Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was the first, and has been the longest-serving prime minister of India so far, having served from 1947 to 1964. A leading figure in the Indian independence movement, Nehru was elected by the Congress party to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister, and later when the Congress won India's first general election in 1952. As one of the founders of the Non-aligned Movement, he was also an important figure in the international politics of the post-war era. He is referred to as Pandit Nehru ("pandit," Sanskrit, "scholar", as honorific) and in India, as Panditji (-ji, honorific suffix).
The son of a wealthy Indian barrister and politician, Motilal Nehru, Nehru became a leader of the left wing of the Indian National Congress when still fairly young. Rising to become Congress President, under the mentorship of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru was a charismatic and radical leader, advocating complete independence from the British Empire. In the long struggle for Indian independence, in which he was a key player, Nehru was eventually recognized as Gandhi's political heir. A life-long liberal, Nehru was also an advocate for Fabian socialism and the public sector as the means by which long-standing challenges of economic development could be addressed by poorer nations.
To Nehru was given the singular honour of raising the flag of independent India in New Delhi on 15 August 1947, when India gained Independence. Nehru's appreciation of the virtues of parliamentary democracy, secularism and liberalism coupled with concerns for the poor and underprivileged are recognised to have guided him in formulating policies that influence India to this day. They also reflect the socialist origins of his worldview. As prime minister and as Congress' leader Nehru pushed through India's Parliament, which was dominated by members of his own party, a series of legal reforms intended to emancipate Hindu women and bring equality. These reforms included raising the minimum marriageable age from twelve to fifteen, empowering women to divorce their husbands and inherit property, and declaring illegal the ruinous dowry system. His long tenure was instrumental in shaping the traditions and structures of independent India. He is sometimes referred to as the 'Architect of Modern India'. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, and grandson, Rajiv Gandhi, also served as Prime Ministers of India.
BIOGRAPHY
Nehru was born the eldest child of Swarup Rani and the wealthy barrister Motilal Nehru in the city of Allahabad, now in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The Nehru family came of Kashmiri Brahmin stock . Motilal had moved to Allahabad many years before and developed a successful legal practice. He was also an active member of the fledgling Indian national movement led by the Indian National Congress. Nehru and his two sisters—Vijaya Lakshmi and Krishna— were brought up in a large mansion, Anand Bhavan, and were raised predominantly in the English custom, then thought necessary by the Indian elite. They were also taught Hindi, Sanskrit and given a grounding in the Indian classics.
Motilal Nehru wished his son to qualify for the Indian Civil Service, and duly sent young Jawaharlal to Harrow in England. Jawaharlal apparently did not enjoy his schooling at Harrow, finding the school syllabus stifling and the residency conditions far removed from home and quite unbearable. Nevertheless, after completing school, Nehru took the Cambridge entrance examinations in 1907 and went up to Trinity College, to study natural sciences. Jawaharlal stood second in his Tripos and graduated in 1910. The famously liberal atmosphere of the University also encouraged him to participate in a host of extra-curricular activities and has been noted as having been a key influence on his general outlook. He then enrolled at the Inner Temple for his legal studies in October 1910. This decision, as with studying at Harrow and Cambridge, was not apparently taken due to any fascination with the law on the part of Jawaharlal, but apparently at the behest of his father. Jawaharlal Nehru passed the final examination in 1912 and was called to the Bar later that year at the Inner Temple. He returned to India soon after to set up a legal practice.
However, politics soon occupied him, particularly the Congress-led struggle for Indian independence. After the British massacre of protesters in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar in 1919, an outraged Nehru devoted all his energies to the freedom movement. Although initially sceptical of his son's political views, Motilal Nehru too joined the latest Congress efforts in pursuit of Indian independence.[5] Nehru rapidly rose to became Gandhi's trusted lieutenant. His protests, though strictly non-violent, would land him in jail for a total of nine years over the course of his life. During his time in prison Nehru wrote "Glimpses of World History" (1934), his "Autobiography" (1936), and "The Discovery of India" (1946). These works earned him some distinction as a writer, in addition to his growing reputation in the indian independence movement. Under Gandhi's direction, Nehru led the Indian National Congress for the first time in 1929, at the Lahore session. He was again elected to the Congress presidency in 1936, 1937, and finally in 1946, at which point his political prestige in the independence movement may have been regarded as second to none but Gandhi.
He was married to Kamala Kaul, also a Kashmiri brahmin, on February 8, 1916. They had one daughter, Indira Priyadarshini, later Indira Gandhi. Kamala Nehru was also an active participant in the Independence movement but died in 1936 of tuberculosis. Nehru would remain single for the rest of his life. Rumours would, however, later link him to Edwina Mountbatten, Vicerine of India from 1946. In later life he would come to depend greatly on his daughter and sister, Vijaylakshmi Pandit.
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