Pundit
Jawaharlal Nehru
(1st
Prime Minister of India)
Birth-14 Nov 1889, Prayagraj
Death- 27 May 1964
Pt.
Jawaharlal Nehru was the 1st Prime minister of independent India in 1947.
EARLY LIFE
The
son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and Indian nationalist. Jawaharlal
Nehru was born in Allahabad, his family was originally from Kashmir. He was
educated in England, at Harrow School, and then at Trinity College, Cambridge.
He studied law at the Inner Temple in London. He returned to India in 1912 and
practiced law for some years. However, his career in law was
short-lived and he soon got extensively involved in the independence
movement. In 1916, he married Kamala Kaul and the following year they had
a daughter, Indira Gandhi.
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.
POLITICAL CAREER
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 organized 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.
The
Congress elected Nehru 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 declared Nehru as his political heir and successor. As Prime
Minister, he set out to realize 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.
On 15 August 1947, Nehru became the
first prime minister of independent India. He held the post until his death in
1964. He implemented moderate socialist economic reforms and committed India to
a policy of industrialisation.
Nehru also served as foreign minister of India. In October 1947,
he faced conflict with Pakistan over the state of Kashmir, which was disputed
at independence. Nehru sent troops into the state to support India's claim. A
United Nations ceasefire was negotiated, but Kashmir remains deeply unstable to
this day.
Against the background of the Cold War, Nehru developed a policy
of 'positive neutrality' for India. He became one of the key spokesmen for the
non-aligned countries of Africa and Asia, many of which were former colonies
that wanted to avoid dependence on any major power.
Despite efforts at cooperation by both countries, Indian-Chinese
border disputes escalated into war in 1962 and Indian forces were decisively
beaten. This had a significant impact on Nehru's declining health. He died on
27 May 1964.
Two years later Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister.
With an interruption of only three years, she held the post until her
assassination in 1984. Her son Rajiv was prime minister of India from 1984 to
1989, but he too was assassinated.
Baal divas (children’s day)
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.
