biography jawaharlal nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru

(1889-1964)

Who Was Jawaharlal Nehru?

Nehru was born in Allahabad, India in 1889. His father was a renowned lawyer and one of Mahatma Gandhi's notable lieutenants. A series of English governesses and tutors educated Nehru at home until he was 16. He continued his education in England, first at the Harrow School and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned an honors degree in natural science. He later studied law at the Inner Temple in London before returning home to India in 1912 and practicing law for several years. Four years later, Nehru married Kamala Kaul; their only child, Indira Priyadarshini, was born in 1917. Like her father, Indira would later serve as prime minister of India under her married name: Indira Gandhi . A family of high achievers, one of Nehru's sisters, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, later became the first woman president of the UN General Assembly.

Entering Politics

In 1919, while traveling on a train, Nehru overheard British Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer gloating over the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The massacre, also known as the Massacre of Amritsar, was an incident in which 379 people were killed and at least 1,200 wounded when the British military stationed there continuously fired for ten minutes on a crowd of unarmed Indians. Upon hearing Dyer’s words, Nehru vowed to fight the British. The incident changed the course of his life.

This period in Indian history was marked by a wave of nationalist activity and governmental repression. Nehru joined the Indian National Congress, one of India's two major political parties. Nehru was deeply influenced by the party's leader, Gandhi. It was Gandhi's insistence on action to bring about change and greater autonomy from the British that sparked Nehru's interest the most.

The British didn't give in easily to Indian demands for freedom, and in late 1921, the Congress Party's central leaders and workers were banned from operating in some provinces. Nehru went to prison for the first time as the ban took effect; over the next 24 years, he was to serve a total of nine sentences, adding up to more than nine years in jail. Always leaning to the left politically, Nehru studied Marxism while imprisoned. Though he found himself interested in the philosophy but repelled by some of its methods, from then on the backdrop of Nehru's economic thinking was Marxist, adjusted as necessary to Indian conditions.

Marching Toward Indian Independence

In 1928, after years of struggle on behalf of Indian emancipation, Nehru was named president of the Indian National Congress. (In fact, hoping that Nehru would attract India's youth to the party, Gandhi had engineered Nehru's rise.) The next year, Nehru led the historic session at Lahore that proclaimed complete independence as India's political goal. November 1930 saw the start of the Round Table Conferences, which convened in London and hosted British and Indian officials working toward a plan of eventual independence.

After his father's death in 1931, Nehru became more embedded in the workings of the Congress Party and became closer to Gandhi, attending the signing of the Gandhi-Irwin pact. Signed in March 1931 by Gandhi and the British viceroy Lord Irwin, the pact declared a truce between the British and India's independence movement. The British agreed to free all political prisoners and Gandhi agreed to end the civil disobedience movement he had been coordinating for years.

Unfortunately, the pact did not instantly usher in a peaceful climate in British-controlled India, and both Nehru and Gandhi were jailed in early 1932 on charges of attempting to mount another civil disobedience movement. Neither man attended the third Round Table Conference. (Gandhi was jailed soon after his return as the sole Indian representative attending the second Round Table Conference.) The third and final conference did, however, result in the Government of India Act of 1935, giving the Indian provinces a system of autonomous government in which elections would be held to name provincial leaders. By the time the 1935 act was signed into law, Indians began to see Nehru as the natural heir to Gandhi, who didn’t designate Nehru as his political successor until the early 1940s. Gandhi said in January 1941, "[Jawaharlal Nehru and I] had differences from the time we became co-workers and yet I have said for some years and say so now that ... Jawaharlal will be my successor."

World War II

At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, British viceroy Lord Linlithgow committed India to the war effort without consulting the now-autonomous provincial ministries. In response, the Congress Party withdrew its representatives from the provinces and Gandhi staged a limited civil disobedience movement in which he and Nehru were jailed yet again.

Nehru spent a little over a year in jail and was released with other Congress prisoners three days before Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. When Japanese troops soon moved near the borders of India in the spring of 1942, the British government decided to enlist India to combat this new threat, but Gandhi, who still essentially had the reins of the movement, would accept nothing less than independence and called on the British to leave India. Nehru reluctantly joined Gandhi in his hardline stance and the pair were again arrested and jailed, this time for nearly three years.

By 1947, within two years of Nehru's release, simmering animosity had reached a fever pitch between the Congress Party and the Muslim League, who had always wanted more power in a free India. The last British viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, was charged with finalizing the British roadmap for withdrawal with a plan for a unified India. Despite his reservations, Nehru acquiesced to Mountbatten and the Muslim League's plan to divide India, and in August 1947, Pakistan was created—the new country Muslim and India predominantly Hindu. The British withdrew and Nehru became independent India’s first prime minister.

The First Prime Minister of Independent India

Domestic policy.

The importance of Nehru in the context of Indian history can be distilled to the following points: he imparted modern values and thought, stressed secularism, insisted upon the basic unity of India, and, in the face of ethnic and religious diversity, carried India into the modern age of scientific innovation and technological progress. He also prompted social concern for the marginalized and poor and respect for democratic values.

Nehru was especially proud to reform the antiquated Hindu civil code. Finally, Hindu widows could enjoy equality with men in matters of inheritance and property. Nehru also changed Hindu law to criminalize caste discrimination.

Nehru's administration established many Indian institutions of higher learning, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the Indian Institutes of Technology, and the National Institutes of Technology, and guaranteed in his five-year plans free and compulsory primary education to all of India's children.

National Security and International Policy

The Kashmir region—which was claimed by both India and Pakistan—was a perennial problem throughout Nehru's leadership, and his cautious efforts to settle the dispute ultimately failed, resulting in Pakistan making an unsuccessful attempt to seize Kashmir by force in 1948. The region has remained in dispute into the 21st century.

Internationally, starting in the late 1940s, both the United States and the U.S.S.R. began seeking out India as an ally in the Cold War, but Nehru led efforts toward a "nonalignment policy," by which India and other nations wouldn’t feel the need to tie themselves to either dueling country to thrive. To this end, Nehru co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement of nations professing neutrality.

Recognizing the People's Republic of China soon after its founding, and as a strong supporter of the United Nations, Nehru argued for China’s inclusion in the UN and sought to establish warm and friendly relations with the neighboring country. His pacifist and inclusive policies with respect to China came undone when border disputes led to the Sino-Indian war in 1962, which ended when China declared a ceasefire on November 20, 1962, and announced its withdrawal from the disputed area in the Himalayas.

Nehru's four pillars of domestic policies were democracy, socialism, unity, and secularism, and he largely succeeded in maintaining a strong foundation of all four during his tenure as president. While serving his country, he enjoyed iconic status and was widely admired internationally for his idealism and statesmanship. His birthday, November 14, is celebrated in India as Baal Divas ("Children's Day") in recognition of his lifelong passion and work on behalf of children and young people.

Nehru's only child, Indira, served as India's prime minister from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984 when she was assassinated. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, was prime minister from 1984 to 1989, when he was also assassinated.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Jawaharlal Nehru
• Birth Year: 1889
• Birth date: November 14, 1889
• Birth City: Allahabad
• Birth Country: India
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi’s father, was a leader of India’s nationalist movement and became India’s first prime minister after its independence.
• Civil Rights
• World Politics
• War and Militaries
• Astrological Sign: Scorpio
• Trinity College
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1964
• Death date: May 27, 1964
• Death City: New Delhi
• Death Country: India

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Jawaharlal Nehru Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/political-figure/jawaharlal-nehru
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: April 20, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014

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Jawaharlal Nehru Biography

Nehru was born in Allabhad and was educated in England, going to school at Harrow and later studying law at Trinity College, Cambridge.

On returning to India in 1912, he practised law and got married to Kamala Kaul. They had one daughter – Indira Gandhi (who would later succeed her father as Prime Minister of India).

In 1919, in the wake of the Amritsar massacre and growing calls for Indian independence, Nehru joined the Indian National Congress. He was a supporter of complete independence for India.

In 1927, Nehru was an influential voice in advocating the call for complete independence from the British Empire. Gandhi was initially reluctant but came to accept Nehru’s leadership. After the British rejected dominion status, Nehru became leader of Congress and in December 1929 issued India’s declaration of Independence.

“We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities of growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it.”

During the 1920s and 1930s, he actively participated in the civil disobedience campaigns and was jailed on several occasions. He was one of the rising stars of the Indian independence movement and became seen as the natural successor to  Mahatma Gandhi . As Gandhi took a more backseat role in political affairs and concentrated more on spiritual matters, Nehru became the defacto leader of the Indian independence movement.

In the 1930s, Nehru was working with Subhas Chandra Bose but split with Bose when he sought Axis help to drive the British from India.

In 1942, Nehru followed Gandhi’s ‘Quit India Movement’. Nehru had misgivings as he supported the British War effort against Nazi Germany, but was torn as he also wanted the British to leave India. In 1942, he was arrested for protesting and was put in jail until 1945.

On release from jail, Nehru found the Muslim league of Jinnah were much stronger and although opposed to partition, under pressure from Lord Mountbatten he came to view it as an inevitability. Nehru was initially opposed to the plan to separate India into two. However, under pressure from Mountbatten (the last British Viceroy), Nehru reluctantly agreed.

On gaining independence on August 15th, 1947, Nehru became India’s first Prime Minister. On the eve of India’s independence, Nehru gave a speech to Congress and the nation – known as “Tryst with Destiny”

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.” – Nehru, Tryst with Destiny

However, his joy at India’s independence was overshadowed by the wave of sectarian killing and conflict over Kashmir which continues to this day.

As Prime Minister, Nehru played a crucial role in cementing the newly independent Republic of India as a democratic state committed to liberal democracy. Importantly, Nehru limited the power of Indian princes and princely states – Nehru was wary of the ‘divine right of kings’ after being imprisoned in the princely state of Nabha. In 1950, Nehru signed the Indian constitution which enshrined in law – universal rights and democratic principles. A year after Gandhi’s assassination, he wrote an anonymous article about himself –

“He must be checked, we want no Caesars.”

On the domestic front, Nehru was in the tradition of Fabian socialism – seeking to use state intervention to redistribute resources throughout society. He was sympathetic to aspects of Marxism, though critical of how it was implemented in countries like the Soviet Union. His government set up a system of universal education for children. This considerable achievement is marked annually on his birthdate (14 Nov) with a special anniversary –  Bal Divas ‘Children’s day’

Nehru was a lifelong liberal and pursued policies to improve the welfare of the ‘untouchable class’ and Indian Women. Nehru was committed to secular ideas – once described as a Hindu agnostic. He was proud of India’s Hindu heritage but also feared religion could become ossified and hold back India’s development.

In foreign policy, Nehru was one of the leading figures in the non-aligned movement. Nehru sought to keep India out of the Cold war; he didn’t want India to rely on foreign states – be it Russia or America.

“Peace is not only an absolute necessity for us in India in order to progress and develop but also of paramount importance to the world.” Speech at Columbia University (1949)

As a statesman, Nehru was appreciated for his calm temperament and willingness to seek understanding between nations and conflicting parties. He carried himself with a degree of humility and willingness to seek a peaceful solution.

“We must constantly remind ourselves that whatever our religion or creed, we are all one people.”  (Radio broadcast. 1 December 1947)

In 1962, India was involved in a conflict with China over a border dispute. Militarily India was defeated and this took a heavy toll on Nehru. Nehru died in 1964. Two years later his daughter Indira Gandhi took office.

Nehru married Kamala Kaul in 1916 – they had one daughter Indira Gandhi. In 1942, Indira married Feroze Gandhi with whom they had two sons – Rajiv (b. 1944) and Sanjay (b. 1946).

Citation:  Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Jawaharlal Nehru” Oxford,  www.biographyonline.net  12th Jan. 2011. Updated 12th Jan 2018.

