Author: Sonia Gandhi
Editor(s): Sonia Gandhi
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 608
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143032453

Description

Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi were eloquent and prolific letter writers. The letters in this volume, selected from the extensive correspondence between the two over more than forty years, are like conversation on paper-but more revealing, as Sonia Gandhi observes. Intimate, articulate and unreserved, they provide rare insights into the character and personality of two of the most towering figures of modern India.

Remarkable for their honesty, sensitivity and humour, and replete with vivid descriptions of major personalities and events of their times, the letters chart Indira Gandhi’s development from a shy, frail schoolgirl into a charismatic political leader; they reflect the love of nature and books the father and daughter shared, and and reveal their candid views on a variety of subjects, ranging from family and friends to issues of political and national importance. Above all, this volume reflects the depth and tenderness of the relationship between Jawaharlal and Indira, and the formidable moral and physical courage that was the hallmark of both personalities.

Sonia Gandhi’s illuminating Introduction and annotations provide the personal and political context for this fascinating correspondence.

REVIEW

Such a fusion of the public and private worlds confers on these letters a distinctive quality.
-Sonia Gandhi

Contents

EDITOR’S NOTE

Introduction by Sonia Gandhi
Jawaharlal Nehru’s and Indira Gandhi’s Kinship and Political Circles, and Circle of Friends
Journeys Undertaken by Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi between 19922 and 1963
List of Prison Terms
Family Trees

PART ONE (1922-1939)

Section I: Growing Up (1922-1936)
Section II: Indira Comes Into Her Own (1937-1939)

PART TWO (1940-1964)

Preface to Part Two
The Political Setting of the Early 1940s
Section I: Homecoming (1940-1942)
Section II: Prison Walls (1942-1945)
Section III: Towards Freedom (1945-1946)
Section IV: In the Prime Minister’s House (1947-1962)
Postscript

Appendix: Indira’s Reading in 1932

Index