Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secularist, social democrat, and author who served for 16 years as India's first prime minister following India's independence in 1947.
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Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secularist, social democrat, and author who served for 16 years as India's first prime minister following India's independence in 1947.
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Nehru is widely considered one of the most influential heads of state in India's post-colonial history and among the world's most consequential 20th century heads of state.
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Nehru was a principal leader of the Indian nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation.
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Nehru joined the Indian National Congress, and rose quickly, first as leader of its progressive faction during the 1920s and then of the Congress itself.
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Nehru gained the support of Mahatma Gandhi, who designated Nehru as his political heir.
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Nehru promoted the idea of the secular nation-state in the 1937 Indian provincial elections, allowing the Congress to sweep the elections, and to form governments in several provinces.
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Nehru, who supported the Allied war effort during World War II, reluctantly heeded Gandhi's call for immediate independence.
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Nehru became India's interim prime minister in September 1946, with the League reluctantly joining his government in October 1946.
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On 26 January 1950, when India became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, Nehru became the Republic of India's first prime minister.
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Nehru embarked on an ambitious program of economic, social, and political reforms.
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Nehru remained popular with the Indian people despite India's defeat in the Sino-Indian War of 1962 for which he was widely blamed.
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Nehru's premiership spanning 16 years, 286 days—which is, to date, longest in India—ended with his death on 27 May 1964 from a heart attack.
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Nehru's legacy has been hotly debated by Indians and international observers alike.
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In more recent years, criticism of Nehru has emerged from right-wing political figures in India, particularly since the onset of Narendra Modi's premiership.
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Nehru described his childhood as a "sheltered and uneventful one".
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Nehru grew up in an atmosphere of privilege at wealthy homes, including a palatial estate called the Anand Bhavan.
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Nehru's father had him educated at home by private governesses and tutors.
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Nehru wrote: "for nearly three years [Brooks] was with me and in many ways, he influenced me greatly".
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Nehru had developed an interest in Indian politics during his time in Britain as a student and a barrister.
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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.
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Nehru spoke out against the censorship acts passed by the British government in India.
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Nehru emerged from the war years as a leader whose political views were considered radical.
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Nehru ridiculed the Indian Civil Service for supporting British policies.
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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".
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Nehru was dissatisfied with the pace of the national movement.
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Nehru became involved with aggressive nationalists leaders demanding Home Rule for Indians.
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Nehru joined both leagues, but worked primarily for the former.
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Nehru welcomed and encouraged the rapprochement between the two Indian communities.
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Nehru joined the movement and rose to become secretary of Besant's Home Rule League.
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Nehru was arrested on charges of anti-governmental activities in 1921 and released a few months later.
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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.
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Nehru played a leading role in the development of the internationalist outlook of the Indian independence struggle.
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Nehru sought foreign allies for India and forged links with movements for independence and democracy around the world.
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Nehru represented India and was elected to the Executive Council of the League against Imperialism that was born at this meeting.
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Increasingly, 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.
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Nehru drafted the policies of the Congress and a future Indian nation in 1929.
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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.
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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.
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Nehru remarked about the unprecedented popular response, "it seemed as though a spring had been suddenly released".
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Nehru was charged with breach of the salt law and sentenced to six months of imprisonment at Central Jail.
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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:.
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Nehru spent the early months of 1936 in Switzerland visiting his ailing wife in Lausanne, where she died in March.
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Since the Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah had fared badly at the polls, Nehru declared that the only two parties that mattered in India were the British colonial authorities and the Congress.
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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.
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Nehru had the support of left-wing Congressmen Maulana Azad and Subhas Chandra Bose.
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Nehru was elected in his place and held the presidency for two years.
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Nehru worked closely with Bose in developing good relations with governments of free countries all over the world.
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Nehru was one of the first nationalist leaders to realise the sufferings of the people in the states ruled by Indian princes.
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Nehru helped to make the struggle of the people in the princely states a part of the nationalist movement for independence.
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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.
