Nehru
ACHIEVEMENTS: First Prime Minister of independent India
NICKNAME/ALIAS: Pandit (Hindi for "teacher")
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: November 14, 1889, Allahabad, India
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: May 27, 1964, New Delhi, India. Aged 74
DISCIPLINE: Politician
FIELD: Politics
LANGUAGE: Hindi, English
PARENTS: Motilal Nehru; Swarup Rani ain Allahabad
SIBLINGS: Three, of whom: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (first woman president of the UN General Assembly)
SPOUSE: Kamala Kaul
CHILDREN: Indira (became Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India)
EDUCATION: Tutored at home; Harrow School, England; Cambridge University, England; Inner Temple law school, London
MAJOR WORK: None
LIFE AND TIMES:
Nehru's father, a well-known lawyer, was a leading supporter of Gandhi*. Born into the elite Brahmin caste, Nehru was taught by private tutors, one of whom was recommended by Annie Besant*, the theosophist.
At 16, Nehru was sent to England, where he studied natural science at Cambridge University and then law in London. A qualified lawyer, he returned to India in 1912 at 23. In 1920, he joined Gandhi's Non-Co-operation Movement and the Congress Party. Nehru had met Gandhi at the Indian National Congress conference in Lucknow, and was impressed by the practicality of his vision.
In 1921, in "The Independent", a newspaper he had started with his father, Nehru urged a boycott of the visit of the Prince of Wales to India and was sent to prison.
From 1923-25, Nehru traveled widely through India and was shocked at the extreme poverty. In 1926-27, he toured Europe and the Soviet Union where he was exposed to Karl Marx’s* thought, and though he never became a committed Marxist, the ideology affected his economic philosophy.
In 1929, he was elected Congress President, backed by Gandhi, who hoped the 40-year-old Nehru would attract young socialist-minded Indians who might otherwise have joined extreme left-wing organizations. Gandhi also knew the presidency would keep Nehru associated with less radical politicians. Soon after he became President, the Congress Party declared its goal was to attain absolute independence for India.
In 1932, Nehru was sent to prison for two years for taking part in Gandhi's peaceful civil disobedience campaigns. In 1935, the Government of India Act gave the Indian provinces a measure of autonomous government. In the following elections, Nehru played a major part in his party's refusal to share power with the Muslim League under Mohammed Ali Jinnah. By the mid-30s, it was clear Nehru would be Gandhi's successor.
In 1936, Nehru made another trip to Europe, where he noted with alarm the rapid rise of National Socialism under Adolf Hitler and the spread of Fascism. He spurned any association with Germany and declared that India would ally herself only with the democracies in France and Britain, but only when India became a sovereign nation. When Britain declared war against Germany in 1939, the viceroy committed India to fight for Britain without consulting the provincial ministries.
In protest, the Congress Party withdrew from government in the provinces (leaving a political vacuum that the Muslim League was quick to fill.) Unlike Gandhi, Nehru believed that Fascism must be fought on the battlefield, but that India should commit herself to the fight only as a free nation. In 1940, Nehru was imprisoned for another year for continuing to take part in civil disobedience campaigns.
In 1942, the Japanese, having advanced through Burma, were on India's borders. Needing to depend on Indian stability, British Prime Minister Churchill*, sent Sir Stafford Cripps to meet Indian leaders. Cripps got on well with both Nehru and Jinnah but the negotiations faltered because Gandhi would accept nothing less than total independence. In August, 1942, the Congress Party in Bombay passed the "Quit India" resolution. Nehru and Gandhi were imprisoned, Nehru until June, 1945.
After the Second World War, the new Labour administration in Britain sent a delegation to negotiate with the Congress Party and the Muslim league, and also appointed a new viceroy, Lord Mountbatten. Gandhi would not consider partitioning the country, but Nehru was more realistic and reluctantly accepted the creation of Muslim Pakistan. Nehru became the first prime minister of independent India on August 15, 1947, and set out to modernize his country with scientific research institutes and laboratories.
He rebuilt and expanded the railway system. He opened factories and ordered the building of the Bhakra-Nangal dam. He became chairman of the Planning Commission (1950), aimed at achieving Indian self-sufficiency in food and industry. In 1952, after receiving overwhelming support in the first general election, Nehru initiated the Community Development Projects, which installed self-government in the villages.
Nehru's popularity and authority were crucial in maintaining internal stability in the face of Sikh separatism, Pakistani incursions into Kashmir, and the influx of Hindus from Pakistan.
Though Pakistan had declared itself a Muslim state, Nehru was determined India should be a secular state that embraced all faiths. Against strong opposition, he reformed the Hindu civil code, giving equal property and inheritance rights to women.
Nehru's foreign policy was driven by anti-colonialism. Portugal still ruled Goa, and when Nehru allowed a group of unarmed Indians to enter the colony in 1955, the Portuguese opened fire. Nehru appealed to the west to put pressure on Portugal. Eventually, his anti-colonialism policy was replaced by a doctrine of non-alignment with either the Western powers or the Communist bloc.
He attended a Non-Aligned Conference at Brioni, Yugoslavia in 1956 with Tito* of Yugoslavia and President Nasser*of Egypt, and in the same year was the only non-aligned representative to vote with the Soviets in the UN after they invaded Hungary.
In 1961, he sent Indian troops to take Goa. When a long-running border dispute with China threatened India's security in 1962, Nehru asked the West for help.
ASSESSMENT: Began the modernization of India and opened a debate about social justice in India
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: He knew the Webb*’s
ONELINER: Nehru, first Prime Minister of independent India
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Gopal, Sarvepalli, Jawaharlal Nehru, A Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989