Pt.

Jawaharlal Hindustani: [ˈdʒəʋaːɦərˈlaːl ˈneːɦru] (About this soundlisten); 14 November 1889 – 27

May 1964) was a freedom fighter, the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics
before and after independence. He emerged as an eminent leader of the Indian independence
movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and served India as Prime Minister from its
establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in 1964. He is considered to be the
architect of the modern Indian nation-state: a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic. He
was also known as Pandit Nehru due to his roots with the Kashmiri Pandit community while Indian
children knew him as Chacha Nehru (Hindi, lit., "Uncle Nehru").[2][3]

The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and nationalist statesman and Swaroop Rani, Nehru was a
graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple, where he trained to be a barrister. Upon
his return to India, he enrolled at the Allahabad High Court and took an interest in national politics,
which eventually replaced his legal practice. A committed nationalist since his teenage years, he became
a rising figure in Indian politics during the upheavals of the 1910s. He became the prominent leader of
the left-wing factions of the Indian National Congress during the 1920s, and eventually of the entire
Congress, with the tacit approval of his mentor, Gandhi. As Congress President in 1929, Nehru called for
complete independence from the British Raj and instigated the Congress's decisive shift towards the left.

Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s as the country moved towards
independence. His idea of a secular nation-state was seemingly validated when the Congress, under his
leadership, swept the 1937 provincial elections and formed the government in several provinces; on the
other hand, the separatist Muslim League fared much poorer. But these achievements were severely
compromised in the aftermath of the Quit India Movement in 1942, which saw the British effectively
crush the Congress as a political organisation. Nehru, who had reluctantly heeded Gandhi's call for
immediate independence, for he had desired to support the Allied war effort during World War II, came
out of a lengthy prison term to a much altered political landscape. The Muslim League under his old
Congress colleague and now opponent, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had come to dominate Muslim politics in
India. Negotiations between Congress and Muslim League for power sharing failed and gave way to the
independence and bloody partition of India in 1947.

Nehru was elected by the Congress to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister,
although the question of leadership had been settled as far back as 1941, when Gandhi acknowledged
Nehru as his political heir and successor. As Prime Minister, he set out to realise his vision of India. The
Constitution of India was enacted in 1950, after which he embarked on an ambitious program of
economic, social and political reforms. Chiefly, he oversaw India's transition from a colony to a republic,
while nurturing a plural, multi-party system. In foreign policy, he took a leading role in the Non-Aligned
Movement while projecting India as a regional hegemon in South Asia.

Under Nehru's leadership, the Congress emerged as a catch-all party, dominating national and state-
level politics and winning consecutive elections in 1951, 1957, and 1962. He remained popular with the
people of India in spite of political troubles in his final years and failure of leadership during the 1962
Sino-Indian War. In India, his birthday is celebrated as Bal Diwas (Children's Day).

Contents

1 Early life and career (1889–1912)

1.1 Birth and family background

1.2 Childhood

1.3 Youth

1.4 Graduation

1.5 Advocate practice

2 Struggle for Indian independence (1912–1947)

2.1 In Britain

2.2 Early contribution on return to India

2.3 World War I

2.4 Home rule movement

2.5 Non-cooperation

2.5.1 Internationalising struggle for Indian independence

2.5.2 Mid 1930s

2.5.3 Parting company with Subhas Chandra Bose

2.6 Republicanism

2.6.1 Princely states

2.7 1929 declaration of independence

2.7.1 Draft of the declaration of independence

2.8 Civil disobedience

2.8.1 Salt satyagraha success

2.9 Architect of India

2.10 Electoral politics in 1930s

2.11 World War II and Quit India movement

2.11.1 Pakistan Resolution

2.11.2 Japan attacks India

3 Prime Minister of India (1947–64)

3.1 Assassination attempts and security

3.2 Economic policies

3.3 Agriculture policies

3.4 Domestic policies

3.5 Social policies

3.5.1 Education

3.5.2 Marriage law

3.5.3 Reservations for socially oppressed communities

3.5.4 Language policy

3.6 Foreign policy

3.6.1 The Commonwealth

3.6.2 Non-aligned movement

3.6.3 Defence and nuclear policy

3.6.4 Defending Kashmir

3.6.5 China

3.6.6 United States

3.6.7 Goa

4 Sino-Indian War of 1962

5 Death

6 Personal life

6.1 Religion and personal beliefs

7 Legacy

7.1 Commemoration

7.2 In popular culture

8 Writings

9 Awards
10 See also

11 References

12 Further reading

13 External links

Early life and career (1889–1912)

Birth and family background

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad in British India. His father, Motilal Nehru
(1861–1931), a self-made wealthy barrister who belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community,[4] served
twice as President of the Indian National Congress, in 1919 and 1928. His mother, Swaruprani Thussu
(1868–1938), who came from a well-known Kashmiri Brahmin family settled in Lahore,[5] was Motilal's
second wife, the first having died in child birth. Jawaharlal was the eldest of three children, two of
whom were girls.[6] The elder sister, Vijaya Lakshmi, later became the first female president of the
United Nations General Assembly.[7] The youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing, became a noted writer
and authored several books on her brother.

