John Grigg
VED Mehta's autobiographie fleuve, 'Con- tinents of Exile', will surely rank as a masterpiece of our age. It would be fasci- nating enough if the author were merely an Indian of outstanding literary talent who went to school and college in America and eventually became an American citizen. But add to that the fact that he has been blind from the age of four and the unique- ness of his experience is obvious. In his latest volume, The Stolen Light (Collins, £17.50), he describes how he faced the challenge of competing for the first time with sighted students, at Pomona College, California, having previously attended only schools for the blind; also, how he began to be an author. A story of heroic achievement, told brilliantly and with much humour.
To some degree Mehta is a product of the British Raj, whose origins and history are the subject of Sir Penderel Moon's massive posthumous work, The British Conquest and Dominion of India (Duck- worth, £60). Though unfortunately this does not deal with the cultural aspects of the Raj (no mention of Kipling, for inst- ance), as political and military history it is superb. Moon was a Fellow of All Souls and star recruit to the ICS during its final phase, resigning in 1944 in protest against the British government's attitude to Indian- nationalism. His fair-mindedness is im- peccable.
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