Nehru was among the leaders through most of his public life, which began in 1919 when he joined Mahatma Gandhi's first and most impressive challenge to the British Empire, the satyagraha movement. He grew gradually into a hero when, as free India's first prime minister through the dream decade of the 1950s, he transformed a country into a democratic and modern nation, winning the love of his people and admiration of the world. Pakistan, interestingly, offered a template of what could go wrong as its politicians destroyed one another and finally surrendered to their armed forces in the grey gloom of constitutional anarchy. Nehru, in contrast, had piloted, along with Dr B.R. Ambedkar, a model Constitution, led his party to triumph in two exemplary general elections and then announced that power was not his only ambition in life. On April 29, 1958, the Congress Parliamentary Party met in an environment of unprecedented crisis. Nehru wanted permission from his party to resign. He had already told president Rajendra Prasad his reasons. Fatigue. Forty years of public service had been exhilarating, he told his fellow MPs, but he now wanted a respite from "this daily burden" to do "some quiet thinking" and return to "myself as an individual citizen of India and not as prime minister".

Tanveer Hasan is a renowned author from India. Apart from this book, Hasan has written a number of other books. Hasan was born in Himachal Pradesh and he completed his schooling from Forman Christian College. He completed his degree from Gurukul Kangri University and went on to earn a doctorate from the University of Delhi.