SOURCE: Masani, Zareer. “Tensions.” New Statesman 109, no. 2815 (1 March 1985): 29-30.

In the following excerpt, Masani notes the lack of new research and serious analysis in An Indian Dynasty.

The lives of India's modern Caesars have already been the subject of copious biography; and Tariq Ali relies almost wholly on the work of his predecessors. But was there any point in a tedious repetition of the story if there was nothing new to add? There was certainly room for a study of the making of the dynasty and of the political culture that legitimised it. But that would have required new research and some serious analysis, neither of which appear in this hastily improvised dog's breakfast [An Indian Dynasty: The Story of the Nehru-Gandhi Family].

Tariq Ali implies that the dynasty owes its fortunes to founding-father Jawaharlal, whose achievements take up more than half the book. But his long-winded and...