In his book, which has become part of the canonical list of literature on postcolonial theory, Dipesh Chakrabarty denies the very possibility of any canon. He offers a critique of Eurocentrism from positions that many will find Eurocentric. Chakrabarti emphasizes that talking about both liberation from the domination of capital and the struggle for racial and gender equality is possible only from the standpoint of historicism. This view of history is a legacy of the Enlightenment, and cannot be abandoned without abandoning the very idea of social progress. European universalism, however, is blind to the plurality of history, to the fact that modernity is lived differently in different parts of the world, for example, in the author's native Bengal. In addition to conceptual discoveries, the Russian reader in Chakrabarti’s text will find unexpected moments of recognition of himself and his culture, which, just like the author’s homeland, is formed around a dramatic confrontation between “progress” and “tradition.”