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The God Who Failed: An Assessment of Jawaharlal Nehru's Leadership
Nehru's life is unique in that it is the veritable history of modern India both pre and post-Independence Writing about Nehru means reliving history in every sense of the term.' No leader of independent India has towered as high over Indian politics as Jawaharlal Nehru. Highly educated and articulate, he had a deep understanding of the history and culture of India and was responsible for laying much of the foundations on which today's India is built, an enlightened Constitution, parliamentary democracy with adult suffrage and secularism. However, of equal significance are Nehru's failures, for which he and his admirers have been increasingly criticized since the turn of the century. These include the imbroglio that took place when Kashmir became a part of India, the Indo-China border dispute of 1962, his overlooking the growing menace of corruption on his watch and Nehru's futile pursuit of his own brand of dubious socialism The God Who Failed, An Assessment of Jawaharlal Nehru's Leadership provides an objective and unbiased look into Nehru's legacy his triumphs, his failures and his unfulfilled vision for India. Written by the veteran administrator and author Madhav Godbole, this book is a powerful account of the leader who shaped modern India as we know it.
378 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2014
About the author
Madhav Godbole
19 books11 followersMadhav Godbole is a retired Indian civil servant. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1959 and took voluntary retirement in March 1993, when he was Union Home Secretary & Secretary(Justice). His distinguished career includes assignments such as Secretary, Petroleum & Natural Gas, and Secretary, Urban Development in Government of India, Principal Finance Secretary, in Government of Maharashtra, and Chairman, Maharashtra State Electricity Board.
He worked in the Asian Development Bank, Manila, from 1980 to 1985. Dr.Godbole has written 18 books in English and Marathi, of which 10 are in English. His essays and research papers have been published in several English and Marathi books. Of his 8 books in Marathi, four books have been awarded prizes for non-fiction, intellectual writing.
Dr.Godbole has been chairman of several committees including Enron power project, good governance, and management of India’s international borders. He has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Bombay University and an M.A. in Development Economics from Williams College, USA.
Dr.Godbole and his wife Sujata live in Pune.
He worked in the Asian Development Bank, Manila, from 1980 to 1985. Dr.Godbole has written 18 books in English and Marathi, of which 10 are in English. His essays and research papers have been published in several English and Marathi books. Of his 8 books in Marathi, four books have been awarded prizes for non-fiction, intellectual writing.
Dr.Godbole has been chairman of several committees including Enron power project, good governance, and management of India’s international borders. He has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Bombay University and an M.A. in Development Economics from Williams College, USA.
Dr.Godbole and his wife Sujata live in Pune.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 3, 2017
One of the finest books on Nehru. The title is a trifle misleading as Nehru is not painted either way. Both his failures and successes have been highlighted in an extremely balanced manner. The author quotes elaborately from the speeches and actions of Nehru to bring out his persona and Nehru's views on a wide range of subjects. Nehru's tumultuous relationship with his contemporaries, primarily Sardar Patel, emerges quite eloquently. Yet the author feels that "Nehru and Patel complemented each other".
Nehru was a socialist but his advice to socialists was : "Before you talk of socialism you must ask yourself how much wealth you have created by your own labour. It is necessary to learn how to produce wealth before thinking what to do with it".
Nehru was also clear about the role of the Judiciary : "No court, no sustem of judiciary can function in the nature of the third House, as a kind of house for correction". He must surely be turning in his grave to see what is happening now.
Despite the infirmities Nehru was termed as "the Light of Asia" by none other that Winston Churchill and "Pure as crystal" by his mentor, the Mahatama who had chosen him over Sardar to lead the country. The author quotes Jagat Mehta to sum up the problem with Nehru : " (His) failures were not of naivete but of idealism without the yeast of statecraft". His relationship and understanding of China is a classic example of his failed idealism.
Nehru was a socialist but his advice to socialists was : "Before you talk of socialism you must ask yourself how much wealth you have created by your own labour. It is necessary to learn how to produce wealth before thinking what to do with it".
