Historical, Political and Cultural Consciousness in the Autobiographies of Nirad C. Chaudhuri

Abstract

The proposed research paper seeks to trace the public, political, historical and cultural cognizance in two autobiographies of Nirad C. Chaudhuri. Nirad C Chaudhuri is one of the few Indian English writers who have used English language for non-fictional purpose alone. The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (1951) and Thy Hand, Great Anarch! (1987) remained his best works. The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian gave an account of Chaudhuri’s childhood and student days till 1921. Thy Hand, Great Anarch! takes the account up to 1952.Both the autobiographies give a portrait of the slow but triumphant self-discovery of a powerful writer. During this process Nirad C Chaudhuri was in the grip of dramatic public events in India. Independence and partition of the continent in 1948 were widely hailed as statesmanship and the reparation of imperial wrongdoings, but Chaudhuri drew quite another conclusion- that his country had no future. Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s both autobiographies are more of a national than personal history as it reveals precedence to the environment over the product. And it is more of an exercise in descriptive anthology than autobiographies. Keywords: Autobiography, Indian Independence, character delineation, culture, British Empire