Jawaharlal nehru gandhi biography rajasthani

Prime Minister of India from 1947 to 1964

"Nehru" redirects here. For other uses, see Nehru (disambiguation).

Jawaharlal Nehru^[b] (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat,^[2] and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a principal leader of the Indian nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s. Upon India's independence in 1947, he served as the country's first prime minister for 16 years.^[3] Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation. In international affairs, he steered India clear of the two blocs of the Cold War. A well-regarded author, the books he wrote in prison, such as Letters from a Father to His Daughter (1929), An Autobiography (1936) and The Discovery of India (1946), have been read around the world.

The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and Indian nationalist, Jawaharlal Nehru was educated in England—at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and trained in the law at the Inner Temple. He became a barrister, returned to India, enrolled at the Allahabad High Court and gradually became interested in national politics, which eventually became a full-time occupation. He joined the Indian National Congress, rose to become the leader of a progressive faction during the 1920s, and eventually of the Congress, receiving the support of Mahatma Gandhi, who was to designate Nehru as his political heir. As Congress president in 1929, Nehru called for complete independence from the British Raj.

Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s. Nehru promoted the idea of the secular nation-state in the 1937 provincial elections, allowing the Congress to sweep the elections and form governments in several provinces. In September 1939, the Congress ministries resigned to protest Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's decision to join the war without consulting them. After the All India Congress Committee's Quit India Resolution of 8 August 1942, senior Congress leaders were imprisoned, and for a time, the organisation was suppressed. Nehru, who had reluctantly heeded Gandhi's call for immediate independence, and had desired instead to support the Allied war effort during World War II, came out of a lengthy prison term to a much altered political landscape. Under Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Muslim League had come to dominate Muslim politics in the interim. In the 1946 provincial elections, Congress won the elections, but the League won all the seats reserved for Muslims, which the British interpreted as a clear mandate for Pakistan in some form. Nehru became the interim prime minister of India in September 1946, with the League joining his government with some hesitancy in October 1946.

Upon India's independence on 15 August 1947, Nehru gave a critically acclaimed speech, "Tryst with Destiny"; he was sworn in as the Dominion of India's prime minister and raised the Indian flag at the Red Fort in Delhi. On 26 January 1950, when India became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, Nehru became the Republic of India's first prime minister. He embarked on an ambitious economic, social, and political reform programme. Nehru promoted a pluralistic multi-party democracy. In foreign affairs, he led the establishment the Non-Aligned Movement, a group of nations that did not seek membership in the two main ideological blocs of the Cold War. Under Nehru's leadership, the Congress dominated national and state-level politics and won elections in 1951, 1957 and 1962. He died in office from a heart attack in 1964. His birthday is celebrated as Children's Day in India.^[4]

Early life and career (1889–1912)

Birth and family background

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad in British India. His father, Motilal Nehru (1861–1931), a self-made wealthy barrister who was born into the Kashmiri Pandit community, served twice as president of the Indian National Congress, in 1919 and 1928.^[5][6] His mother, Swarup Rani Thussu (1868–1938), who came from a well-known Kashmiri Pandit family settled in Lahore, was Motilal's second wife, his first having died in childbirth. Jawaharlal was the eldest of three children.^[8] The elder of his two sisters, Vijaya Lakshmi, later became the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly.^[9] His youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing, became a noted writer and authored several books on her brother.^[10][11]

Childhood

Nehru described his childhood as a "sheltered and uneventful one". He grew up in an atmosphere of privilege in wealthy homes, including a palatial estate called the Anand Bhavan. His father had him educated at home by private governesses and tutors. Influenced by the Irish theosophist Ferdinand T. Brooks' teaching,^[13] Nehru became interested in science and theosophy.^[14] A family friend, Annie Besant subsequently initiated him into the Theosophical Society at age thirteen. However, his interest in theosophy did not prove to be enduring, and he left the society shortly after Brooks departed as his tutor. He wrote: "For nearly three years [Brooks] was with me and in many ways, he influenced me greatly".^[14]

Nehru's theosophical interests induced him to study the Buddhist and Hindu scriptures.^[16] According to B. R. Nanda, these scriptures were Nehru's "first introduction to the religious and cultural heritage of [India]....[They] provided Nehru the initial impulse for [his] long intellectual quest which culminated...in The Discovery of India."^[16]

