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13th out of 106 books
—
15 voters
The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian
The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian is an astonishing work of self-discovery and the revelation of a peerless and provocative sensibility. Describing his childhood in the Bengali countryside and his youth in Calcutta—and telling the story of modern India from his own fiercely independent viewpoint—Chaudhuri fashions a book of deep conviction, charm, and intimacy that is...more
Paperback, 560 pages
Published
September 30th 2001
by NYRB Classics
(first published 1951)
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Jan 17, 2009
Claire S
marked it as to-read
Recommended to Claire by:
Aamir Khan's blog
Shelves:
fiction-not-at-all,
form_complexia,
global,
historical,
g_india-and,
pol-historical,
a-2-interest-wo-urgency,
f_interpretations,
politics-learning,
pol-paradigm-shift-pssbl,
pov-content_global-of-location,
id-constructs-race-gender,
class-relations,
f_truth-mixt-q,
islam,
obama-term-1,
war-mltry-conflt-occ
His masterpiece, The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (ISBN 0-201-15576-1), published in 1951, put him on the short list of great Indian English writers. He courted controversy in the newly independent India in the dedication of the book itself which ran thus:
“ To the memory of the British Empire in India,
Which conferred subjecthood upon us,
But withheld citizenship.
To which yet every one of us threw out the challenge:
"Civis Britannicus sum"
Because all that was good and living within us
Was made...more
“ To the memory of the British Empire in India,
Which conferred subjecthood upon us,
But withheld citizenship.
To which yet every one of us threw out the challenge:
"Civis Britannicus sum"
Because all that was good and living within us
Was made...more
More than 500 pages of autobiographical work on the life of Nirad Chaudhuri, an unknown Indian born in 1897 in Kishorganj, a small town in present Bangladesh.
For the book: it relays wonderful facts, tales, myths and superstitions about India in the early twentieth century. He also refers to the works of Ghandi and Tagore quite a bit which I enjoyed.
Against the book: I found Chaudhuri patronizing in places with the endless use of unnecessarily long words and quotes in French and German with no...more
For the book: it relays wonderful facts, tales, myths and superstitions about India in the early twentieth century. He also refers to the works of Ghandi and Tagore quite a bit which I enjoyed.
Against the book: I found Chaudhuri patronizing in places with the endless use of unnecessarily long words and quotes in French and German with no...more
Wonderful account of growing up in mid 20th century India, from the dynamics of family life in rural villages to the political dynamics during the time of Gandhi. The first half, concerning childhood, was especially entertaining for me, and I happily soaked up every little detail about a family life that differed so much from my own.
Boring, partial and very descriptive. It was one of the books I loved even before I began reading it, but have been slowly and reluctantly grind into a critic.
Nirad Chaudhuri comes across as one of the foremost intellectuals of the country, but his overly descriptive writing style (which I suspect springs out of his desire to make this a historical record of the times and places that he lived in) and his unsubstantiated deductions (often right wing, though I do not consider myself an anti right...more
Nirad Chaudhuri comes across as one of the foremost intellectuals of the country, but his overly descriptive writing style (which I suspect springs out of his desire to make this a historical record of the times and places that he lived in) and his unsubstantiated deductions (often right wing, though I do not consider myself an anti right...more
Fantastic.
Till now Addictive.
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Nirad C. Chaudhuri (Bangla: নীরদ চন্দ্র চৌধুরী Nirod Chôndro Choudhuri) was a Bengali−English writer and cultural commentator. He was born in 1897 in Kishoreganj, which today is part of Bangladesh but at that time was part of Bengal, a region of British India.
He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, in 1975 for his biography on Max Müller called Scholar Extraordinary, by the Sahitya Akademi, Indi...more
More about Nirad C. Chaudhuri...
He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, in 1975 for his biography on Max Müller called Scholar Extraordinary, by the Sahitya Akademi, Indi...more
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Feb 01, 2012 08:13am