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 a 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 most renowned books—An Autobiography, Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India—have acquired the status of classics, and are all published by Penguin.