Nehru was educated in English and had a highly Anglicised upbringing, such that he had greater fluency in English than any Indian language, which hindered his confidence in public speaking in the early parts of his career. Despite being aware of the contradictions in representing the non-English-educated "masses" of Indians while himself being immersed in Western culture, he identified himself with their interests as a liberal secularist committed to democracy in contrast to his traditionalist wife and mother.^[17]

Youth

Nehru became an ardent nationalist during his youth.^[18] The Second Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War intensified his feelings. Of the latter he wrote, "[The] Japanese victories [had] stirred up my enthusiasm. ...Nationalistic ideas filled my mind. ... I mused of Indian freedom and Asiatic freedom from the thraldom of Europe."^[14] Later, in 1905, when he had begun his institutional schooling at Harrow, a leading school in England where he was nicknamed "Joe",^[19]G. M. Trevelyan's Garibaldi books, which he had received as prizes for academic merit, influenced him greatly. He viewed Garibaldi as a revolutionary hero. He wrote: "Visions of similar deeds in India came before, of [my] gallant fight for [Indian] freedom and in my mind, India and Italy got strangely mixed together."^[14]

Graduation

Nehru went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1907 and graduated with an honours degree in natural science in 1910. During this period, he studied politics, economics, history and literature with interest. The writings of Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, Lowes Dickinson and Meredith Townsend moulded much of his political and economic thinking.^[14]

After completing his degree in 1910, Nehru moved to London and studied law at the Inner Temple (one of the four Inns of Court to which English barristers must belong).^[22] During this time, he continued to study Fabian Society scholars including Beatrice Webb.^[14] He was called to the Bar in 1912.^[22]

Legal practice

After returning to India in August 1912, Nehru enrolled at the Allahabad High Court and tried to settle down as a barrister. His father was one of the wealthiest barristers in British India, with a monthly income exceeding Rs. 10,000 (£850).^[24][25][26] Although Nehru was expected to inherit the family's lucrative practice,^[27] he had little interest in his profession, and relished neither the practice of law nor the company of lawyers. His involvement in nationalist politics was to gradually replace his legal practice. In 1945-46, he was a member of the INA Defence Committee during the INA Trials, putting on a barrister's gown and appearing in court after over twenty-five years.

Nationalist movement (1912–1939)

Civil rights and home rule: 1912–1919

Nehru's father, Motilal, was an important moderate leader of the Indian National Congress. The moderates believed British rule was modernising, and sought reform and more participation in government in cooperation with British authorities.^[29] However, Nehru sympathised with the Congress radicals, who promoted Swaraj, Swadesh, and boycott. The two factions had split in 1907. After returning to India in 1912, Nehru attended the annual session of the Congress at Patna. The Congress was then considered a party of moderates and elites dominated by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and Nehru was disconcerted by what he saw as "very much an English-knowing upper-class affair". However, Nehru agreed to raise funds for the ongoing Indian civil rights movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa. In 1916, Nehru married Kamala Kaul, who came from a Kashmiri Pandit family settled in Delhi.^[34] Their only daughter, Indira, was born in 1917. Kamala gave birth to a son in 1924, but the baby lived for only a few days.^[35]

The influence of moderates declined after Gokhale died in 1915. Several nationalist leaders banded together in 1916 under the leadership of Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak to voice a demand for Swaraj or self-governance. Besant and Tilak formed separate Home Rule Leagues. Nehru joined both groups, but he worked primarily with Besant, with whom he had a very close relationship since childhood. He became the secretary of Besant's Home Rule League.^[37] In June 1917, the British government arrested Besant. The Congress and other organisations threatened to launch protests if she was not freed. The government was forced to release Besant in September, but the protestors successfully negotiated further concessions.

