Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru (जवाहरलाल नेहरू, Javāharlāl Nehrū) (November 14, 1889 – May 27, 1964), also called Pandit ('Teacher') Nehru, was the leader of the socialist wing of the Indian National Congress during and after India's struggle for independence from the British Empire. He became the first Prime Minister of India at independence on August 15, 1947, holding the office until his death. A committed socialist, Nehru was the architect of the 'Avadi Resolution' that swore by the 'Socialistic Pattern of Society.'

Brief Biography

1889-1918

The son of prominent Congress leader Motilal Nehru, Nehru returned from education in England at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge to practice law before following his father into politics. By his parents' arrangement, Nehru married Kamala Kaul, then seventeen in 1916. At the time of his wedding on 8 February, 1916, Jawaharlal was twenty-six, a British educated barrister. Kamala came from a well-known business family of Kashmiris in Delhi. Jawaharlal was domineering; Kamala quiet and unobtrusive. Despite Jawaharlal's presumably modern views, Kamala was to have very little impact on her petulant husband. In the second year of the marriage, Kamala gave birth to their only child, Indira Priyadarshini in 1917.

Related Topics:
Motilal Nehru - Harrow - Trinity College - Cambridge - Kamala Kaul - 1916 - 8 February - Indira Priyadarshini - 1917

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1918-1937

Politically, Nehru gradually emerged as a protegé of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and entered the first rank of Indian nationalist politics as president of Congress (an annual post) for the first time in 1929. Nehru spent most of these years in prison writing books and letters; he lost his father and wife while incarcerated. Kamala Nehru died of tuberculosis on 28 February, 1936 in Switzerland.

Related Topics:
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi - 1929 - Kamala Nehru - 28 February - 1936 - Switzerland

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1937-1947

Imprisoned for 32 months after the Quit India movement of 1942, Nehru formed the country's first Indian government in July 1946 in the face of mounting opposition from the All-India Muslim League, whose campaign for a separate state led to the creation of a separate Pakistan in 1947.

Related Topics:
Quit India - 1942 - 1946 - All-India Muslim League - Pakistan - 1947

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Nehru's major rival as Mahatma Gandhi's successor in Congress was Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Nehru was considered more idealistic than the more pragmatic Patel, who was also popular within Congress; but Gandhi's fondness for Nehru proved decisive in all contests between the two leaders.

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Another of Nehru's political rivals, this time on the Congress left, was Subhas Chandra Bose who championed a military solution against the British. Bose left the Congress after Gandhi opposed his Presidency at the Tripura Session of Congress in 1937; he went on to found the Indian National Army, which has been referred to as the "Forgotten Army" in a famous book of the same title, and, allied with the Japanese, took part in action against colonial British forces in much of Southeast Asia.

Related Topics:
Subhas Chandra Bose - Tripura - Indian National Army

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1947-1964

Nehru served as the prime minister of India for these 18 years consecutively. Nehru died on 27 May, 1964. India's heavy defeat in the war with China, which dimmed his public stature greatly, and affected him greatly both physically and mentally: he felt betrayed by the Chinese, whom he had trusted implicitly and supported in many fora. He died shortly thereafter, having achieved much, yet still - according to a quote from Robert Frost which he had always kept on his office desk - feeling he had so much more left to do. He was laid to rest at the Shantivan.

Related Topics:
27 May - 1964 - War with China - Robert Frost - Shantivan

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