Dynasty as it was

Some of the pictures of the younger generations are also engaging. A beaming Sonia as a bride. Feroze Varun as a toddler walking hand in ha...

The continuing sage of the Nehru-Gandhi family has enthralled the nation for decades. They are, after all, democratic India8217;s closest equivalent to royalty. A collection of photographs of this handsome, autocratic and tragic family which has dominated modern Indian history is bound to fascinate, particularly since some of the photographs have never been made public before. Photo editor Priya Kapoor has scoured the family albums of the Nehrus as well as the archival collections of various trusts and museums for her selection. Historian Mushirul Hasan8217;s accompanying essays are well researched and very readable, but the photographs overshadow the text. A well-framed picture is worth a thousand words.

The dynasty8217;s founder, Motilal Nehru, was a self-made man, whose father Gangadar was a kotwal police constable. The Kashmiri Brahmin family which had earlier served at the Mughal court fled Delhi after the uprising of 1857. Motilal built a thriving legal practice in Allahabad and enjoyed all the trapping of success. The sepia tinted portraits of the Nehru clan reveal an upper class Indian family with a very westernised outlook. The men are togged out in the latest British fashions with waistcoats, hats, breaches, jackets, boots and guns. The little girls are accompanied by English governesses, the boys packed off to the best public schools in England. Only the women of the household continue to cling to their traditional dress and ways.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the pampered only son and his father had dreamed of a grand future for him from a very early age. The camera captures Jawaharlal8217;s patrician features and slightly arrogant demeanor, but rarely manages to glimpse behind the handsome exterior. In one of her letters to Rajiv, Indira Gandhi urges him not to bottle up his emotions like her father did. Curiously, Jawaharlal in his younger days seems more relaxed and affectionate with his two sisters and their children, than when he poses stiffly with his wife and only daughter. The bonding between father and daughter came late in life.

Unlike her father, Indira Gandhi8217;s face was an open book and the pictures tell the story of her life. The gawky, lonely and unsure teenager who felt her nose was too long. The glowing young mother. The docile companion to her father. The imperious, confident prime minister who had finally buried her childhood insecurities and emerged as a Durga-like icon. In her last years as prime minister, Indira looks pathetically old and forlorn. Clearly she never recovered from Sanjay8217;s death.

Some of the pictures of the younger generations are also engaging. A beaming Sonia as a bride. Feroze Varun as a toddler walking hand in hand with his grandmother and cousins. One of the most evocative shots has been taken in the twenty-first century. India8217;s first family is gathered at Rajiv Gandhi8217;s samadhi to commemorate his sixtieth birth anniversary. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh folds his hands in respectful greeting to young Rehaan Vadra who responds with the aplomb of the scion of a family which believe it is their destiny to rule India.