Posted by JACOB on Oct. 10, 2013, 7:44 p.m.
14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was the first Prime Minister of India and a central
figure in Indian politics for much of the 20th century. He emerged as the
paramount leader of the Indian Independence
Movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and ruled India from its
establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in office in
1964.[5] Nehru is considered to be
the architect of the modern Indian nation-state; a sovereign, socialist, secular, anddemocratic republic.[6] He was the father of Indira Gandhi and the maternal grandfather
ofRajiv Gandhi, who
were to later serve as the third and sixth Prime Ministers of India,
respectively.
The son of a prominent lawyer and nationalist
statesman, Nehru was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple, where he
trained to be a barrister. Upon his return to India, he enrolled at the Allahabad High Court while taking an
interest in national politics. Nehru's involvement in politics would gradually
replace his legal practice. A committed nationalist since his teenage years,
Nehru became a rising figure in Indian politics during the upheavals of the
1910s. He became the preeminent leader of the left-wing factions of the Indian National Congress during the
1920s, and eventually of the entire Congress, with the tacit approval of his
mentor, Gandhi. As Congress President, Nehru called for complete independence from Britain, and
initiated a decisive shift towards the left in Indian politics. He was the
principal author of the Indian
Declaration of Independence(1929).
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 under his
leadership swept the provincial elections in 1937 while the separatist Muslim League failed to form a
government in any of the Indian provinces. But, these achievements were
seriously 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 the 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 bête noire, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had come to dominate Muslim politics in India. Negotiations
between Nehru and Jinnah 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 in 1941, when Gandhi acknowledged Nehru
as his political heir and successor. As Prime Minister, Nehru 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 monarchy to a
republic, while nurturing a plural, multi-party democracy. In foreign policy,
Nehru took a leading role in Non-Alignmentwhile
projecting India as a regional hegemon in South Asia.
Under Nehru's leadership, the Congress emerged as
a catch-all party, dominating national 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 as exemplified by the defeat in the Sino-Indian War. 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."[7] Nehru, thus, left behind a
disputed legacy, being "either adored or reviled for India's progress or
lack of it."[8]