Author: B R Nanda
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: N/A
Language: English
Pages: N/A
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195668766
Description
The destiny of modern India has largely been shaped by the efforts of three charismatic leaders-Gokhale, Gandhi and Nehru. This omnibus volume brings together the lives of these three giants that enable us to compare their personalities, approaches, and achievements. At a time when India is faced with the challenges of the twenty-first century, the lives of Gokhale, Gandhi, and Nehru have much to teach us.
In a new introduction, specially written for this volume, B R Nanda makes a comparative study of the backgrounds, temperaments, and ideologies of the three leaders who differed significantly in manner and style but shared a common vision of the unity and freedom of India. This introduction focuses on the inter-relationship between their ideas and methods and how these remain relevant today. The past, says Nanda, as seen through the lives of Gokhale, Gandhi, and Nehru, informs the present and has many lessons for India and the world today.
Each of these biographies has been much acclaimed for their extraordinary blend of scholarship, objectivity, and profound insights. Nanda, India's foremost historian of the freedom movement, examines the lives of the three leaders as he relates them to their eras. These, then, are both biographies and histories of critical times-relating personalities to periods and leaders to the societies they lived in.
Meticulously researched and lucidly written, these works will engage both the scholar and the general reader and will be of particular interest to students of modern history and politics, as also to policy-makers, analysts, and journalists.
REVIEWS
B R Nanda's biographical writings have added a new dimension of understanding to the lives and works of three great Indian patriots.
-Ainslie T Embree, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
This omnibus volume is of lasting significance to scholars concerned with modern Indian political thought and leadership.
-Dennis Dalton, Barnard College, Columbia University
Nanda has covered a wide range of personalities and events with an impressive fidelity to facts and a felicitous style. His work provides a foundation for others to build upon. His achievement is universal and his appeal widespread.
-T N Madan, Honorary Professor, Institute of Economic Growth
Nanda's works have enriched our understanding of the making of modern India. They are meticulously researched, full of profound insights and written with elegance and verve.
-Ralph Buultjens, former Nehru Professor, University of Cambridge and Professor, New York University
The outcome of prolonged and painstaking study and reflection extending over half a century, these three books by B R Nanda, the doyen of Indian historians, are essential readings for any one who is interested in the history of Modern India.
-S R Mehrotra, former Professor of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Himachal University.