Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

  Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of the independent India, who established parliamentary government and became noted for his ‘neutralist’ policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s Independence movement, in the 1930s and 1940s. Nehru is admired as a leader of the freedom struggle, as the founding father of the institutional democracy in India and as the architect of India’s policy, in all its manifestations, being the longest serving Prime Minister of India (1947-1964).

  Nehru came of a family of Kashmiri Brahmins, noted for their administrative aptitude and scholarship. He was born on November 14, 1889 at Allahabad, United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). He was the son of Motilal Nehru, a renowned lawyer and one of Mahatma Gandhi’s prominent lieutenants. Jawaharlal Nehru was the eldest of four children. Until the age of 16, Nehru was educated at home, by a series of English governesses and tutors. He also had venerable Indian tutor who taught him Hindi and Sanskrit. In 1905, he went to Harrow, a leading English school, where he stayed for two years. Nehru’s academic career was in no way outstanding. From Harrow he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he spent three years, earning an honours degree in Natural Science. On leaving Cambridge, he qualified as a barrister, after two years at the Inner Temple, London. Four years after his return to India, in March 1916, Nehru married Kamala Kaul, who came from a Kashmiri family settled in Delhi. Their only child, Indira Priyadarshini was born in 1917.

  On his first return to India, Nehru at first tried to settle down as a lawyer. But he had only a desultory interest in his profession and did not relish either the practice of law, or the company of lawyers. At this time, he was like an intensive nationalist, who yearned for his country’s freedom, but had not formulated any precise ideas on how it could be achieved. He was attracted by Gandhi’s insistence on fighting Great Britain, without fear or hate. Nehru met Gandhi for the first time in 1916, at the annual meeting of the Indian National Congress in Lucknow. Since then, he continuously assisted Gandhiji in various movements, which he launched during the freedom struggle. Nehru was imprisoned for six months, for organising the Non-Co-Operations Movement at Allahabad. The authorities thereafter, often put Jawaharlal in prison, between 1921 and 1945, in connection with many of the country’s political battles for independence. Characteristically, he described his terms of incarceration, as normal interludes in a life of abnormal political activity.

   In 1923, Jawaharlal Nehru was elected the President of Allahabad Municipality. In the same year, he also became the secretary of the Indian National Congress, a position he occupied intermittently for several years. A participant in the Congress of Oppressed Nationalities at Brussels in 1927, he was elected a member of its executive Board. The following year, he led the Anti-Simon Commission demonstration at Lucknow. Already, an idol of the masses and leader with pronounced socialist ideas, he was elected President of the All India Trade Union Congress in 1929. In 1929, presided over the historic Lahore session of the Indian National Congress and proclaimed complete independence, as India’s political goal. Until then, the objective had been Dominion Status. After the Lahore session of 1929, Nehru emerged as the leader of the intellectuals and youth of the country. After his father’s death in 1931, Jawaharlal moved into the inner circles of the Congress Party and became closer to Mahatma. Although Gandhiji did not officially designate him as his political heir until 1942, the country as early as mid-1930s saw in Nehru the natural successor to Gandhiji. In 1931 when the congress met at Karachi, Nehru introduced and carried the resolution on Fundamental Rights and a radical economic policy.

   Forming the Interim Government of 1946-47, Jawaharlal led the final negotiations for the transfer of power in India. On August 15, 1947, he became the first Prime Minister of independent India, an office which he held for about 17 years, till his death in 1964. As the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru was confronted with the problems of a partitioned sub-continent. Jawaharlal guided his people safely through a period of transition. The work of consolidation was also carried out under his dynamic leadership. A distinguished thinker, author and a visionary, he set before the country the ideals of democracy, secularism and socialism. His government revived the Panchayats, reorganised the states on linguistic lines, abolished zamindari and advocated land reforms. Presiding over the Planning Commission and the National Development Council, Nehru initiated the planned development of India and a stride towards industrialisation.

