Winning a revolution is very much like waking up with a bad hangover. All of the glorious intoxication is gone, and the feeling of superhuman power is replaced by the dull ache of responsibility. Many Asian lands—Burma, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Korea, Ceylon—are by now some ten years into the grey morning-after of independence, and political leaders who had once been dashing conspirators and heroic guerrilla captains have become aging politicians, surrounded by corruption, inefficiency and rivalry. All but the most obtuse are ready to admit that throwing out the imperialists was the easiest part of their job, and concede...
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