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All India States Peoples Conference was formed in 1927 and Nehru, who had supported the cause of the people of the princely states for many years, was made the organisation's president in 1939.
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Nehru opened up its ranks to membership from across the political spectrum.
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When Nehru presented Lord Linlithgow with these demands, he chose to reject them.
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In October 1940, Gandhi and 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.
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Prime Minister Winston Churchill dispatched Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the War Cabinet who was known to be politically close to Nehru and knew Jinnah, with proposals for a settlement of the constitutional problem.
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Nehru served as prime minister for 18 years, first as the interim prime minister and from 1950 as the prime minister of the Republic of India.
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In July 1946, Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state could prevail militarily against the army of independent India.
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Nehru, while being the prime minister, was elected the president of Congress for 1951 and 1952.
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In December 1953, Nehru appointed the States Reorganisation Commission to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines.
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Nehru stressed commonality among Indians and promoted pan-Indianism, refusing to reorganise states on either religious or ethnic lines.
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In 1962, Nehru led the Congress to victory with a diminished majority.
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Nehru is time and again described as a charismatic leader with a rare charm.
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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.
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Nehru believed the establishment of basic and heavy industry was fundamental to the development and modernisation of the Indian economy.
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Policy of non-alignment during the Cold War meant that Nehru received financial and technical support from both power blocs in building India's industrial base from scratch.
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Nehru's critics contended that India's import substitution industrialisation, which was continued long after the Nehru era, weakened the international competitiveness of its manufacturing industries.
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Nehru was a passionate advocate of education for India's children and youth, believing it essential for India's future progress.
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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.
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Nehru outlined a commitment in his five-year plans to guarantee free and compulsory primary education to all of India's children.
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Nehru launched initiatives such as the provision of free milk and meals to children to fight malnutrition.
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However, Nehru has been criticised for the inconsistent application of the law.
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Nehru convincingly succeeded secularism and religious harmony, increasing the representation of minorities in government.
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Nehru led the faction of the Congress party, which promoted Hindi as the lingua franca of the Indian nation.
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Nehru was a strong supporter of the United Nations, except when it tried to resolve the Kashmir question.
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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.
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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.
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Nehru envisioned it as his key leadership opportunity on the world stage, where he would bring together the emerging nations.
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Nehru entrusted Homi J Bhabha, a nuclear physicist, with complete authority over all nuclear-related affairs and programs and answerable only to the prime minister.
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Many hailed Nehru for working to defuse global tensions and the threat of nuclear weapons after the Korean War.
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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".
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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.
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At Lord Mountbatten's urging, in 1948, Nehru had promised to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir under the auspices of the UN.
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However, as Pakistan failed to pull back troops in accordance with the UN resolution, and as Nehru grew increasingly wary of the UN, he declined to hold a plebiscite in 1953.
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In 1953, Nehru orchestrated the ouster and arrest of Sheikh Abdullah, the prime minister of Kashmir, whom he had previously supported but now suspected of harbouring separatist ambitions; Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad replaced him.
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Nehru was then at the peak of his popularity in India; the only criticism came from the far-right.
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Dag Hammarskjold, the second secretary-general of the United Nations, said that while Nehru was superior from a moral point of view, Zhou Enlai was more skilled in realpolitik.
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In 1956, Nehru criticised the joint invasion of the Suez Canal by the British, French, and Israelis.
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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.
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Nehru maintained good relations with Britain even after the Suez Crisis.
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Nehru accepted the UK and World Bank's arbitration, signing the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 with Pakistani ruler Ayub Khan to resolve long-standing disputes about sharing the resources of the major rivers of the Punjab region.
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From 1959, in a process that accelerated in 1961, Nehru adopted the "Forward Policy" of setting up military outposts in disputed areas of the Sino-Indian border, including in 43 outposts in territory not previously controlled by India.
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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 Nehru was widely criticised for his government's insufficient attention to defence.
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Nehru's improved relations with the US under John F Kennedy proved useful during the war, as in 1962, the president of Pakistan Ayub Khan was made to guarantee his neutrality regarding India, threatened by "communist aggression from Red China".
