The Discovery of India

Pandit Nehru is a scholar with a soft touch. His work is throroughly analytical and candid, yet lyrical in its tone which makes for easy reading. This book is a page turner once you relax and get into the right frame of mind, which I must admit takes a little bit of time. But once you do that it is therapeutic, no less. Sunil Khilnani, Professor of South Asian studies at Johns Hopkins University, writes in the Introduction (which is generally very positive about the book), how Pandit Nehru's usage of terms like "racial memory" jar in today's world. On the contrary, I feel that his usage of such terms is very apt, and very Indian. It shows how acknowledging our own histories and genetic dispositions is not antithetical to, but part and parcel of mutual understanding and of communal harmony. This book is an eye-opener for many Indians, in India and abroad, who have fallen into the fold of the Hindutva ideology that aims to bring India in line with globally prevalent nationalistic tendencies based on religious conservatism, as practiced in America for example. Discovery of India is a reminder that the Indian freedom movement was driven by nationalism of a superior kind, that while deeply knowledgable and assertive of its national character, was still open minded about absorbing international influences and cared about humankind as a whole. Makes me proud that this man was my first Prime Minister.

This book was recommended to me by an Indian coworker when I told him I was learning about India in my endless quest for understanding. I ordered it immediately and was so pleased when it arrived. I am now about halfway through it and have learned a great deal about India and her long history that I did not know. I am aware that Mr. Nehru was a Socialist, and although some may dismiss anything that is written by a Socialist as if he has nothing worthwhile to say I find that the book is very interesting, is full of history, and that Nehru was a very good writer. This book would be helpful to anyone seeking to learn about India.

Average

Writing was one of Nehru's talents. This book was written to teach his daughter Indira, about Indian history. A number of his books were written when imprisoned by the British during India's war for Independence. It's a great read for anyone wanting an introduction to Indian history. Thapar and Spear's History of India is also a great series of books. I've gifted it a few times and the language is lovely, and be warned there aren't many pictures.

if there is just one book that one would have time to understand the rich social, cultural and spiritual fabric if India, this would be it. Regardless of one's inclinations towards Nehru's political ideologies. This book is a masterpiece. Immensely readable and enjoyable. It was also made into an acclaimed BBC serial.

Good print quality

Excellent read. I got it few weeks earlier so didn't had a chance to read it all but was very impressed on reading the topics I was most interested in. I highly recommend it.

I read Nehru's treatise once when I was in 10th grade and appreciated little of it. I chanced upon the book again recently and decided to hash out the book from the first page to last. I was very impressed with his deep and insightful interpretation of various historical events in the 5 millenia long history of my country, and of his objective portrayal of the same. He was not overtly parochial as I suspected he would be, but was critical of my countrymen and of our culture and their actions when necessary, and lauded their actions when they were justified. Particularly interesting to me were his writings on the social evolution of our caste system, which is said to be a great problem, and is constantly criticized (particularly by the you-know-who's of the western world). However, Nehru showed that, the system in it's ancient and present forms are dogma-induced perversions of it's intended goal, which was to provide checks and balances to racial and class-based divisions that plagued other "more civilized" Hellenic and Saxonic/Nordic societies in Europe (he also pointed out that the caste system enabled ancient Indians to avoid the sick barbarity of the mass slavery of other human beings with minds and thoughts like our own, something which all civilizations other than India and those in the Far East have practiced on a nauseatingly copious scale). Also, I was impressed by his organized portrayal of the British Raj which, by all accounts other than those of the Europeans, was a savage massacre and rape of our land and people to satisfy the Anglo-Saxon bloodlust (while it did have a small number of benefits, it did not justify the claim of "Pax Brittanica"). If I were to paraphrase the British occupation based on his writings, I would have to say that his contention was that, while the British enslaved our people in order to "civilize" us, we wound up civilizing them, as, in the final analysis, they were amenable to reason and dialogue and consequently we were able to sue for our freedon through civil disobedience rather than wage bloody wars for it like other countries like the United States were forced to do. However, one criticism for this work is that Nehru has often been a tad shaky on his facts. One might argue, of course, that his main intention was not to provide a litany of names and dates, but explanations and interpretations. But one must remember that history is a science as much as it is an art, and the scientific method entails detailed records of all the facts before providing an interpretation of them. Nehru is a little deficient on this. For example, he summarizes the spectacular rise of the Mauryan Empire in just 1 paragraph, without describing the palace intrigues that lead Kautilya to engineer the rather dramatic fall of the Nanda Dynasty and crown Sandracottus/Chandragupta Maurya as the Emperor after driving out the Celucid Greeks. He only touches the interesting bits about the invasions of Demetrius and the Scythians and Huns (though he does mention Mihiragula the Horrible), the mistreatment of the Buddhist monks by the Sunga Kings, and the grand achievements of the Gupta Empire that entail all that is finest about our people even to this day. Also, his portrayal of Muslim rule in India is somewhat biased, and he only describes the bad bits, such as the jizya and the pagan tyranny of Aurangzeb while glossing over the good bits during the reigns Emperors Akbar, Jehangir and all those chaps who tried to build bridges between Hindus and Muslims. He did not write about the reletavily progressive outlook of Indian Muslims (relative to the Persians and Afghans of that time) that laid to the establishment of the Ghulami (Slave) Dynasty in the Sultanate, when Iltutmish, a poor slave, rose in the ranks to become an Emperor, or of our first Empress, Razia al-Din (although the incompetence of the Tughlaq dynasty negated much of that later). All in all, though, I'm glad I read this book as I know more about my roots than I did before.

Great read, come across very biased but most booked do

I usually do not buy Penguin classic books because of pathetic paper quality and smudged printing - but this was an exception. Very good binding, very good cover, thick paper and great printing quality. Very happy with my purchase.

A book with many high values.

One of the finest works by Shri JL Nehru.A must read masterpiece to every citizen of this country who really wants to know the rich culture of this country.Should be in the course curriculum of our students.

Excellent!