Chapter - 4
Part I "The English Scene" from A Passage to England

- Nirad C. Chaudhuri

Question- Write an introduction of Nirad C. Chaudhari.

Answer - 

Nirad Chandra Chaudhari was born in Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, East Bengal, British India, the second eight children of Upendra Narayan Chaudhari, a lawyer, and of Sushila Sundarani Chaudharani. His parents were liberal middleclass Hindus who belonged to the Brahmo Samaj movement. Nirad C. Chaudhari was an Indian writer. In 1990, Oxford University awarded Chaudhri, by then a long time resident of the city of Oxford, an Honorary Degree in letters. In 1992, he was made an honorary commander of the order of the British empire (CBE).

Chaudhari was a prolific writer even in the last years of his life, publishing his last work at the age of 99. His wife Amiya Chaudhari died in 1994 in Oxford, England. He too died in Oxford three months short of his 102nd birthday. In 1999. He lived at 20 Lathbury Road from 1982 until his death and a blue plaque was installed by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board in 2008. Dr. Sumantra Maitra named him the forgothen visionary of British India, in a review essay for the spectator.

Nirad's Major Works - His masterpiece, "The Autobiography of an unknown India', published in 1951, put him on the long list of great Indian writers', Chaudhari had said that "The Autobiography of an Unknow Indian' is more of an exercise in descriptive enthology that autobiography'. He is concerned with describing the conditions in which an Indian grew to manhood in the early decades of the century, and as he feels that the basic principle of book is that environment shall have precedence over its product; he describes its affectionate and senuous detail the three places that had the greatest influence on him: Kishoreganj, the country town in which he lived till he was twelve; Bengram: his ancestival village; and Kalikutch, his mother's village. A fourth chapter is devoted to England, which occupied a large place in his imagination. Later in the book he talks about Calcutta, the Bengali Renaissance, the beginnings of the nationalist Movement and his experience of Englishmen in India as opposed to the Idyllic pictures of a civilization he consider perhaps the greatest in the world. These themes remain preoccupations in most of Chaudhari's work, as does his deterministic view of culture and politics. He courted controversy in the newly independent India due to the dedication of the book, which ran thus:

"To the memory of the British Empire in India,
Which conferred subjecthood upon us?
But withfield citizenship?
To which yet everyone of us threw out the challenge;
"Civis britannicus sum"
Because all that was good and living within us
Was made, shaped and quickened
By the same British rule."

It is sometimes stated that - 'Chaudhari was hounded out of government service, deprived of his persion, blacklisted as a writer in India and forced to live a life of penury'. However, as Sociologist Edward Shils, who helped chaudhari immigrate to the UK, stated in his article 'citizen of the world' [American Scholar, 1988], Chaudhari retired at the compulsory age of 55 but was not eligible for a pension because he had not completed sufficient years of service. It is also stated that. Further more, he had to give up his job as a political commentator in All India Radio as the Government of India promulgated a law that prohibited employees from publishing memoirs. This is not the case.

There was a pre-existing rule that employees must get clearance before publishing anything. Chaudhari was refused an extension of service. He was not asked to prepare any more talks on a free lance basis because of service criticism directed at him by senior figures- like Krishna Menon. Chaudhari argued that his critics were not careful enough readers. "the dedication was really a condemnation of the British rules for not treating us as equals," he wrote in a 1997 special edition of 'Granta': Typically, to demonstrate his perceptions he drew on a parallel with 'Ancient Rome', The book's dedication. Chaudhari observed "was an imitation of what 'Cicero' said about the conduct of Verres, a Roman proconsul of Sicily who oppressed Sicilian Roman citizen's who in their desperation cried out "Civis romanus sum".

At the age of 57, in 1955 for the first time Chaudhari went abroad. After coming back he wrote 'A passage to England' (1959). In this book he talked about his visit of five weeks to England, and move briefly about his two weeks in Paris and one week in Rome. During this time away from his home in Delhi he visited museums, galleries, cathedrals, country houses, and attended plays and concerts. Chaudhari reflects on his experiences from the perspective of a man who had grown up in the British Empire and was now the citizen of an indepent India. His later words include personal essays biographies and historical studies.

Honours -
1. Duff Cooper Memorial Award in 1967
2. Ananda Purashkar in 1988
3. D.Litt. from Oxford University in 1990
4. VidyaSagar Purashkar in 1997 by the Govt. of West Bengal.
5. Desi Kottama in 1997 by Vishwabharati

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