For the same reason Christians and other minorities could always be sure of Nehru's unflinching protection. He gave special consideration to the Muslims as to induce them to feel Indian. To this end he encouraged a nationalism that would make Indians feel that they were Indians instead of feeling that they were Tamils or Punjabis or Dogras or Assamese or Brahmans or Kshatriyas or this or that caste, as they are apt. His first concern was to see that India did not fall apart. Ramachandra Guha, who calls the book "the best single-volume study" of Nehru, with "arguments and conclusions speak directly to the present", wrote in 2006 that in his opinion the following excerpts taken from Crocker's book provide for the best summing up of Nehru as an individual and as a leader: Mostly I admired him occasionally he was disappointing but always he fascinated me". He was interesting because of his political importance but still more interesting because of himself. And yet he was drawn to Nehru’s intellect and to his politics sufficiently to go beyond the call of diplomatic duty to analyse Nehru’s impact on his times, with disinterested interest." Ĭrocker himself wrote in his introduction that "had my job in Delhi been anything else I would still have watched him, out of interest, almost helpless interest. In fact, he rather admired some of Nehru’s democratic opponents more - like, for instance, C.
Historian Madhavan Palat, the series editor of Oxford University Press's Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, notes that Crocker "was no blind admirer of the Prime Minister of the country he was accredited to. This gave him a privileged opportunity to study Nehru, according to Arnold Toynbee, who declares in his foreword that this book will continue to be of interest to posterity because of Crocker's "first hand knowledge" which makes the book "priceless" and "irreplaceable". It has been reprinted in 2009 by Random House India with a new foreword by Ramachandra Guha.Ĭrocker had served as the Australian High Commissioner to India between 19 and again from 1958 to 1962. The book was originally published with a foreword by Arnold Toynbee. Nehru: A Contemporary's Estimate is a 1966 book written by Walter Crocker and published by Oxford University Press.
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