The project compiles Nehru’s letters, speeches, internal notes, interviews, diary entries, and even personal doodles, giving scholars, students, and citizens an expansive window into the mind of India’s first Prime Minister. From September 1958 onward, starting with Volume 44, speeches are available in their original Hindi along with English translations.
Launching the digital archive, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hailed Nehru’s writings as “not just history, but a record of India’s evolving thought.” He described the collection as a “powerful compass” for anyone trying to understand the country’s democratic journey or the foundations of its institutions.
The initiative has been led by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund (JNMF). Trustee Jairam Ramesh said that while the current release focuses on Nehru’s own writings, the next phase aims to trace and digitise letters addressed to him. He noted that correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Subhas Chandra Bose is extensive, but exchanges with global figures like Winston Churchill and Rabindranath Tagore remain limited and require further archival exploration.
The digitisation is expected to deepen public engagement with Nehru’s work at a time when debates around his legacy continue to shape political narratives. Researchers say the archive will help contextualise his role in steering India through its early years, particularly in diplomacy, nation-building, and the consolidation of democratic institutions.
With the collection now available at the click of a button, historians anticipate a renewed wave of scholarship rooted in primary material that had long remained accessible only through physical volumes.
