140 Facts About Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, statesman and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century.

Jawaharlal Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation.

Jawaharlal Nehru became a barrister, returned to India, and enrolled at the Allahabad High Court but never got truly interested in the legal profession.

Jawaharlal Nehru 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.

Jawaharlal Nehru promoted the idea of the secular nation-state in the 1937 Indian provincial elections, allowing the Congress to sweep the elections, and form governments in several provinces.

Jawaharlal Nehru became the interim prime minister of India in September 1946, with the League joining his government with some hesitancy in October 1946.

On 26 January 1950, when India became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Republic of India's first prime minister.

Jawaharlal Nehru embarked on an ambitious program of economic, social, and political reforms.

Widely recognized as the greatest figure of modern India after Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru is hailed as the "architect of Modern India", for his contributions in nation building, securing democracy, and preventing an ethnic civil war.

Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday is celebrated as Children's Day in India.

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad in British India.

Jawaharlal Nehru described his childhood as a "sheltered and uneventful one".

Jawaharlal Nehru grew up in an atmosphere of privilege in wealthy homes, including a palatial estate called the Anand Bhavan.

Jawaharlal Nehru's father had him educated at home by private governesses and tutors.

Jawaharlal Nehru wrote: "For nearly three years [Brooks] was with me and in many ways, he influenced me greatly".

Jawaharlal Nehru went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1907 and graduated with an honours degree in natural science in 1910.

Jawaharlal Nehru had developed an interest in Indian politics during his time in Britain as a student and a barrister.

Jawaharlal Nehru doubted the effectiveness of Congress but agreed to work for the party in support of the Indian civil rights movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa, collecting funds for the movement in 1913.

Jawaharlal Nehru spoke out against the censorship acts passed by the British government in India.

Jawaharlal Nehru emerged from the war years as a leader whose political views were considered radical.

Jawaharlal Nehru ridiculed the Indian Civil Service for supporting British policies.

Jawaharlal Nehru noted someone had once defined the Indian Civil Service, "with which we are unfortunately still afflicted in this country, as neither Indian, nor civil, nor a service".

Jawaharlal Nehru was dissatisfied with the pace of the national movement.

Jawaharlal Nehru became involved with aggressive nationalists leaders demanding Home Rule for Indians.

Jawaharlal Nehru joined both leagues, but worked primarily for the former.

Jawaharlal Nehru welcomed and encouraged the rapprochement between the two Indian communities.

Jawaharlal Nehru joined the movement and rose to become secretary of Besant's Home Rule League.

Jawaharlal Nehru led the movement in the United Provinces.

Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested on charges of anti-governmental activities in 1921 and released a few months later.

In 1923, Jawaharlal 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.

Jawaharlal Nehru played a leading role in the development of the internationalist outlook of the Indian independence struggle.

Jawaharlal Nehru sought foreign allies for India and forged links with movements for independence and democracy around the world.

Jawaharlal Nehru represented India and was elected to the Executive Council of the League against Imperialism which was born at this meeting.

Increasingly, Jawaharlal Nehru saw the struggle for independence from British imperialism as a multinational effort by the various colonies and dominions of the Empire; some of his statements on this matter were interpreted as complicity with the rise of Hitler and his espoused intentions.

Jawaharlal Nehru drafted the policies of the Congress and a future Indian nation in 1929.

Jawaharlal 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.

Jawaharlal 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.

At midnight on New Year's Eve 1929, Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the tricolour flag of India upon the banks of the Ravi in Lahore.

Jawaharlal Nehru remarked about the unprecedented popular response, "It seemed as though a spring had been suddenly released".

Jawaharlal Nehru was charged with breach of the salt law and sentenced to six months of imprisonment at Central Jail.

Jawaharlal Nehru 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.

Jawaharlal Nehru considered the salt satyagraha the high-water mark of his association with Gandhi, and felt its lasting importance was in changing the attitudes of Indians:.

Jawaharlal Nehru spent the early months of 1936 in Switzerland visiting his ailing wife in Lausanne, where she died in March.

Since the Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah had fared badly at the polls, Jawaharlal Nehru declared that the only two parties that mattered in India were the British colonial authorities and the Congress.

