Abstract
As Amartya Sen has, in exemplary manner, documented in his study on the rationalist and skeptical tradition in Indian culture, there is, in ancient and subsequently in modern India, a particular understanding and practice of pluralism, tolerance and recognition of the other. In short, Indian democratic traditions testify to the fact that concepts such as rationality, freedom, dissent, dialectics, as well as interreligious debates, do not constitute a Western prerogative. It is thus legitimate to speak about a line of thought that has its ancient roots, in the councils of early Buddhism and in their inter-religious openness, paradigmatically inscribed by Aśoka in his famous edicts carved in rocks and pillars, dating back to the third century BC which preached respect for all faiths. This tradition of interreligiosity, adhered to by Akbar in Mughal India, was inherited by personalities such as Tagore, Gandhi, and Sen. The intention of the article will be to elucidate, albeit briefly, the genealogy of this interreligious tradition.