Nehru was also clear about the role of the Judiciary : "No court, no sustem of judiciary can function in the nature of the third House, as a kind of house for correction". He must surely be turning in his grave to see what is happening now.
Despite the infirmities Nehru was termed as "the Light of Asia" by none other that Winston Churchill and "Pure as crystal" by his mentor, the Mahatama who had chosen him over Sardar to lead the country. The author quotes Jagat Mehta to sum up the problem with Nehru : " (His) failures were not of naivete but of idealism without the yeast of statecraft". His relationship and understanding of China is a classic example of his failed idealism.
August 16, 2016
3.5 stars, but there is no such option on Goodreads, so make it four. A very comprehensive assessment of 1) Nehru's failures on China and Kashmir and 2) His administrative activities as the leader of the government.
Negatives - No discussion at all on his personal life which has given birth to so many conspiracy theories. It was essential to try to set the record straight even though the issue might have been personal.
This is not a book which is a total estimate of Nehru, though it attempts to be so. The author seems to have addressed most of the controversial issues around Nehru, and brought him out well as a statesman, a progressive and a visionary par excellence, as well as a poor judge of men, too much of an idealist, and perhaps, too much of a democrat. Yet one gets the feeling that a lot, both positive and negative, has been left unsaid. So there is no feeling of completeness on reading this book.
I would have preferred to read MJ Akbar's book, but I felt this one was more balanced in the sense that it was more critical. For decades after the death of Nehru a Congress project was afoot to project him as the perfect human being. For several years now, and especially since 2013-14, an attempt is also being made to represent Nehru as the worst of all men. Both extremes have to be abhorred, and a fair portrait needs to be put forward. In this respect Godbole's book goes a long way.
Negatives - No discussion at all on his personal life which has given birth to so many conspiracy theories. It was essential to try to set the record straight even though the issue might have been personal.
This is not a book which is a total estimate of Nehru, though it attempts to be so. The author seems to have addressed most of the controversial issues around Nehru, and brought him out well as a statesman, a progressive and a visionary par excellence, as well as a poor judge of men, too much of an idealist, and perhaps, too much of a democrat. Yet one gets the feeling that a lot, both positive and negative, has been left unsaid. So there is no feeling of completeness on reading this book.
I would have preferred to read MJ Akbar's book, but I felt this one was more balanced in the sense that it was more critical. For decades after the death of Nehru a Congress project was afoot to project him as the perfect human being. For several years now, and especially since 2013-14, an attempt is also being made to represent Nehru as the worst of all men. Both extremes have to be abhorred, and a fair portrait needs to be put forward. In this respect Godbole's book goes a long way.
July 7, 2019
A really exhaustive read to help understand the first Prime Minister of independent India. The best thing about the book - it sticks to the temporal scope it chose while evaluating Nehru, quite successfully. The period covered is from just about the time of independence to Nehru’s death in 1964.
The title, though provocative, doesn’t completely describes the major part of the book. Godbole devotes an entire chapter on the mistakes Nehru committed. But apart from that chapter, he gives contexts and enumerates and explains in great detail how Nehru was probably one of the best things that happened to the nascent democratic republic of India.
Godbole makes his points using immense amounts of references and quotations. For me, that was good, and bad.
Good, because not only did Godbole allows the reader to decide for him/herself what to make of the facts he provided, one also gets to know the perspectives from multiple point of the views from that time.
Bad, because I couldn’t find a detailed and critical analysis from the author himself in his own words to a satisfactory amount. From a man with experience and caliber like Godbole, I would be lying if I said I didn’t have those expectations.
Overall, a great read and something to come back to for future references while discussing Nehru at any platform.
The title, though provocative, doesn’t completely describes the major part of the book. Godbole devotes an entire chapter on the mistakes Nehru committed. But apart from that chapter, he gives contexts and enumerates and explains in great detail how Nehru was probably one of the best things that happened to the nascent democratic republic of India.