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Nehru would continue to maintain his commitment to the non-aligned movement, despite calls from some to settle down on one permanent ally.
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Under American advice Nehru refrained from using the Indian air force to beat back the Chinese advances.
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India's policy of weaponisation using indigenous sources and self-sufficiency began in earnest under Nehru, completed by his daughter Indira Gandhi, who later led India to a crushing military victory over rival Pakistan in 1971.
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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.
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Nehru asked that these aircraft be manned by American pilots until Indian airmen were trained to replace them.
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Nehru's health began declining steadily after 1962, and he spent months recuperating in Kashmir through 1963.
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Nehru spoke to the doctors who attended on him for a brief while, and almost immediately he collapsed.
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Nehru's death left India with no clear political heir to his leadership; later Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded him as the prime minister.
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Nehru hailed Nehru as Bharat Mata's "favourite prince" and likened him to mythological warrior-king Rama.
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Nehru was instrumental in getting the Congress party working committee to vote for partition.
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Nehru is credited with integrating peacefully most of the princely states of India.
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Patel was a long-time comrade to Nehru but died in 1950, leaving Nehru as the unchallenged leader of India until his own death in 1964.
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Nehru went on to serve as a minister with various portfolios during Nehru's tenure and in Shastri and Indira Gandhi governments.
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Later Desai alleged that Nehru used the Kamaraj Plan to remove all possible contenders 'from the path of his daughter, Indira Gandhi.
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Nehru was responsible for the establishment of Hindi as an official language of the central government and a few states.
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Under Nehru, he served as India's high commissioner to the UK, UN ambassador, and union minister of defence.
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Indira was elected as Congress party president in 1959, which aroused criticism for alleged nepotism, although 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.
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Nehru began to be embarrassed by her ruthlessness and disregard for parliamentary tradition and was "hurt" by what he saw as assertiveness with no purpose other than to stake out an identity independent of her father.
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At Lady Edwina Mountbatten's burial at sea in 1960, Nehru requested an Indian Navy frigate INS Trishul to escort HMS Wakeful from which the burial took place and to cast a wreath as a mark of the respect in which she was held in India.
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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.
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Nehru wanted to model India as a secular country; his secularist policies remain a subject of debate.
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Nehru is praised for creating a system providing universal primary education, reaching children in the farthest corners of rural India.
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Historian Ramachandra Guha writes, "[had] Nehru retired in 1958 he would be remembered as not just India's best prime minister, but as one of the great statesmen of the modern world".
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Nehru, thus, left behind a disputed legacy, being "either adored as architect of Modern India or reviled for India's progress or lack of it".
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Nehru remains a popular symbol of the Congress Party which frequently celebrates his memory.
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The Jawaharlal Nehru Port near the city of Mumbai is a modern port and dock designed to handle a huge cargo and traffic load.
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In 2012, Nehru was ranked number four in Outlooks poll of The Greatest Indian.
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Indian film director Kiran Kumar made a film about Nehru titled Nehru: The Jewel of India in 1990 starring Partap Sharma in the titular role.
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Letters comprised 30 letters written to his daughter Indira Priyadarshani Nehru who was then 10 years old and studying at a boarding school in Mussoorie.
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Nehru's autobiography is subtle, complex, discriminating, infinitely cultivated, steeped in doubt, suffused with intellectual passion.
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Michael Brecher, who considered Nehru to be an intellectual for whom ideas were important aspects of Indian nationalism, wrote in Political Leadership and Charisma: Nehru, Ben-Gurion, and Other 20th-Century Political Leaders:.
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Nehru's books were not scholarly, nor were they intended to be.
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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.
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Nehru's sentences were finely made and memorable – Nehru was a good writer; his Discovery of India stands well above the level reached by most politician-writers.
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In 1948, Nehru was conferred an honorary doctorate by the University of Mysore.
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Nehru later received honorary doctorates from the University of Madras, Columbia University, and Keio University.
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In 1955, Nehru was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
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