ABSTRACT
Nehru was prime minister of India until his death in 1964. The man who had grown to maturity in the disciplined and idealistic context of a nationalist movement under Gandhi’s leadership now had the opportunity provided by the highest political post in the nation state to put into practice something of his vision of a new India once the structures of the new state had been put into place. In the early 1950s he was at the height of his powers and reputation. Although he was a man in his sixties he was exceptionally vigorous intellectually and physically, capable of hard and intensive work which would have daunted a much younger man. Not only did he take care of his health, but his daughter, Indira, now lived apart from her husband and became his companion and hostess, looking after and protecting him. With her two small sons, Rajiv and Sanjay, she provided him with the novel luxury of a stable home base at Teen Murti House in New Delhi, with its gracious rooms and lovely gardens. These were the years when he was established as undisputed leader in the country at large and in the Congress party, to the extent that by mid-decade people were already voicing the fear, ‘After Nehru, who?’ Moreover, he had become an international figure of influence, not just on an Asian stage, but more widely, as world leaders courted him and India in the context of the Cold War.
