Nigeria, Jan. 7 -- To pay tribute to one's doctoral supervisor would be a simpler matter if his influence was restricted to the 2-3 years one spent writing a thesis. However, I've grappled with ideas raised in BJ's seminars and our discussions for much longer than he might realise. Many of our conversations - many about democracy and authoritarianism in the ex-colonial world-are very fresh in my mind, and drive my thinking still.

The field known as 'postcolonial studies' was perhaps at the height of its putatively insurgent fame when, in 1994, I went to seek out the 'Nigerian Marxist' at Cornell as he had been described to me. I myself had recently graduated from India's then fabled dissident institution, JNU, now fast degrading under de...