Volume 4, Number 5 · April 8, 1965
The Light that Failed
By Geoffrey Barraclough
Nehru: The First Sixty Years
by Dorothy Norman
John Day, 2 vols., 1354 pp., $27.50
Time with his swinging scythe, the executioner of human reputations, is hard on the heels of Jawaharlal Nehru. The architect of Indian independence, we can see today, was a more equivocal figure than people realized during the rejoicings of 1947; and even before his death on May 27, 1964, the world statesman who loomed so large at Bandung in 1955 had lost much of his glamor. Ten years ago Nehru's international prestige was at its height; today the 'five principles of co-existence' have passed into limbo along with Dulles's 'negotiation from strength.' Nor have events in India stood still. Shastri's India has drawn apart from Nehru's India; and inevitably the shift of scene has brought a shift in perspective. Across the sea of political change which India has experienced since May 27, 1964, Indians and others have begun to take a long, bard look at Gandhi's 'favorite son.' The time for panegyric is past; the time for historical appraisal has arrived.
Review, 4331 words
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