The Idea Of India

"The book was dedicated to a further idea: that India was, in the simplest way, on the move; that all over the vast country, men and women had moved out of the cramped ways and expectations of their parents and grandparents, and were expecting more. This was the 'million mutinies' of the title; it was not guerrilla wars all round."

- V.S. Naipaul on India: A Million Mutinies Now, which was just a little ahead of its time. The piece ends on a note of self-congratulation: "Ambitious and difficult books are not always successful. But it remains to be said that in England this book has been reprinted 32 or 33 times. I marvel at the luck."