Advance praise for
Nehru: The Invention of India

Nehru: The Invention of India by Shashi Tharoor   Reviews     Excerpts	The man who would one day help topple British rule and become India’s first prime minister started out as a surprisingly unremarkable student. Born into a wealthy, politically influential Indian family in the waning years of the Raj, Jawaharlal Nehru was raised on Western secularism and the humanist ideas of the Enlightenment under his father’s careful guidance. Once he met Gandhi in 1916, Nehru threw himself into the nonviolent struggle for India’s independence, a struggle that wasn’t won until 1947. India had found a perfect political compliment to her more spiritual advocate, but neither Nehru nor Gandhi could prevent the horrific price for independence: Partition. In this fascinating biography, Tharoor, author of India: From Midnight to the Millennium,casts an unflinching eye on Nehru’s heroic efforts for, and stewardship of, independent India and gives us a careful appraisal of his legacy to the world. - Arcade Publishers "NEHRU: The Invention of India is a long overdue reinterpretation of the life and work of one of the seminal leaders of the twentieth century. Its penetrating insights have special relevance for today's world of international conflict, failed states, and nation-building imperatives." — Ralph Buultjens, Former Nehru Professor, University of Cambridge and Professor, New York University "Shashi Tharoor has managed to capture, in a remarkably concise and readable fashion, a figure of huge historical importance, political and human complexity and enduring relevance.... Mr. Tharoor's own standing as a citizen of the world and an official in the United Nations, combined with his literary skill, make him uniquely qualified to shed light on one of a major leaders of the 20th century." - Strobe Talbott Former Deputy Secretary of State "Shashi Tharoor’s Nehru is a tour de force. Elegant, witty, limpidly written, it is a marvellous account of the life of one of the great statesmen of the last century. Tharoor’s affection for his subject suffuses the book, but he does not shy away from cogent criticisms. This succinct but complete biography is a splendid addition to Tharoor’s distinguished oeuvre and will be enormously welcome to all those who want to learn more about his great country’s road to independence and beyond." - William Shawcross Author of "Deliver Us From Evil"