Non-cooperation and afterwards: 1919–1929

Nehru met Gandhi for the first time in 1916 at the Lucknow session of the Congress, but he had been then dissuaded by his father from being drawn into Gandhi's satyagraha politics.^[39] 1919 marked the beginning of a strong wave of nationalist activity and subsequent government repression that included the Jallianwala Bagh killings. Motilal Nehru lost his belief in constitutional reform, and joined his son in accepting Gandhi's methods and paramount leadership of the Congress.^[40] In December 1919, Nehru's father was elected president of the Indian National Congress in what is regarded as "the first Gandhi Congress". During the non-cooperation movement launched by Gandhi in 1920, Nehru played an influential role in directing political activities in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) as provincial Congress secretary.^[42] He was imprisoned on 6 December 1921 on charges of anti-governmental activities,^[43] marking the first of eight periods of detention between 1921-1945, lasting over nine years in all. In 1923, Nehru was imprisoned in Nabha, a princely state, when he went there to see the struggle that was being waged by the Sikhs against the corrupt Mahants. He was released after his sentence was unconditonally suspended by the British administration under the criminal procedure code. By 1923, Nehru had emerged as a national figure of some stature. He was elected general secretary of the Congress,^[45] president of the United Provinces Congress,^[46] and mayor of Allahabad all in the same year.^[42]

The non-cooperation movement was halted in 1922 as a result of the Chauri Chaura incident.^[47] Nehru's two-year term as general secretary ended after 1925,^[45] and earlier that year he resigned as mayor of Allahabad due to his disillusionment with municipal politics.^[48] In 1926, Nehru left for Europe with his wife and daughter to seek treatment for his wife's tuberculosis diagnosis.^[49] While in Europe, he was invited to attend the Congress of oppressed nationalities in Brussels, Belgium.^[50] The meeting was called to coordinate and plan a common struggle against imperialism. Nehru represented India and was elected to the Executive Council of the League against Imperialism which was born at this meeting.^[51] He made a statement in favour of complete independence for India.^[52] Nehru's stay in Europe included a visit to the Soviet Union, which sparked his interest in Marxism and socialism. Appealed by its ideas but repelled by some of its tactics, he never completely agreed with Karl Marx's ideas. However, from that time on, the benchmark of his economic view remained Marxist, adapted, where necessary, to Indian circumstances.^[53] After returning to India in December 1927, Nehru was elected to another two-year term as Congress general secretary.^[54]

Declaration of independence

Nehru was one of the first leaders to demand that the Congress Party should resolve to make a complete and explicit break from all ties with the British Empire. The Madras session of Congress in 1927, approved his resolution for independence despite Gandhi's criticism. At that time, he formed the Independence for India League, a pressure group within the Congress.^[55][56] In 1928, Gandhi agreed to Nehru's demands and proposed a resolution that called for the British to grant Dominion status to India within two years.^[57] If the British failed to meet the deadline, the Congress would call upon all Indians to fight for complete independence. Nehru was one of the leaders who objected to the time given to the British—he pressed Gandhi to demand immediate actions from the British. Gandhi brokered a further compromise by reducing the time given from two years to one.^[56] The British rejected demands for Dominion status in 1929.^[56] Nehru assumed the presidency of the Congress party during the Lahore session on 29 December 1929 and introduced a successful resolution calling for complete independence.^[56][58] Nehru drafted the Indian Declaration of Independence, which stated:

We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities for growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it. The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually. We believe, therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence.^[59]

At midnight on New Year's Eve 1929, Nehru hoisted the tricolourflag of India upon the banks of the Ravi in Lahore.^[60] A pledge of independence was read out, which included a readiness to withhold taxes. The massive gathering of the public attending the ceremony was asked if they agreed with it, and the majority of people were witnessed raising their hands in approval. 172 Indian members of central and provincial legislatures resigned in support of the resolution and in accordance with Indian public sentiment. The Congress asked the people of India to observe 26 January as Independence Day.^[61] Congress volunteers, nationalists, and the public hoisted the flag of India publicly across India. Plans for mass civil disobedience were also underway.^[62]

After the Lahore session of the Congress in 1929, Nehru gradually emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi stepped back into a more spiritual role. Although Gandhi did not explicitly designate Nehru as his political heir until 1942, as early as the mid-1930s, the country saw Nehru as the natural successor to Gandhi.^[63] In 1929, Nehru had already drafted the "Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy" resolution that set the government agenda for an independent India.^[64] The resolution was ratified in 1931 at the Karachi session chaired by Vallabhbhai Patel.^[65]

Salt March: 1930

Nehru and most of the Congress leaders were ambivalent initially about Gandhi's plan to begin civil disobedience with a satyagraha aimed at the British salt tax. After the protest had gathered steam, they realised the power of salt as a symbol. Nehru remarked about the unprecedented popular response, "It seemed as though a spring had been suddenly released".^[66] He was arrested on 14 April 1930 while on a train from Allahabad to Raipur. Earlier, after addressing a huge meeting and leading a vast procession, he had ceremoniously manufactured some contraband salt. He was charged with breach of the salt law and sentenced to six months of imprisonment at Central Jail.^[67][68]

He nominated Gandhi to succeed him as the Congress president during his absence in jail, but Gandhi declined, and Nehru nominated his father as his successor. With Nehru's arrest, the civil disobedience acquired a new tempo, and arrests, firing on crowds and lathi charges grew to be ordinary occurrences.