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Jawahar Lal Nehru’s Biography - A journey of Struggle, Sacrifice and Victory

Jawahar Lal Nehru was an Indian independence fighter and the first prime minister of India. He was considered as a central warrior in Indian Politics before independence as well as after independence. He was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad and served the nation from 1947 until his death in 1964. The birthplace of Jawahar Lal Nehru is Prayagraj which is in Allahabad. Due to his association with the Kashmiri Pandit community, he was also known as Pandit Nehru, while the Indian kids referred to them as Chacha Nehru. Jawahar Lal Nehru’s birthday is widely celebrated as Children’s day. His father’s name is Motilal Nehru who served as Indian Prime minister in 1919 and 1928. His mother’s name is Swarup Rani Thussu and she was the second wife of Motilal. Jawahar Lal Nehru had 2 sisters and he was the eldest among all. Vijay Laxmi was the eldest sister who later became the President of the United Nations General Assembly. And the youngest sister Krishna Hutheesing was a noted writer and authored several books on her brother. Jawahar Lal Nehru was married to Kamala Nehru who was born in 1899.

Childhood and Early Age:

He grew up in a privileged atmosphere in a rich home. His father trained him by private governesses and tutors. Nehru became interested in science and theosophy under the influence of Ferdinand T. Brooks' tutelage. At the age of thirteen, family friend Annie Besant subsequently introduced him to the Theosophical Society. For nearly three years Brooks was with me and in some ways, he influenced me greatly.

Jawahar Lal Nehru’s Education:

In October 1907, Nehru visited Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated with an honours degree in science in 1910. He also studied politics, economics, history, and literature with little interest during this time. Most of his political and financial philosophy was molded by the writings of Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, Lowes Dickinson, and Meredith Townsend.

After completing his degree in 1910, Nehru moved to London and studied law at the Inner Temple Inn. During this period, including Beatrice Webb, he continued researching the Fabian Society scholars. He was called to the Bar in 1912.

Early Struggle for Independence (1912 - 1938)

During his time in Britain as a student and a barrister, Nehru developed an interest in Indian politics. Nehru attended an annual session of the Indian National Congress in Patna within months of his return to India in 1912. In 1912, Congress was the party of progressives and elites, and he was disconcerted by what he saw as "very much an English-knowing upper-class affair." Nehru had reservations about Congress' efficacy but decided to work for the party to support the Indian civil rights movement led in South Africa by Mahatma Gandhi, raising funds for the movement in 1913. Later, in the British colonies, he protested against indentured labour and other such injustice faced by Indians.

Non-Cooperation Movement:

Nehru's first significant national participation came at the beginning of the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920. Nehru was arrested in 1921 on charges of anti-government activities Nehru remained loyal to Gandhi in the rift that developed within the Congress following the sudden closure of the Non-Cooperation movement after the Chauri Chaura incident and did not join the Swaraj Party formed by his father Motilal Nehru and CR Das.

Salt Satyagraha Success:

The Salt Satyagraha succeeded in attracting the world's attention. Increasingly, Indian, British, and world views started to accept the validity of the Congress party's independence claims. Nehru found the high-water mark of his involvement with Gandhi to be the salt satyagraha and thought that its enduring significance was in transforming Indian attitudes.

Jawahar Lal Nehru The First Prime Minister of India:

Nehru served for 18 years as prime minister, first as temporary prime minister, and then as prime minister of the Republic of India from 1950.

In the 1946 elections Congress captured a majority of seats in the assembly and, with Nehru as the prime minister, led the provisional government. On 15 August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Free India. On 15 August, he took office because the Prime Minister of India and gave his inaugural entitled "Tryst with Destiny".

Hindu Marriage Law and Role of Jawahar Lal Nehru:

Several laws passed such as the Hindu Code law in the 1950s that sought to codify and amend Hindu personal law in India. After India's independence in 1947, this codification and change, a process initiated by the British Raj, was completed by the Indian National Congress government headed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The object of the Hindu Code Bill was to provide a civil code instead of a body of personal Hindu law, which had been amended only to a limited extent by the British authorities. On 9 April 1948, the bill was submitted to the Constituent Assembly, but it created a lot of uproars and was subsequently broken down to three more specialized bills that came before the 1952-7 term of the Lok Sabha. The Hindu Marriage Bill abolished polygamy and included restrictions on inter-caste marriages and divorce procedures; the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Bill had the adoption of girls as its main thrust, which had been little practiced until then; the Hindu Succession Bill put daughters on the same footing as widows and sons when it came to family property inheritance.

1952 Elections and Jawahar Lal Nehru:

Following the constitution's ratification on 26 November 1949, the Constituent Assembly, before new elections, proceeded to serve as the provisional parliament. The interim cabinet of Nehru was composed of 15 representatives from different communities and parties. Different cabinet members resigned from their positions and formed their parties to contest the elections. Nehru was also elected the president of Congress for 1951 and 1952 while being the PM. In the election, the Congress party under the leadership of Nehru won significant majorities at both state and national level, despite a large number of parties competing.

Death of Jawahar Lal Nehru:

After 1962, Nehru's health started to decline slowly, and he spent months recovering in Kashmir until 1963. He felt very relaxed after his return from Dehradun on 26 May 1964 and went to bed, as usual, he had a restful night after he returned from the bathroom, Nehru complained of back pain. He talked to the doctors who were attending him for a short time, and Nehru collapsed almost instantly. Before he died, he remained unconscious. His death was registered to Lok Sabha on 27 May 1964 (the same day) the cause of death is suspected to be a heart attack. The body of Jawaharlal Nehru was put for public viewing on the Indian national Tri-colour flag. Nehru was cremated on 28 May at Shantivan on the banks of the Yamuna by Hindu rituals, witnessed by 1.5 million mourners flocking to the streets of Delhi and the cremation grounds.

FAQs on Jawaharlal Nehru Biography

Q1. Why do we Celebrate Jawahar Lal Nehru’s Birthday as a Children’s Day?

Ans. Every year, 14th November is celebrated as children’s day. Jawahar Lal Nehru also remembered as Chacha Nehru was the first-ever Prime Minister of India. Children’s day is celebrated for the awareness of child rights, child care, and education for all children. According to him, children were the real assets and strength of society. Cultural activities for children are held across the world on this day, in different schools, colleges, and other educational institutions. There are some programs and events, which also see the involvement of students. Kids also dress up as Jawaharlal Nehru with a red rose pinned to their 'Nehru' jacket collar.

Q2. What was Nehru’s Contribution Towards India?

Ans. After achieving independence, Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first Prime Minister. He was previously one of the influential leaders of the Indian National Congress, having pulled the intellectuals and youth of the country into the movement's mainstream. His descendants were also influential Indian politicians, including Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi. Nehru played a leading role in the growth of the Indian independence struggle's internationalist perspective. He found foreign allies for India and forged relations with independence and democracy movements around the world. He brought moderate socialist economic reforms into practice and dedicated India to an industrialization policy. Also, Nehru acted as India's foreign minister.

Q3. Explain the Education History of Jawahar Lal Nehru?

Ans. Jawaharlal Nehru had a Western childhood, in large part. He was homeschooled in India as a child, often by a series of governesses and tutors in English. In October 1907, Nehru went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated in 1910 with an honors degree in natural science. He started his education in England, in London at Harrow School, and in Cambridge at Trinity College. He also studied politics, economics, history, and literature with little interest during this time. He spent seven years in England, but he was very confused and still felt neither in England nor in India that he was in a half-home. "I have become a queer mixture of East and West, out of place everywhere, at home now where" I have become a queer East-West combination, out of place anywhere, at home now, where.

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Jawaharlal Nehru

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 21, 2018 | Original: November 9, 2009

An influential leader in the Indian independence movement and political heir of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru became the nation’s first prime minister in 1947. Although faced with the challenge of uniting a vast population diverse in culture, language and religion, he successfully established various economic, social and educational reforms that earned him the respect and admiration of millions of Indians. His policies of non-alignment and Panchscheel—principles of peaceful coexistence—guided India’s international relations until the outbreak of the Sino-Indian War in 1962, which contributed to his declining health and subsequent death in 1964, ending his 17-years in office. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, and grandson, Rajiv Gandhi, later served as prime ministers.

Jawaharlal Nehru: Early Life and Family

Jawaharlal Nehru was born into an affluent Kashmiri Brahman family in Allahabad on November 14, 1889. Tutored at home until the age of 15, Nehru subsequently attended Harrow in England and, later, Trinity College, Cambridge. After studying law at London’s Inner Temple, he returned to India at the age of 22 where he practiced law with his father and prominent barrister, Motilal Nehru.

Did you know? In 1949, after zookeepers had killed most of Tokyo’s wild animals to prevent them from escaping during World War II air raids, Nehru delighted Japanese children by presenting Ueno Zoo with an Indian elephant.

In 1916, four years after his parents had made the suitable arrangement, Nehru married 17-year-old Kamala Kaul. The following year, their only child, Indira Priyadarshini, was born.

Jawaharlal Nehru: Political Awakening

Upon learning of esteemed theosophist Annie Besant’s arrest in 1917, Nehru was moved to join the All India Home Rule League, an organization devoted to obtaining self-government within the British Empire. In April 1919, British troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed civilians who had been protesting recently passed legislation that permitted the detainment of suspected political foes without trial. The Massacre of Amritsar, in which 379 Indians were killed and more than a thousand others were wounded, outraged Nehru and further solidified his resolve to win India’s independence.

During the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22) led by Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru was imprisoned for the first time for activities against the British government and, over the course of the next two and a half decades, spent a total of nine years in jail.

In 1929, Jawaharlal was elected president of the Indian National Congress—his first leadership role in politics—whereby he promoted the goal of complete independence from Britain as opposed to dominion status. In response to Britain’s declaration of India’s participation in the war against Germany at the onset of World War II without consulting Indian leaders, members of Congress passed the Quit India resolution on August 8, 1942, demanding political freedom from Britain in exchange for support in the war effort. The following day, the British government arrested all Congress leaders, including Nehru and Gandhi.

Jawaharlal Nehru: Challenges and Legacy as Prime Minister

On August 15, 1947, India finally gained its independence and Nehru became the nation’s first prime minister. Amid the celebration of newly acquired freedom, there was also considerable turmoil. The mass displacement that followed partition into the separate nations of Pakistan and India, along with disputes over control of Kashmir, resulted in the loss of property and lives for several hundred thousand Muslims and Hindus.

Throughout his 17-year leadership, Nehru advocated democratic socialism and secularism and encouraged India’s industrialization beginning with the implementation of the first of his five-year plans in 1951, which emphasized the importance of increasing agricultural production. He also promoted scientific and technological advancements through the establishment of higher learning, and instituted various social reforms such as free public education and meals for Indian children, legal rights for women—including the ability to inherit property and divorce their husbands—and laws to prohibit discrimination based on caste.

During the Cold War , Nehru adopted a policy of non-alignment in which he professed neutrality, but was criticized when he refused to condemn the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 and later requested foreign aid after China invaded India’s northern border in 1962. The conflict, known as the Sino-Indian War, had a deleterious effect on Nehru’s health, resulting in a severe stroke in January of 1964 and his death a few months later on May 27.

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Jawaharlal Nehru Biography: Early Life, Family, Education and Political Journey

Jawaharlal nehru's birthday is celebrated as children's day in india. he was born on 14 november 1889 in allahabad, uttar pradesh. he was the first prime minister of independent india and a leader of india's nationalist movement. here, we are providing a short biography on jawaharlal nehru depicting his early life, family, education, political journey, and works.    .

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was a leading figure in the Indian Independence struggle. He was the first Prime Minister of Independent India. He had initiated socio-economic policies of the idealistic socialist kind. He was a prolific writer and authored books such as 'The Discovery of India' and 'Glimpses of the World History'.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the father of Indira Gandhi, the first woman Prime Minister of India. He established a parliamentary government and is known for his nonaligned or neutralist policies in foreign affairs. He participated in India's Independence movement and was a principle leader in the 1930s and 40s.

