Jawaharlal Nehru wrote Letters From A Father To His Daughter in 1928 to Indira Gandhi, his daughter, when she was 10 years old. It was a 30-letter collection. He taught Indira the story of civilisations and natural history through these letters.
Summary Of The Book
During summer of 1928, 10-year-old Indira Gandhi was in Mussoorie. Her father Jawaharlal Nehru was then busy working in Allahabad. During summer, Nehru wrote several letters to tell her stories about when and how the earth was made, how animal and human life came into existence, and how societies and civilisations evolved throughout the world.
In his letters, he speaks of races, early and present-day faiths and beliefs of religion, the beginning of communication using languages by making sounds that are meaningful, how writing evolved through meaningful marks, and how the different languages were related. He also referred to civilisation and division of labour, which paved the way to the patriarch and the rule by kings and formation of kingdoms. He also wrote about trade and travel.
He speaks of the Aryans coming to India, and the morals taught by the great epics, Ramayana and the Mahabharata. He has explained the summary of these great epics interestingly in an easy way for a 10-year-old girl to understand, and his way of explaining complex matters is very appealing.
About Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru was an idealist and visionary, statesman and scholar of international stature, and an outstanding writer.
Apart from Letters From A Father To His Daughter, his three most renowned books include The Discovery Of India, Glimpses Of World History, and An Autobiography. These are classics, and all of them are published by Penguin books.
Each story is told clearly and bring about the affection that a father has towards his daughter. Though these letters were written way back in 1928, even today their vibrancy and freshness are felt by readers and they succeed in representing the love Nehru had for people and Nature.
Born in the year 1889 at Allahabad, Jawaharlal Nehru did his education in Cambridge and in England, at Harrow. Also known as Panditji, Nehru was a statesman and a politician. He was the leader of the Indian independence movement, and independent India’s first Prime Minister in 1947. He was re-elected in 1951 when the congress party won the first general election. He was independent India’s prime minister for 17 years and shaped the nation’s future as a secular, modern and democratic state.
