Sidney and Beatrice Webb, the Fabian socialists who founded the London School of Economics and the New Statesman, traveled extensively in India for four months in 1911-12. During this period, they recorded their observations in a diary kept by Beatrice. Remaining virtually unnoticed for seventy-five years, the resulting Indian Diary did not appear in print for the first time until 1987.
The Webbs surpass the writings of their near contemporaries,...