Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography, Volume 3: 1956-1964 by Sarvepalli Gopal

Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography, Volume 3: 1956-1964 Reviews

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  Vik

  I remember last year I hounded every decent library and book store in Delhi to get this three volume set biography of Jawaharlal Nehru, I met with disappointment. Few days later, one of my friends gifted me an imported edition of the same. I must add, without any hesitation, forever I will be in her debt.
  
  This book was introduced to me by an interesting turn of events, I remember when I read a beautiful biography of Jawaharlal Nehru by M.J. Akbar. It had an unconventional opening that began with his justification of writing another biography despite the fact there exists a fascinating biography (in 3 volumes) of Nehru by S. Gopal.
  
  Many writers and journalists praised Akbar for his research and writing style but almost everyone (as far as I know) failed to notice and contemplate his brave and rather strange admission in the introduction that Gopal's biography is more credible and complete than his own. It can be considered as commercial suicide by any intelligent publisher. So I admire Akbar's honesty in this matter and it generated an excitement in me to read all three volumes.
  
  It appears I am the first person on the Goodreads to read this third volume. It makes me sad that a book of this stature that is frequently cited in academic discourse has not been read by anyone at least on GR. It speaks a lot about our interest in political matters and why it is easy to spread political & historical nonsense in our country. We get owned by any demagogue who comes along and makes absurd historical claims because of our ignorance.
  
  This book needs no review since nobody is interested and nobody cares about history. We want to form political opinions based on sensational breaking news, wikipedia and political controversies. As long as we have this attitude, there can be no end to our troubles.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Craig Werner

  Gopal does an excellent job balancing the hagiographic tendencies in Nehru biography with a clear presentation of the political complications that frustrated his deep desire to sound a truly moral voice in world politics. Particularly good on the way the political/military confrontations with China and Pakistan worked together to place India in an untenable position as it struggled to make the idea of Non-alignment meaningful.