India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died nearly six decades ago, but it is remarkable how much his legacy continues to color modern Indian life. 

From the border dispute with China to debates over fundamental rights and Hindu-Muslim relations, the current policy discourse in India cannot be disentangled from Nehru’s own ideological convictions and those who did battle against him. 

A new book by Adeel Hussain and Tripurdaman Singh, Nehru: The Debates That Defined India, shines a spotlight on four consequential debates that Nehru engaged in that get to the heart of the Indian polity. The authors join Milan on the show this week to discuss Nehru’s enduring legacy, his intellectual sparring partners, and contentious debates over nationalism, communalism, civil liberties, and foreign policy.

1. “Episode 262: Nehru’s Debates,” (with Adeel Hussain and Tripurdaman Singh), The Seen and The Unseen (podcast), January 31, 2022.
2. Tripurdaman Singh, Sixteen Stormy Days: The Story of the First Amendment of the Constitution of India.
3. “Madhav Khosla on India’s Founding Moment,” Grand Tamasha, January 29, 2020.