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.

Nehru: A Troubled Legacy raises a fundamental question: Have we yet made an honest assessment of Nehru-and in effect, an honest assessment of India's contemporary history? To investigate this significant gap, the author digs deep into historical records and in turn, raises several pertinent questions. Was Nehru truly a 'great democrat' as many of his acolytes suggest or was he just cleverly grooming his daughter for the top job and dislodging her potential challengers from key positions in the party and government? Was he a man of principles or did he adopt double standards whenever it suited him? Did he ever have a proper measure of India's defence needs or was he foolhardy when it came to defence matters? Did he take a strong, principled stand against corruption or did he go out of his way to protect and promote cronies and some of his favourites who faced serious charges of corruption? Was he the great leader of the Congress and India as he has thus far been made out to be or was he a person given to human frailties like being petty and manipulative? A scholarly and dispassionate analysis of these and many other ignored or hidden questions sheds new light on Nehru's handling of the nation and its long-term impact on our national character. A must-read for anyone interested in understanding the complex relationship Nehru had with India's nation builders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Dr Rajendra Prasad as also in unravelling the true state of Indian affairs-pre-Independence and in the decades after Independence-beyond what the propaganda machines have fed us over the years.

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.

India's first seventeen years of independence were dominated by the goals and dynamic leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru. In this authoritative biography, a renowned expert on the history of India examines the life of the country's foremost politician.

Following the end of the Cold War, the economic reforms in the early 1990s, and ensuing impressive growth rates, India has emerged as a leading voice in global affairs, particularly on international economic issues. Its domestic market is fast-growing and India is becoming increasingly important to global geo-strategic calculations, at a time when it has been outperforming many other growing economies, and is the only Asian country with the heft to counterbalance China. Indeed, so much is India defined internationally by its economic performance (and challenges) that other dimensions of its internal situation, notably relevant to security, and of its foreign policy have been relatively neglected in the existing literature. This handbook presents an innovative, high profile volume, providing an authoritative and accessible examination and critique of Indian foreign policy. The handbook brings together essays from a global team of leading experts in the field to provide a comprehensive study of the various dimensions of Indian foreign policy.

Contributed articles; includes articles delivered at the International Conference on "Nehru's World View and His Legacy: Democracy, Inclusion and Empowerment" convened by the Indian National Congress in New Delhi on 17-18 November 2014.