Originally published in three volumes, Professor Gopal's biography is the most scholarly and authoritative work to have appeared on India's first Prime Minister.Assessing the influence of his birth into the privileged professional class, his Harrow and Cambridge education, and British colonialism on his political development, the book explores Nehru's role in Mahatma Gandhi's programme of passive resistance, the transition to independence, and the splitwith Pakistan. The final section considers his period in power, from 1947 to 1964, during which India experienced an economic and democratic transformation and established herself at the head of the world's non-aligned states.