Sunday, November 13, 2022

The Discovery of India - Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru (1945)

The last in the Nehru Saga, this book is not just about the history of India. We draw that conclusion as most of us grew up with the televised series Bharat-Ek-Khoj by Shyam Benegal. This book is about Indian people, their aspirations, mistakes, and learnings from the mistakes. While one may wonder if this is the India-centric aspect of Glimpses of World History, the answer is not quite. There are parts where Nehru discovers India for himself by interacting with her history and people; there are chapters on how India needs to model herself based on the progressions of the modern world. 

The last hundreds or so pages are on the post-war world order. The situation had not completely unfolded when Nehru wrote the book. Hence the explanations are a bit sketchy in places. Some may challenge the viewpoints, and with the wisdom of hindsight, we know some of the events did not take the direction Nehru expected to happen. But, with many of the follies, it still can be considered a great compendium to understand India.  

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