Jawaharlal Nehru had hoped to elevate Maulana Azad as the preeminent leader of Indian Muslims, but Gandhi, who continued to treat Jinnah as the voice of Indian Muslims, undermined him in this.

Jawaharlal Nehru had the support of left-wing Congressmen Maulana Azad and Subhas Chandra Bose.

Jawaharlal Nehru was elected in his place and held the presidency for two years.

Jawaharlal Nehru worked closely with Bose in developing good relations with governments of free countries all over the world.

Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the first nationalist leaders to realise the sufferings of the people in the states ruled by Indian princes.

Jawaharlal Nehru helped to make the struggle of the people in the princely states a part of the nationalist movement for independence.

Jawaharlal Nehru was given the responsibility of planning the economy of a future India and appointed the National Planning Commission in 1938 to help frame such policies.

The All India States Peoples Conference was formed in 1927 and Jawaharlal Nehru, who had supported the cause of the people of the princely states for many years, was made the organisation's president in 1939.

Jawaharlal Nehru opened up its ranks to membership from across the political spectrum.

When Jawaharlal Nehru presented Lord Linlithgow with these demands, he chose to reject them.

In October 1940, Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, abandoning their original stand of supporting Britain, decided to launch a limited civil disobedience campaign in which leading advocates of Indian independence were selected to participate one by one.

We had differences from the time we became co-workers and yet I have said for some years and say so now that not Rajaji but Jawaharlal Nehru will be my successor.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill dispatched Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the War Cabinet who was known to be politically close to Jawaharlal Nehru and knew Jinnah, with proposals for a settlement of the constitutional problem.

Jawaharlal Nehru's prestige was restored unwittingly by Gandhi, who had been released from prison on medical grounds in May 1944 and had met Jinnah in Bombay in September.

Jawaharlal Nehru served as prime minister for 18 years, initially as the interim prime minister, then from 1947 as the prime minister of the Dominion of India and then from 1950 as the prime minister of the Republic of India.

In July 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state could prevail militarily against the army of independent India.

In 1963, Jawaharlal Nehru brought in legislation making it illegal to demand secession and introduced the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution which makes it necessary for those running for office to take an oath that says "I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India".

Jawaharlal Nehru, while being the prime minister, was elected the president of Congress for 1951 and 1952.

In December 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the States Reorganisation Commission to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines.

Jawaharlal Nehru stressed commonality among Indians and promoted pan-Indianism, refusing to reorganise states on either religious or ethnic lines.

In 1962, Jawaharlal Nehru led the Congress to victory with a diminished majority.

From 1959, in a process that accelerated in 1961, Jawaharlal Nehru adopted the "Forward Policy" of setting up military outposts in disputed areas of the Sino-Indian border, including 43 outposts in territory not previously controlled by India.

The war exposed the unpreparedness of India's military, which could send only 14,000 troops to the war zone in opposition to the much larger Chinese Army, and Jawaharlal Nehru was widely criticised for his government's insufficient attention to defence.

Jawaharlal Nehru would continue to maintain his commitment to the non-aligned movement, despite calls from some to settle down on one permanent ally.

The aftermath of the war saw sweeping changes in the Indian military to prepare it for similar conflicts in the future and placed pressure on Jawaharlal Nehru, who was seen as responsible for failing to anticipate the Chinese attack on India.

Under American advice Jawaharlal Nehru refrained from using the Indian air force to beat back the Chinese advances.

India's policy of weaponisation using indigenous sources and self-sufficiency began in earnest under Jawaharlal Nehru, completed by his daughter Indira Gandhi, who later led India to a crushing military victory over rival Pakistan in 1971.

Jawaharlal Nehru ordered the raising of an elite Indian-trained "Tibetan Armed Force" composed of Tibetan refugees, which served with distinction in future wars against Pakistan in 1965 and 1971.

Jawaharlal Nehru asked that these aircraft be manned by American pilots until Indian airmen were trained to replace them.

Jawaharlal Nehru is time and again described as a charismatic leader with a rare charm.

At that time, Jawaharlal Nehru had predicted that Vajpayee would become Prime Minister of India one day.

Parekh attributes this to the national philosophy Jawaharlal Nehru formulated for India.

Jawaharlal Nehru implemented policies based on import substitution industrialisation and advocated a mixed economy where the government-controlled public sector would co-exist with the private sector.

