Nehru: The Invention of India

‘[Nehru] is a book for today, not heavy and cumbersome, but sharp and witty, and relevant not just to India, but to other countries as well’ —BiblioThis short, beautifully written biography examines a great figure of twentieth-century nationalism from the vantage point of the beginning of the twenty-first. Deftly weaving personal facets with historical events, it tells the fascinating story of Jawaharlal Nehru—aristocrat, socialist, anti-imperialist, foremost disciple of Gandhi, with whom he didn’t always see eye to eye, die-hard secularist and prime minister who sought to educate the Indian masses in democracy by his own personal example.Shashi Tharoor also analyses the principal pillars of Nehru’s legacy to India: democratic institution building, staunch pan-Indian secularism, socialist economics at home and a foreign policy of non-alignment, all of which were integral to a vision of Indianness that is fundamentally contested today.Praise for the Book‘Exceedingly well-informed, passionately conceived and elegantly written’ —Outlook‘It is a must read to understand the fact that with the passage of Nehru’s time the country’s intellect has narrowed tremendously’ —Telegraph‘Sparkling, anecdotal and not necessarily controversial, [Nehru] is inventive in its own delightful way, low-keyed, unpretentious but highly readable’ —Free Press Journal‘Shashi Tharoor is . . . full of verve and flashing insight. [Nehru] is a short, accessible, intelligent and lively book’ —The Washington Post