Nehru: A Political Life [Hardcover]

Dr. Judith M. Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003

The first prime minister of India after independence from British rule, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was a major architect of India as a nation state. His dedication to politics led to imprisonment under British rule, a deeply disturbed family life, and eventually to nearly two decades in power during which he ceaselessly pursued his vision of a transformed and democratic India. This biography depicts the phases of Nehru's life and shows how each period reflected new developments in Indian politics. Drawing on previously unconsulted sources including Nehru's post-1947 papers, Judith Brown offers a complete and penetrating account of Nehru. Casting light on both the public and private Nehru, the book also provides an array of insights into the history of India's nationalist movement and international standing, and into the complexities of constructing a new nation state in the aftermath of imperial rule.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), India's first prime minister, was from a well-to-do Kashmiri family. To rise in politics he had to connect with the real India represented by the maverick apostle of nonviolence, Mohandas Gandhi. As Gandhi's political heir, Nehru presided over the birth of the republic in 1947, then clung to power as his authority ebbed with illness and age. His patrician sense of knowing what was good for India, even when that clashed with the realities of nation-building and imperial devolution, lies at the core of Brown's biography. In the foreground, as colonial rule grudgingly fades, are Nehru's cycles of imprisonment for anti-British protests and his uneasy adaptation to the dynamics of party struggle and social change. The pressures of Indian tradition in conflict with Nehru's Western upbringing, and the East-West ambivalence of his public and private lives, put his personality under agonizing strain, which emerges here largely in passing. Brown, biographer of Gandhi and an Oxford historian, focuses upon the challenges to Nehru as father of Indian independence. Although Nehru's family ties and friendships do not escape scrutiny, it is the political side of Nehru that dominates the book. Despite the density of detail, Brown sometimes evades or downplays controversial aspects of Nehru's stewardship of India-the domestic impact of the Japanese-sponsored Indian National Army formed by Chandra Bose from prisoners of war; Nehru's stubbornly embarrassing and damaging appointments; his dubious flirtations with communism and the Soviet bloc. Nevertheless, this is the fullest one-volume life of Nehru available, and a primer of 20th-century Indian politics. Illus. not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Sarvepalli Gopal, author of the extant academic biography Jawaharlal Nehru, did not have access to an archive controlled by the Gandhi family, which contains postpartition materials. Brown, however, did have access to the materials related to Nehru's establishment of the territory and the constitution of India, plus the neutralist, socialist, and anticolonial figure Nehru cut on the international stage. Grinding political matters fine indeed, Brown molds the milled facts into the major phases of Nehru's emergence under Mohandas Gandhi's tutelage as a leading, much-jailed, anti-British nationalist. While the civics tenor of Brown's work is not for the casual reader, its vault of information about India's independence movement will be vital for serious students. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 440 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First edition. edition (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300092792
• ISBN-13: 978-0300092790
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,240,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Basic Succinct Introduction to the Man and his Times but Nothing In-Depth or Insightful, August 27, 2011

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Yoda (Hadera, Israel) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nehru (Profiles in Power Series) (Paperback)

Like most of the biographies in the Longman "Profiles and Power" series, this book provides a basic overview of the man and his times, with almost as much detail on the history of the times as the man himself. The Indian pre-independence period is covered, post-independence politics, relations with China, Pakistan and the U.S. (though ironically little is said of relations with the Soviet Union or the third world movement), etc. Hence the reader obtains a basic introduction to the period Nehru was operating in. The book also provides a brief but rudimentary overview of the man. For example, that he came from one of India's wealthiest families, that he received an elite education in both India and England, that while a student in England he went through money hand over fist, etc. Hence, for the layman with no knowledge of either the man or his times, the book provides a basic introduction that is of some value though for those with some familiarity with either the times or the man the book would be far too basic.

As a biography the book fulfills the basics of providing a short introduction to the man. Unfortunately, the book provides little insight into his motivation. For example, the reader obtains no idea of how Nehru, despite being a playboy in England while a student, went from this to a disciple of Gandhi. The reader also obtains no idea as to why, beyond the historical context of the times (i.e., anti-colonial sentiment, etc.) Nehru's policies were so secular and socialist. The biography also does not do a good job in providing an explanation of how Nehru's policies and actions differed from those of his contemporaries.

Hence the book does provide a short rudimentary introduction to the man but really does not provide anything deep or profound over and above that. For any reader seeking something more than a succinct introduction the book has nothing to offer. Then again, books in this series (i.e., like those on DeGaulle and Nasser), were never written for anyone seeking more than a brief introduction to the man covered and his times.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars light on history, heavy on psychology, February 1, 2005

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S. Shingavi "SShingavi" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nehru (Profiles in Power Series) (Paperback)

It's not a bad book, but it's very repetitive and not terribly insightful. It reduces Nehru's coming to power to his connection to Gandhi, underexplains Nehru's relationship to a series of domestic crises in India, and really doesn't explain many of the dynamics of independence and its aftermath. It's a quick, easy read, though.