https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=The_Autobiography_of_an_Unknown_IndianThe Autobiography of an Unknown Indian - Revision history2026-06-07T22:59:57ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.2https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=The_Autobiography_of_an_Unknown_Indian&diff=227167&oldid=previmported>InternetArchiveBot: Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.9.52025-09-24T14:22:17Z<p>Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.9.5</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|1951 book by Nirad C. Chaudhuri}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}<br />
{{Infobox book<br />
| name = The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian<br />
| image = Nirad C. Chaudhuri - The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian.jpeg<br />
| caption = First UK edition<br />
| author = [[Nirad C. Chaudhuri]]<br />
| country = India<br />
| language = English<br />
| subject = Comparative– historical, cultural and sociological analysis of early 20th century India and the British colonial encounter in India<br />
| genre = Autobiographical, non-fiction<br />
| publisher = [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]]<br />
| release_date = 1951<br />
| media_type = book<br />
| pages = 506<br />
| isbn = 0-940322-82-X<br />
| dewey= 954/.14031/092 B 21<br />
| congress= DS435.7.C5 A3 2001<br />
| oclc= 47521258<br />
| followed_by = A Passage to England (1959)<br />
}}<br />
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'''''The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian''''' is the 1951 autobiography of Indian writer [[Nirad C. Chaudhuri]].<ref name="Chaudhuri1969">{{cite book|author=Nirad C. Chaudhuri|title=The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7tYuow3GXFkC|year=1969|publisher=University of California Press|id=GGKEY:K5H0WSNGKZ6}}</ref><ref name="Mehrotra2005">{{cite book|author=Arvind Krishna Mehrotra|title=An Illust History of Indian Lit in English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HT5h9OV8EV8C&pg=PA209|accessdate=12 July 2012|year=2005|publisher=Permanent Black|isbn=978-81-7824-151-7|page=209}}</ref> Written when he was around 50, it records his life from his birth in 1897 in [[Kishoreganj]], a small town in present-day Bangladesh. The book relates his mental and intellectual development, his life and growth in Calcutta, his observations of vanishing landmarks, the changing Indian situation and the imminent exit of the British from India.<br />
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''The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian'' is divided into four books, each of which consists of a preface and four chapters. The first book is titled "Early Environment" and its four chapters are: 1) My Birth Place, 2) My Ancestral Place, 3) My Mother's Place and 4) England.<br />
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Over the years, the autobiography has acquired many distinguished admirers. [[Winston Churchill]] thought it one of the best books he had ever read, according to his daughter, [[Mary Soames]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Narasimhan |first1=Balasubramanian |title=The Nirad C. Chaudhuri Page |url=https://statweb.stanford.edu/~naras/ncc-prev/ |publisher=[[Stanford University]] |access-date=25 March 2021 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801194539/http://statweb.stanford.edu/~naras/ncc-prev/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[V. S. Naipaul]] remarked: "No better account of the penetration of the Indian mind by the West—and by extension, of the penetration of one culture by another—will be or now can be written."<ref>{{cite news |last1=kaufman |first1=Michael T. |title=Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Author, Dies at 101 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/03/arts/nirad-c-chaudhuri-author-dies-at-101.html |access-date=25 March 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 3, 1999}}</ref> In 1998, it was included, as one of the few Indian contributions, in ''The New Oxford Book of English Prose''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Gross | first = John | title = The new Oxford book of English prose | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford New York | year = 1998 | isbn = 9780192142467 |url = http://docplayer.net/77931151-The-new-oxford-book-of-english-prose-edited-by-john-gross.html | access-date=24 March 2021 | oclc = 1028299240 | pages=xxvii, 796}}</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, The}}<br />
[[Category:1951 non-fiction books]]<br />
[[Category:Indian autobiographies]]<br />
[[Category:Literary autobiographies]]<br />
[[Category:History books about India]]<br />
[[Category:NYRB Classics]]<br />
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