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Here is a study of a key twentieth-century statesman: Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), one of the Indian nationalists who led India to independence in 1947, and, as Prime Minister from 1947 until his death, steered her through her early, formative years as one of the world's great nations. This is not a life of Nehru - though the biographical details are clearly set out - but a study of Nehru as a figure of power. In it, Judith M. Brown (a leading authority on modern India,) explores a number of related themes. This account will reward anyone - scholar, student and general reader alike - interested in the making of our modern world. It has been written expressly for non-specialists, and not the least of its rewards is the general introduction it provides to the society and politics of India in the early and middle years of the century.
Shashi Tharoor delivers an incisive biography of the great secularist who—alongside his spiritual father, Mahatma Gandhi—led the movement for India’s independence from British rule and ushered his newly independent country into the modern world. The man who would one day help topple British rule and become India’s first prime minister started out as a surprisingly unremarkable student. Born into a wealthy, politically influential Indian family in the waning years of the Raj, Jawaharlal Nehru was raised on Western secularism and the humanist ideas of the Enlightenment. Once he met Gandhi in 1916, Nehru threw himself into the nonviolent struggle for India’s independence, a struggle that wasn’t won until 1947. India had found a perfect political complement to her more spiritual advocate, but neither Nehru nor Gandhi could prevent the horrific price for independence: partition. This fascinating biography casts an unflinching eye on Nehru’s heroic efforts for, and stewardship of, independent India and gives us a careful appraisal of his legacy to the world.
On political and social conditions of Sri Lanka from 1932-1963.
‘An important contribution ... Delving lucidly into the most significant ideological battles of the era, this book deftly outlines the thinking and dialogue that laid the foundations of the Republic – and which remain deeply relevant and contentious today’ Shashi Tharoor, author of Inglorious Empire
Judith Brown explores Nehru as a figure of power and provides an assessment of his leadership at the head of a newly independent India with no tradition of democratic politics.
Connecting the domestic and international aspects of Nehru's political and ideological life, this engaging new biography places Nehru in the context of the issues of his time and dispels many myths surrounding the figure.
The midnight knock on the door and the disappearance of a loved one into the hands of authorities is a 20th-century horror story familiar to many destined to “live in interesting times.” Yet, some stories remain untold. Such is the account of the internment of ethnic Chinese who had settled for many years in northern India. When the Sino-Indian Border War of 1962 broke out, over 2,000 Chinese-Indians were rounded up, placed in local jails, then transported over a thousand miles away to the Deoli internment camp in the Rajasthan Desert. Born in Calcutta in 1949, and raised in Darjeeling, Yin Marsh was just thirteen years old when first her father was arrested, and then she, her grandmothe...