Jawaharlal Nehru

Rudrangshu Mukherjee is the Chancellor and Professor of History, Ashoka University. He was also the founding Vice Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University. Between 1993 and 2014, he was the editor, editorial pages of The Telegraph, Kolkata. He has taught in the history department of the University of Calcutta. Mukherjee has held visiting appointments at Princeton University, Manchester University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was educated at Calcutta Boys' School, Presidency College, Kolkata; Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was awarded a DPhil in modern history by the University of Oxford. Among his important publications are Awadh in Revolt 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance, Spectre of Violence: The Kanpur Massacres in the Revolt of 1857, Year of Blood: Essays on 1857, The Penguin Gandhi Reader, Great Speeches of Modern India, Nehru & Bose: Parallel Lives and Twilight Falls on Liberalism.

'This manuscript on Jawaharlal Nehru is an excellent introduction to this remarkable statesman, nationalist leader and public intellectual. ... The chapters are well designed. ... [I]t is a must-read for the younger generation ... The author is able to illumine for the reader, Nehru the individual behind the public figure. ... The strength of the manuscript lies in its being rooted in a profound understanding of Nehru, his age, his movement, his people, his country, nay, his world. ... I recommend the manuscript strongly for publication in the series. ... There are many biographies of Nehru but no short introduction. It should face no competition in the market.'