(Chaudhuri) has spent a lifetime kicking against the myths and shibboleths held by the majority of his fellow countrymen: he has ridiculed the pacifism of Mahatma Gandhi…he has castigated Indian nationalism for being corrupt, self-seeking, and destructive… (he has) vented his spleen at the stupidity and philistinism of the British in India. his latest (book) is almost a thousand pages long. it testifies to (his) eloquence, wit, and intellectual brilliance that he can go on at such length without once becoming a bore.