Title

Nehru : a tryst with destiny

Description

Following Nehru from childhood, through his Harrow and Cambridge education, to his years as nationalist leader and Prime Minister of India, Stanley Wolpert's compelling, authoritative biography strips Nehru of his many cloaks and covers, removing the public masks he fashioned for himself throughout his mature life. With a subtle analysis of the various influences on Nehru's intellectual and political life - including the early homosexual influences, his conflict with his father, his close relationship with Mahatma Gandhi, his English education, and the years of periodic and sometimes prolonged imprisonment - Wolpert lays open to the reader the most nuanced, insightful rendering of Nehru's life yet written.Wolpert describes Nehru's brief career as a barrister, and his devotion to India's struggle for freedom, following in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi to the dust and poverty of India's villages. The book traces Jawaharlal's swift rise to the presidency of India's National Congress, revealing how his radical ideas and fearless leadership of Congress's left wing soon won him the martyrdom of long years behind British bars for conducting civil disobedience campaigns. After his release in 1945, Nehru met Lord Mountbatten, with whom he was destined to negotiate the independence and partition of British India into the nation states of India and Pakistan in 1947. Nehru then went on to become India's immensely popular Prime Minister for almost two decades.Wolpert brings Nehru's complex personality to life against a vividly portrayed picture of India's fascinating history throughout its most turbulent century. He shows how India's own destiny was intimately wrapped up in the destiny of Nehru, a charismatic leader who stands among the twentieth century's foremost statesmen.

Identifier

679549

195100735

Creator

Wolpert, Stanley A

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1996

Program air date: December 29, 1996

Publisher

Oxford University Press

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front endpapers: Hundus, Muslims, Sikhs. Dominion Status--initiating. Jinnah (Muslims). Lord Mountbatten (Dicki). Nan, Kamala, Swamp Rani, Ghandi [i.e. Gandhi], President Motilal Nehru, Jawahor--30 in 1920. Prison in England 9 years. 1947--250 more people. Nehru-b. 1889 d. May 27, 1964 (74 yrs. old) Jan 20, 1948 Ghandi [i.e. Gandhi] assassinated p. 429. Nehru-preferred the Soviet model of central democracy p. 81. Edwina p. 436--died 1960 reading Nehru love letters p. 474. Claire Biith Luce-436. Gandhi and Nehru strongly disagree p 78. Nehru's diaries. Rajas and Ranis. Indira was haunted by ghosts all her life. Lamb has checked some chapter titles on the Contents page. Underlinings/Notes: Underlinings: Family details, political views, influences, relationship with Gandhi, early tutor, prison, religion, call for freedom, training of Indira, Gandhi's fasts, readings, relationship to British regime/ Muslim League, Independence, dynasty, Gandhi's murder, relationship with China, health. Notes: "an hour meeting," " Indira bitter," "Gandhi's letters," "jail," " Krishna Menon," "Indira," "8 books over 16 yrs." "9 yrs in prison," "Gandhi not theirs," "Menon," "soul mates," "nigger natives," "April 13, 1919, massacre, 400 dead," "Gadhia & Nehru differ," "Ghandi [i.e. Gandhi] shocked," "Soviet model," "Mickey Mouse," "Nehru sisters," "126 lbs," "his diary," "mother died," "Kamala," "hot tempered, cold blooded," "Books," "Gandhi fast," "high caste Hindi," "dizzy spell," "mother arrested, Swamp Rani," "Ghandi's [i.e. Gandhi] great fast," "Ghandi [i.e. Gandhi] released," "longest time in prison," "20 months in prison," "Nehru jewels," "bitter, let down," "Ghandi [i.e. Gandhi] 20 yrs. older," "Whither India," "Lenin," "stopped spinning," "Ghandi [i.e. Gandhi] and sex," "illness," "jail 2 1/2 yrs.," "53 yrs old," "Indira, Nan in prison," "Ghandi's [i.e. Gandhi] wife for 60 yrs. dies," "1944 Ghandi [i.e. Gandhi] 75," "Krishna Menon," "Jinnah cancer," "Singapore meeting," "Edwina," "knocking Edwina down," "in love," "Clare Booth Luce," "Gandhi 71 1948," "1947--weeks retreat Edwina Dickie Nehru," "arm in arm," "staggered bombshell," "no bases on Indian land," "sister Nan to Moscow," "Churchill 7 years," "1/3/48 U.N.," "India & Pakistan," "mad at the U.S.," "pious poisonous attitude toward India," "sadder," "Edwina lovers," "1500 letters a day," "Menon collapsed 9 hours," "Indira," "Edwina operation," "1960 mortally ill, died Edwina, love letters," "U.S. military," "Jan 6, 1964 a stroke," "died."

Subject

"Nehru, Jawaharlal, 1889-1964."

"Prime ministers--India--Biography."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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