Shashi Tharoor, the U.N. undersecretary general for communications and public information, discussed his book, "Nehru: The Invention of India," during a reception Monday at the United Nations Foundation. The book is a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru, the late Indian statesman and secularist who led India's struggle for independence with Mohandas Gandhi, his chosen spiritual and inspirational mentor.

Tharoor said the book traces the roots of Nehru's philosophy and temperament. He said it offers an appraisal and reinterpretation of Nehru's legacy of democratic institution-building, pluralism, socialist economics and his option for nonalignment during the Cold War. He describes India as a work in progress, 56 years after its break from the British Raj and partition, and discusses a shift away from Nehru's basic prescription for postcolonial nationhood. Present day India is largely a result of Nehru's vision, for better or for worse, Tharoor said.

Tharoor highlighted what he called an "apocryphal anecdote" in the book about Nehru, who he said had "upper-class English manners and self-possession" as well as extravagant Indian courtesy and warmth. John Foster tulles, secretary of state during the Eisenhower administration, was said to have asked Nehru: "Are you with us or against us?" To which, Nehru replied: "Yes."