of his public life. Two quiet claims to some originality can be made here.
I think it is imperative to reconnect the domestic and international aspects
of Jawaharlal Nehru’s political life and vision; to deal with them separately
is to lose track of their mutual interaction, and in consequence to
decontextualise both. Secondly, in attempting to provide an opening out
of critical discussion on Nehru, his times, his politics and his legacy, I
have partially decentred the central theme that dominated contemporary
debates: that of nationalism. It is possible to argue that to some extent
Nehru sought to do this himself; his was a sceptical and provisional
nationalism, tempered by the perspectives of internationalism and an
understanding of the dangers of national chauvinism.
Some of this book is based on original research; much of it attempts to
synthesise what has already been written. It is intended to be accessible
to a general readership of informed laypersons and students as well as
to specialists. Specialists will no doubt be impatient with the narrative
that a book of this kind must provide, annoyed by my choice of emphases;
non-specialists may wish for more of the very details that would irritate
the specialist. But the main duty of this book is to the non-specialist.
Suggestions for further reading are provided at the end – mostly work
I have found useful or have engaged with – in lieu of the more conven-
tional paraphernalia of academic footnotes that this book avoids. The
specialist should be able to spot my sources, and perhaps my politics, from
this discussion of sources.
The structure of the book needs some comment. The Introduction
and Interlude deal with central themes that run through the narrative.
There are two possible routes through the Introduction: the first, to
read it straight through, and the second, to return to the more abstract
themes in the latter sections having read the rest of the book. These latter
sections allude to events and problems with which the lay reader may not
be familiar. The rest of the chapters are more or less chronologically
arranged, although the later chapters depart from a rigidly chronological
narrative in favour of thematic coherence. The Conclusion returns to the
central themes. The chronological table at the beginning might be useful
for a reader wishing to keep a close eye on the sequence of events. Words
in Indian languages are translated where they first appear, either in the
text or in an endnote. I have tried not to stick to literal translations,
preferring to provide a sense of the wider meanings the terms might have
evoked to contemporaries. Chinese names are rendered in the Pinyinxxiv PREFACE