Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, continues to occupy the public discourse in some way or other even five decades after his death and there are innumerable books on him. But what sets apart Jawaharlal Nehru: An Illustrated Biography is 700 photographs and 30 chapters offering a complete understanding of his ideas on the construction of modern India.
“Today, Nehru’s legacy is under attack and his contribution is ridiculed and belittled. I hope the book will provide an answer to his critics and admirers alike,” said senior Congress leader A. Gopanna, who earlier had brought out a similar book on K. Kamaraj.
He collected the photographs from Shastri Bhavan and the Nehru Memorial Museum in Delhi and placed them appropriately under the subjects covered in the book. “The photographs were gathering dust. Every time I visited Delhi, I made a point to collect the photographs. Finally, I used 700 of the 7,000 photos. The book, designed as a coffee table book, has 520 pages,” said Mr. Gopanna, explaining that book ends in 1963, the year Nehru died.
The book is likely to be published between March 19 and 23 once Congress president Rahul Gandhi confirms his participation. Mr. Gopanna had already presented the digital copy of the book to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and she, in her message, has said, “At a time when there are increasing attempts to denigrate Panditji and erase his crucial role in building our modern democratic and secular republic, this book is all the more valuable.”
Former President Pranab Mukherjee and vice-president Hamid Ansari have penned the foreword. “The book captures the mood of the nation when Nehru passed away, which no other book in the past has done,” said Mr. Mukherjee.
“At a time when studied forgetfulness has reached epidemic proportions, a diligent and tasteful exercise of recalling the life and times of an iconic personality in recent history,’” observed Mr. Ansari.
Mr. Gopanna said the book would be published in Tamil, Hindi and Kannada.
