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International expert probes behind an Indian legend

July 05, 2004

nehru191x23[1].jpgA leading interpreter of Gandhi and Professor at Oxford University will deliver a lecture on Gandhi disciple Jawaharlal Nehru at the University of New England today, July 5.
Indian-born and Cambridge-educated Professor Judith Brown will show how, although Nehru remains an iconic Indian figure, he was essentially an outsider in his country’s political world.
“Nehru was moulded in a unique way by his exposure to the cosmopolitan world of the British Empire and his involvement in a range of imperial networks,” Professor Brown said.
“This gave him crucial strengths and weaknesses as he rose to high public position in India, and this, in turn, influenced Indian political life."


Jawaharlal Nehru was India’s first Prime Minister after independence from Britain in 1947, when India and Pakistan became two independent nations. The son of a wealthy Brahman lawyer, Nehru was educated at Harrow School in England and later, Cambridge University, before returning to India in 1912. He was Prime Minister of the country until 1964, the year he died.
Professor Brown’s lecture, Jawaharlal Nehru and the British Empire: the Making of an “Outsider” in Indian politics will probe behind the public façade of the man. The lecture is open to the public.
Professor Brown is Beit Professor of Commonwealth History at Oxford University. She has taught at Manchester and Cambridge Universities and her main publications have been on Indian politics in the 20th century.
She has written two biographical studies of Gandhi and Nehru.
Professor Brown also serves on the Scholars' Council of the Library of Congress, Washington DC.
For more information, or to interview Professor Brown, phone
Lydia Roberts on 6773 2779.

Posted by Lydia Roberts at July 5, 2004 10:32 AM