Let’s have a look at some of your books. Your first choice is Rudyard Kipling’s classic, Kim, which is set in the 19th century.

Kim is the story of a young boy who falls in with a Tibetan lama and joins in with the lama’s search for his spiritual goal. I have always loved the book because of Kipling’s wonderful writing. I think it is Kipling’s greatest book. I also love it because the descriptions of India at that time are so vivid. Bear in mind what I said earlier about the way that the British were, on the whole, encouraged not to get too closely involved with India – encouraged to live separate lives. One of the great features of Kipling’s genius is the way that he did learn so much, and did get so involved in the life of India and Indians.

And that is reflected in the character of Kim.

It is very much reflected in Kim, and in all the other characters as well. I think perhaps my favourite bit is that wonderful description of them going down the Grand Trunk road.

Kim was also part of the Great Game, recruited as a spy.

Yes, the Great Game is a theme of the book as well. Although I love the theme of the Tibetan lama searching for his spiritual goal.

Next up is The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen.

I like this book because it argues that Indians are by their very nature deliberative, they like discussing. I like this because I think it is one of the great features of India which people in the West can learn from – that Indians don’t see things in black and white in the way that we do. They don’t take polar opposite positions in the way that we do. Instead they like to discuss and to debate. I would argue, although this isn’t absolutely spelt out in the book, that this is all about trying to find the middle way, trying to find compromise rather than having conflict.

The book also explores the idea of India as a multicultural and religious society, and being good at accommodating that.

Yes, it is a multi-religious society and it accommodates different religions because its basic philosophy does not say that there is only one way to God. Its basic philosophy says that whenever you speak about God you always have to add “not this, not this” – in other words, indicating that nobody has a monopoly over the knowledge of God, and nobody can exactly describe God. If you contrast that with the semitic religions, you can see why India is able to accommodate a wide variety of religions and culture.

And the book argues that – while the British think that they introduced the idea of democracy to India – it was actually there long before the British arrived.

This is absolutely true. Of course if you look at the greatest Indian of the last century – Gandhi – one of his greatest messages was that you need democracy from the bottom up, which I think is a very important lesson. For Gandhi this meant democracy from the village level upwards. The most functioning democracies are really those where as much power as possible is put down to the village level. Interestingly, this coincides with the whole European Commission idea of subsidiarity.