Nirad Chandra Chaudhuri was born on 23 November 1897, in Kishoregunj, Mymensingh, East Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh)
His masterpiece, The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, published in 1951, put him on the long list of great Indian writers. Chaudhari had said that The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian is ‘more of an exercise in descriptive ethnology than autobiography’.
In 1990, Oxford University awarded Chaudhuri, 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). He was a prolific writer even in the last years of his life, publishing his last work at the age of 99.
