Krishna Kumar uses the metaphor of a long corridor to darkness, to explain the continuities,  he surfaces in the way colonials and nationalists, understood the value of education. Reading reviews of his book, in academic journals, demonstrates, that his ideas met with both scepticism and empathy, --- reviewers pointing out the long corridor of darkness, was in reality, part of a long and winding road, that stretches, beyond Macaulay, to Charles Grant at the least, and possibly into the pre-colonial period too. 

Re-reading K. Ramakrishnan's review after all these years, again, it becomes easier to interpret that the long corridor of darkness, is not part of an edifice, but part of a long and winding road.  What Kumar's been able to do, is shine a light on parts of that road.       

Quoted works in audio

1. Avoiding the 'Corridors of Darkness', Reviewed Work: Political Agenda of Education: A Study of Colonialist and Nationalist Ideas 

Review by: K. Ramakrishnan, Social Scientist, Vol. 19, No. 8/9 (Aug. - Sep., 1991), pp. 90-94 (5 pages). https://doi.org/10.2307/3517703

2. Reviewed Work: Political Agenda of Education: A Study of Colonialist and Nationalist Ideas by Krishna Kumar

Review by: Suresh Chandra Ghosh, History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 394-395 (2 pages)

Published By: Cambridge University Press, https://doi.org/10.2307/368203