Book review
The letters in this volume, written by some of the leading figures of our times, cover the three eventful decades leading up to India’s Independence in 1947. Evocative of the spirit of those stirring times, many of the letters are from those most closely involved in the freedom struggle—among them, Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, Maulana Azad, Vallabhbhai Patel and Jayaprakash Narayan.

Of particular interest is the long correspondence between Subhas Chandra Bose and Nehru, which covers the crisis during the Tripuri Congress in 1939, and reflects the two leaders’ sharply differing views on the mobilization of national resistance to British rule. Equally fascinating are the letters from Mahatma Gandhi, which reveal his acute political instincts as well as his deep humanity and his genuine respect for dissent.

The letters also bear testimony to Jawaharlal Nehru’s extraordinary gift for friendship, and the respect and admiration he evoked, both personally and for the cause of Indian independence, from world figures as diverse as George Bernard Shaw, Romain Rolland, Clare Boothe Luce, Edward Thompson, Chiang Kai-shek and Bertrand Russell, among others. A Bunch of Old Letters is essential reading for an understanding of the history of national movement.

• ISBN: 0670058270
• Edition: Hardback
• Format: Royal
• Extent: 560pp
• Classification: Non Fiction

About the author Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 at Allahabad and educated in England at Harrow and Cambridge. In 1912, Nehru returned home to play a central role in India's struggle for freedom from British colonial rule, and then, as prime minister of independent India for seventeen years, went on to shape the nation's future as a modern, secular and democratic state. He died in office, on 27 May 1964. Visionary and idealist, scholar and statesman of international stature, Nehru was also an outstanding writer. His three renowned books—An Autobiography, Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India—have acquired the status of classics.