Commentary on the Book The Nehrus in Prison by Mushirul Hasan (OUP,2016)

Countless books and essays have been written on Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, and his achievements. He is regarded as one of the founding fathers of Independent India alongside M. K. Gandhi, Abul Kalam Azad and B. R. Ambedkar. Many books and essays have also been written on his family, often called India’s first family. The Nehrus had to leave their property and livelihood, had to spend months and years in jail and had to suffer at the hands of colonisers; yet, their determination remained unshakeable. Even after independence, both Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi kept on working for the nation till their last breath. It was this sincerity that prompted historian Mushirul Hasan to pen this book. Here, I analyse the book in the light of various scholarly works around the themes of family history, the freedom struggle, composite nationalism and pluralism. I broadly examine the legacy of the Nehru family and their idea of India with reference to three main values—economic equality, gender equality and religious pluralism.