Sashi Tharoor’s work, Nehru :
The Invention of India gives an
amiable as well as an objective portrait of Nehru. Nehru’s evolution from an
indifferent youth to passionate patriot to
national leader to become the first prime minister of India . He has discovered
India through his writings , experiences
and international outlook which made him an outstanding leader. Motilal Nehru
and other members of his family joined Nehru in national movement and the father
recognised early the man of destiny in him. Nehru gave up an aristocratic life
style in favour of life of hardships which moulded his character in to a fiery nationalist
. To him Gandhi was a father figure .Though his scepticism made him doubt Gandhi’s
political judgements, he came round in the end. He was a democrat to the core
and wrote an anonymous article against himself in which he opposed personality
cult. His secularism, Socialist ideas leading to introduction of planning in independent India and his balancing
through non-aligned movement in the era of cold war gave him a lot of recognition
on the world stage. But Tharoor criticizes his emphasis on the public sector which was finally given up
in favour of privatization in 1990’s by the government of Late P.V. Narsimha Rao-led Congress government. Tharoor
‘s beautiful and captivating style offers
an intimate and warm profile of the champion democracy who refused to
shake hands with Fascism and corresponded with chief ministers of the States in
the interests of federalism. Though Chinese turnaround and a war lost caused him a lot of anguish to
him who supported China before and after its independence for its liberation
and rightful place in the UN. His relations with his colleagues such as Patel, Bose,
Rajendra Prasad, Ambedkar are cordial despite differences in their approach. Nehru treaded a middle ground between the Right and the Left and did
his best to retain the unity of various groups in the party. He could not but
accept Partition forced by the British but he never compromised regarding
secularism and remained a beacon of hope to lay foundation for
industrialization of India. He experienced an intense loneliness as an
individual but dedicated his entire life for the glory of India and upholding
the principle of unity in diversity. His Kashmir policy attracted a lot of criticism but he never believed in
theocratic approach to the problem and His failures if any were due to excessive trust in others . He evinced a passionate desire for international peace in the era of cold war in which nuclear threat loomed
large.