Salt satyagraha success

The salt satyagraha ("pressure for reform through passive resistance") succeeded in attracting world attention. Indian, British, and world opinion increasingly recognised the legitimacy of the claims by the Congress party for independence. Nehru considered the salt satyagraha the high-water mark of his association with Gandhi,^[71] and felt its lasting importance was in changing the attitudes of Indians:^[72]

Of course these movements exercised tremendous pressure on the British Government and shook the government machinery. But the real importance, to my mind, lay in the effect they had on our own people, and especially the village masses. ... Non-cooperation dragged them out of the mire and gave them self-respect and self-reliance. ... They acted courageously and did not submit so easily to unjust oppression; their outlook widened and they began to think a little in terms of India as a whole. ... It was a remarkable transformation and the Congress, under Gandhi's leadership, must have the credit for it.

In prison 1930–1935

On 11 October 1930, Nehru's detention ended, but he was back in jail in less than ten days for resuming the presidency of the banned Congress. On 26 January 1931, Nehru and other prisoners were released early by Lord Irwin, who was negotiating with Gandhi. His father died on 6 February 1931. Nehru was back in jail on 26 December 1931 after violating court orders not to leave Allahabad while leading a "no-rent" campaign to alleviate peasant distress. On 30 August 1933, Nehru was released from prison, but the government soon moved to detain him again. On 22 December 1933, the Home Secretary sent a memo to all local governments in India:

The Government of India regard him [Nehru] as by far the most dangerous element at large in India, and their view is that the time has come, in accordance with their general policy of taking steps at an early stage to prevent attempts to work up mass agitation, to take action against him.

He was arrested in Allahabad on 12 January 1934. In August 1934, he was briefly released for eleven days to attend to his wife's ailing health. In October, he was allowed to see her again, but he turned down an early release conditional on withdrawing from politics for the duration of his sentence.

In September 1935, Nehru's wife, Kamala, became terminally ill while receiving medical treatment in Badenweiler, Germany. Nehru was released from prison early on compassionate grounds, and moved his wife to a sanatorium in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she died on 28 February 1936. While in Europe, Nehru learned that he was elected as Congress president for the coming year. He returned to India in March 1936 and led the Congress response to the Government of India Act 1935. He condemned the Act as a "new charter of bondage" and a "machine with strong brakes but no engine".^[80][81] He initially wanted to boycott the 1937 provincial elections, but agreed to lead the election campaign after receiving vague assurances about abstentionism from the party leaders who wished to contest. Nehru hoped to treat the election campaign as a mass outreach programme.^[83]

During the campaign, Nehru was elected to another term as Congress president. The election manifesto, drafted largely by Nehru, attacked both the Act and the Communal Award that went with it. He campaigned against the Muslim League, and argued that Muslims could not be regarded as a separate nation. The Congress won most general seats, and the Muslim League fared poorly with Muslim electorates.^[85] After the elections, Nehru drafted a resolution against taking office, but there were many Congress leaders who wanted to assume power under the 1935 Act. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) under Gandhi passed a compromise resolution that authorised office acceptance, but reiterated that the fundamental objective of the Congress was the destruction of the 1935 Act.

Nehru was more popular than before with the public, but he found himself isolated at the CWC meetings due to the anti-socialist orientation of its membership. Gandhi had to personally intervene when a group of CWC members and Nehru threatened to resign and counter-resign their posts over disagreements. He became discontented with his role, especially after the death of his mother in January 1938. In February 1938, he did not stand for re-election as president, and was succeeded by Subash Chandra Bose. He left for Europe in June, stopping on the way at Alexandria, Egypt. While in Europe, Nehru became very concerned with the possibility of another world war.^[89] At that time, he emphasised that, in the event of war, India's place was alongside the democracies, though he insisted India could only fight in support of Great Britain and France as a free country.^[90]