Written over five months when Jawaharlal Nehru was imprisoned in the Ahmadnagar Fort, The Discovery of India has acquired the status of a classic since it was first published in 1946. In this work of prodigious scope and scholarship, one of the greatest figures of Indian history unfolds the panorama of the country’s rich and complex past, from prehistory to the last years of British colonial rule. Analysing texts like the Vedas and the Arthashastra, and personalities like the Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru brings alive an ancient culture that has seen the flowering of the world’s great traditions of philosophy, science and art, and almost all its major religions.
The Discovery of India was dramatised into a 53-episode series by Shyam Benegal for Doordarshan. The series, Bharat Ek Khoj unfolds the 5000-year history of India from its beginnings to the coming of independence in 1947.
by Jawaharlal Nehru