Naipaul is essentially a writer of discovery. He tries on occasion to look into the past through the evidence of the present. That's what he did in writing about the ruins of Vijayanagar in India: A Wounded Civilisation. He is not a professional historian, but his insights and perspectives on Indian history are unique and as startling in their accuracy as the observations of his travel.

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Notes from Wikiquote

"Willy" is historian William Dalrymple.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Farrukh Dhondy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.