Nehru's India: Select Speeches

A pivotal figure in India's independence movement, the country's first Prime Minister, and an active politician for most of his life, Jawaharlal Nehru was also a renowned writer and scholar. Nehru's India brings together twenty-one representative speeches from Jawaharlal Nehru's 'Prime Ministerial years'. Through these speeches, selected and introduced by Mushirul Hasan, we get to see the development of Nehru's vision for free India and the actual process of transforming the blueprint into reality. They are an early articulation of government position and policies vis-a-vis infrastructural development, the roles of government and business, the differing requirements of communities and languages, and the inseparability of science and ethics. While some often reflect the opposition and struggle Nehru faced in the implementation of these policies, others help reveal the person behind the politician and administrator. Mushirul Hasan's delightful introduction cleverly knits the selections together.