Jawaharlal Nehru (
14 November 1889 -- 27 May 1964) was the first
Prime Minister of India and a central figure in
Indian politics for much of the
20th century. He emerged as the paramount leader of the
Indian Independence Movement under the tutelage of
Mahatma Gandhi and ruled
India from its establishment as an independent nation in
1947 until his death in office in 1964.
Nehru is considered to be the architect of the modern
Indian nation-state; a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic. He was the father of
Indira Gandhi and the maternal grandfather of
Rajiv Gandhi, who served as the third and sixth
Prime Ministers of India, respectively.
The son of
Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and nationalist statesman, 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, at the same time taking an interest in national politics. Nehru's involvement in politics would gradually replace his legal practice. A committed nationalist since his teenage years, Nehru 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, Nehru called for complete independence from
Britain and initiated a decisive shift towards the left in Indian politics. He was the principal author of the
Indian Declaration of Independence (1929).
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 provincial elections in
1937 while the separatist
Muslim League failed to form a government in any of the Indian provinces. But these achievements were seriously 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 the
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 bête noire,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had come to dominate Muslim politics in
India. Negotiations between Nehru and
Jinnah 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 in
1941, when Gandhi acknowledged Nehru as his political heir and successor. As
Prime Minister, Nehru 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 monarchy to a republic, while nurturing a plural, multi-party democracy. In foreign policy, Nehru took a leading role in Non-Alignment while projecting India as a regional hegemon in
South Asia.
Under Nehru's leadership, the Congress emerged as a catch-all party, dominating national 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
Sino-Indian War. In India, his birthday is celebrated as
Children's Day.
Many documentaries about Nehru's life have been produced. He has also been portrayed in fictionalised films. The canonical performance is probably that of
Roshan Seth, who played him three times: in
Richard Attenborough's
1982 film Gandhi,
Shyam Benegal's
1988 television series
Bharat Ek Khoj, based on Nehru's
The Discovery of India, and in a
2007 TV film entitled
The Last Days of the Raj. In
Ketan Mehta's film
Sardar, Nehru was portrayed by
Benjamin Gilani.
Girish Karnad's historical play,
Tughlaq (1962) is an allegory about the
Nehruvian era. It was staged by
Ebrahim Alkazi with
National School of Drama Repertory at
Purana Qila, Delhi in
1970s and later at the
Festival of India,
London in
1982.
Nehru was a prolific writer in
English and wrote a number of books, such as The Discovery of India,
Glimpses of World History, and his autobiography,
Toward Freedom. He had written 30 letters to his daughter Indira Gandhi, when she was 10 years old and was in a boarding school in
Mussoorie, teaching about natural history and the story of civilisations. The collection of these letters was later published as a book
Letters from a
Father to
His Daughter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehru
- published: 09 Feb 2014
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