Jawaharlal Nehru

Indira Gandhi described Jawaharlal Nehru as a generous and gracious human being who summed up in himself the resurgence of the Third World as well as the humanism which transcends dogmas. One of the modern world's most articulate statesmen, Nehru wrote on a wide variety of subjects. A Renaissance man who described himself as a dabbler in many things, he devoted his life not only to politics but also to nature and wildlife, drama, poetry, history, and science.
Published originally in three volumes, Gopal's biography of Nehru is the most scholarly and authoritative work to have appeared on Nehru. Its value lies in its comprehensiveness: it does not look exclusively at Nehru's politics or his inner life and psychology, but shows how Nehru's mind was shaped by Indian politics, by colonialism, and by his birth within an elite professional class. The latter shows how he in turn shaped Indian politics and the economic development of democratic India.