Jawaharlal Nehru: Quick Facts

Born on: 14 November, 1889

Place of Birth: Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Father's Name: Motilal Nehru

Mother's Name: Swarup Rani Nehru

Spouse: Kamala Nehru

Children: Indira Gandhi

Education: Harrow School, London; Trinity College, Cambridge; Inns of Court School of Law, London

Occupation: Barrister, Writer, and Politician

Political party: Indian National Congress

Political Ideology: Nationalism, Socialism, Democracy

Award: Bharat Ratna

Publications/Works: The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, Jawaharlal Nehru's Autobiography, Letters from a Father to his Daughter, etc.

Died: 27 May 1964

Place of Death: New Delhi

Cause of Death: Heart attack

Memorial: Shantivan, New Delhi

Jawaharlal Nehru: Early Life, Family, and Education

Jawaharlal Nehru was born in a Kashmiri Brahman family. His father Motilal Nehru was a renowned lawyer and leader of the Indian independence movement. He was also one of the prominent associates of Mahatma Gandhi. Jawaharlal Nehru was the eldest son of Motilal Nehru out of four children and two of whom were girls. He completed his early education until the age of 14 at home under private tutors. At the age of fifteen, he went to England at Harrow school. After two years, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and earned an honours degree in natural sciences. At the Inner Temple, London, he had completed his studies for a barrister.

He spent seven years in England but was very confused and always felt that he is in a half home neither in England nor in India. And so, he had written, "I have become a queer mixture of East and West, out of place everywhere, at home now where". He came back to India in around 1912. He had an interest in the struggle of all nations who suffered under foreign domination. In 1916, he married Kamala Kaul and settled in Delhi. In 1917, Indira Priyadarshini (Indira Gandhi) was born.

Jawaharlal Nehru: Political Journey

- He attended the Bankipore Congress as a delegate in 1912.

- In 1919, he became the Secretary of the Home Rule League, Allahabad.

- In 1916, the first time he met with Mahatma Gandhi , and was immensely inspired by him.

- In 1920, he organised the first Kisan March in the Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh.

- Due to the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22), he was imprisoned twice.

- In September 1923, he became the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee.

- In 1926, he toured Italy, Switzerland, England, Belgium, Germany, and Russia.

- As an official delegate of the Indian National Congress, he had attended the Congress of oppressed Nationalities in Brussels in Belgium.

- In 1927, he attended the tenth-anniversary celebrations of the October Socialist Revolution in Moscow.

- During the Simon Commission in 1928, he was lathi-charged in Lucknow.

- He attended the All-Party Congress on 29 August 1928 and was one of the signatories to the Nehru Report on Indian Constitutional Reform that was named after his father Shri Motilal Nehru.

- In 1928, he founded the 'Independence for India League' and became its General Secretary.

- He was elected the President of the Lahore Session of the Indian National Congress in 1929. In this session only, the complete goal for the independence of the country was adopted.

- During 1930-35, he was imprisoned several times, due to the connection with Salt Satyagraha and other movements launched by the Congress.

- On 14 February 1935, he had completed his 'Autobiography' in Almora Jail.

- After releasing from jail, he went to Switzerland to see his ailing wife.

- He was again arrested for offering an individual Satyagraha on 31 October, 1940 to protest against India's forced participation in the war.

- In December 1941, he was released from jail.

- At the 'All India Congress Committee' session in Bombay on 7 August, 1942, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru moved the 'Quit India' resolution.

- He was arrested with other leaders on 8 August, 1942 and taken to Ahmednagar Fort. This was the longest and his last detention.

- He was released from Jail in January 1945 and organised a legal defence for officers and men of the INA charged with treason.

- In July, 1946, for the fourth time, he was elected as the President of the Congress and again for three more terms from 1951 to 1954.

In this way, he became the first Prime Minister of independent India. He was the first Prime Minister to hoist the national flag and make his iconic speech "Tryst with Destiny" from the ramparts of the Lal Quilla (Red Fort).

Major works of Jawaharlal Nehru after becoming the Prime Minister of India

- He imparted modern values and thought.

- He insisted on the secular and liberalist approach.

- He focused on the basic unity of India.

- He advocated democratic socialism and encouraged India's industrialisation by implementing the first five-year plans in 1951.

- Promoted scientific and technological advancements by establishing higher learning.

- Also, instituted various social reforms like free public education, free meals for Indian children, legal rights for women including the ability to inherit property, divorce their husbands, laws to prohibit discrimination based on caste, etc.

Jawaharlal Nehru: Legacy

He believed in pluralism, socialism, liberalism, and democracy. He had an immense love for children and so, his birthday is celebrated as Children's Day in India. He supported and generated a way for India's education by envisioning the top tier institutions of India including the Indian Institute of Technology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and India's first Space Program, etc.

Jawaharlal Nehru: Death

On 27 May 1964, he died due to a heart attack. He was cremated at the Shantivan on the banks of the Yamuna River in Delhi.

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Jawaharlal Nehru

Born: 14 November 1889 

Place of Birth: Allahabad

Parents: Motilal Nehru (father) and Swaruprani Thussu (mother)

Spouse: Kamala Nehru

Children: Indira Gandhi

Education: Harrow School, London; Trinity College, Cambridge; Inns of Court School of Law, London

Associations: Indian National Congress 

Political Ideology: Nationalism; Socialism; Democracy; Communist influences

Religious Beliefs: Hinduism

Publications: The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, Toward Freedom, Letters from a Father to His Daughter

Passed Away: 27 May 1964

Memorial: Shantivan, New Delhi

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of independent India. He was a member the Congress Party that led the freedom movement against the British rule. He was the chief framer of domestic and international policies during his term as PM between 1947 and 1964. It was under Nehru's supervision that India launched its first Five-Year Plan in 1951. Nehru was one of the architects to steer the nascent nation towards the brilliance envisioned by countless revolutionaries of the Indian Freedom struggle.

Childhood & Early Life 

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889, in a wealthy Kashmiri Brahmin family in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. His father, Motilal Nehru was a renowned advocate and also an influential political activist. Nehru family was elitist in most of their practices and English was spoken and encouraged. His father, Motilal Nehru appointed English and Scottish teachers to supervise his children’s education at home.

For higher education, young Nehru was sent to Harrow school, then later to Cambridge University in England to obtain a degree in natural sciences. After spending two years at the Inner Temple, London, he qualified as a barrister. During his stay in London, Nehru studied subjects like literature, politics, economics, and history. He got attracted to the ideas of liberalism, socialism and nationalism. In 1912, he returned to India and joined the Allahabad High Court Bar.

Nehru got married to Kamala Kaul on 8 February, 1916. Brought up in a traditional Hindu Brahmin family, Kamala felt an outsider amongst the progressive Nehru family but tried her best to adapt to the family ethos and values. During the Non-Cooperation movement of 1921, Kamala played a vital role by organizing groups of women and picketing shops selling foreign cloth and liquor in Allahabad. On19 November, 1917 she gave birth to a daughter, who came to be known as Indira Priyadarshini. Kamala died from tuberculosis in Switzerland on February 28, 1936, while Jawaharlal Nehru was in prison.

Political Career

His Role in Freedom Struggle

Although he dabbled in political affairs since his return to India, by participating in Indian National Congress’ sessions and in Besant’s Home Rule Movement, Nehru whole heartedly embraced a political career only in 1919 in the wake of the Jallianwallah bagh Massacre. He followed Gandhi’s directives and was imprisoned for participating in the first civil disobedience campaign as general secretary of the United Provinces Congress Committee in 1921. His time in jail helped him achieve a deeper understanding of the Gandhian philosophy and the nuances of the non-cooperation movement. He was moved by Gandhi's approach of dealing with caste and "untouchability". 

With time, Nehru emerged as a popular and influential nationalist leader, particularly in Northern India. He was elected as the president of the Allahabad municipal corporation in 1920. 

His loyalty to Congress remained unwavering in the face of the rift created in the party due to Gandhi’s decision to adjourn the Non-cooperation movement post Chauri Chaura incident. He refused to move to the Swaraj Party established by his father and Chittaranjan Das in 1922.

Jawaharlal Nehru travelled to European nations like Germany, France and the Soviet Union in 1926 with his family and sought meetings with several Communists, Socialists, and radical leaders from Asia and Africa. Nehru was also impressed with the economic system of the communist Soviet Union and wished to apply the same in his own country. In 1927, he became a member of the League against Imperialism created in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium.

During the Guwahati Session of the Congress in 1928, Mahatma Gandhi announced that the Congress would launch a massive movement if the British did not grant dominion status to India within the next two years. It was believed that under the pressure of Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose, the deadline was reduced to one year. Jawaharlal Nehru criticized the famous "Nehru Report" prepared by his father Motilal Nehru in 1928 that favored the concept of a "dominion status for India within the British rule". 

In 1930 Mahatma Gandhi supported the name of Nehru as the next president of the Congress. The decision was also an attempt to abate the intensity of "communism" in the Congress. The same year, Nehru was arrested for the violation of the Salt Law. 

In 1936, Nehru was re-elected as the president of the Indian National Congress. Sources suggest that a heated argument between the old and young leaders took place in the Lucknow Session of the party. The young and "new-gen" leaders of the party had advocated for an ideology, based on the concepts of Socialism. 

In the 1942 Quit India Movement, Nehru vehemently rallied for ‘Purna Swaraj ‘or complete political independence for India. He was arrested on August 8 of the same year and was imprisoned till June 15, 1945. Post his release, he threw himself into a series of rigorous discussions and negotiations with the British Government that ultimately led to attainment of freedom in 1947. Nehru fought hard against the proposed partitioning of the country by the last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten. He failed to obtain enough support from Mohammed Jinnah, the leader of Muslim League and reluctantly gave in to it.

Nehru as Prime Minister of India

On August 15, 1947, a free India was born. Nehru was elected as the first Prime Minister of independent India. He was the first PM to hoist the national flag and make his iconic speech "Tryst with Destiny" from the ramparts of the Lal Quila (Red Fort). The time had come to implement his ideas and build a healthy nation. Nehru’s stint as PM of India is characterised by is secular and liberalist approach. He carried out his vision to carry the young India towards the road of technological and scientific excellence with great zeal. He implemented a number of socio-economic reforms and paved the way for rapid industrialization. In the year 1949, Jawaharlal Nehru made his first visit to the United States, seeking a solution to India's urgent food shortage. In 1951, Jawaharlal Nehru launched the country's "First Five-Year Plan" emphasizing on the increase in the agricultural output. 

Nehru's Foreign Policy

Jawaharlal Nehru was supporter of the anti-imperialist policy. He extended his support for the independence of small and colonized nations of the world. He was also one of the prominent architects of the Non-Aligment Movement (NAM). Nehru's predominant role in substantiating India's role in the foundation of institutions like NAM had surprised the then stalwarts of international politics. He advocated the policy of Non-Alignment during the cold war and India, subsequently, kept itself aloof from being in the process of "global bifurcation". 

Sino-Indian War of 1962

The roots of the Sino-Indian conflict in 1962 lie in several facts of history. The Indian Government had granted asylum to Dalai Lama after his banishment following the Tibet uprising in 1959 and it irked China. In addition to that, boundary disputes over the MacMohan Line in Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin area in Ladakh, Kashmir also added to India-Sino bitterness. Nehru and his Chinese counterpart, Premiere Zhou Enlai were unable to reach a political accord on the 3,225-kilometre-long disputed border issue.

On October 20, 1962, the People’s Liberation Army attacked India simultaneously from two disputed fronts. They captured Rezang la in Chushul and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. A month into the armed confrontation, the Chinese declared a ceasefire on November 20, 1962 but the deep sense of mistrust strained the political relations between the two country ever since. The blame for this defeat squarely fell on Nehru and his Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon’s shoulders for implementing a naïve and poor strategy.

As a great believer in pluralism, socialism and democracy, Nehru developed India as a secular nation true to its thousand years old cultural heritage. He had immense love for children and his birthday, November 14, is celebrated as Children’s day in India. He paved way for India’s educational exaltation by envisioning the country’s top tier institutions like Indian Institute of Technology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and India’s first space program. He served as the primary political inspiration to his daughter Indira Gandhi who became the PM of India after his death.

