Based on speeches made by Indian Prime Minister Nehru during his visit to America in October and November, 1949.

Examining India-America relations between 1942-62, this book reconsiders the role of America in shaping the imagination of post-colonial India. It rejects a conventional orthodoxy that assigns a limited role to America and challenges narratives which neglect the natural asymmetries and focus on discord and differences to define India-America relations. Integrating the security, political and economic elements of the Indo-American relationship it presents a synthesis of India’s encounter with the post-war hegemon and looks at the military, economic and political involvement of America during the ‘transfer of power’ from Britain to India. Bhardwaj delves into the role of American non-government agencies and examines the anti-communist ideological linkages that the Indian political class developed with America, the influence of this bonding and the role of American ideas, experts, funds, international relations and strategy in shaping India’s social, economic and educational institutions. Analyzing India’s non-alignment policy and its linkages to American policy on the non-communist neutrals, it argues that India’s movement towards the Soviet Union and away from China in the mid 1950s was in tune with the American strategy to cause the Sino-Soviet split. The book presents a fresh perspective based on authentic records and adds a new dimension to the understanding of modern Indian history and Indo-American relations. It will appeal to scholars and students of Indian and American history, international relations and strategy.

In October 1947, two months after he became independent India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote the first of his fortnightly letters to the heads of the country’s provincial governments—a tradition he kept until a few months before his death. This carefully selected collection covers a range of themes and subjects, including citizenship, war and peace, law and order, governance and corruption, and India’s place in the world. The letters also cover momentous world events and the many crises the country faced during the first sixteen years after Independence. Visionary, wise and reflective, these letters are of great contemporary relevance for the guidance they provide for our current problems and predicaments.

Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the last decade, India has witnessed, among other things, two general elections; the fall of the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major anti-corruption movement; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; comparative peace in Nagaland but greater discontent in Kashmir than ever before. This tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with seventy years of the country’s independence, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.