---
title: "Amartya Sen on the battleground of history, religious free schools, and Russia’s faith healers"
date: "2015-05-28T10:34:58+01:00"
modified: "2015-05-28T10:34:58+01:00"
url: "https://newhumanist.org.uk/2015/05/28/amartya-sen-on-the-battleground-of-history-religious-free-schools-and-russias-faith-healers/"
post_id: 6398
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Amartya Sen on the battleground of history, religious free schools, and Russia’s faith healers

1\. [A lesson in failure](/articles/4876/a-lesson-in-failure)

Issues at religious free schools have raised serious questions about the direction of education policy in Britain. Samira Shackle reports from Durham.

2\. [History and the Enterprise of Knowledge](/playdice/458)

The [latest issue](/articles/4874/the-summer-2015-new-humanist-is-out-now) of the *New Humanist* includes a column by Angela Saini on Narendra Modi’s soft war on secularism. In this archive piece from 2001, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen discusses the battleground of history.

3\. [What happens when Muslims leave Islam?](/articles/4875/what-happens-when-muslims-leave-islam)

A new book brings sensitivity and empathy to an intensely polarised debate, says Alom Shaha.

4\. [Black magic on Red Square](/articles/4862/black-magic-on-red-square)

In Russia, there are more faith healers than professional doctors. It’s a symptom of decades of chaos and authoritarian rule, as Marc Bennetts reports.

5\. [It’s all just words](/playdice/2379)

Recent issues of the *New Humanist* have included interviews with [Tim Minchin](/articles/4756/tim-minchin-it-just-happens-that-im-right) and[ Charlie Brooker](/articles/4816/charlie-brooker-tea-and-empathy). In this archive piece from 2010, Caspar Melville talks to Stewart Lee about blasphemy and comedy.

[April’s top long-reads](/articles/4850/religion-and-violence-jimmy-mubenga-and-tv-melancholia)

[More on our Summer issue – out now](/articles/4834/the-spring-2015-new-humanist-is-out-nowhttps://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/4874/the-summer-2015-new-humanist-is-out-now)