  Nehru imported and imparted modern values and ways of thinking, which he adapted to Indian conditions. Apart from his stress on secularism and on the basic unity of India, despite its racial and religious diversities, Nehru was deeply concerned with carrying India forward, into the modern age of scientific discovery and technological development. In addition, he aroused in his people an awareness of the necessity of social concern with the poor and the outcast and of respect for democratic values. One of the achievements of which he was particularly proud was the reform of the ancient Hindu civil code that finally enabled Hindu widows, to enjoy equality with men in matters of inheritance and property. In India’s foreign relations, he evolved, in a world divided by the Cold War, the policy of Non-alignment. The Non-alignment movement was founded by Nehru together with Colonel Nasser of Egypt and Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia, in 1961. A widely travelled statesman, Nehru was an anti-colonialist who supported the freedom of African countries.

    An internationalist, Nehru associated India in the various activities of the United Nations Organisation. He always retained his faith, in spite of the shock of Chinese attack in 1962, in conducting India’s relations with her neighbours on the basis of the Panchasheel.

  Nehru was a man of letters. His famous books are ‘An Autobiography’, ‘Glimpses of World History’ and ‘Discovery of India’. Nehru passed away on May 27, 1964. Nehru loved children a great deal. He was popular as ‘Chacha Nehru’ among children. His birthday is celebrated as ‘Children’s Day’ every year in India. Jawaharlal Nehru played the decisive and over-arching role in Indian history in the 20^th century. Nehru, undoubtedly, remains the most important architect of the independent India.

    Interesting Facts about Jawaharlal Nehru

1. Nehru was the child of second wife Swarooprani Thussu of his father Motilal Nehru. Motilal's first wife died during delivering baby. He has two younger sisters. When he was 16yrs Nehru got a younger brother Ratanlal, but baby died only at 20 days.

2. At the age of 26, Nehru married a 16 years of age Kashmiri Brahmin girl named Kamala Kaul (1899-1936). Her father was a reputed businessman in Old Delhi. Rajpati and Jawaharmal Kaul were the name of her guardians. The marriage occurred on the seventh of February 1916. She died from tuberculosis in Lausanne, Switzerland on 28 February 1936.

3. Nehru's name was linked with many women including Edwina Mountbatten, Padmaja (Sarojini Naidu's daughter), Devikarani (the film actress). Nehru was at Nainital and was a guest of Sir Homi Modi (Rusi Modi's father). Rusi Modi once went to remind Nehru for dinner and found Nehru and Edwina in each other’s arms.

4. Nehru wrote famous books like "The Discovery of India", "Glimpses of world history", "Toward Freedom" and "Letters from a Father to his daughter".

5. Nehru's dress were stitched by tailor named Mohammed Umer. His shop was burnt in riots. Nehru helped him to build it again.

6. Astrologer named Haveliram Joshi had done right predictions like defeat from China and that he will die on 27 May 1964

7. His original title was "Kaul" not Nehru (as per family tradition). In fact Nehru isn't any traditional title at all but a nickname given to his ancestor "Raj Kaul" by Mughals because their residence belong to "Nahar" or Canal.

From Nehru himself:

"We were Kashmiris. Over two hundred years ago, early in the eighteenth century, our ancestor came down from that mountain valley to seek fame and fortune in the rich plains below. Those were the days of the decline of the Mughal Empire after the death of Aurangazeb and Farrukhsiyar was the Mughal Emperor. Raj Kaul was the name of that ancestor of ours and he had gained eminence as a Sanskrit and Persian scholar in Kashmir. He attracted the notice of Farrukhsiar during the latter's visit to Kashmir, and, probably at the Emperor's instance, the family migrated to Delhi, the imperial capital, about the year 1716. A jagir with a house situated on the banks of a canal had been granted to Raj Kaul, and, from the fact of this residence, 'Nehru' (from Nahar, a canal) came to be attached to his name. Kaul had been the family name; this changed to Kaul-Nehru; and, in later years, Kaul dropped out and we became simply Nehrus."

Interestingly his daughter Indira Gandhi also inherited wrong family title "Gandhi", instead of Khan or Nehru, due to her inter-religious marriage.