Childhood

Nehru described his childhood as a "sheltered and uneventful one". He grew up in an atmosphere of
privilege at wealthy homes including a palatial estate called the Anand Bhavan. His father had him
educated at home by private governesses and tutors.[8] Under the influence of a tutor, Ferdinand T.
Brooks, he became interested in science and theosophy.[9] He was subsequently initiated into the
Theosophical Society at age thirteen by family friend Annie Besant. However, his interest in theosophy
did not prove to be enduring and he left the society shortly after Brooks departed as his tutor.[10] He
wrote: "for nearly three years [Brooks] was with me and in many ways he influenced me greatly".[9]

Nehru's theosophical interests had induced him to the study of the Buddhist and Hindu scriptures.[11]
According to Bal Ram Nanda, these scriptures were Nehru's "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."[11]

Youth

Nehru became an ardent nationalist during his youth.[12] The Second Boer War and the Russo-Japanese
War intensified his feelings. About the latter he wrote, "[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."[9] Later when he had begun his institutional schooling in 1905 at Harrow, a
leading school in England, he was greatly influenced by G. M. Trevelyan's Garibaldi books, which he had
received as prizes for academic merit.[13] He viewed Garibaldi as a revolutionary hero. He wrote:
"Visions of similar deeds in India came before, of [my] gallant fight for [Indian] freedom and in my mind
India and Italy got strangely mixed together."[9]

Graduation

Nehru went to Trinity College, Cambridge in October 1907 and graduated with an honours degree in
natural science in 1910.[14] During this period, he also studied politics, economics, history and literature
desultorily. Writings of Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, J.M. Keynes, Bertrand Russell, Lowes Dickinson and
Meredith Townsend moulded much of his political and economic thinking.[9]

After completing his degree in 1910, Nehru moved to London and studied law at Inner temple Inn[15]
During this time, he continued to study the scholars of the Fabian Society including Beatrice Webb.[9]
He was called to the Bar in 1912.[16][15]

Advocate practice

After returning to India in August 1912, Nehru enrolled himself as an advocate of the Allahabad High
Court and tried to settle down as a barrister. But, unlike his father, he had only a desultory interest in his
profession and did not relish either the practice of law or the company of lawyers. He wrote: "Decidedly
the atmosphere was not intellectually stimulating and a sense of the utter insipidity of life grew upon
me."[9] His involvement in nationalist politics would gradually replace his legal practice in the coming
years.[9]

The Nehru family c. 1890s

Nehru dressed in cadet uniform at Harrow School in England

Nehru in khaki uniform as a member of Seva Dal

Nehru at the Allahabad High Court

Struggle for Indian independence (1912–1947)

In Britain

Nehru had developed an interest in Indian politics during his time in Britain as a student and a
barrister.[17]

Early contribution on return to India

Within months of his return to India in 1912, Nehru attended an annual session of the Indian National
Congress in Patna.[18] Congress in 1912 was the party of moderates and elites,[18] and he was
disconcerted by what he saw as "very much an English-knowing upper-class affair".[19] Nehru
harboured doubts regarding the effectiveness of Congress but agreed to work for the party in support of
the Indian civil rights movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa,[20] collecting funds for the
movement in 1913.[18] Later, he campaigned against indentured labour and other such discrimination
faced by Indians in the British colonies.[21]

World War I

When World War I broke out, sympathy in India was divided. Although educated Indians "by and large
took a vicarious pleasure" in seeing the British rulers humbled, the ruling upper classes sided with the
Allies. Nehru confessed that he viewed the war with mixed feelings. Frank Moraes wrote: "If [Nehru's]
sympathy was with any country it was with France, whose culture he greatly admired."[22] During the
war, Nehru volunteered for the St John Ambulance and worked as one of the provincial secretaries of
the organisation in Allahabad.[18] He also spoke out against the censorship acts passed by the British
government in India.[23]

Nehru in 1919 with wife Kamala and daughter Indira

Nehru emerged from the war years as a leader whose political views were considered radical. Although
the political discourse had been dominated at this time by Gopal Krishna Gokhale,[20] a moderate who
said that it was "madness to think of independence",[18] Nehru had spoken "openly of the politics of
non-cooperation, of the need of resigning from honorary positions under the government and of not
continuing the futile politics of representation".[24] He ridiculed the Indian Civil Service for its support of
British policies. He noted that someone had once defined the Indian Civil Service, "with which we are
unfortunately still afflicted in this country, as neither Indian, nor civil, nor a service".[25] Motilal Nehru,
a prominent moderate leader, acknowledged the limits of constitutional agitation, but counselled his
son that there was no other "practical alternative" to it. Nehru, however, was not satisfied with the pace
of the national movement. He became involved with aggressive nationalists leaders who were
demanding Home Rule for Indians.[26]

The influence of the moderates on Congress politics began to wane after Gokhale died in 1915.[18] Anti-
moderate leaders such as Annie Beasant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak took the opportunity to call for a
national movement for Home Rule. But, in 1915, the proposal was rejected because of the reluctance of
the moderates to commit to such a radical course of action. Besant nevertheless formed a league for
advocating Home Rule in 1916; and Tilak, on his release from a prison term, had in April 1916 formed his
own league.[18] Nehru joined both leagues but worked especially for the former.[27] He remarked later:
"[Besant] had a very powerful influence on me in my childhood... even later when I entered political life
her influence continued."[27] Another development which brought about a radical change in Indian
politics was the espousal of Hindu-Muslim unity with the Lucknow Pact at the annual meeting of the
Congress in December 1916. The pact had been initiated earlier in the year at Allahabad at a meeting of
the All India Congress Committee which was held at the Nehru residence at Anand Bhawan. Nehru
welcomed and encouraged the rapprochement between the two Indian communities.[27]

Home rule movement