Godbole makes his points using immense amounts of references and quotations. For me, that was good, and bad.
Good, because not only did Godbole allows the reader to decide for him/herself what to make of the facts he provided, one also gets to know the perspectives from multiple point of the views from that time.
Bad, because I couldn’t find a detailed and critical analysis from the author himself in his own words to a satisfactory amount. From a man with experience and caliber like Godbole, I would be lying if I said I didn’t have those expectations.
Overall, a great read and something to come back to for future references while discussing Nehru at any platform.
March 31, 2019
I am a slow reader, and I took over two months to read this book, not because it was badly written, but because there is a ton of details and I needed to make notes and refer to other sources as I kept reading. The book is sometimes repetitive and sometimes bordering on dull. This book taught me the lesson that it must be very difficult to write gripping political nonfiction.
This book is also a bit of an enigma, because on the one hand, the author is unsparing in his descriptions of the negatives of Nehru’s personality and the failures of his policies and practices as political leader and Prime Minister. On the other hand, the author also goes to great pains to stress that Nehru was a sterling human being and an outstanding leader, an architect of modern India and one of the more memorable of twentieth century international political figures.
I will leave it to each reader to form his or her own conclusions.
I wanted to read this book, and I am glad I read it. I am trying to absorb as much of India’s political history as I can because I am writing my own series of novels featuring a political protagonist. And I can vouch without hesitation that this book taught me a lot I did not know about Indian “idols” like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and their contributions to the independence of India and its struggles as an infant democracy. Equally important, this book taught me that these idols were not gods or even supermen. They were human, with all the virtues and vices that characterize that species. This book taught me that history books, especially those taught in academia, only show the Dr Jekyll—usually the public face--in historical idols. Just like the Mr Hyde part of the split personalities is almost never seen by the public, it is almost never mentioned in history books.
To that extent, I am very grateful to the author for all the insights I gained from this book into the Mr Hyde sides of Gandhi, Nehru and Patel. Some of these insights were new (to me), profound, fascinating and also often disappointing, even depressing.
Would I recommend this book? Indeed, I would, but only to those like me who are keen to gain “inside knowledge” into the life of Jawaharlal Nehru and his contemporaries and into that part of India’s history, both before and after independence, that these people played a major role in.
This book is also a bit of an enigma, because on the one hand, the author is unsparing in his descriptions of the negatives of Nehru’s personality and the failures of his policies and practices as political leader and Prime Minister. On the other hand, the author also goes to great pains to stress that Nehru was a sterling human being and an outstanding leader, an architect of modern India and one of the more memorable of twentieth century international political figures.
I will leave it to each reader to form his or her own conclusions.
I wanted to read this book, and I am glad I read it. I am trying to absorb as much of India’s political history as I can because I am writing my own series of novels featuring a political protagonist. And I can vouch without hesitation that this book taught me a lot I did not know about Indian “idols” like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and their contributions to the independence of India and its struggles as an infant democracy. Equally important, this book taught me that these idols were not gods or even supermen. They were human, with all the virtues and vices that characterize that species. This book taught me that history books, especially those taught in academia, only show the Dr Jekyll—usually the public face--in historical idols. Just like the Mr Hyde part of the split personalities is almost never seen by the public, it is almost never mentioned in history books.
To that extent, I am very grateful to the author for all the insights I gained from this book into the Mr Hyde sides of Gandhi, Nehru and Patel. Some of these insights were new (to me), profound, fascinating and also often disappointing, even depressing.
Would I recommend this book? Indeed, I would, but only to those like me who are keen to gain “inside knowledge” into the life of Jawaharlal Nehru and his contemporaries and into that part of India’s history, both before and after independence, that these people played a major role in.
