Ramachandra Guha pens an elegant rejoinder to Mihir Bose’s The New Indian Caste Taboo. He is dignified: “It is all rather sad, and unnecessary. For in truth there is room for Bose’s book and mine, and for many others too.” He is also devastating–with some justice, given the provocation: “I have never claimed any of my works is ‘comprehensive’. Important, yes, perhaps even pioneering. But claims to comprehensiveness I leave to Bose, who seems to think that when he has had his say on a subject, there is no need for anyone else to touch on it at all.” The Babu thinks Guha did a pretty civilised job of savaging.