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Article: Nehru and His Nation
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- March 26, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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NEHRU: The Making of India By M.J. Akbar
Viking. 609 pp. $24.95
FOR INDIA, 1989 will be the year of Jawaharlal Nehru. The
world's largest democracy is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the
birth of its first prime minister, whose brilliance and courage
captured the imagination of the world as he took his land from colony
to nationhood.
Known as Panditji or "beloved wise man," Nehru was the pragmatic
counterpoint to the spiritual Mohandas K. Gandhi in India's struggle
for freedom from British rule. While Gandhi, who was called Mahatma
or "great soul," fasted to end the violence that accompanied India's
independence, Nehru became the country's first prime minister. He
founded one of the ...