In Popular Culture

Shyam Benegal made this television series ‘Bharat Ek Khoj’ based on Nehru’s famous book, Discovery of India. Nehru was featured as prominent character in Richard Attenborough’s biopic ‘Gandhi’ and Ketan Mehta’s ‘Sardar’.

In 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru suffered a stroke and a heart attack. On 27 May 1964, Nehru passed away. Nehru was cremated at the Shantivana on the banks of the Yamuna River, Delhi.

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Struggle for Indian independence

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After the Lahore session of 1929, Nehru emerged as the leader of the country’s intellectuals and youth. Gandhi had shrewdly elevated him to the presidency of the Congress Party over the heads of some of his seniors, hoping that Nehru would draw India’s youth—who at that time were gravitating toward extreme leftist causes—into the mainstream of the Congress movement. Gandhi also correctly calculated that, with added responsibility, Nehru himself would be inclined to keep to the middle way.

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After his father’s death in 1931, Nehru moved into the inner councils of the Congress Party and became closer to Gandhi. Although Gandhi did not officially designate Nehru his political heir until 1942, the Indian populace as early as the mid-1930s saw in Nehru the natural successor to Gandhi. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931, signed between Gandhi and the British viceroy, Lord Irwin (later Lord Halifax ), signalized a truce between the two principal protagonists in India. It climaxed one of Gandhi’s more-effective civil disobedience movements, launched the year before as the Salt March , in the course of which Nehru had been arrested.

Hopes that the Gandhi-Irwin Pact would be the prelude to a more-relaxed period of Indo-British relations were not borne out; Lord Willingdon (who replaced Irwin as viceroy in 1931) jailed Gandhi in January 1932, shortly after Gandhi’s return from the second Round Table Conference in London . He was charged with attempting to mount another civil disobedience movement; Nehru was also arrested and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

The three Round Table Conferences in London, held to advance India’s progress to self-government, eventually resulted in the Government of India Act of 1935, which gave the Indian provinces a system of popular autonomous government. Ultimately, it provided for a federal system composed of the autonomous provinces and princely states. Although federation never came into being, provincial autonomy was implemented . During the mid-1930s Nehru was much concerned with developments in Europe, which seemed to be drifting toward another world war. He was in Europe early in 1936, visiting his ailing wife, shortly before she died in a sanitarium in Lausanne , Switzerland . Even at that time he emphasized that in the event of war India’s place was alongside the democracies , though he insisted that India could fight in support of Great Britain and France only as a free country.

When the elections following the introduction of provincial autonomy brought the Congress Party to power in a majority of the provinces, Nehru was faced with a dilemma. The Muslim League under Mohammed Ali Jinnah (who was to become the creator of Pakistan) had fared badly at the polls. Congress, therefore, unwisely rejected Jinnah’s plea for the formation of coalition Congress–Muslim League governments in some of the provinces, a decision that Nehru had supported. The subsequent clash between the Congress and the Muslim League hardened into a conflict between Hindus and Muslims that was ultimately to lead to the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan .

At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the viceroy, Lord Linlithgow , had committed India to war without consulting the autonomous provincial ministries. The Congress Party’s high command withdrew its provincial ministries as a protest, but Congress’s action left the political field virtually open to Jinnah and the Muslim League. Nehru’s views on the war differed from those of Gandhi. Initially, Gandhi believed that whatever support was given to the British should be given unconditionally and that it should be of a nonviolent character. Nehru held that nonviolence had no place in defense against aggression and that India should support Great Britain in a war against Nazism but only as a free country. If it could not help, it should not hinder .

In October 1940, Gandhi, abandoning his original stand, decided to launch a limited civil disobedience campaign in which leading advocates of Indian independence were selected to participate one by one. Nehru, the second of those leaders, was arrested and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. After spending a little more than a year in jail, he was released, along with other Congress prisoners, three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii . When the Japanese carried their attack through Burma (now Myanmar ) to the borders of India in the spring of 1942, the British government, faced by that new military threat, decided to make some overtures to India. Prime Minister Winston Churchill dispatched Sir Stafford Cripps , a member of the British War Cabinet who was politically close to Nehru and also knew Jinnah, with proposals for a settlement of the constitutional problem. Cripps’s mission failed, however, for Gandhi would accept nothing less than independence.

The initiative in the Congress Party then passed to Gandhi, who called on the British to leave India; Nehru, though reluctant to embarrass the war effort, had no alternative but to join Gandhi. Following the Quit India resolution passed by the Congress Party in Bombay (now Mumbai ) on August 8, 1942, the entire Congress working committee, including Gandhi and Nehru, was arrested and imprisoned. Nehru emerged from that—his ninth and last detention—only on June 15, 1945.

Within two years after his release, India was to be partitioned and free. A final attempt by the viceroy, Lord Wavell , to bring the Congress Party and the Muslim League together failed. The Labour government that had meanwhile displaced Churchill’s wartime administration dispatched, as one of its first acts, a Cabinet mission to India and later replaced Lord Wavell with Lord Mountbatten . The question was no longer whether India was to be independent but whether it was to consist of one or more independent states. Hindu-Muslim antagonism, culminating in late 1946 in clashes that killed some 7,000 people, made the partition of the subcontinent inevitable. While Gandhi refused to accept it, Nehru reluctantly but realistically acquiesced . On August 15, 1947, India and Pakistan emerged as two separate independent countries. Nehru became independent India’s first prime minister .

Jawaharlal Nehru, India's First Prime Minister

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On November 14, 1889, a wealthy Kashmiri Pandit lawyer named Motilal Nehru and his wife Swaruprani Thussu welcomed their first baby, a boy they named Jawaharlal. The family lived in Allahabad, at that time in the Northwest Provinces of British India (now Uttar Pradesh). Little Nehru was soon joined by two sisters, both of whom also had illustrious careers.

Jawaharlal Nehru was educated at home, first by governesses and then by private tutors. He particularly excelled at science, while taking very little interest in religion. Nehru became an Indian nationalist quite early in life, and was thrilled by Japan's victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1905). That event prompted him to dream "of Indian freedom and Asiatic freedom from the thraldom of Europe."

At the age of 16, Nehru went to England to study at the prestigious Harrow School ( Winston Churchill's alma mater). Two years later, in 1907, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where in 1910 he took an honors degree in natural sciences - botany, chemistry and geology. The young Indian nationalist also dabbled in history, literature and politics, as well as Keynesian economics, during his university days.

In October of 1910, Nehru joined the Inner Temple in London to study law, at the insistence of his father. Jawaharlal Nehru was admitted to the bar in 1912; he was determined to take the Indian Civil Service exam and use his education to fight against discriminatory British colonial laws and policies.

By the time he returned to India, he had also been exposed to socialist ideas, which were popular amongst the intellectual class in Britain at the time. Socialism would become one of the foundation stones of modern India under Nehru.

Politics and the Independence Struggle

Jawaharlal Nehru returned to India in August of 1912, where he began a half-hearted practice of law in the Allahabad High Court. Young Nehru disliked the legal profession, finding it stultifying and "insipid."

He was much more inspired by the 1912 annual session of the Indian National Congress (INC); however, the INC dismayed him with its elitism. Nehru joined a 1913 campaign led by Mohandas Gandhi , in the start of a decades-long collaboration. Over the next few years, he moved more and more into politics, and away from law.

During the First World War (1914-18), most upper-class Indians supported the Allied cause even as they enjoyed the spectacle of Britain humbled. Nehru himself was conflicted, but came down reluctantly on the side of the Allies, more in support of France than of Britain.

More than 1 million Indian and Nepalese soldiers fought overseas for the Allies in World War I, and about 62,000 died. In return for this show of loyal support, many Indian nationalists expected concessions from Britain once the war was over, but they were to be bitterly disappointed.

Call for Home Rule

Even during the war, as early as 1915, Jawaharlal Nehru began to call for Home Rule for India. This meant that India would be a self-governing Dominion, yet still considered a part of the United Kingdom , much like Canada or Australia.

Nehru joined the All India Home Rule League, founded by family friend Annie Besant , a British liberal and advocate for Irish and Indian self-rule. The 70-year-old Besant was such a powerful force that the British government arrested and jailed her in 1917, prompting huge protests. In the end, the Home Rule movement was unsuccessful, and it was later subsumed in Gandhi's Satyagraha Movement , which advocated complete independence for India.

Meanwhile, in 1916, Nehru married Kamala Kaul. The couple had a daughter in 1917, who would later go on to be Prime Minister of India herself under her married name, Indira Gandhi . A son, born in 1924, died after just two days.

Declaration of Independence

The Indian nationalist movement leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru, hardened their stance against British rule in wake of the horrific Amritsar Massacre in 1919. Nehru was jailed for the first time in 1921 for his advocacy of the non-cooperation movement. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Nehru and Gandhi collaborated ever more closely in the Indian National Congress, each going to prison more than once for civil disobedience actions.

In 1927, Nehru issued a call for complete independence for India. Gandhi opposed this action as premature, so the Indian National Congress refused to endorse it.

As a compromise, in 1928 Gandhi and Nehru issued a resolution calling for home rule by 1930, instead, with a pledge to fight for independence if Britain missed that deadline. The British government rejected this demand in 1929, so on New Year's Eve, at the stroke of midnight, Nehru declared India's independence and raised the Indian flag. The audience there that night pledged to refuse to pay taxes to the British, and to engage in other acts of mass civil disobedience.

Gandhi's first planned act of non-violent resistance was a long walk down to the sea to make salt, known as the Salt March or Salt Satyagraha of March 1930. Nehru and other Congress leaders were skeptical of this idea, but it struck a chord with the ordinary people of India and proved a huge success. Nehru himself evaporated some sea water to make salt in April of 1930, so the British arrested and jailed him again for six months.

Nehru's Vision for India

During the early 1930s, Nehru emerged as the political leader of the Indian National Congress, while Gandhi moved into a more spiritual role. Nehru drafted a set of core principles for India between 1929 and 1931, called the "Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy," which was adopted by the All India Congress Committee. Among the rights enumerated were freedom of expression, freedom of religion, protection of regional cultures and languages, abolition of untouchable status , socialism, and the right to vote.

As a result, Nehru is often called the "Architect of Modern India." He fought hardest for the inclusion of socialism, which many other Congress members opposed. During the later 1930s and early 1940s, Nehru also had almost sole responsibility for drafting the foreign policy of a future Indian nation-state.

World War II and the Quit India Movement

When the Second World War broke out in Europe in 1939, the British declared war against the Axis on behalf of India, without consulting India's elected officials. Nehru, after consulting with the Congress, informed the British that India was prepared to support democracy over Fascism, but only if certain conditions were met. The most important was that Britain must pledge that it would grant complete independence to India as soon as the war was over.

The British Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, laughed at Nehru's demands. Linlithgow turned instead to the leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad ali Jinnah , who promised military support of Britain from India's Muslim population in return for a separate state, to be called Pakistan . The mostly-Hindu Indian National Congress under Nehru and Gandhi announced a policy of non-cooperation with Britain's war effort in response.

When Japan pushed into Southeast Asia, and early in 1942 took control of most of Burma (Myanmar), which was on British India's eastern doorstep, the desperate British government approached the INC and Muslim League leadership once again for aid. Churchill sent Sir Stafford Cripps to negotiate with Nehru, Gandhi and Jinnah. Cripps could not convince the pro-peace Gandhi to support the war effort for any consideration short of full and prompt independence; Nehru was more willing to compromise, so he and his mentor had a temporary falling-out over the issue.

In August of 1942, Gandhi issued his famous call for Britain to "Quit India." Nehru was reluctant to pressure Britain at the time since World War II was not going well for the British, but the INC passed Gandhi's proposal. In reaction, the British government arrested and imprisoned the entire INC working committee, including both Nehru and Gandhi. Nehru would remain in prison for almost three years, until June 15, 1945.

Partition and Prime Ministership

The British released Nehru from prison after the war was over in Europe, and he immediately began to play a key role in negotiations over the future of India. Initially, he vigorously opposed plans to divide the country along sectarian lines into a predominantly-Hindu India and a predominantly-Muslim Pakistan, but when bloody fighting broke out between members of the two religions, he reluctantly agreed to the split.

