This short biography examines a great figure of twentieth-century nationalism from the vantage point of the beginning of the twenty-first. Deftly weaving personal facets with historical events, it tells the fascinating story of Jawaharlal Nehru-aristocrat, socialist, anti-imperialist, foremost disciple of Gandhi, diehard secularist and India's first prime minister, who sought to educate the Indian masses in democracy by his own personal example. Shashi Tharoor also analyses the principal pillars of Nehru's legacy to India, all of which were integral to a vision of Indianness that is fundamentally contested today.