| Specifications |
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Publisher: Puffin Books |
| Author Jawaharlal Nehru | |
| Language: English | |
| Pages: 168 (Throughout B/W and Color Illustrations) | |
| Cover: Hardcover | |
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8.5 inch X 5.5 inch |
 |
Weight 350 gm |
| Edition: 2006 | |
| ISBN: 9780670058167 | |
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NAG439 |
| Delivery and Return Policies |
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Usually ships in 5 days |
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Returns and Exchanges accepted within 7 days |
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Free Delivery |
About the Book
When
Indira Gandhi was a little girl of ten, she spent the summer in Mussoorie,
while her father, jawaharlal Nehru, was busy working in Allahabad. Over the
summer, Nehru wrote her a series of letters in which he told her the story of how
and when the earth was made, how human and animal life began, and how
civilizations and societies evolved all over the world.
Written
in 1928, these letters remain fresh and vibrant, and capture Nehru's love for
people and for nature, whose story was for him 'more interesting than any other
story or novel that you may have read'.
About the Author
Jawaharlal
Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 at Allahabad and educated in England, at
Harrow and Cambridge. In 1912, Nehru returned home to play central role in
India's struggle for freedom from British colonial rule, and then, as prime
minister of independent India for seventeen years, went on to shape the
nation's future as a modern, secular and democratic state. He died in office,
on 27 May 1964. Visionary and idealist, scholar and statesman of international
stature, Nehru was also an outstanding writer. His three major works-An
Autobiography, Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India- and his
children's classic, Letters from a Father to His Daughter, are all published by
penguin.
Foreword
The story
this book of letters tells is eternal. They were written by my
great-grandfather to my dadi, Indira
Gandhi, when she was a child. In them, he introduces his daughter to the
wonders of the world we live in. His understanding of history was so modern and
liberal that this book remains as relevant today as it was then.
I first
read these letters in boarding school when I was eleven years old. That was a
good fifty-five years after they were written, yet they fascinated me. I
returned home with a hundred questions to ask my dadi. To many people, Indira Gandhi may have appeared a rather
serious, formidable personality. In fact, she was a most warm and loving
person. My brother and I were fortunate to grow up in her home. We delighted in
her company-she was tremendous fun to be with and she was a born teacher,
awakening our curiosity about all kinds of things, and opening our minds, and
our eyes and ears, to the world around us. Even a little walk in the garden
with her was an adventure and an exploration, as she taught us to observe the
swirls and textures in a little pebble and the myriad colours in a beetle's
wing, and identify the stars in the sky. Mealtimes, through the stories she
told us and the games we played, became fascinating lessons in world history
and culture. The love of history and nature that her father instilled in her is
a cherished gift that she gave to me.
I hope
this book will help you read the 'Book of Nature' which is full of wonderful
stories, and inspire you with Jawaharlal Nehru's ideas about what makes a
country and its people great. Above all, I hope you will enjoy Letters from a Father to His Daughter as
much as I did.
Foreword to First Edition
These
letters were written to my daughter Indira in the summer of 1928 when she was
in the Himalayas at Mussoorie and I was in the plains below. They were personal
letters addressed to a little girl, ten years of age. But friends, whose advice
I value, have seen some virtue in them, and have suggested that I might place
them before a wider audience. I do not know if other boys and girls will
appreciate them. But I hope that such of them as read these letters may
gradually begin to think of this world of ours as a large family of nations.
And I hope also, though with diffidence, that they may find in the reading of
them a fraction of the pleasure that I had in the writing of them.
The
letters end abruptly. The long summer had come to an end and Indira had to come
down from the mountains. And there was no Mussoorie or other hill station for
her in the summer of 1929. The last three letters begin a new period and are
somewhat out of place by themselves. But I have included them as there is
little chance of my adding to them.
I realize
that the letters being in English, their circle of appeal is limited. The fault
is entirely mine. I can only remedy it now by having a translation made.
Contents
|
|
Foreword |
ix |
|
|
Preface to third edition |
x |
|
|
Preface to second edition |
xi |
|
|
Foreword to first edition |
xii |
|
1. |
The book of nature |
1 |
|
2. |
How early history was
written |
7 |
|
3. |
The making of the earth |
13 |
|
4. |
The first living things |
19 |
|
5. |
The animals appear |
27 |
|
6. |
The coming of man |
32 |
|
7. |
The early men |
38 |
|
8. |
How different races were
formed |
46 |
|
9. |
The races and languages of
mankind |
52 |
|
10. |
The relationships of
languages |
58 |
|
11. |
What is civilization? |
63 |
|
12. |
The formation of tribes |
67 |
|
13. |
How religion began and
division of labour |
71 |
|
14. |
The changes brought about
by agriculture |
77 |
|
15. |
The patriarch-how he began |
81 |
|
16. |
The patriarch-how he
developed |
86 |
|
17. |
The patriarch becomes the
king |
90 |
|
18. |
The earl y civilizations |
95 |
|
19. |
The great cities of the
ancient world |
102 |
|
20. |
Egypt and crete |
106 |
|
21. |
China and India |
112 |
|
22. |
Sea voyages and trade |
116 |
|
23. |
Language, writing and
numerals |
123 |
|
24. |
Different classes of
people |
128 |
|
25. |
Kings and temples and
priests |
132 |
|
26. |
A look back |
137 |
|
27. |
Fossils and Ruis |
140 |
|
28. |
The Aryans come to India |
143 |
|
29. |
What were the Aryans in
India like? |
147 |
|
30. |
The Ramayana and the
Mahabharata |
151 |
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