After the Partition of India , Pakistan became an independent nation led by Jinnah on August 14, 1947, and India became independent the following day under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru embraced socialism, and was a leader of the international non-aligned movement during the Cold War, along with Nasser of Egypt and Tito of Yugoslavia.

As Prime Minister, Nehru instituted wide-spread economic and social reforms that helped India reorganized itself as a unified, modernizing state. He was influential in international politics as well, but could never solve the problem of Kashmir and other Himalayan territorial disputes with Pakistan and with China .

Sino-Indian War of 1962

In 1959, Prime Minister Nehru granted asylum to the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan refugees from China's 1959 Invasion of Tibet . This sparked tensions between the two Asian superpowers, which already had unsettled claims to the Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh areas in the Himalaya Mountain range. Nehru responded with his Forward Policy, placing military outposts along the disputed border with China, beginning in 1959.

On October 20, 1962, China launched a simultaneous attack at two points 1000 kilometers apart along the disputed border with India. Nehru was caught off guard, and India suffered a series of military defeats. By November 21, China felt that it had made its point, and unilaterally ceased fire. It withdrew from its forward positions, leaving the division of land the same as before the war, except that India had been driven from its forward positions across the Line of Control.

India's force of 10,000 to 12,000 troops suffered heavy losses in the Sino-Indian War, with almost 1,400 killed, 1,700 missing, and nearly 4,000 captured by the Peoples Liberation Army of China. China lost 722 killed and about 1,700 wounded. The unexpected war and humiliating defeat profoundly depressed Prime Minister Nehru, and many historians claim that the shock may have hastened his death.

Nehru's Death

Nehru's party was reelected to the majority in 1962, but with smaller percentages of the vote than before. His health began to fail, and he spent a number of months in Kashmir during 1963 and 1964, trying to recuperate.

Nehru returned to Delhi in May of 1964, where he suffered a stroke and then a heart attack on the morning of May 27. He died that afternoon.

The Pandit's Legacy

Many observers expected Parliament member Indira Gandhi to succeed her father, even though he had voiced opposition to her serving as Prime Minister for fear of "dynastism." Indira turned down the post at that time, however, and Lal Bahadur Shastri took over as the second prime minister of India.

Indira would later become the third prime minister, and her son Rajiv was the sixth to hold that title. Jawaharlal Nehru left behind the world's largest democracy, a nation committed to neutrality in the Cold War , and a nation developing quickly in terms of education, technology and economics.

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World History Edu

• Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru: Biography, Quick Facts, and Major Achievements

by World History Edu · November 26, 2021

Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the most influential Indian nationalists. With the support and mentorship he received from Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru came to lead Indian National Congress, tentatively moving the party to social democratic policies. An important member of the Indian independence movement, Nehru devoted his political career pursuing a united, modernized and independent India. After countless intensive non-violent campaigns and the ‘Quit India’ movement of 1942, Britain finally budged and granted India her independence on August 15, 1947. Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India, serving from 1947 until his death in 1964.

Quick Facts about Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964)

Image: Nehru signing the Indian Constitution

Birthday – November 14, 1889

Place of birth – Allahabad (Prayagraj) India

Died – May 27, 1964

Place of death – Delhi, India

Parents – Motilal Nehru and Swarup Rani Nehru

Siblings – Vijaya Lakshmi, Krishna Hutheesing

Spouse – Kamala Nehru

Daughter – Indira Gandhi

Education – Trinity College, Cambridge; Harrow School in London

Political Party – Indian National Congress

Elected offices – Prime Minister of India (1947-1964)

Most famous for – India’s first Prime Minister

Nicknames – Chacha Nehru, Pandit Nehru

Notable works – Letters from a Father to His Daughter (1929), An Autobiography (1936), the Discovery of India (1946)

Jawaharlal Nehru’s Speech at Columbia University (1949)

Nehru: Summary

Two years after becoming India’s first prime minister, in 1949, Jawaharlal Nehru gave a speech at Columbia University, emphasizing the need for India to have peace in order to fully actualize its true potential. The speech, one of many famous speeches of this Indian Independence leader, highlights some of the visions that Nehru had for his country. An Indian nationalist, Jawaharlal Nehru was an important member of the Indian Independence Movement that included the likes of Mahatma Gandhi , Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, and R. Venkataraman. Having had his tertiary education in England, Nehru returned to India in the early part of 1912 and began his decades’ long fight for the complete independence of India from colonial power Britain.

As prime minister of India, Nehru crafted a neutralist foreign policy which enabled him to receive enormous acclaim from member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement. He was also praised for injecting secularism and other liberal democratic principles in a bid to make India a leading role on the international front.

What other feats was Jawaharlal Nehru most famous for? And just how impactful was his tenure as prime minister of India? Below, World History Edu presents the 10 major achievements of Jawaharlal. But first, here is a quick biography of the life of this Indian Independence movement leader.

Quick Biography

Jawaharlal Nehru – biography, facts, and achievements

Nehru was born in Allabhad to a family of Brahmans community. In India’s caste system, the Brahmans are considered the highest ranking class in India most known for religious, administrative, and academic scholarship. Nehru thus grew up in a family of intellectuals; for example, his father Motilal Nehru was a famous lawyer and one of the earliest members of the Indian independence movement. Motilal, who was also associated with Mahatma Gandhi, served as the president of the Indian National Congress on two occasions – 1919 and 1928.

Jawaharlal’s mother, Swarup Rani Thussu, was a member of a very influential Kashmiri Brahmin based in Lahore (in present day Pakistani province of Punjab).

Jawaharlal had two siblings, including his sister Vijaya Lakshmi, who went on to become the first woman to lead the United Nations General Assembly. His other sister Krishna Hutheesing established herself as a writer of many books, particularly about her brother Jawaharlal.

He grew in a very affluent and privileged family. He received his formative education at home until his mid-teens before proceeding to study in the United Kingdom at Harrow in 1905. From 1907 to 1910, he earned a honors degree in natural science at Trinity College in Cambridge.

Nehru dressed in a cadet’s uniform at Harrow School in England

After his studies at Inner Temple, London, he was called to the bar in 1912. He would then take up a job as an advocate of the Allahabad High Court.

He got married to Kamala Kaul in 1916. By his wife Kamala, he gave birth to one daughter – Indira Priyadarshini (later Indira Gandhi), who also went on to become Prime Minister of India.

Nehru and his wife had a son who only survived for about a week after birth.

Following the assassination of his daughter Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru’s grandson Rajiv Gandhi served as prime minister from 1984 to 1989.

Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi

Jawaharlal Nehru gained his formative experience in politics from Mahatma Gandhi who was about 20 years his senior. Image – Gandhi and Nehru during the drafting of Quit India Resolution in Bombay, August 1942,

After training as a barrister at the Inner Temple, London, Jawaharlal returned to work at the Allahabad High Court, where he quickly became very uninterested in practicing law. Unlike his father, he wanted to devote his whole career to working for India’s independence struggle. Initially, he was clueless as to how to realize this dream of his, thus until he met Mahatma Gandhi in 1916. His father and Gandhi are credited with instilling in Jawaharlal the courage to remain resolute in the pursuit of independence from Britain.

10 Major achievements of Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru – history and achievements

Fought against indentured labor and labor and civil rights abuses in India

In 1912, Jawaharlal Nehru joined the activities of the Indian National Congress. Initially he was not so pleased by what he termed as “an English-knowing upper-class affair” in the party. However, in time he came to immerse himself deeply in the civil rights campaigns of the party. On so many occasions he campaigned against practices like indentured labor in India.

During World War I, he offered his services to the St. John Ambulance as a secretary in Allahabad. He and many of his associates from Indian ruling upper classes were vocal against the colonial government’s censorship acts.

A prominent member of India’s Nationalist movement that wanted self-rule immediately

Contrary to what moderate Indian political activists like Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Nehru gravitated towards radical independence activists like Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920), a man Gandhi described as the “Maker of Modern India”. He had no trust in the western institutions to deliver the necessary political, social and economic reforms that India longed for. He was completely in favor of non-cooperation policies that he hoped would pile up the pressure on Britain to grant Indian self-rule.

Nehru’s slightly radical views were even in contrast to the moderate views his father held. His time spent abroad somehow made a bit discontented with the pace at which India’s journey to self-rule was moving.

Following the death of moderate activist Gokhale in 1915, the national movement was taken over by anti-moderates like Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, two very important people that Nehru drew a lot of inspiration from.

In the late 1920s, he established the Independence for India League within the Indian National Congress. The goal of the league was to put pressure on Britain to grant India Dominion status immediately. His mentor Gandhi however gave Britain within two years to grant India Dominion status.

Nehru campaigned for unity and dialogue between the Hindus and Muslims

Right from his formative years in politics, Nehru always stood in support of Hindu-Muslim unity and dialogue. He supported the Lucknow Pact of 1916 which was an agreement between his party the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. He reasoned that through pacts of such nature, the nationalist movement would fare better in its quest for at least a Dominion status within the British Empire. Nehru’s efforts, as well as efforts from both nationalist members from both sides, helped in establishing friendly ties between Hindus and Muslim independence activists. Prior to the Lucknow Pact, the two sides considered each other as enemies.

In his 1929 policy draft document for the Congress, he included a number of things that an Independent India would push for. Some of those goals were freedom of religion; equality before law without distinction to color, creed, or caste; and socialism. His draft influenced the “Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy” resolution that got ratified in 1931 by the party.

Jawaharlal Nehru participated fully in the activities of the non-cooperation movement

Beginning around 1920, Nehru had started getting frustrated with the British government dragging its feet in granting India Dominion status or self-government. The young and energetic political activist joined forces with members of the non-cooperation movement in the United Provinces (today’s Uttar Pradesh) to call for Indian unity in resisting Britain.

His actions resulted in him getting arrested for a few months. On February 4, 1922, police violently responded to non violent protests by members of the non-cooperation movement at Chauri Chaura (in modern-day Uttar Pradesh). The protests soon devolved into reprisal attacks from demonstrators, who set ablaze a police station. Taken aback by the deaths of 22 policemen and three civilians, Gandhi called off the activities of the non-cooperation movement nationwide.

Believing that India’s independence struggle was in many ways tied to independence struggles in other parts of the world, Nehru worked in cohort with many international organizations fighting against imperialism and domination. Nehru was sent to Brussels as the representative of the Indian National Congress. He would go on to serve as a member of the Executive Council of the League in Brussels that campaigned against imperialism.

He was elected president of the Indian National Congress

Having properly joined the activities of the Congress Party around the late 1910s, shortly after the end of World War I, Nehru’s election as the president of the Congress in 1929 was one of great feat. No sooner had he taken that position than did he call for complete independence in a resolution before Congress. As a sign of his unbridled determination, he raised the Indian flag upon the banks of the Ravi in Lahore. Soon many nationalists and Congress members began flying the flag of India on buildings around the country.

Nehru’s reputation as the de facto leader of the independence movement was indeed boosted by the 1929 declaration of independence in the Lahore session of the Congress. He thus became Gandhi’s political successor.

With the help of some members of the Congress Socialist Party group, Nehru was able to get elected as president of the Congress from 1936 to 1937.

Nehru was part of the Salt March in 1930

In 1930 Gandhi started a civil disobedience drive to protest the British government’s tax on salt. Nehru and other members of the Congress joined the nonviolent protest. He even participated in the manufacturing of the contraband salt, an activity which got him arrested by the authorities. The Indian independence activists were fighting for Indians to have the right to make salt for domestic use. Nehru was able to rally the village folks to fight against a government that had taken away their dignity through oppressive economic and political policies.

The Salt March, also known as the salt satyagraha (i.e. a passive resistance to salt tax), had a huge impact in raising the issue of India’s independence around the world. On March 5, 1932, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was born after Gandhi and Lord Irwin, British viceroy of India, were able to come to an amicable solution to end the civil disobedience ( satyagraha ).

