Walter Russell Crocker was an Australian scholar and diplomat. He was born in 1902 and educated at the University of Adelaide, Balliol College, Oxford and Stanford University. From 1952 to 1970 Sir Walter served Australia with distinction for eighteen years as ambassador in a variety of countries including India (1952-1955 and 1958-1962), Indonesia, Canada, Nepal, Belgium and The Netherlands, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Italy. Following his retirement from the diplomatic service in 1970, Sir Walter returned home to Adelaide where he served as a member of the Council of Adelaide University from 1971-1978. In 1973 he was appointed lieutenant governor of South Australia, a position he held until 1982. He was appointed KBE in 1978. Sir Walter was a prolific writer publishing numerous magazine articles, lectures and books during his career. Nehru: A Contemporary's Estimate was published in 1966.Elegant, perceptive, and startlingly prophetic, Nehru: A Contemporary‰۪s Estimate is one of the finest accounts of Nehru ever written. Walter Crocker, the Australian high commissioner to India, admired Nehru the man‰ÛÓhis grace, style, intelligence and energy‰ÛÓand was deeply critical of many of his political decisions‰ÛÓthe invasion of Goa, India‰۪s Kashmir policy, the Five Year Plans. This book, written shortly after Nehru‰۪s death, is full of invaluable first hand observations about the man and his politics. Many of Crocker‰۪s points, too‰ÛÓespecially the implications of the Five Year Plans and of the introduction of democracy to India‰ÛÓare particularly relevant today. Out of print for many years, this classic biography has been reissued with an authoritative foreword by Ramachandra Guha.
