*READINGS ON NEHRU* [A thread]

Remembering the most notable architect of Modern India, Jawaharlal Nehru, on his 131st birth anniversary. While many use the prefix 'Pandit' before his name. I stopped doing it when I learnt that he did not like it.

At a time when is legacy is facing the most brutal onslaught and when the people from whose clutches he tried to save India all his life hold unbridled power, I bring to you something that might help in the effort to restore his glory that has been maliciously damaged.

Therefore, I present to you this thread. 'Readings on Nehru'. These are some of the books that have helped me shape my understanding of the man and to which, I think, everyone who seek to know about him should refer.

The first and foremost. This is indispensable. Though published in 1934, and hence not containing the crucial pre-partition and post-Independence years, this is a window to Nehru's mind. Most essential in understanding what shaped his philosophy.

And to know his views on religion, God, their compatibility with modernism; communalism and its relevance in an industrial society; anthropology; humanity; cultural views and science. The breadth of Nehru's thought leaves you in utter awe of him.

No wonder a man as illustrious as Tagore wrote after reading the autobiography, 'Through all its details there runs a deep current of humanity which overpasses the tangles of facts and leads us to the person who is greater than his deeds and truer than his surroundings.'

Number two on the list of indispensables.

If you ever hear someone saying 'Nehru was a foreigner in Indian clothes', throw this book in his face. Discovery of India, like the Autobiography, was written completely in prison. And yet, the narration is as lucid as it could be.

And the details so thorough. I was once told by a Nehru critic that the tile of 'Discovery of India' emerges out of conceit. 'Only two people claim to have discovered India, Vasco da Gama and Nehru,' he sneered. It was evident that he never read the book.

Because no one who ever reads it can say such a thing however bitter a critic of Nehru that person is. The word 'discovery' here has a different meaning. It is discovering the soul of India for oneself. This is the best single-volume history of India.

From the best single-volume history of India to the best single-volume history of the world. Nothing I can say about this book that can do justice to it. Written in the form of letters to his daughter from Naini prison, this book captures world history like no other.

The @nytimes called it 'one of the most remarkable books ever written' and that 'Nehru makes even H G Wells seem singularly insular'. Well, I've nothing to add.

From books written by Nehru, come to books written on him. This three-volume biography of Nehru is the most authoritative one. And there couldn't have been a better person than Gopal to write it.

He knew the man and others who played major roles in his life. He also knew his times very well and he had the scholarship of a renowned historian. Apart from the understating of the person and events associated with him, Gopal's own explanations and views make it the best read.

Nehru's second best biography after the one by S Gopal. And the best single-volume one. Brecher followed the then Indian PM for years and interviewed him. He takes you along the high and low years of Nehruvian era with amazing lucidity.

'Interwoven with pre- and post-Independence phases and with public and private lives, Brecher's narrative offers readers an objective scrutiny and analysis both of self and of events,' wrote Mushirul Hasan about this book.

'Sums up Nehru the man, and Nehru the politician better than any other work of scholarship I have read,' writes @Ram_Guha in its foreword. And I bet you will also feel the same after reading the book. Honest account by a foreign envoy who had no obligation to please anyone.

A good 500-odd page work on Nehru's life. Touches on the controversial aspects too and discusses the issues of Kashmir and accession in detail. Best for those who are going to read their first biography of Nehru.

A book first published by the Publications Division in 1973. But better than any govt-commissioned biography of a ruling party ancestor would look like today. And it is good sometimes to read the official biographies too.

Want to read a critical account? This would be the best. Godbole analyses Nehru's decisions and policies not like a bureaucrat but a scholar. And it is written without malice. Better than any contrarian account written about Nehru.

In a hurry? Read this concise biography by @ShashiTharoor. Mr Tharoor doesn't claim it to be a scholarly work, but he outlines major events in Nehru's life appropriately. Though I find the discussion on China somewhat lacking in factual info. But overall it's good.

You may find a reference to this book by K N Rao in social media posts that propagate the conspiracy theory of Nehru's 'Muslim origins'. That his grandfather was 'Ghiyasuddin Ghazi' and not Gangadhar Nehru. Well, this book makes no such claims.

Even more interesting is what the book is actually about. Though Rao detests Nehru and the Gandhi family and leaves no chance to speak badly of them, this book is his study of their horoscopes, according to which, he claims, their getting the top job was inevitable!

Though the correspondence between Nehru and Patel is humongous and can be found in toto in their respective collected works, this volume is important as it has carefully selected correspondence to help the reader understand the love and differences between the two leaders.

Similarly, this is the best book to understand the relationship between Nehru and Bose, about which also much falsehood has been spread. The authority of Prof Mukherjee on this subject is unquestionable.

The two best books in Hindi about Nehru.

Apart from these, I keep on getting references to Nehru's biographies by M J Akbar, Judith M brown, B N Pandey and Rafiq Zakaria. Wish to pick them up some day.

As far as the books 'critical of Nehru' are concerned, I can claim that no biography of Nehru is a hagiography. So one should not pick utter garbage available on Amazon in order to find a contrarian view. All biographies listed above discuss controversial issues with honesty.

The accounts of Balraj Madhok, Perry Anderson and Stanley Wolpert are often quoted by critics. Madhok's book contains a lot of innuendo and hearsay.

Prof Rajmohan Gandhi has wrote a wonderful counter to Anderson in his book 'Understanding the Founding Fathers'.

As for Wolpert, he could not keep his love for Jinnah aside while writing for other Indian leaders. So he should always be read keeping this in mind.

The two volumes of M O Mathai are also popularly quoted by the lobby interested in defaming Nehru. Both books are available on http://archive.org  and they do not contain much that is propagated in their name. The rest can be easily answered with alternative explanations.

Lastly, follow @_nehruvian for daily posts on not just Nehru but about other freedom fighters and leaders too.

PS: Read Selected Works of Nehru at http://nehruportal.nic.in/writings  or http://nehruselectedworks.com 
Here's my interview with Prof Madhavan K Palat took this mega project to conclusion https://www.rediff.com/news/interview/nehru-didnt-impose-secularism/20200227.htm

A subset of selected works is published by Prof @puru_ag as 'Who is Bharat Mata'.

Corrigendum:

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2) when *his* legacy
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32) 'Who is Bharat Mata' is a selection of writings by and about Nehru with focus on history, culture and idea of India with an introduction by @puru_ag