Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, has pointed out that great Indian rulers, such as Ashoka (third century BC) and Akbar (sixteenth century), advocated pluralism, tolerance, and reason long before the European Enlightenment. He has also observed that famines don’t occur in democracies, because freedom of information helps to prevent them.
诺贝尔经济奖获得者阿马蒂亚·森曾指出印度历史上伟大的统治者，比如公元前三世纪的阿育王和十六世纪的莫卧儿皇帝，在欧洲启蒙运动开始前很久就已经提倡多元性、容忍和理智了。他还指出在民主国家不会出现饥荒，因为信息的自由流通帮助阻止了这种情况的发生。