Supported the fight against fascism

When World War II broke out in 1939, he called on all Indians to throw their weight in support of Great Britain and other democratic countries against fascism and dictatorship. His support for Great Britain came despite Viceroy Linlithgow not consulting elected Indian representatives of Britain’s intention to get India involved in the war. In exchange for India’s support, Nehru outlined a set of conditions that Britain ought to meet. Those conditions were: granting full independence to India after the war; and the participation of Indians in the central administrative and military branch of government. In spite of those demands being rejected by Linlithgow, Nehru called on all independence activists to remain on the side of democratic countries.

In October 1940, he was slapped with a four-year prison sentence because he of his civil disobedience campaign. His release came in December, 1941.

Jawaharlal Nehru was heavily involved in the Quit India Resolution of 1942

On August 8, 1942, the Indian National Congress passed the Quit India resolution to pile up the pressure on Britain for independence. Because Nehru and Gandhi were at the forefront of the resolution, the two men, as well as other prominent leaders of the Congress, were given prison sentences. In Nehru’s case he stayed behind bars until June 1945. It was Nehru’s longest prison sentence.

He led the Indian National Congress to victory in the 1946 provincial assembly election

In 1946, Nehru and the Congress welcomed the election plan proposed by the British Cabinet Mission to India. At the polls, Nehru and the Congress secured majority of the seats in assembly before going on to form an interim government with Nehru at the head.

First Prime Minister of India

Jawaharlal Nehru’s “Tryst with Destiny” speech

On August 15, 1947, he was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of an independent India. The swearing in ceremony was done by Lord Moutbatten. His inauguration ceremony is most famous for the “Tryst with Destiny” speech. In the speech, he pledged to be resolute in serving the country.

Nehru led the Indian National Congress to victory at the polls in 1952, 1957 and 1962. In all those elections, his party secured majority of the seats in the National Assembly. For example, in 1957, his party secured 371 out of the 494 available seats in parliament. The Indian National Congress had about five times more seats than the second largest party in India at the time – the Communist Party.

Nehru was one of the founding fathers of the Non-Aligned Movement of nations

Nehru’s government had strong admiration for nations did not align themselves neither to Pro-soviet communist bloc (Warsaw Pact) and the pro-American capitalist bloc (NATO). He attended the Bandung Conference in 1955 in Indonesia, where representatives from many African and Asian nations met to discuss the adoption of a non-aligned stand to the then-raging conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States.

On the basis of the decisions that were taken at that Asian-African Conference, the Non-Aligned Movement was born in 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Nehru cooperated with many leaders like Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah , Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Indonesia’s Sukarno, and Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito in pushing against imperialism, colonialism, racism and foreign aggression, and occupation.

Nehru’s Accomplishments as Prime Minister of India

Lord Mountbatten swears in Jawaharlal Nehru as the first Prime Minister of independent India on August 15, 1947

He abolished the divine rights of kings in princely states. Upon India becoming a republic, those states joined the Indian republic.

For many years, Nehru worked with many Indian politicians to come out with a new constitution to replace the Government of India Act 1935. After India became independent in 1946, the need for a new constitution became even more apparent. On January 26, 1950, Nehru’s efforts paid off, as India adopted a new constitution.

He developed a national philosophy underpinned by modernism and secularism. Nehru also had things like parliamentary democracy, science and technology, and industrialization as the goals for the new nation.

On the economic front, he tried to boost India’s manufacturing capacity so that the dream of import substitution could be realized. Under his terms as prime minister, a lot of investments were made into industries like steel, coal, and iron.

His non-alignment policy during the Cold War augured very well for India. He was able to draw investors from countries aligned either to the Soviet Union and the United States. It has been estimated that India’s industrial output clocked an average of 7% growth annually during his time in charge. Regarding the size of the economy, Nehru was able to achieve about 4% growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India.

He instituted a number of very crucial land reforms that enabled the agricultural sector to grow remarkably. For example, in spite of strong resistance from powerful landowners in the rural areas, he abolished the large landholdings, allowing lands to be redistributed in such a manner that it helped the total yield produced in year to increase. To inject science and technology into the industry, he established a number of agricultural universities, which produced high-yielding varieties of crops such as legumes and cereals.

Dwight D. Eisenhower on Jawaharlal Nehru, November 27, 1958

Firmly of the view that education was the only way India could transform itself into an industrialized and high income country, Nehru invested heavily into the education sector. Many institutions of higher learning were established, with special focus on medical sciences, technology, business, and economics. During his terms as prime minister, school enrollment in the rural areas shot up tenfold. The increase in school enrollment was due to his free and compulsory primary education policy. His government even offered free meals to schools in the most impoverished of areas in India.

Nehru’s foreign policy was aimed at building economic and cultural cooperation with nations from Asia and Africa. He took a neutral position as the Cold War raged between the communist bloc, led by the Soviet Union, and the capitalist bloc, led by the United States. Nehru joined the Commonwealth of Nations due to his strong desire work with British Commonwealth countries, many of which were in Africa, with regard to his anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism foreign policy initiative.

Nehru introduced a number of reforms in the country’s marriage, inheritance and property laws. For example, his government criminalized the country’s caste system of discrimination. Under his regime, women were given equal legal and social rights. For example, he reformed the ancient Hindu civil code, allowing Hindu widows to receive equal rights as men when it came to inheritance issues.

It was during his term as prime minister that Hindi was adopted as the lingua franca of India. This decision came in 1950. He passed the Official Languages Act in 1963 to allow English remain as an associate official language official language of the nation. Nehru is therefore responsible for the bilingualism that we see in India today.

Frustrated by Portugal’s refusal to leave its colony of Goa, Nehru was left with no other option than to order a military occupation of Goa in December 1961 before successfully annexing the region. His goal in invading Goa was to dislodge the Portuguese since they did not want to go peacefully like the French and the British had done post-India’s independence.

Death of Jawaharlal Nehru

Beginning around 1962, Nehru’s health began to deteriorate, perhaps due to the Sino-Indian War of 1962. The prime minister suffered his first mild stroke in 1963. On May 27, 1964, he died after suffering his third and final stroke. He was given a full state burial and thereafter his body was cremated in accordance with Hindu rites. The cremation was witness by close to 2 million mourners.

More Jawaharlal Nehru facts

Nehru’s family – (L-R): Swarup Rani Nehru, Motilal Nehru, Krishna, Vijaya Lakshmi and Jawaharlal

It was during Nehru’s third term as prime minister that the Sino-Indian War of 1962 broke out. Nehru had set up military outposts in many disputed areas along the China-India border. The Chinese then responded by attacking those outposts. This marked the beginning of the Sino-Indian War of 1962, which saw India’s unpreparedness and ill-equipped army defeated by the Chinese Army. The defeat prompted Nehru to introduce several reforms to modernize the country’s military and defense policy.

During his time as prime minister, he survived four assassination attempts. The first was in 1947 when he was on a visit to what is now Pakistan. The second and third assassination attempts on Nehru’s life took place in 1955 and 1956 respectively. The fourth one came in Maharashtra in 1961.

Following the assassination of Gandhi on January 30, 1948, Nehru and the Indian National Congress set out to suppress many radical groups and religious paramilitary groups. Gandhi’s death also allowed Nehru’s government to unite the country under a single vision.

He was key in helping the Congress party win big in the 1937 provincial elections. The Indian National Congress emerged as the majority party in the various provinces across India.

Right from the mid-1930s, Nehru was the one who handled the foreign policy and affairs of the Indian National Congress. Additionally, he was tasked to make plans for how the economy of an independent India would like. He performed this task with the help of the National Planning Commission.

Nehru’s activism was not only restricted to territories controlled by the British government, but he also tried very hard to champion the rights and freedoms of Indians living in princely states. He collaborated with the All India States Peoples Conference to work towards this particular goal of his. His goal was to facilitate the integration of those princely states into national agenda.

People who influenced Jawaharlal Nehru

In addition to his father, Motilal Nehru, and Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru was influenced by a number of politicians and authors, including the following:

Majority of Jawaharlal Nehru’s tutors at home were English governesses and tutors. Some of those tutors included Irish Belgian tutor Ferdinand Brooks and Annie Besant. The latter was a family friend famous for being a British socialist, women’s rights activist, writer, and orator. Besant was also active in campaigning for Irish and Indian self-rule.

Nehru took a lot of inspiration from Buddhist and Hindu scriptures. He was also influenced by the works of British historian and academic G.M. Trevelyan (i.e. Garibaldi books), Irish playwright and political activist Bernard Shaw, English writer Herbert George Wells, English economist John Maynard Keynes, and English journalist and editor Meredith Townsend.

Famous quotes by Nehru

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Jawahar Lal Nehru Biography, Early Life, Political Journey, Death, Legacy

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), India's first Prime Minister, was born in Allahabad. Know Jawahar Lal Nehru Biography in detail from his born to death, Political Journey and many more.

Table of Contents

Jawaharlal Nehru, born on November 14, 1889, in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, is celebrated as the architect of modern India and the first Prime Minister of the nation. His birthday is commemorated as Children’s Day in India. This brief biography will shed light on his early life, family background, educational pursuits, political journey, and notable contributions.

Jawahar Lal Nehru Biography

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), India’s first Prime Minister, was born in Allahabad. A central figure in the Indian National Congress, Nehru played a pivotal role in the nation’s fight for independence. As Prime Minister from 1947, he focused on economic development, education, and non-alignment in foreign policy. Nehru’s leadership emphasized industrialization and agrarian reforms. His birthday on November 14 is celebrated as Children’s Day in India. His legacy as the “Architect of Modern India” endures, marking his significant contributions to the country’s socio-economic and political landscape.

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Children’s Day 2023

Children’s Day in India, observed annually on November 14, coincides with the birthday of India’s first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who ardently championed children’s rights and education. The celebration initiated as “Flower Day” on November 5, 1948, transitioned to Children’s Day in 1954, marking Nehru’s birthday. After his death in 1964, the nation officially embraced the celebration to honour his legacy. The day aims to raise awareness about children’s rights, healthcare, and education. Schools partake in festivities, with some declaring holidays, hosting entertainment shows, and treating children to snacks, emphasizing the innocence and joy of childhood.

Pandit Nehru’s Early Life and Education

Jawaharlal Nehru’s early life was marked by his birth on November 14, 1889, into a family deeply rooted in India’s political and social fabric. His father, Motilal Nehru, was a successful lawyer and a prominent figure in the Indian National Congress . Nehru’s upbringing in an affluent and politically engaged household laid the groundwork for his future involvement in national affairs.

Nehru’s formal education began in India, but his intellectual pursuits took him to England for higher studies. He attended Harrow, one of the most prestigious schools in England, and later continued his education at Trinity College, Cambridge. Nehru’s time in England exposed him to Western political thought, philosophy, and societal structures, influencing his perspective on governance and societal progress.

While in England, Nehru delved into the study of law and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple. However, his experiences in the West, coupled with his growing awareness of India’s socio-political challenges, ignited a passion for his homeland’s independence.

Returning to India, Nehru became actively involved in the nationalist movement against British colonial rule. His early engagement with the Indian National Congress and association with Mahatma Gandhi shaped his political ideology, emphasizing non-violence, civil disobedience, and the pursuit of a free and democratic India.

Nehru’s early life and education played a crucial role in shaping his worldview. His exposure to diverse ideas and cultures, both in India and abroad, contributed to his development as a statesman and a leader. These formative years laid the foundation for Nehru’s prominent role in the Indian independence movement and, ultimately, his tenure as the first Prime Minister of independent India.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s Political Journey

In 1912, Nehru actively participated as a delegate in the Bankipore Congress. His transformative encounter with Mahatma Gandhi occurred in 1916, leaving an indelible impact on his political ideology. Demonstrating early leadership, he organized the inaugural Kisan March in Pratapgarh in 1920.

Nehru’s commitment to India’s independence led to his imprisonment twice during the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22). His international engagements included representing the Indian National Congress at the Congress of Oppressed Nationalities in Belgium and attending the 10th-anniversary celebrations of the October Socialist Revolution in Moscow in 1927.

