ...

... is the book I am reading currently. It has been written by Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize (Economics) winner. It deals with the tradition of public debate in India and its role in improving cultural and communal harmony. Further, he makes the case for public debate being the foundation stone of democracy and declares that Democracy, which is often thought of as a Western concept could potentially have germinated in India, fertilized by the extensive respect given to contrarions, including in the Ramayana, Mahabharatha and the Upanishads.

A fascinating read. Exceedingly well-reasoned and well-laid out.

Its not literature, or he would have been a cinch for a second Nobel.