Jawaharlal Nehru believed the establishment of basic and heavy industry was fundamental to the development and modernisation of the Indian economy.

The policy of non-alignment during the Cold War meant that Jawaharlal Nehru received financial and technical support from both power blocs in building India's industrial base from scratch.

Jawaharlal Nehru's critics contended that India's import substitution industrialisation, which continued long after the Jawaharlal Nehru era, weakened the international competitiveness of its manufacturing industries.

Jawaharlal Nehru was a passionate advocate of education for India's children and youth, believing it essential for India's future progress.

Jawaharlal Nehru's government oversaw the establishment of many institutions of higher learning, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Management and the National Institutes of Technology.

Jawaharlal Nehru outlined a commitment in his five-year plans to guarantee free and compulsory primary education to all of India's children.

Jawaharlal Nehru launched initiatives such as the provision of free milk and meals to children to fight malnutrition.

However, Jawaharlal Nehru has been criticised for the inconsistent application of the law.

Jawaharlal Nehru convincingly succeeded in secularism and religious harmony, increasing the representation of minorities in government.

Jawaharlal Nehru led the faction of the Congress party, which promoted Hindi as the lingua franca of the Indian nation.

Jawaharlal Nehru sought to build support among the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa in opposition to the two hostile superpowers contesting the Cold War.

Jawaharlal Nehru was a strong supporter of the United Nations, except when it tried to resolve the Kashmir question.

Jawaharlal Nehru pioneered the policy of non-alignment and co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement of nations professing neutrality between the rival blocs of nations led by the US and the USSR.

Jawaharlal Nehru sought to establish warm and friendly relations with China in 1950 and hoped to act as an intermediary to bridge the gulf and tensions between the communist states and the Western bloc.

Jawaharlal Nehru was a key organiser of the Bandung Conference of April 1955, which brought 29 newly independent nations together from Asia and Africa, and was designed to galvanise the nonalignment movement under Jawaharlal Nehru's leadership.

Jawaharlal Nehru envisioned it as his key leadership opportunity on the world stage, where he would bring together emerging nations.

Jawaharlal Nehru used military force to annex Hyderabad in 1948 and Goa in 1961.

Many hailed Jawaharlal Nehru for working to defuse global tensions and the threat of nuclear weapons after the Korean War.

Jawaharlal Nehru commissioned the first study of the effects of nuclear explosions on human health and campaigned ceaselessly for the abolition of what he called "these frightful engines of destruction".

Jawaharlal Nehru had pragmatic reasons for promoting de-nuclearization, fearing a nuclear arms race would lead to over-militarisation that would be unaffordable for developing countries such as his own.

At Lord Mountbatten's urging, in 1948, Jawaharlal Nehru had promised to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir under the auspices of the UN.

However, as Pakistan failed to pull back troops in accordance with the UN resolution, and as Jawaharlal Nehru grew increasingly wary of the UN, he declined to hold a plebiscite in 1953.

In 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru orchestrated the ouster and arrest of Sheikh Abdullah, the prime minister of Kashmir, whom he had previously supported but was now suspected of harbouring separatist ambitions; Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad replaced him.

Jawaharlal Nehru was then at the peak of his popularity in India; the only criticism came from the far right.

In 1954, Jawaharlal Nehru signed with China the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, known in India as the Panchsheel, a set of principles to govern relations between the two states.

Dag Hammarskjold, the second secretary-general of the United Nations, said that while Jawaharlal Nehru was superior from a moral point of view, Zhou Enlai was more skilled in realpolitik.

In 1956, Jawaharlal Nehru criticised the joint invasion of the Suez Canal by the British, French, and Israelis.

Jawaharlal Nehru had a powerful ally in the US President Dwight Eisenhower who, if relatively silent publicly, went to the extent of using America's clout at the International Monetary Fund to make Britain and France back down.

Jawaharlal Nehru spoke to the doctors who attended to him for a brief while, and almost immediately he collapsed.

Jawaharlal Nehru's death was announced in the Lok Sabha at 14:00 local time on 27 May 1964; the cause of death was believed to be a heart attack.

Jawaharlal Nehru was a passionate fighter for peace in the whole world and an ardent champion of the realization of the principles of peaceful coexistence of states; he was the inspirer of the policy of Non-Alignment promoted by the Indian Government.