His resilience was evident when he faced a lathi charge in Lucknow during the Simon Commission protests in 1928. At the All-Party Congress on August 29, 1928, he played a key role by signing the Nehru Report, named after his father, Motilal Nehru.

In 1928, Nehru founded the “Independence for India League” and served as its General Secretary. The pivotal Lahore session of the Indian National Congress in 1929, which he presided over, marked the adoption of the comprehensive agenda for India’s independence.

From 1930 to 1935, Nehru faced multiple imprisonments due to his active involvement in movements such as the Salt Satyagraha. While incarcerated at Almora Prison in 1935, he completed writing his autobiography. After his release, he visited his unwell wife in Switzerland.

In opposition to India’s forced participation in World War II , Nehru was again arrested on October 31, 1940. His longest imprisonment occurred from August 8, 1942, when he proposed the “Quit India” decision in Bombay, to his release in January 1945.

Post-liberation, Nehru focused on organizing a legal defense for officials and members of the Indian National Army (INA) accused of treason. He went on to serve as the President of the Congress four times, from July 1946, and later for three more terms from 1951 to 1954.

Nehru’s relentless efforts and leadership culminated in his becoming India’s first Prime Minister. On this historic occasion, he hoisted the national flag and delivered the iconic speech “Tryst with Destiny” from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister of India

Jawaharlal Nehru served as the Prime Minister of India from August 15, 1947, when India gained independence, until his death on May 27, 1964. Here are some key aspects of Nehru’s tenure as Prime Minister:

Nation-Building and Development

• Nehru played a crucial role in shaping the early years of independent India, focusing on nation-building and economic development.
• He emphasized the need for a planned economy to address poverty, unemployment, and social inequality.
• The first Five-Year Plan was launched in 1951 under his leadership, focusing on agriculture, industry, and social services.

Democratic Governance

• Nehru was a strong advocate of democracy and worked to establish democratic institutions in the country.
• The Indian Constitution, adopted in 1950, provided the framework for a democratic and secular state.

Foreign Policy

• Nehru was instrumental in shaping India’s foreign policy, emphasizing non-alignment during the Cold War.
• He played a key role in the Bandung Conference in 1955, which marked the beginning of the Non-Aligned Movement.
• Nehru was a proponent of peaceful coexistence and sought to maintain India’s independence from the power blocs of the time.

The Panchsheel Agreement

• Nehru championed the Panchsheel Agreement, a set of principles governing relations between independent states, which became the foundation of India’s foreign policy.

Military Conflicts

• Nehru faced challenges on the military front, notably the Indo-Pakistani wars of 1947-48, 1962 (against China), and 1965 (against Pakistan).
• The border conflict with China in 1962, which resulted in a military defeat for India, was a significant setback for Nehru.

Domestic Policies

• Nehru’s domestic policies included the promotion of scientific research and education through institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
• The policy of land reforms aimed at addressing rural poverty and redistributing land to the landless was also initiated during his tenure.

Social Reforms

• Nehru advocated for social reforms and women’s rights. He introduced the Hindu Code Bill, which aimed at reforming and codifying Hindu personal laws.
• His government took steps to promote social justice and equality, focusing on marginalized communities.

Jawaharlal Nehru Death

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, passed away on May 27, 1964. His death marked the end of an era, leaving a void in the leadership of the nation. Nehru’s demise came at a critical juncture, with India grappling with various challenges. His death profoundly impacted the political landscape, leading to a transition in leadership.

Nehru’s legacy as a visionary leader, advocate for democracy, and architect of modern India endured beyond his lifetime, influencing subsequent generations. His contributions to the country’s development and commitment to social justice continue to be remembered, shaping the ongoing narrative of India’s history and progress.

Jawaharlal Nehru Legacy

Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy is profound and enduring. As India’s first Prime Minister, he played a pivotal role in the country’s struggle for independence, emphasizing democratic values, secularism, and social justice. Nehru’s vision for a modern nation is evident in his promotion of scientific research, educational institutions like the IITs and IIMs, and land reforms. Internationally, he championed non-alignment and the Panchsheel Agreement, shaping India’s foreign policy. Despite challenges, his leadership laid the foundation for a democratic, diverse, and inclusive India, leaving an indelible mark on the nation’s political, social, and economic trajectory.

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Jawahar Lal Nehru Biography FAQs

When was jawaharlal nehru born.

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.

What is Jawaharlal Nehru known for?

Nehru is celebrated as the architect of modern India and served as the country's first Prime Minister. His leadership was pivotal in India's struggle for independence.

Why is Children's Day celebrated on November 14 in India?

Children's Day in India is celebrated on November 14 to honor Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday, recognizing his affection for children and his commitment to their well-being.

What was Nehru's role in the Indian National Congress?

Nehru was a central figure in the Indian National Congress, serving as its president multiple times and playing a key role in shaping the party's policies and strategies.

What were Nehru's contributions to foreign policy?

Nehru emphasized non-alignment during the Cold War, played a key role in the Bandung Conference, and championed the Panchsheel Agreement, guiding India's foreign relations.

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Shri Jawaharlal Nehru

Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was born in Allabahad on November 14, 1889. He received his early education at home under private tutors. At the age of fifteen, he went to England and after two years at Harrow, joined Cambridge University where he took his tripos in Natural Sciences. He was later called to the Bar from Inner Temple. He returned to India in 1912 and plunged straight into politics. Even as a student, he had been interested in the struggle of all nations who suffered under foreign domination. He took keen interest in the Sinn Fein Movement in Ireland. In India, he was inevitably drawn into the struggle for independence.

In 1912, he attended the Bankipore Congress as a delegate, and became Secretary of the Home Rule League, Allahabad in 1919. In 1916 he had his first meeting with Mahatma Gandhi and felt immensely inspired by him. He organised the first Kisan March in Pratapgarh District of Uttar Pradesh in 1920. He was twice imprisoned in connection with the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920-22.

Pt. Nehru became the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee in September 1923. He toured Italy, Switzerland, England, Belgium, Germany and Russia in 1926. In Belgium, he attended the Congress of Oppressed Nationalities in Brussels as an official delegate of the Indian National Congress. He also attended the tenth anniversary celebrations of the October Socialist Revolution in Moscow in 1927. Earlier, in 1926, at the Madras Congress, Nehru had been instrumental in committing the Congress to the goal of Independence. While leading a procession against the Simon commission, he was lathi-charged in Lucknow in 1928. On August 29, 1928 he attended the All-Party Congress and was one of the signatories to the Nehru Report on Indian Constitutional Reform, named after his father Shri Motilal Nehru. The same year, he also founded the ‘Independence for India League’, which advocated complete severance of the British connection with India, and became its General Secretary.

In 1929, Pt. Nehru was elected President of the Lahore Session of the Indian National Congress, where complete independence for the country was adopted as the goal. He was imprisoned several times during 1930-35 in connection with the Salt Satyagraha and other movements launched by the Congress. He completed his ‘Autobiography’ in Almora Jail on February 14, 1935. After release, he flew to Switzerland to see his ailing wife and visited London in February-March, 1936. He also visited Spain in July 1938, when the country was in the throws of Civil War. Just before the court-break of the Second World War, he visited China too.

On October 31, 1940 Pt. Nehru was arrested for offering individual Satyagraha to protest against India’s forced participation in war. He was released along with the other leaders in December 1941. On August 7, 1942 Pt. Nehru moved the historic ‘Quit India’ resolution at the A.I.C.C. session in Bombay. On August 8,1942 he was arrested along with other leaders and taken to Ahmednagar Fort. This was his longest and also his last detention. In all, he suffered imprisonment nine times. After his release in January 1945, he organized legal defence for those officers and men of the INA charged with treason. In March 1946, Pt. Nehru toured South East Asia. He was elected President of the Congress for the fourth time on July 6, 1946 and again for three more terms from 1951 to 1954.

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Jawaharlal Nehru : an autobiography

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Jawaharlal Nehru Biography, Education, Wife, Books, Death, History

Jawaharlal Nehru Biography

Jawaharlal Nehru, often referred to as Pandit Nehru, was a prominent political leader and the first Prime Minister of independent India. He played a pivotal role in shaping the country’s destiny and guiding it through the critical early years of nation-building. Nehru’s visionary leadership, dedication to democracy, and commitment to social justice left a lasting impact on India’s political, social, and economic landscape.

Jawaharlal Nehru Birth

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889. He was born in Allahabad, British India, which is now known as Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India. Nehru was a prominent leader in the Indian independence movement and the first Prime Minister of independent India. He played a crucial role in shaping modern India’s political and social landscape. Nehru’s tenure as Prime Minister lasted from 1947 until his death on May 27, 1964. He is often referred to as Pandit Nehru, and his birthday, November 14, is celebrated in India as Children’s Day in his honor.

Jawaharlal Nehru  Early Life and Education

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, into a wealthy Kashmiri Pandit family. His father, Motilal Nehru, was a prominent lawyer and political figure. Nehru received his education in India and later went on to study law at Trinity College, Cambridge. His exposure to Western political ideas and philosophy during his time in England greatly influenced his outlook and laid the foundation for his future role as a statesman.

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Jawaharlal Nehru Family

Jawaharlal Nehru came from a prominent Kashmiri Pandit family, and his lineage can be traced back to the Kashmir region in northern India. His father and mother both played important roles in shaping his political beliefs and instilling a sense of nationalism in him.

Jawaharlal Nehru Father: Motilal Nehru

Motilal Nehru was a prominent lawyer and an influential political leader. He was born on May 6, 1861, in Agra, British India. Motilal Nehru actively participated in the Indian independence movement and was a key figure in the Indian National Congress. He served as the President of the Indian National Congress twice and played a crucial role in shaping the political landscape of India.

Jawaharlal Nehru Mother: Swarup Rani Nehru

Swarup Rani Nehru, also known as Swarup Rani Thussu, was Motilal Nehru’s second wife. She was born on August 2, 1868, in Delhi, British India. Swarup Rani Nehru was actively involved in social and political work and supported her husband’s activities. She was known for her philanthropic work and played a significant role in promoting education and women’s rights.

Jawaharlal Nehru Wife and Children

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, had one wife and one child. His wife’s name was Kamala Nehru, and they were married in 1916. Kamala Nehru was actively involved in the Indian independence movement and worked alongside her husband in various political activities.

Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru had one daughter named Indira Priyadarshini, who later became known as Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi served as the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She played a significant role in shaping Indian politics and was a prominent figure in the Indian National Congress party.

Jawaharlal Nehru  Political Awakening

Upon returning to India, Nehru became actively involved in the Indian National Congress, a political party leading the struggle for independence from British rule. He was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence and became a staunch supporter of the Indian independence movement. Nehru’s charisma, intellect, and passion for social justice quickly propelled him to the forefront of the political arena.

Jawaharlal Nehru  Role in the Independence Struggle

Jawaharlal Nehru played a significant role in the independence struggle of India. He was a prominent leader of the Indian National Congress, which spearheaded the movement against British colonial rule.

• Nehru’s involvement in the independence struggle began in the 1920s when he joined the Congress and quickly rose to prominence.
• He became a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the freedom movement, and worked closely with him in various campaigns and movements.
• One of Nehru’s most notable contributions was his role in the Non-Cooperation Movement launched by Gandhi in 1920. Nehru actively participated in the movement, encouraging people to boycott British institutions and advocating for swadeshi (use of Indian-made goods). He organized and led protests, which resulted in his imprisonment several times.
• During the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930, Nehru played a pivotal role.
• He was among the leaders who marched with Gandhi on the historic Salt March, a protest against the British salt monopoly. Nehru’s participation in the movement helped galvanize public support and brought international attention to the Indian independence struggle.
• Nehru was also a key figure in the Quit India Movement of 1942. When the Congress launched the movement, demanding immediate independence, Nehru was arrested along with other leaders and imprisoned for several years. Despite being in jail, he continued to inspire the masses through his writings and letters.
• After India gained independence in 1947, Nehru became the country’s first Prime Minister. As the Prime Minister, he played a crucial role in shaping India’s foreign policy, leading the nation’s efforts to establish itself as a sovereign, democratic republic on the global stage.
• Nehru’s vision for India was that of a modern, industrialized, and secular nation.
• He played a vital role in laying the foundation for democratic governance, promoting social justice, and advocating for economic development.
• His policies included the implementation of land reforms, the establishment of public sector industries, and the promotion of scientific and educational institutions.

