Jawaharlal Nehru

                                         Jawaharlal Nehru

Birth and Family background:

        Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad in British India. His father Motilal Nehru a self-made wealthy barrister who belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community served twice as President of the Indian National Congress in 1919 and 1928. His mother Swarup Rani Thussu  who came from a well-known Kashmiri Brahmin family settled in Lahore was Motilal's second wife the first having died in childbirth.

Jawaharlal was the eldest of three children two of whom were girls The elder sister, Vijaya Lakshmi later became the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly. The youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing became a noted writer and authored several books on her brother.

Childhood:

        Nehru described his childhood as a "sheltered and uneventful one." He grew up in an atmosphere of privilege at wealthy homes including a palatial estate called the Anand Bhavan. His father had him educated at home by private governesses and tutors. Under the influence Ferdinand T. Brooks tutelage, Nehru became interested in science and theosophy. He was subsequently initiated into the Theosophical Society at age thirteen by family friend Annie Besant.

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  was with me and in many ways he influenced me greatly.

Nehru's theosophical interests had induced him to the study of the Buddhist and Hindu scriptures.

According to Bal Ram Nanda, these scriptures were Nehru's first introduction to the religious and cultural heritage provided Nehru the initial impulse for long intellectual quest which culminated in The Discovery of India.

Youth:

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

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 also studied politics, economics, history, and literature desultorily. 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.

After completing his degree in 1910, Nehru moved to London and studied law at Inner temple During this time, he continued to study the scholars of the Fabian Society including Beatrice Webb. He was called to the Bar in 1912.

Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s as the country moved towards independence. His idea of a secular nation-state was seemingly validated when the Congress swept the 1937 provincial elections and formed the government in several provinces; on the other hand the separatist Muslim League fared much poorer these achievements were severely compromised in the aftermath of the Quit India Movement in 1942, which saw the British effectively crush the Congress as a political organisation. Nehru, who had reluctantly heeded Gandhi's call for immediate independence, for he had desired to support the Allied war effort during World War II, came out of a lengthy prison term to a much altered political landscape. The Muslim League under his old Congress colleague and now opponent, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had come to dominate Muslim politics in India. Negotiations between Congress and Muslim League for power sharing failed and gave way to the independence and bloody partition of India in 1947.

Nehru was elected by the Congress to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister, although the question of leadership had been settled as far back as 1941, when Gandhi acknowledged Nehru as his political heir and successor. As Prime Minister, he set out to realise his vision of India. The Constitution of India was enacted in 1950, after which he embarked on an ambitious program of economic, social and political reforms. Chiefly, he oversaw India's transition from a colony to a republic, while nurturing a plural, multi-party system. In foreign policy, he took a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement while projecting India as a regional hegemon in South Asia.

Under Nehru's leadership, the Congress emerged as a catch-all party, dominating national and state-level politics and winning consecutive elections in 1951, 1957, and 1962. He remained popular with the people of India in spite of political troubles in his final years and failure of leadership during the 1962 Sino-Indian War. In India his birthday is celebrated as Children's Day.