Jawaharlal Nehru's death left India with no clear political heir to his leadership.

Jawaharlal Nehru hailed Nehru as Bharat Mata's "favourite prince" and likened him to the Hindu god Rama.

Jawaharlal Nehru was instrumental in getting the Congress party working committee to vote for partition.

Jawaharlal Nehru is credited with integrating peacefully most of the princely states of India.

Patel was a long-time comrade to Jawaharlal Nehru but died in 1950, leaving Jawaharlal Nehru as the unchallenged leader of India until his own death in 1964.

Jawaharlal Nehru went on to serve as a minister with various portfolios during Nehru's tenure and in Shastri and Indira Gandhi governments.

Later Desai alleged that Jawaharlal Nehru used the Kamaraj Plan to remove all possible contenders 'from the path of his daughter, Indira Gandhi.

Jawaharlal Nehru was responsible for the establishment of Hindi as the official language of the central government and a few states.

Jawaharlal Nehru accomplished the nationalisation of insurance companies and the formation of the Life Insurance Corporation of India through the Life Insurance Corporation of India Act, 1956.

Under Jawaharlal Nehru, he served as India's high commissioner to the UK, UN ambassador, and Union minister of defence.

Jawaharlal Nehru resigned after the debacle of the 1962 China War.

Indira was elected as Congress party president in 1959, which aroused criticism for alleged nepotism, although Jawaharlal Nehru had actually disapproved of her election, partly because he considered that it smacked of "dynasticism"; he said, indeed it was "wholly undemocratic and an undesirable thing", and refused her a position in his cabinet.

Jawaharlal Nehru began to be embarrassed by her ruthlessness and disregard for parliamentary tradition and was "hurt" by what he saw as an assertiveness with no purpose other than to stake out an identity independent of her father.

Jawaharlal Nehru liked and admired Nehru, it was useful to him that the Prime Minister should find such attractions in the Governor-General's home, it was agreeable to find Edwina almost permanently in good temper: the advantages of the alliance were obvious.

Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to model India as a secular country; his secularist policies remain a subject of debate.

Jawaharlal Nehru is praised for creating a system providing universal primary education, reaching children in the farthest corners of rural India.

However, in recent years, Jawaharlal Nehru's reputation has seen re-emergence and he is credited for keeping India together contrary to predictions of many that the country was bound to fall apart.

Jawaharlal Nehru remains a popular symbol of the Congress Party which frequently celebrates his memory.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port near the city of Mumbai is a modern port and dock designed to handle a huge cargo and traffic load.

In 1997, Jawaharlal Nehru was voted as the greatest Indian since independence in India Today's poll.

Benegal directed the 1984 documentary film, Jawaharlal Nehru, covering his political career.

Indian film director Kiran Kumar made a film about Jawaharlal Nehru titled Jawaharlal Nehru: The Jewel of India in 1990 starring Partap Sharma in the titular role.

Jawaharlal Nehru was a prolific writer in English who wrote The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, An Autobiography and Letters from a Father to His Daughter, all written in jail.

Letters comprised 30 letters written to his daughter Indira Priyadarshani Jawaharlal Nehru who was then 10 years old and studying at a boarding school in Mussoorie.

Jawaharlal Nehru's autobiography is subtle, complex, discriminating, infinitely cultivated, steeped in doubt, suffused with intellectual passion.

Michael Brecher, who considered Jawaharlal Nehru to be an intellectual for whom ideas were important aspects of Indian nationalism, wrote in Political Leadership and Charisma: Jawaharlal Nehru, Ben-Gurion, and Other 20th-Century Political Leaders:.

Jawaharlal Nehru's books were not scholarly, nor were they intended to be.

Jawaharlal Nehru was not a trained historian, but his feel for the flow of events and his capacity to weave together a wide range of knowledge in a meaningful pattern give to his books qualities of a high order.

In 1948, Jawaharlal Nehru was conferred an honorary doctorate by the University of Mysore.

Jawaharlal Nehru later received honorary doctorates from the University of Madras, Columbia University, and Keio University.

In 1955, Jawaharlal Nehru was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

President Rajendra Prasad awarded him the honour without taking advice from the Prime Minister as would be the normal constitutional procedure as Jawaharlal Nehru himself was Prime Minister then.