Jawaharlal Nehru (Hindi: )

(Hindustani: [ d̍ʒəʋa ɦ̍ərˈlaˈl̍ ne ɦ̍ru] ( listen); 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 theIndian 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.[5]Nehru is considered to be the

architect of the modern Indian nation-state; a sovereign,

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad in British India. His father, MotilalNehru (1861–1931), a wealthy barrister who belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community,[10] served twice as President of the Indian National Congress during theIndependence Struggle. His mother, SwarupraniThussu (1868–1938), who came from a well–known Kashmiri Brahmin family settled inLahore,[11] was Motilal's second wife, the first having died in child birth. Jawaharlal was the eldest of three children, two of whom were girls.[10] The elder sister, VijayaLakshmi, later became the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly.[12] The

Nehru had developed an interest in Indian politics during his time in Britain.[20] Within months of his return to India in 1912 he had attended an annual session of the Indian National Congress in Patna.[21] Nehru was disconcerted with what he saw as a "very much an English-knowing upper class affair."[22] The Congress in 1912 had been the party of moderates and elites.[21] Nehru harboured doubts regarding the ineffectualness of the Congress but agreed to work for the party in support of the Indian civil rights movement in South Africa.[23] He collected funds for the civil rights campaigners led by Mohandas Gandhi in 1913.[21] Later, he campaigned against the indentured labour and other such discriminations faced by Indians in the British colonies.[24]

Nehru at the Allahabad High Court

1st Prime Minister of India

In office

15 August 1947 – 27 May 1964

Monarch George VI

(until 26

January

1950)

President Rajendra

Prasad

Sarvepalli

Radhakrishn

an

When World war II started, Viceroy Linlithgow had unilaterally declared India a belligerent on the side of the Britain, without consulting the elected Indian representatives. Nehru hurried back from a visit to China, announcing that, in a conflict between democracy and Fascism, “our sympathies must inevitably be on the side of democracy...... I should like India to play its full part and throw all her resources into the struggle for a new order.”

Nehru presided over the introduction of a modified, Indian version of state planning and control over the economy. Creating the Planning commission of India, Nehru drew up the firstFive-Year Plan in 1951, which charted the government's investments in industries and agriculture. Increasing business and income taxes, Nehru envisaged a mixed economy in which the government would manage strategic industries such as mining, electricity and heavy industries, serving public interest and a check to private enterprise. Nehru pursuedlandredistribution and launched programmes to build irrigation canals, dams and spread the use of fertilizers to increase agricultural production. He also pioneered a series of community development programs aimed at spreading diverse cottage industries and increasing

Nehru with schoolchildren at theDurgapur

Steel Plant. Durgapur along

withRourkela and Bhilai were the three

integrated steel plants set up under

India'sSecond Five-Year Plan in the late 19

Nehru led newly independent India from 1947 to 1964, during its first years of freedom from British rule. Both the United States and the Soviet Union competed to make India an ally throughout the Cold War. Nehru also maintained good relations with the British Empire. Under the London Declaration, India agreed that, when it became a republic in January 1950,

Jawaharlal Nehru (right) with Muhammad Ali Bogra, Prime Minister

of Pakistan (left), during his 1953 visit to Karachi

Nehru lying in state, 1964.

"Nehru was a great man...

Nehru gave to Indians an image

of themselves that I don't think

others might have succeeded in

doing." – Sir Isaiah Berlin[86]