Furthermore, Nehru played an active role in international politics, advocating for peace and non-alignment during the Cold War. He was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement and worked towards strengthening ties with other newly independent nations.

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Jawaharlal Nehru as  First Prime Minister of India

Jawaharlal Nehru served as the first Prime Minister of India from its independence in 1947 until his death in 1964. He was a central figure in the Indian independence movement and played a crucial role in shaping the early years of the newly independent nation.

• Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, in Allahabad, British India. He came from a prominent political family, with his father Motilal Nehru being a leading figure in the Indian National Congress.
• Nehru was educated in England and later studied law at the Inner Temple in London.
• Upon his return to India, Nehru became involved in the freedom struggle against British rule. He was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and became one of his closest associates.
• Nehru advocated for complete independence from British rule and participated in various civil disobedience campaigns and protests.
• After India gained independence from British colonial rule on August 15, 1947, Nehru became the country’s first Prime Minister.
• He led the nation through the challenging early years of independence, focusing on nation-building, social and economic reforms, and foreign policy.
• Nehru played a significant role in drafting the Indian Constitution and establishing a democratic and secular framework for the country.
• Under Nehru’s leadership, India pursued a policy of non-alignment in the global arena, seeking to maintain neutrality and forge alliances based on mutual interests rather than aligning with any specific bloc during the Cold War.
• Nehru’s vision for India emphasized industrialization, scientific progress, and social justice. He introduced several initiatives to promote economic development, including the establishment of large-scale public sector industries and the implementation of land reforms.
• Nehru’s tenure as Prime Minister saw several significant achievements, such as the founding of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the establishment of the Planning Commission to oversee economic planning. However, his leadership was not without challenges.
• The country faced internal conflicts, including the integration of princely states, and external conflicts, such as the Indo-Pakistani wars over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s policies and leadership style shaped India’s political, social, and economic landscape in its formative years. He was a proponent of secularism, democracy, and socialism and left a lasting impact on the country. Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi, also served as Prime Minister of India, continuing his family’s political legacy.

Jawaharlal Nehru  Foreign Policy and Non-Alignment

• Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, played a significant role in shaping India’s foreign policy during his tenure from 1947 to 1964.
• One of the key pillars of Nehru’s foreign policy was the principle of non-alignment.
• Non-alignment refers to the policy of not aligning with any major power bloc during the Cold War era, particularly between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• Nehru, along with leaders from other newly independent nations, advocated for a neutral stance and the pursuit of an independent foreign policy based on the principles of peace, cooperation, and national sovereignty.

Jawaharlal Nehru Commitment to Non-Alignment

• Nehru’s commitment to non-alignment was rooted in several factors.
• First and foremost, India had recently gained independence from British colonial rule, and Nehru was determined to establish India as a sovereign nation free from external domination.
• He sought to maintain India’s independence by avoiding military alliances that could potentially entangle the country in conflicts between major powers.
• Secondly, Nehru believed in the importance of fostering economic development and social progress in India. Non-alignment allowed India to seek assistance and partnerships from multiple countries without being constrained by the conditions or expectations of any specific power bloc. Nehru aimed to pursue economic cooperation and technological assistance from both Western and Eastern countries to support India’s industrialization and modernization efforts.
• Additionally, Nehru was deeply committed to promoting peace and disarmament on the global stage. He strongly opposed the arms race and nuclear proliferation, advocating for disarmament and peaceful coexistence among nations.
• Nehru played a pivotal role in organizing the first Asian-African Conference in 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia, which laid the foundation for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
• The NAM aimed to bring together countries from the Global South to promote their common interests, advocate for decolonization, and pursue peaceful resolutions to international conflicts.
• Nehru’s non-alignment policy faced both praise and criticism. Supporters commended his efforts to maintain India’s independence and promote cooperation among nations, while critics argued that non-alignment limited India’s ability to fully capitalize on potential alliances and economic opportunities.
• Nonetheless, Nehru’s non-alignment policy remained a cornerstone of India’s foreign policy for several decades and continues to influence India’s approach to international relations today.

It’s worth noting that India’s foreign policy has evolved since Nehru’s time, adapting to changing global dynamics and India’s own strategic interests. However, the principles of non-alignment and pursuit of an independent foreign policy remain influential in shaping India’s approach to international affairs.

Jawaharlal Nehru Death

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, passed away on May 27, 1964. He was a prominent leader of the Indian independence movement and a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. Nehru played a crucial role in shaping the future of independent India and was in office as the Prime Minister from August 15, 1947, the day India gained independence, until his death in 1964.

His death was a significant event in Indian history, and he is remembered for his contributions to nation-building, his vision of a modern and progressive India, and his dedication to democracy and secularism. After Nehru’s death, Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded him as the Prime Minister of India.

Jawaharlal Nehru  Legacy and Impact

Jawaharlal Nehru’s contributions to modern India are immeasurable. His vision of a democratic, secular, and socialist India set the foundation for the country’s political system and social fabric. Nehru’s commitment to social justice, education, and scientific temper led to the establishment of institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He laid the groundwork for India’s industrialization and pushed for land reforms to uplift the rural poor.

Jawaharlal Nehru: FAQs

Ques: Who was our first Prime Minister?

Ans:  At the age of 58, Jawaharlal Nehru commenced his remarkable 17-year tenure as the inaugural Prime Minister of independent India. Being a symbol of generational transformation, Shri Gandhi obtained the most significant electoral support the nation had ever witnessed.

Ques:  What is special about Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru?

Ans:  After India gained independence in 1947, he assumed the role of India’s inaugural prime minister and held the position for a span of 16 years. Nehru actively advocated for parliamentary democracy, secularism, and the advancement of science and technology in the 1950s, playing a significant role in shaping India’s path as a contemporary nation.

Ques: Who is the first Prime Minister of India in Jawaharlal Nehru?

Ans:  Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s inaugural prime minister, held the position from August 15, 1947, when India became a dominion, until January 26, 1950, when it became a republic. He continued to serve as the prime minister until he passed away in May 1964.

Ques: Who was the 1st minister of India?

Ans:  The Congress party achieved a commanding majority of 82%. On 15 August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru assumed office as India’s inaugural Prime Minister and handpicked 15 additional members for his cabinet. Vallabhbhai Patel held the position of the first Deputy Prime Minister until he passed away on 15 December 1950.

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Jawaharlal Nehru Age, Death, Caste, Wife, Children, Family, Affairs, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru Smoking

• Did Jawaharlal Nehru drink alcohol?: Yes
• Nehru was born in a wealthy family, having grown up in a privileged atmosphere including the Anand Bhavan (situated in Allahabad, built by Motilal Nehru), describing his childhood as “sheltered and uneventful one.”
• His father, Motilal Nehru, parted Jawaharlal’s education at home by tutors and private governesses. He was pretty much influenced by the subject “science and theosophy” under his tutor Ferdinand T. Brooks, which led him to join the Theosophical Society at age thirteen with a family friend, Annie Besant.
• Shortly after joining the Theosophical Society, his tutor Ferdinand T. Brooks departed as his tutor. Nehru’s interest in Theosophy soon too vanished and he left society. He wrote for his tutor that “for nearly three years (Brooks) was with me and in many ways, he influenced me greatly.”

“first introduction to the religious and cultural heritage of [India]…[they] provided Nehru the initial impulse for [his] long intellectual quest which culminated…in The Discovery of India.”

“[The] Japanese victories [had] stirred up my enthusiasm … Nationalistic ideas filled my mind … I mused of Indian freedom and Asiatic freedom from the thraldom of Europe.”

Jawaharlal Nehru as a Cadet in Harrow

Jawaharlal Nehru As A Lawyer

“Decidedly the atmosphere was not intellectually stimulating, and a sense of the utter insipidity of life grew upon me,” He wrote. His inclination towards politics eventually replaced his legal practice.

Jawaharlal Nehru With Mahatma Gandhi

• During World War I, many including Frank Moraes believed that Nehru’s sympathy was with France, as he admired the culture of that country.
• During World War I, Nehru was emerging as an eminent political leader, though Gopal Krishna Gokhale (known as the political guru of Mahatma Gandhi) held the domination of political discourse. Whereas Nehru had already urged the nationalists the need of, “politics of non-cooperation, the need of resigning from honorary positions under the government and of not continuing the futile politics of representation.”

“[Besant] had a very powerful influence on me in my childhood… even later when I entered political life her influence continued,” he remarked. Later, he went on to become the secretary of Besant’s Home Rule League.

Jawaharlal Nehru With His Wife Kamala Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru With His Wife and Daughter

• In 1920, Nehru was put behind bars for anti-government activities initiated by him in the United Provinces (now, Uttar Pradesh) as a part of Non-Cooperation movement; though he was released in a few months. After the sudden closure of the movement due to the 1922’s Chauri-Chaura incident, the rift within the Congress made Nehru remain loyal to Gandhi and did not join the party formed by CR Das and his father, Motilal Nehru, ‘Swaraj Party.’
• In 1927, due to Nehru’s efforts of internationalizing the Indian independence struggle, India was invited to attend the Congress of oppressed nationalities in Brussels in Belgium where Nehru represented the country.
• In 1929, during the Lahore session, under Nehru’s Presidentship of Congress, he called for the complete independence from the British Raj and decided that 26 January 1930 will be celebrated as India’s Independence Day. He hoisted the tricolour flag of India in Lahore at the midnight of New Year’s Eve 1929.
• In the mid-1930s, his ailing wife, Kamala Nehru died of tuberculosis in a sanitarium in Switzerland.
• Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru worked together to develop India’s strong relations with governments of free countries, but they split in the late 1930s when Nehru decided to support the Republicans against Francisco Franco’s forces amidst the Spanish Civil War. A dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini, expressed his wish to meet Nehru, he refused to meet him. Whereas, Subhash Chandra Bose shook hands with fascists to oust British out of India.

Jawaharlal Nehru Detained during Civil Disobedience Movement

Jawaharlal Nehru Autobiography

• On 31 October 1940, he was again arrested for offering individual Satyagraha against India’s enforced involvement in World War 2.
• Nehru’s longest and also the last detention was for moving the ‘Quit India’ resolution at the A.I.C.C. session (Bombay) on 8 August 1942, and he was taken to Ahmednagar Fort along with other leaders. In all, Nehru was arrested nine times till India got independence.
• Upon his release from jail, Nehru found that Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s ‘Muslim league’ had become much stronger. Though initially, he opposed the partition of India and Pakistan but could not change the fate under Lord Mountbatten’s pressure.

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”

• India launched its first five-year plan under his supervision in 1951.
• He was the first Prime Minister of India, and four attempts of his assassinations were made. The first attempt was made in 1947 after the partition of India and Pakistan, the second was in the year 1955, third in 1956 in Mumbai and fourth in 1961, but he was fortunate enough to escape all the attempts.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s Book The Discovery of India

Jawaharlal Nehru With His Alleged Girlfriend Edwina Mountbatten

• In a book written by Pamela Mountbatten (daughter of Edwina Mountbatten and Lord Mountbatten), revealed that Nehru used to write letters to Edwina even after the partition until she died. She stated that “It was a very very deep love that lasted for 12 years.”

Jawaharlal Nehru With His Daughter, Indira Gandhi

Jawaharlal Nehru Performing Sword Fight

• He was nominated for the Noble Peace price 11 times, but he never won the award.
• In 1962, his health starting declining and was being treated in Kashmir. On 26 May 1964, he returned from Dehradun and was in sound health till the next morning when he complained of backache and consulted his doctors. He collapsed due to a stroke and later, a heart attack which he could not survive. On 28 May 1964, he was cremated on the bank of Yamuna with all the Hindu rites at the Shantivan.

References/Sources: [ + ]

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