December 28, 2019
Lets start with the good things: This book gives an excellent account of Nehru's role in particularising secularism for India, a far cry from the separation of church and the state, rather focusing on equal tolerance of all religions by the state, the genesis and transitory nature of Article 370, views on China and Nehru's advocacy for communist China's entry into the United Nations, among many others. The author also focuses on Nehru's love affair with socialism, the impact of socialism on India's initial economic inception, his insistence on following correct democratic procedures inspire of owning an almost authoritarian mandate over the country. Failures of Nehru include inept administration, excessive centralisation of decision making, mixing of sentimental and professional issues, failure to follow a balanced policy of privatisation along with public sector growth and refusal to admonish officials or ministers for malpractices or reluctance to push through policies considered a bit maverick or not conforming with the majority.
Now with the not so good things of the book. one major flaw of this book has been the lack of context. The author has given numerous examples while explain a facet of Nehru's character but unless one is up-to-date with the nuances of the Constitution or its exceptional cases, one is at a loss to comprehend the intimacy of the characteristic just by referring to the case. Another thing is that this book feels like a paean to Nehru rather than his critique. Considering that the book is named The God who Failed, I was expecting a bit more critique and a little less adulation filled eulogy.
However, ignoring the title, this is a good book if one wants to go through a summary of the major policy decision taken during Nehru' time.
Four stars
Now with the not so good things of the book. one major flaw of this book has been the lack of context. The author has given numerous examples while explain a facet of Nehru's character but unless one is up-to-date with the nuances of the Constitution or its exceptional cases, one is at a loss to comprehend the intimacy of the characteristic just by referring to the case. Another thing is that this book feels like a paean to Nehru rather than his critique. Considering that the book is named The God who Failed, I was expecting a bit more critique and a little less adulation filled eulogy.
However, ignoring the title, this is a good book if one wants to go through a summary of the major policy decision taken during Nehru' time.
Four stars
December 4, 2016
Excellent book. Godbole is a master. And for all his faults, Nehru is distinctly human, an able politician and an extraordinary administrator with a special eye for the details. This book will smash the pedestal you have put Nehru on, then painstakingly rebuild it, a few feet shorter, but sturdier all the same. If you read one book on Nehru, let it be this. If you read a lot of books, let this one be the last. This is as objective as it is going to get. ;)
September 3, 2017
A detailed point wise analysis
list of good and bad along with analyses of India when it attained freedom... The choices available, flip side and choices made without hero worship or malaise to anyone. Could have been edited more... Maybe the author wanted to balance the book... Pros equal to come even when pros we're not there
list of good and bad along with analyses of India when it attained freedom... The choices available, flip side and choices made without hero worship or malaise to anyone. Could have been edited more... Maybe the author wanted to balance the book... Pros equal to come even when pros we're not there
July 28, 2017
A good assessment on the life & policies of India's first Prime Minister
February 18, 2019
A good read to understand Nehru in an unbiased manner. Suitable for all Nehru admirers.
December 10, 2021
First things first. The title of the book is misleading. This book of not a Nehru bashing book. Instead in a very clear and precise manner tries to deconstructs the leadership of Nehru. The good, the bad and the ugly.
It shows a man with his heart in the right place. Trying to always do better for goods country. But like all mortals slipping here and there.
It's true that he failed big time in some things. But it's equally or more so true that India today is what it is due to him. Who knows what India would be without him at the helm in developing years.
About the book - It's an excruciating read. Exhaustive, too exhaustive. No fluency.
It's better read as more for research purpose than anything else.
It shows a man with his heart in the right place. Trying to always do better for goods country. But like all mortals slipping here and there.
It's true that he failed big time in some things. But it's equally or more so true that India today is what it is due to him. Who knows what India would be without him at the helm in developing years.
About the book - It's an excruciating read. Exhaustive, too exhaustive. No fluency.
It's better read as more for research purpose than anything else.
March 2, 2019
The book comes out as an unorganised pile of random facts. There is no thread of narrative. The style of writing is typically bureaucratic with plenty of "inter alia" s and "where in" s
November 12, 2023
Intresting
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews