Jawaharlal Nehru: Difference between revisions

* {{cite book |last=Chalam|first=K. S.|title=Social Economy of Development in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XumoDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA325|page=325|year=2017|publisher=Sage|isbn=9789385985126|quote=Social democrats advocate peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism. While Jawaharlal Nehru was considered as a social democrat, his colleague in the Constituent Assembly, B. R. Ambedkar, was emphatic about state socialism. It appears that the compromise between these two ideas has been reflected in the Directive Principles of State Policy. The principles of social democracy and/or democratic socialism can be interrogated in the context of the present situation in India.}}</ref> and author who was a central figure in India during the middle third of the 20th century. Nehru was a principal leader of the [[Indian independence movement|Indian nationalist movement]] in the 1930s and 1940s. Upon India's independence in 1947, he became the first [[prime minister of India]], serving for 16 years. Nehru promoted [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary democracy]], [[Secularism in India|secularism]], and [[Science and technology in India|science and technology]] during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation. In international affairs, he steered India clear of the two blocs of the [[Cold War]]. A well-regarded author, his books written in prison, such as ''[[Letters from a Father to His Daughter]]'' (1929), ''[[Glimpses of World History]]'' (1934), ''[[An Autobiography (Nehru)|An Autobiography]]'' (1936), and ''[[The Discovery of India]]'' (1946), have been read around the world. The honorific ''[[Pandit]]'' has been commonly applied before his name.

The son of [[Motilal Nehru]], a prominent lawyer and [[Indian nationalism|Indian nationalist]], Jawaharlal Nehru was educated in England—at [[Harrow School]] and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], and trained in the law at the [[Inner Temple]]. He became a [[barrister]], returned to India, enrolled at the [[Allahabad High Court]] and gradually began to take an interest in national politics, which eventually became a full-time occupation. He 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. As [[Congress president]] in 1929, Nehru called for [[Purna Swaraj|complete independence]] from the [[British Raj]]. Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s. Nehru promoted the idea of the [[Secular state|secular nation-state]] in the [[1937 Indian provincial elections]], allowing the Congress to sweep the elections, and form governments in several provinces. In September 1939, the Congress ministries resigned to protest Viceroy [[Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow|Lord Linlithgow]]'s decision to join the war without consulting them. After the [[All India Congress Committee]]'s [[Quit India Movement|Quit India Resolution]] of 8 August 1942, senior Congress leaders were imprisoned and for a time the organisation was suppressed. Nehru, who had reluctantly heeded Gandhi's call for immediate independence, and had desired instead to support the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] war effort during [[World War&nbsp;II]], came out of a lengthy prison term to a much-altered political landscape. The [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]], under [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], had come to dominate Muslim politics in the interim. In the [[1946 Indian provincial elections|1946 provincial elections]], Congress won the elections, but the League won all the seats reserved for Muslims, which the British interpreted to be a clear mandate for Pakistan in some form. Nehru became the interim prime minister of India in September 1946, with the League joining his government with some hesitancy in October 1946.

Under Nehru's leadership, the Congress emerged as a [[catch-all party]], dominating national and state-level politics and winning elections in [[1951–52 Indian general election|1951]], [[1957 Indian general election|1957]] and [[1962 Indian general election|1962]]. He died as a result of a stroke on 27 May 1964. His birthday is celebrated as [[Children's Day (India)|Children's Day]] in India. Nehru is often hailed as the 'architect of modern India'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/inspiring-lives/jawaharlal-nehru-architect-of-modern-india/story-Ch4DgrerxtY448l0yxulTO.html|title=Jawaharlal Nehru: Architect of modern India|date=14 November 2019|website=Hindustan Times}}</ref><!-- PER WP:LEADCITE, INFO IN THE LEAD IS CITED IN THE BODY -->

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in [[Allahabad]], [[British Raj|British India]]. His father, [[Motilal Nehru]], a self-made wealthy [[barrister]] of [[Kashmiri Pandit]] origin, served twice as [[president of the Indian National Congress]], in 1919-20 and 1928-29.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/nehru-and-the-kashmir-quandary/article28362589.ece|title=Nehru and the Kashmir quandary|first=D. Shyam|last=Babu|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|date=11 July 2019|access-date=15 November 2021|url-access=limited}}</ref> His mother, [[Swarup Rani Nehru|Swarup Rani Thussu]], came from a Kashmiri Pandit family settled in [[Lahore]].{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=21}} Jawaharlal was the eldest of three children.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=25}} The elder of his two sisters, [[Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit|Vijaya Lakshmi]], held political office and became president of the [[United Nations General Assembly]].<ref>[[Bonnie G. Smith|Smith, Bonnie G.]] 2008.''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History''. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-19-514890-9}}. pp. 406–07.</ref> His youngest sister, [[Krishna Hutheesing]], became a noted writer and biographer.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-school/jawaharlal-nehru-freedom-struggle-icon-maker-of-modern-india/story-VdEiIZ6OtVV2NFtTuToL2I.html|title=Jawaharlal Nehru: Freedom struggle icon, maker of modern India|date=2 December 2020|website=Hindustan Times|access-date=15 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Mrs. Krishna Hutheesing, an Author and a Sister of Nehru, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/11/10/archives/mrs-krishna-hutheesing-an-author-and-a-sister-of-nehru-dies.html |access-date=2 July 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=10 November 1967}}</ref>

[[File:Jawaharlal Nehru as a young child with his parents.png|thumb|upright=0.9|left|alt=Photograph of Nehru and his parents |Jawaharlal with his parents [[Swarup Rani Nehru]] (left) and [[Motilal Nehru]] in 1894]]

Nehru grew up in privilege at wealthy homes, including a [[Palace|palatial]] estate called the [[Swaraj Bhavan|Anand Bhavan]].{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=18}} His father, a leading socialite, enjoyed a luxurious and Westernised lifestyle, which the younger Nehru was encouraged to adopt.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=18}}{{sfn|Zachariah|2004|p=13}} Nehru later described his childhood as "sheltered and uneventful".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nehru|first=Jawarhalal|url=|title=Towards Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawarhalal Nehru|date=1941|publisher=The John Day Company|isbn=|language=en|page=6}}</ref> His father had him educated at home by English [[governess]]es and private tutors.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=18}}{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=22}} Influenced by Irish-French theosophist Ferdinand T. Brooks, Nehru became interested in science, literature, and [[theosophy]].{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=19}}<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2504742|title=Nehru and History|author=Gokhale, Balkrishna Govind|year=1978|journal=History and Theory|volume=17|issue=3|pages=311–322|via=JSTOR|doi=10.2307/2504742|jstor=2504742}}</ref> A family friend, [[Annie Besant]], who had initially recommended Brooks, initiated Nehru into the [[Theosophical Society]] when he was thirteen.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=18}} However, he lost interest in theosophy after Brooks departed, and left the society.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=23}} Nehru's theosophical interests included the study of [[Buddhist texts|Buddhist]] and [[Hindu texts|Hindu scriptures]].{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=65}} He had a Sanskrit tutor, [[Ganganath Jha]], who later became a leading authority on Indian philosophy.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=18}}

Nehru's first language was English, which his father cultivated deliberately as the "language of power" in British India.{{sfn|Zachariah|2004|p=13}}<ref name="Oliver">{{Cite book|last=Oliver|first=R. T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3BUEhOo8ycC|title=Leadership in Asia: Persuasive Communication in the Making of Nations, 1850-1950|date=1989|publisher= University of Delaware Press|isbn=9780874133530|language=en|page=111}}</ref> At the Anand Bhavan, the neighbours were mostly the families of senior British officials.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=18}} His main contacts with Indian culture came through the household's Indian staff, as well as the women of the family, who were not expected to adopt Western values.{{sfn|Zachariah|2004|p=13}} The [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] spoken in Allahabad was his second language.<ref name="Oliver"/><ref name="SarangiPaj">{{Cite book|last1=Sarangi|first1=A.|last2=Paj|first2=S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vOYJEAAAQBAJ|title=Interrogating Reorganisation of States: Culture, Identity and Politics in India

|date=2020|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781000084078|language=en|page=36-37}}</ref> He remained more proficient in colloquial Hindustani than [[Modern Standard Hindi]].<ref name="Oliver"/><ref name="SarangiPaj"/>

 

Nehru would write in his autobiography about his ambivalent childhood feelings towards British rule.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=27}} He heard his older cousins discuss politics, and resented the discrimination faced by Indians. He recalled sympathising with the [[Boer]] republics in their [[Second Boer War|war]] against the British Empire from 1899 to 1902.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=31}} At the same time, Nehru admired English culture and had positive relations with British figures in his childhood.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=27}} His father was more an observer than a participant in politics at this stage, but sympathised most with the [[Early Nationalists]], who advocated constitutional reform in cooperation with the government.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hasan|first1=M.|last2=Kapoor|first2=P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQ1uAAAAMAAJ|title=The Nehrus: Personal Histories|date=2006|publisher=Lustre Press|isbn=9788174363909|language=en|page=61}}</ref> His father wanted Nehru to succeed in a British ruled India, and made plans to send him to England for further education.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pandey|first=B. N.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PO-wCwAAQBAJ|title=Nehru|date=1976|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=9781349007929|language=en|page=27}}</ref>

[[File:Nehru at Harrow.png|thumb|upright=0.9|alt=Photograph of Nehru dressed in a cadet uniform |

A young Nehru dressed in a cadet's uniform at [[Harrow School]] in England]]

Nehru and his family left for England in May 1905 to seek his admission at [[Harrow School|Harrow]], a boarding school in London.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=20}} He was left in London to learn Latin and prepare for the entrance examinations. He began attending in the fall, and wrote to his father that "Harrow agrees with me quite well".{{sfn|Zachariah|2004|p=16}} He was nicknamed "Joe", and did well academically and socially.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=19}}{{sfn|Zachariah|2004|p=17}} His headmaster wrote to his father in March 1906 that Nehru was "...doing remarkably well in every way, being again head of his form, and winning golden opinions from his masters for his

industry and ability".{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=19}} A school report from October 1906 states: "...Progress good — has brains".{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=19}} Nehru's younger contemporary, [[Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis|Harold Alexander]], remembered him as an "average popular boy".{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=20}} Nehru was a member of the Harrow School Corps, and excelled in cadet activities like shooting and riding.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=34}} He played cricket and football, but he did not have a particular talent for them. His father lamented that his son was "backwards in games".{{sfn|Zachariah|2004|p=17}} Nehru left Harrow for Cambridge in 1907. His housemaster later offered the assement of Nehru as a "very nice boy, quiet and very refined".{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=34}}

Nehru kept himself aware of political developments back home. In late 1905, [[Lord Curzon]] had partitioned [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]] on religious lines. Nationalists viewed it as a ploy to divide them, and the partition encouraged the [[Swadeshi movement]].{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=20}} Nehru asked his father to mail him Indian newspapers.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=21}} He was indignant reading the press coverage in Britain, and criticised his father's moderate, sometimes apolitical, stance on events.{{sfn|Zachariah|2004|p=20-21}} Nehru later wrote that he was drawn to nationalist and anti-colonial ideas at Harrow.<ref name="Das">{{Cite book|last=Das|first=M. N.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pRwEAAAQBAJ|title=The Political Philosophy of Jawaharlal Nehru|date=2022|publisher= Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781000632682|language=en|page=60-61}}</ref><ref name="Nish">{{Cite book|last=Nish|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=26CCEAAAQBAJ|title=The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5 Volume 1|date=2022|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004531789|language=en|page=25}}</ref> He arrived during the [[Russo-Japanese War]], and Japan's victory led to his hopes for "Indian and Asiatic freedom" from European imperial powers.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=31}}<ref name="Nish"/> He was also inspired by [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] after receiving the biography by [[G. M. Trevelyan]] as an academic prize.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=36}}

[[File:Motilal Nehru with his family in England.jpg|left|thumb|Swarup Rani and Motilal Nehru in England with their children from l. to r. [[Krishna Hutheesing|Krishna]] (b. November 1907), [[Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit|Vijaya Lakshmi]] (b. August 1900) and Jawaharlal]]

Nehru went to [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], in October 1907 and graduated with an honours degree in [[natural science]] in 1910.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=43}} At Cambridge, he read widely on politics, economics, history and literature. He traced the beginning of his interest in [[socialism]] at Cambridge to the [[Fabian Society]].{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=46}} In 1910, Nehru moved to London and started studying law at the [[Inner temple|Inner Temple]] Inn. He was [[Call to the bar|called to the Bar]] in 1912.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=46}}

[[File:Nehru barrister.png|thumb|upright=0.9|right|alt=Photograph if Nehru in his barrister's attire |Jawaharlal Nehru, Barrister-at-Law]]

After returning to India in August 1912, Nehru enrolled as an advocate of the [[Allahabad High Court]] and practised in his father's chambers.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=29}} However, he did not enjoy the practice of law and found the work intellectually unsatisfying.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=29}} Nationalist politics replaced his legal practice after 1920. He would not work as a barrister again until the [[INA trials]] in 1945-46.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=308}}

== Nationalist movement (1912–1939) ==

=== Congress and civil rights: 1912–1913 ===

Nehru developed an interest in Indian politics during his time in Britain.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=37}} In December 1912, he attended the annual session of the Congress at [[Patna]].{{sfn|Ghose|1993|p=25}} The Congress was then a party of moderates and elites, and Nehru described the meeting as "very much an English-knowing [[Upper class|upper-class]] affair".{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=49}} He doubted the effectiveness of the Congress, but agreed to collect funds for the [[Satyagraha|Indian civil rights movement]] led by [[Mahatma Gandhi]] in South Africa.{{sfn|Ghose|1993|p=25}}{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=50}} He later campaigned against [[indentured labour]] and discriminations faced by Indians in the British colonies.<ref name="auto">In Jawaharlal Nehru's autobiography, ''An Autobiography'' (1936) p. 33.</ref>

When [[World War&nbsp;I]] broke out, the Indian [[princely states]] and upper middle-class supported the British government.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=52}} However, educated Indians enjoyed seeing their British rulers humbled. Nehru viewed the war with mixed feelings, and sympathised most with France, whose culture he admired.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=52}} He volunteered for [[St John Ambulance]] and worked as a provincial secretary in Allahabad.{{sfn|Ghose|1993|p=25}} He spoke out against the censorship acts passed by the British government in India.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=53}}

Contemporary political discourse was dominated by moderates, such as [[Gopal Krishna Gokhale]], who favoured greater representation within the British Raj.{{sfn|Ghose|1993|p=25}}{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=50}} They were opposed by radicals, such as Annie Besant and [[Bal Gangadhar Tilak]], who stood for self-governance. Motilal Nehru, a prominent moderate leader, acknowledged the limits of constitutionalism, but counselled his son that there was no  practical alternative. However, Nehru was dissatisfied with the direction of the nationalist movement. He became involved with radicals proposing [[Indian Home Rule movement|Home Rule]] for Indians.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=56}} Nehru argued against "futile politics of representation" in a system dominated by British interests.{{sfn|Ghose|1993|p=26}} He favoured non-cooperation with British authorities. He ridiculed the [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Indian Civil Service]], and agreed with a saying that it was "neither Indian, nor civil, nor a service".<ref name="ics">Nehru, Jawaharlal ''Glimpses of world history: being further letters to his daughter'' (Lindsay Drummond Ltd., 1949), p. 94</ref> The influence of moderates waned after Gokhale died in 1915.{{sfn|Ghose|1993|p=25}} Radical leaders proposed action for Home Rule. However, the proposal was rejected because the moderates were reluctant.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Argov |first=Daniel |title=The Ideological Differences between Moderates and Extremists in the Indian National Movement with Special Reference to Surendranath Banerjea and Lajpat Rai 1885–1919 |date=June 1964 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of London School of Oriental and African Studies |url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33772/1/11010545.pdf|page=11}}</ref>

Nehru married [[Kamala Nehru|Kamala Kaul]] on 8 February 1916.{{sfn|Pandey|1976|p=54}} Their only daughter, [[Indira Gandhi|Indira]], was born a year later in November 1917. In November 1924, Kamala gave birth to an infant son that did not survive.<ref name="windsor">{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tzA_AAAAIBAJ&pg=4355,5162968&dq=kamala+nehru |title=Nehru Gave Up Life Of Ease, Wealth |pages=24 |date=27 May 1964 |work=[[The Windsor Star]] |access-date=19 January 2013}}</ref>

 

A Home Rule League was founded in September 1916 under the leadership of Annie Besant to voice a demand for [[self-governance]], and to obtain the status of a [[Dominion]] within the [[British Empire]] as enjoyed at the time by Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Newfoundland. Tilak had already formed his own Home Rule League in April 1916.{{sfn|Ghose|1993|p=25}} Nehru joined both leagues, but worked primarily with Besant.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=55}} He became secretary of Besant's Home Rule League and remarked later that "[Besant] had a very powerful influence on me in my childhood &nbsp;... even later when I entered political life her influence continued".{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=55}}<ref name="JNACA">{{Cite web |url=http://www.jnmf.in/chrono.html |title=Jawaharlal Nehru – a chronological account |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604220450/http://www.jnmf.in/chrono.html |archive-date=4 June 2012 |access-date=23 June 2012|website=Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund (JNMF)}}</ref>

 

In June 1917, the British government arrested and interned Besant. The Congress and other Indian organisations threatened to launch protests if she was not freed. Subsequently, the British government was forced to release Besant and make [[Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms|significant concessions]] after a period of intense protest.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Remya |first=K. |title=War in City Scape Popular Responses in Kozhikode 1914 1918 |date=2017 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Calicut, Department of History |hdl=10603/208789 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10603/208789}}</ref>

 

Nehru first met Gandhi during the Lucknow session of the Congress in December 1916.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=55}} He was drawn to Gandhi's leadership of the [[Champaran Satyagraha]] in 1917, but his father, Motilal, was reluctant to support extra-constitutional agitation. In March 1919, Motilal Nehru invited Gandhi to his home in Allahabad to discuss satyagraha politics.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|pp=160–61}} Gandhi placated Motilal Nehru and counseled the younger Nehru to avoid direct participation. Nehru subsequently spent time as a political journalist, first writing for ''[[The Leader (Allahabad newspaper)|The Leader]]'', a newspaper controlled by his father, and subsequently for ''[[The Independent (India)|The Independent]]'', which his father started after losing control of ''The Leader''. Nehru was briefly editor of ''The Independent'' before handing over to [[Bipin Chandra Pal]].{{sfn|Nanda|2007|pp=187–89}}

 

 

Following the killings, both Motilal and Jawaharal Nehru were radicalised, and became closely involved with Gandhi's political agitations. The family soon gave up luxury and Western dress for the [[khadi]] and austerity advocated by Gandhi.<ref name="Herman2010">{{cite book |last=Herman |first=Arthur |title=Gandhi and Churchill: The Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age |publisher=Random House |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4090-6363-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8JjbAVs2vUC&pg=PA264 |page=264}}</ref>{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=64}} Motilal Nehru was elected President at the annual session of the Congress held in Amritsar in December 1919.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=174}}

 

Nehru's first major national engagement came at the onset of the [[Non-cooperation movement]] in September 1920.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/kids/remembering-chacha-nehru-on-childrens-day/article7869012.ece|title=Man for All seasons|first=Madhuvanti S.|last=Krishnan|date=12 November 2015|website=The Hindu}}</ref> He played an influential role in directing political activities in the United Provinces (now [[Uttar Pradesh]]) and organising the peasantry. Nehru was arrested for the first time on 6 December 1921, on charges of anti-governmental activities. He was released a few months later.<ref name="auto3">{{Cite news |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-school/jawaharlal-nehru-freedom-struggle-icon-maker-of-modern-india/story-VdEiIZ6OtVV2NFtTuToL2I.html|title=Jawaharlal Nehru: Freedom struggle icon, maker of modern India|date=2 December 2020|website=Hindustan Times}}</ref> The movement was gaining popularity, but its progress was suddenly halted as a result of the [[Chauri Chaura incident]]. On 4 February 1922, the police fired upon a group of protesters. In retaliation, the demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station, which killed all of its occupants. In response, Gandhi halted political activities on 12 February, believing that his followers were not yet sufficiently trained in his principles of non-violent resistance. Nehru, who was still in prison when Gandhi made this decision, was disappointed, but ultimately agreed with the principle. He wrote to a colleague, "You will be glad to learn that work is flourishing. We are laying sure foundations this time... Rest assured that there will be no relaxation, no lessening in our activities and above all there will be no false compromise with Government."{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=65}}

 

 

India will be free; of that there is no doubt.... Jail has indeed become a heaven for us, a holy place of pilgrimage since our saintly and beloved leader was sentenced.... I marvel at my good fortune. To serve India in the battle of freedom is honour enough. To serve her under a leader like Mahatma Gandhi is doubly fortunate. But to suffer for the dear country!! What greater good fortune could befall an Indian, unless it be death for the cause  or the full realisation of our glorious dream?</blockquote>

 

Some Congress leaders and other Indian nationalists disagreed with Gandhi's decisions. These dissidents, including Motilal Nehru, contributed to the formation of the [[Swaraj Party]] by early 1923.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gLIixRjaz9sC&pg=PT47 |title=Indian National Movement & Constitutional Development |last=Pratiyogita Darpan Editorial Board |publisher=Upkar Prakashan |series=Pratiyogita Darpan Extra Issue Series, Volume 12 |access-date=2 October 2018}}</ref> The Swaraj Party participated in the [[1923 Indian general election]] under the [[Government of India Act 1919]], which offered limited self-government in a system known as "dyarchy".

 

Nehru's became a national figure by the end of the Non-cooperation movement.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=246}} He was released from jail at the end of January 1923. In May 1923, Nehru became acting General Secretary of the Congress, and was formally confirmed in office at the party's annual session held at [[Kakinada]] in December 1923.{{sfn|Pandey|1976|p=105-06}} He was elected President of the United Provinces Provincial Congress Committee in October 1923.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Norman|first=D.|url=|title=Nehru, the First Sixty Years: Presenting in His Own Words|date=1965|publisher=John Day Company|isbn=|language=en|page=108}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Leoene|first=Fabio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=itS-DwAAQBAJ|title=Prophet and Statesmen in Crafting Democracy in India: Political Leadership, Ideas, and Compromises|date=2019|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9781498569378|language=en|page=105}}</ref> In December 1923, Nehru became the President of the [[Seva Dal|Hindustani Seva Dal]] established under [[N. S. Hardikar]] at Kakinada. The organisation aimed to train a disciplined corps as volunteers for the Congress.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=100}} The Dal was initially opposed by some party leaders, who considered it a potential militia-like organisation and thus inconsistent with Gandhian ethos.{{sfn|Zachariah|2004|p=66}} By 1931, the organisation was accepted by other Congress leaders. It was renamed the [[Seva Dal]], and brought under the aegis of the  [[Congress Working Committee]] to become the party's central volunteer organisation. Each member underwent training in various subjects, including Indian history and labour relations.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pandey|first=Gyanendra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nxmed64K7d8C|title=The Ascendancy of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh: Class, Community and Nation in Northern India, 1920–1940|year=2002|isbn=9781843310570|publisher=[[Routledge]]|pages=36–37}}</ref>

==== Mayor of Allahabad: 1923–1925 ====

Although the Congress avoided the main legislative bodies, the party agreed to contest municipal elections. In April 1923, Nehru was elected chairman of the [[Prayagraj Municipal Corporation|Allahabad Municipal Board]] as a Congress member. He was selected after the party's first candidate, [[Purushottam Das Tandon]], stood down due to opposition from the city's Muslim councillors.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=88}} Nehru and the committee unanimously opposed a suggestion to ban slaughter of cattle.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=92}} Nehru introduced [[Muhammad Iqbal]]'s [[Sare Jahan se Accha]] to the school curriculum.{{sfn|Zachariah|2004|p=53}} The anniversary of [[Bal Gangadhar Tilak|Tilak]]'s death (1 August) and the day of Gandhi's sentencing (18 March) were declared public holidays while [[Empire Day]] was omitted.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=92}} Nehru opposed attempts by the municipality to segregate [[sex workers]].{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=101}} Nehru declared that they "are only one party to the transaction ... if they were obliged to live only in  a remote corner of the city, I would think it is equally reasonable to reserve another part of Allahabad for the men who exploit women and because of whom prostitution flourishes".<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Nehru|first1=Jawaharlal|last2=Rau|first2=M. C.|last3=Prasad|first3=H. Y. S.|last4=Nanda|first4=B. R.|last5=Gopal|first5=Sarvepalli|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-akBAAAAMAAJ|title=Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Volume 2|year=1972|isbn=|publisher=Orient Longman|page=23}}</ref> During this period, he also put efforts to improve schooling, sanitation, water supply and roads.{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=44}}

While mayor of Allahabad, Nehru visited the [[princely state]] of [[Nabha State|Nabha]] in September 1923. He was there to observe the popular agitation after the British authorities deposed the [[Sikh]] maharaja [[Ripudaman Singh]].<ref name="Ramusack">{{cite journal |last=Ramusack |year=1969 |first=Barbara|title=Incident at Nabha: Interaction between Indian States and British Indian Politics|journal=[[The Journal of Asian Studies]] |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=563–77|doi=10.2307/2943179|jstor=2943179 |s2cid=154242842|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2943179 |archive-url=|archive-date= |url-status=live |author-link= }}</ref> Nehru was arrested and charged with illegally entering Nabha for taking part in "a criminal conspiracy". He was sentenced to two-and-a-half-years imprisonment, but this sentence was dropped. Nehru's experience in Nabha later influenced his consideration of popular movements in the princely states.<ref name="Ramusack"/>

Nehru became frustrated with his role as chairman of a municipal body. He resigned in January 1925 and denounced municipal politics, stating "The main interest of Government in municipal administration is that "politics" should be kept out. Any resolution of sympathy with the nationalist movement is frowned upon."<ref name="JNACA"/>{{sfn|Nehru|1941|p=119}}

===Europe: 1926–1927===

In November 1924, Nehru's wife, Kamala, gave birth to an infant son that did not survive. She soon developed symptoms of tuberculosis. Unhappy with the lack of political progress, Nehru decided to travel to Europe to seek treatment for his wife. On 1 March 1926, the couple and their daughter, Indira, departed for [[Switzerland]]. The family remained overseas for the next twenty months. They initially lived in [[Geneva]]. Nehru later moved Kamala to a sanatorium at [[Montana, Switzerland|Montana]]. While based in Switzerland, the family travelled across Europe. Nehru became acquainted with Indian [[expatriates]], and corresponded with European intellectuals and politicians.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|pp=252–53}} He wrote for the ''Journal de Genève'', and also for the press back in India.<ref>Chakraborty, A. K., 1981. ''Jawaharlal Nehru's Writings: A Literary Estimate'', p. 23. Minerva: The University of Calcultta.</ref>

In February 1927, Nehru was invited to [[Brussels]] to represent the Congress at the newly formed [[League against Imperialism]] (LAI). He was made an executive council member.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|pp=254–55}}<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45071841 |jstor=45071841 |title=The Indian Nationalist Movement and the League of Nations: Prologue to the United Nations |last1=Keenleyside |first1=T. A. |journal=[[India Quarterly]] |year=1983 |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=281–298 |doi=10.1177/097492848303900303 |s2cid=150520531}}</ref> Increasingly, Nehru saw the struggle for independence from [[British imperialism]] as a multinational effort by the various colonies and dominions of the Empire. The LAI was dominated by socialists and communists, but also included other nationalists.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=256}} The meeting had been financed by the government of Mexico and the Kuomintang of China.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=256}} Nehru interacted closely with the Chinese delegation and drafted a joint declaration that stressed a common cause against the British Empire.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=255}}

Nehru accepted an invitation to visit [[Moscow]] on the 10th anniversary of the [[October Revolution]]. {{sfn|Nanda|2007|pp=257–58}} He was impressed by its economic and social developments.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|pp=257–58}} He wrote articles on the Soviet Union in Indian papers, which were compiled in December 1928 under the title ''Soviet Russia: Some Random Sketches and Impressions''.<ref> McGarr, P. M., 2013. ''The Cold War in South Asia, Britain, the United States and the Indian Subcontinent, 1945–1965'', p. 31. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref> However, Nehru remained sceptical of Soviet intentions. In a report to the Congress back in India, Nehru indicated that the "Russians will try to utilize the League to further their owns ends".<ref> Akbar, M. J., 1988. ''Nehru: The Making of India'', p. 193. Viking: The University of California.</ref> After the LAI condemned Gandhi's [[Delhi Statement]], Nehru instructed the Congress to break off correspondence. He was expelled from membership in 1931.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=257}}<ref name="auto6">Louro, Michele L. "India and the League Against Imperialism: A Special 'Blend' of Nationalism and Internationalism". (2015).</ref>

=== Independence for India League: 1927–1928 ===

Nehru returned to India in December 1927 and disembarked at [[Madras]] to attend the annual Congress party session.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=181}} He drafted a resolution that the Congress should aim for India's complete independence from the British Empire.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=112}} The resolution passed despite Gandhi's criticism, and was supported by a newer generation of Congress leaders who were more receptive to radical solutions.<ref name="leone">{{Cite book|last=Leone|first=Fabio|url=|title=Prophet and Statesmen in Crafting Democracy in India: Political Leadership, Ideas, and Compromises|date=2019|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9781498569378|language=en|page=107}}</ref> Gandhi wrote to Nehru and disapproved of his association with radicals demanding complete independence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guha |first=Ramchandra |title=Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World |publisher=Penguin Allen Lane |year=2018 |isbn=978-0670083886 |pages=258}}</ref> Nehru replied that present strategies were proving ineffective and questioned Gandhi's leadership since the end of the Non-co-operation movement.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guha |first=Ramchandra |title=Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World |publisher=Penguin Allen Lane |year=2018 |isbn=978-0670083886 |pages=259}}</ref> Over the next few months, Nehru and Gandhi would exchange terse letters about India's political future.<ref>Mallik, Sangita., 2016. "Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharal Nehru", in E. Pföstl (ed.), ''Between Ethics and Politics: New Essays on Gandhi'', pp. 130–133. Milton Park: Taylor & Francis. {{ISBN|9781134911004}}.</ref>

 

In 1928, the [[Simon Commission]] arrived in India to discuss possible constitutional reforms for self-government. The Congress opposed the commission on the grounds that it did not include Indians. Nehru was opposed to continued aspirations for dominion status. In response to the Simon Commission, the [[All Parties Conference]] drafted the [[Nehru Report]], named after Nehru's father, Motilal Nehru, who chaired the drafting committee. Published in August 1928, the report outlined proposals for an Indian constitution under dominion status. In response, Nehru helped form the "Independence for India League", a pressure group within the Congress.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dutt|first=R.C.|url={{Google books|2WI31XdK8pkC|page=PR9|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|title=Socialism of Jawaharlal Nehru|date=1981|publisher=Shakti Malik, Abhinav Publications|isbn=978-81-7017-128-7|location=New Delhi|pages=54–55|access-date=8 September 2017}}</ref><ref name="auto4">{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/patellife00rajm|title=Patel: A Life|date=28 November 1991|publisher=Navajivan Publishing House|via=Internet Archive|pages=171|first=Rajmohan|last=Gandhi|author-link=Rajmohan Gandhi}}</ref> In September 1928, Nehru wrote to a friend "that the Congress contains at least two if not more groups which have nothing in common between them and the sooner they break apart the better".{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=121}} Nehru's group included [[Subhas Chandra Bose]]. However, Nehru's revolutionary spirit was tempered by his moderation. His father, who had rejoined the Congress and was the President in 1928, also cautioned him that "pure idealism divorced from realities has no place in politics".{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=301}} In December 1928, Gandhi and Nehru finally compromised. Gandhi proposed a resolution that called for the British to grant Dominion status to India within two years. If the British failed to meet the deadline, the Congress would call upon all Indians to fight for complete independence. Nehru objected to the time given to the British—he pressed Gandhi to demand immediate actions from the British. Gandhi brokered a further compromise by reducing the time given from two years to one.<ref name="auto4" />

 

==== Declaration of independence: 1929 ====

[[File:Jawaharlal Nehru and Motilal Nehru in 1929.jpg|thumb|Nehru, President-elect of the Lahore session of the Indian National Congress in 1929, with the outgoing President, his father Motilal]]  

Despite their disagreements, Gandhi encouraged Nehru to seek the Congress Presidency. Nehru was initially reluctant, and believed that the office would limit his political activity.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|p=313}} However, Gandhi persisted and eventually Nehru accepted his support. The British rejected demands for Dominion status in 1929.<ref name="auto4" /> Nehru assumed the presidency of the Congress party during the Lahore session on 29 December 1929, and introduced the successful resolution calling for [[Purna Swaraj|complete independence]].<ref name="auto4" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Purna Swaraj: The Demand for Full Independence 26 January 1930|url=http://www.indiaofthepast.org/contribute-memories/read-contributions/major-events-pre-1950/283-purna-swaraj-the-demand-for-full-independence-26-january-1930-|access-date=6 July 2015|website=indiaofthepast.org|archive-date=8 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108144457/http://www.indiaofthepast.org/contribute-memories/read-contributions/major-events-pre-1950/283-purna-swaraj-the-demand-for-full-independence-26-january-1930-|url-status=dead}}</ref> Nehru drafted the Indian Declaration of Independence, which stated:

 

<blockquote>We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities for growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it. The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually. We believe, therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/empire/transcript/g3cs3s2t.htm|title=Learning Curve British Empire|first=Public Record|last=Office|publisher=Public Record Office, The National Archives}}</ref></blockquote>

 

At midnight on New Year's Eve 1929, Nehru hoisted the [[Tricolour (flag)|tricolour]] [[flag of India]] upon the banks of the [[Ravi River|Ravi]] in Lahore.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Haroon|last=Khalid|url=https://scroll.in/article/866428/republic-day-story-on-ravis-banks-a-pledge-that-shaped-the-course-of-modern-india-88-years-ago|title=Republic Day story: On Ravi's banks, a pledge that shaped the course of modern India 88 years ago|website=[[Scroll.in]]|date=26 January 2018|access-date=16 August 2021}}</ref> A pledge of independence was read out, which included a readiness to withhold taxes. The massive gathering of the public attending the ceremony was asked if they agreed with it, and the majority of people were witnessed raising their hands in approval. 172 Indian members of central and provincial legislatures resigned in support of the resolution and in accordance with Indian public sentiment. The Congress asked the people of India to observe 26&nbsp;January as Independence Day.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/why-january-26-is-celebrated-as-republic-day-6230037/|title=Explained: Why India celebrates January 26 as Republic Day|date=30 January 2021}}</ref> Congress volunteers, nationalists, and the public hoisted the flag of India publicly across India. Plans for mass civil disobedience were also underway.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Education|first=Pearson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ADFpDwAAQBAJ&pg=SA1-PA145|title=SSC topic-wise Previous Years Solved Papers General Awareness|isbn=978-93-5286-640-3|publisher=Pearson Education India}}</ref>

After the Lahore session of the Congress in 1929, Nehru gradually emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi stepped back into a more spiritual role. Although Gandhi did not explicitly designate Nehru as his political heir until 1942, as early as the mid-1930s, the country saw Nehru as the natural successor to Gandhi.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/op-ed/151118/the-greatest-indian-after-the-mahatma-why-gandhi-chose-nehru-to-lead.html|title=The greatest Indian after the Mahatma? Why Gandhi chose Nehru to lead India|first=Praveen|last=Davar|date=15 November 2018|website=Deccan Chronicle}}</ref> As Congress President, Nehru drafted a "Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy" resolution for a free India.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Maheshwari|first=Neerja|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=okUSbReaevUC&pg=PA41|title=Economic Policy of Jawaharlal Nehru|date=1997|publisher=Deep & Deep|isbn=978-81-7100-850-6|pages=41|access-date=9 November 2018}}</ref> He declared the aims of the Congress were [[freedom of religion]]; [[Freedom of association|right to form associations]]; [[Freedom of speech|freedom of expression of thought]]; [[equality before the law]] for every individual without distinction of [[Caste system in India|caste]], colour, [[creed]], or [[Religion in India|religion]]; protection of [[Languages of India|regional languages]] and cultures, safeguarding the interests of the [[Poverty in India|peasants]] and labour; abolition of [[untouchability]]; introduction of the adult franchise; imposition of [[Alcohol prohibition in India|prohibition]], [[nationalisation]] of industries; [[Socialism in India|socialism]]; and the establishment of a [[Secularism in India|secular India]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kochar|first=R. C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DuFW7RKqpt4C&pg=PA22|title=Congress and Socialism: Economic Programmes and Policies|year=1997|isbn=978-81-86565-24-7|pages=22|publisher=Anamika Publishers & Distributors}}</ref> The resolution was passed at the [[Karachi]] session in March 1931.<ref name="NA2015">{{Cite book |editor-last=Pandey |editor-first=BN |title=The Indian Nationalist Movement 1885–1947: Select Documents |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KauwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PR7 |year=2015 |publisher=[[Springer Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-349-86215-3 |page=45}}</ref>

In early 1930, the Congress began planning [[civil disobedience]] to pressure the British authorities.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|pp=137–140}} While Gandhi was planning a course of action, Nehru led the Congress in celebrating India's first 'independence day' on 26 January 1930 and hoisted the newly adopted tricolor flag.{{sfn|Nanda|2007|pp=327–328}} Soon afterwards, Gandhi offered an 'Eleven Points' ultimatum to the British government; if the government would accept these points, Gandhi would call off civil disobedience. One of the 'Eleven Points' included the abolition of the British [[salt tax]]. Nehru was not enthusiastic about the 'Eleven Points' ultimatum and considered the demands too modest.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|pp=137–140}} The government rejected the offer and Gandhi pressed ahead with civil disobedience through a ''[[satyagraha]]'' aimed at the salt tax. Most of the Congress leaders were ambivalent. Nehru wrote that "We were bewildered and could not quite fit in a national struggle with common salt."<ref>Nehru, Jawaharlal, 1982. ''An Autobiography'', p. 210. Delhi: Oxford University Press.</ref> After the protest had gathered steam, Nehru and other leaders realised the power of salt as a symbol. Nehru remarked about the unprecedented popular response, "It seemed as though a spring had been suddenly released".<ref name="gopalgandhi">[[Gopalkrishna Gandhi|Gandhi, Gopalkrishna]]. [http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article388858.ece "The Great Dandi March – eighty years after"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717030642/http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article388858.ece|date=17 July 2012}}, ''[[The Hindu]]'', 5 April 2010</ref>  

On 12 March, Gandhi set out from his ashram at [[Sabarmati]] for the small sea side village of [[Dandi, Navsari|Dandi]]. Nehru met Gandhi at [[Jambusar]], about halfway between Sabarmati and Dandi.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=166}} After returning to Allahabad, Nehru made a speech to the country's youth:

<blockquote>The pilgrim marches onward. The field of battle lies before you, the flag of India beckons you, and freedom herself awaits your coming. Do you hesitate now, you who were but yesterday so loudly on her side? Will you be mere lookers-on in this glorious struggle and see your best and bravest face the might of a great empire which has crushed your country and her children?  

Who lives if India dies? Who dies if India lives?{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=166}}</blockquote>

Gandhi broke the colonial salt law at Dandi on 6 April. Nehru was arrested on 14&nbsp;April 1930 while on a train from Allahabad to [[Raipur]]. Earlier, after addressing a huge meeting and leading a vast procession, he had ceremoniously manufactured some contraband salt. He was charged with breach of the salt law and sentenced to six months of imprisonment at Central Jail.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Vinod|last=Khanal|title=Mahatma Gandhi describes Nehru's arrest in 1930 as 'rest' |website=[[The Times of India]]|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Mahatma-Gandhi-describes-Nehrus-arrest-in-1930-as-rest/articleshow/45140212.cms|date=13 November 2014|access-date=16 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/handle/123456789/2754199?searchWord=nehru&backquery=[query=nehru+liaquat+pact&originalquery=&sort_by=dc.date.accessioned_dt&order=desc&rpp=20&etal=0&start=100 |title=Civil Disobedience Movement in the United Provinces. Arrest of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru |publisher=United Provinces Government |year=1930 |location=New Delhi |pages=71 |chapter=Telegram Post No. 90, dated (and read) 14th April, 1930 |quote="For breaking Salt Law Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested at Allahabad this morning." |access-date=9 September 2022 |url-access=registration |via=[[National Archives of India]]}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=167}} With Nehru's arrest, the civil disobedience acquired a new tempo, and arrests, firing on crowds and [[Baton charge|lathi charges]] grew to be ordinary occurrences.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=168}}

<blockquote>The breach of the Salt Act soon became just one activity, and civil resistance spread to other fields. This was facilitated by the promulgation of various ordinances by the Viceroy prohibiting a number of activities. As these ordinances and prohibitions grew, the opportunities for breaking them also grew, and civil resistance took the form of doing the very thing that the ordinance was intended to stop.<ref>Nehru, Jawaharlal, 1982. ''An Autobiography'', p. 215. Delhi: Oxford University Press.</ref></blockquote>

==== Gandhi-Irwin pact and No-Rent: 1931–1932 ====

 

 

 

 

 

On 7 April 1934, Gandhi officially called off the Civil Disobedience Movement.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|pp=231}} The movement had been fading since Gandhi became preoccupied with social issues. Nehru felt disappointed and betrayed.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|pp=186–87}} He wrote "... there is hardly any common ground between me and Bapu and the others who lead the Congress today. Our objectives are different, our ideals are different, and our methods are likely to be different".{{sfn|Pandey|1976|p=179}}<ref name="R.Dube">{{Cite book|last=Dube|first=Rajendra Prasad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zE7VJZoHbzYC|title=Jawaharlal Nehru: A Study in Ideology and Social Change|date=1988|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=9788170990710|language=en|page=106}}</ref> The end of the movement was followed by Gandhi's announcement on 17 September 1934 that he was retiring from Congress politics to focus on social issues.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dalton|first=Dennis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxUp1igCL_0C|title=Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action|date=2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231159593|language=en|page=230}}</ref> In the interim, the Swaraj Party had been reformed in May 1934 as a group within the Congress, with the support of Gandhi. The Swarajists aimed to contest the [[1934 Indian general election]]{{sfn|Moraes|2007|pp=235–36}}<ref name="Ghose1988">{{Cite book|last=Ghose|first=Shankar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C|title=Mahatma Gandhi|date=1988|publisher=Allied Publishers Limited|isbn=9788170232056|language=en|page=226–27}}</ref> However, it was soon decided that the Congress itself would enter the elections, rather than the Swaraj Party on its behalf. To this end, a Congress Parliamentary Board was formed.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gandhi|first=Rajmohan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FauJL7LKXmkC|title=Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire|date=2012|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520255708|language=en|page=364}}</ref>

 

The end of civil disobedience and the embrace of constitutionalism was a bitter blow for Nehru. The business community had been pressuring the Congress to revert to constitutionalism. In April 1934, Gandhi wrote to [[G. D. Birla]] that "There will always be a party within the Congress wedded to the idea of council-entry. The reigns of the Congress should be in the hands of that group".<ref name="Ghose1988" /> The business community was determined to secure influence with the party and office holders. Nehru became unhappy with the anti-socialist orientation of the Congress leadership.{{sfn|Pandey|1976|p=179}}<ref name="R.Dube"/> He wrote:

 

 

Nehru questioned the sincerity of constitutionalism. He complained that there were constitutionalists who had avoided civil disobedience when politics was unsafe and now sought office.<ref name="Ghose1988"/> Nehru was also greatly concerned at this time by the growth of [[Communal_violence#Asia|communalism]]. He was critical of religious organisations whom he saw as putting their sectarian interests above the national one of independence.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|pp=182–83}} The competition for office would only widen communal tensions.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|pp=253}}

 

 

 

 

 

In June 1938, Nehru left for Europe. He stopped on the way at [[Alexandria]], where he met [[Nahas Pasha]] and [[Wafd Party]] officials.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|pp=234}}  Nehru arrived in Spain as a guest of the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)| Republican]] government, and visited troops fighting in the [[Spanish Civil War|civil war]].{{sfn|Gopal|1976|pp=235}} After Spain, Nehru left for England, where his daughter, Indira, was studying at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]]. In June 1938, Nehru and Indira stayed at the country house of [[Stafford Cripps]] in Gloucestershire. He met with the leadership of the Labour party, including [[Clement Attlee]], [[Harold Laski]], [[Aneurin Bevan]], and Cripps himself. Nehru and the Labour party reached an informal concordat on India's constitutional future and future relations with the United Kingdom as a free country.{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=142}} Unlike his previous vists, Nehru agreed to meet British government officials. He met the Lords [[Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax|Halifax]], [[Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland|Zetland]], and [[Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow|Linlithgow]]. He warned viceroy Linlithgow, then on leave in England, that British rule in India would not survive another ten years.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|pp=236}} Nehru attended various events in England as a political celebrity. He received Jewish delegations, and arranged for the resettlement in India of some refugees from Germany.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|pp=236}} Nehru also took stock of the political situation in Europe. He visited [[Paris]] to address an international conference on bombing of civilians in Spain. He was invited to visit Germany by the Nazi government.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|pp=270}} Nehru declined, but did make a private visit to [[Munich]].{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=142}} He then went to [[Prague]], where he denounced German foreign policy. In September, Nehru was in Geneva, and planning to travel to the Soviet Union. However, he was unable to secure a visa, and ended up returning to India in November 1938.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|pp=238}}

 

While abroad, Nehru accepted an offer from Bose to head the newly formed [[National Planning Commission of India|National Planning Commission]] and shape India's future economic policy.<ref name="Mukherjee2012p146">{{Cite book|last=Bose|first=Sugata|url=|title=His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle Against Empire|date=2012|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674065963|language=en|page=146}}</ref> The Planning Commission met for the first time in Bombay on December 17 1938.<ref name="Mukherjee2012p146"/> Nehru distributed a questionnaire, and constituted thirty sub-committees to make detailed recommendations.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=245-48}} Work was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, but twenty-six volumes of sub-committee reports were eventually completed and published after the war.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Prakash|first=Gyan|url=|title=Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India|date=2020|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691214214|language=en|page=198}}</ref> Nehru chaired meetings until his arrest by the government in October 1940.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=245-48}}

 

Upon his return to India, Nehru found Bose in a confrontation with Gandhi and the Congress Working Committee over policy and leadership.{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=145}}{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=149}} Bose claimed to be leading the Congress left against Gandhi and the "rightists".{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=154}} Nehru disagreed and thought Bose was being too simplistic.{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=154}} Nehru also disagreed on Bose on other matters. After his return, Nehru proposed a resolution that the Congress should offer employment in India to Jewish refugees who were experts and specialists. Bose successfully opposed the proposal in the Working Committee on the premise that "foreign policy is a realistic affair to be determined largely from the point of view of a nation's self-interest".{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=111}} Bose did not wish to weaken relations with Germany. Nehru was also concerned by Bose's methods. He described the Bose presidency as "far more authoritarian than any during the recent history of the Congress".{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=157}} He became concerned over Bose's admiration for Mussolini.{{sfn|Mukherjee|2018|p=43}} He argued that "radical slogans allied to authoritarianism is a wrong and dangerous trend".{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=157}}

 

Nehru felt that because of the international situation, the Congress needed unity to face coming events.{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=153}} He unsuccessfully requested Bose not to seek a second term at the [[Tewar, Madhya Pradesh|Tripuri]] session.{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=153}} He refused Gandhi's request to stand against Bose in the election.{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=149}} Bose was re-elected at Tripuri in March, prevailing over Gandhi's candidate [[Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya|Sitaramayya]] by 1580 to 1377 votes.{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=154}} However, Gandhi's supporters successfully passed a resolution demanding Bose abide by his guidance. Bose's position became untenable, and he resigned on 29 April 1939.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=248}} Nehru disagreed with Gandhi's response to Bose, but nor could he bring himself to openly support Bose. Nehru and Bose subsequently fell out over the events.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=248}}{{sfn|Mukherjee|2015|p=159-160}} Bose failed to secure support from the Congress Socialist Party on the resolution, and claimed Nehru had sided with Gandhi.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=248}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kuracina|first=William F.|url=|title=Politics and Left Unity in India: The United Front in Late Colonial India|publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=2017|isbn=9781351679398|language=en|page=184}}</ref> Nehru had urged Gandhi to compromise with Bose, but this was unsuccessful.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=248}}{{sfn|Mukherjee|2018|p=44}}

The Congress traditionally chose not to intervene in the affairs of the Indian princely states. Left to themselves, local activists organised themselves into [[Praja Mandal|praja mandal]]s, and raised demands for constitutional rights. In 1927, these local bodies organised themselves under the [[All India States Peoples Conference]] (AISPC).<ref name="Bandyopadhya?a2004">{{Cite book|last=Sekhara Bandyopadhya?a|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EpNz0U8VEQC|title=From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India|publisher=[[Orient Blackswan]]|year=2004|isbn=978-81-250-2596-2|page=409-410}}</ref> One of Nehru's main objections to the Government of India Act 1935 was the proposed "All-India Federation".{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=233-34}} Under the act, the princes would nominate members to an upper and lower house of a federal legislature, while remaining members were popularly elected from direct rule states. The British government gave disproportionate representation to the princely states to counter the power of the Congress in popular assemblies. Nehru objected to the feudal and non-democratic nature of the proposed federation, and urged the Congress to support popular movements in the princely states.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=233-34}} Although the federation had not materialised due to opposition from the princes, the Raj was in negotiations over its implementation. While President, Nehru endorsed a request from N. S. Hardikar to carry out political activities in [[Kingdom of Mysore|Mysore]]. In October 1937, the Congress Socialist Party, with Nehru's support, successfully passed a resolution in the All-India Congress Committee that the Congress should offer moral and material support to the AISPC.<ref name="Ashton">{{Cite book|last=Ashton|first=S. R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcGxEAAAQBAJ|title=British Policy Towards the Indian States 1905–1939|publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=2023|isbn=9781000855777|language=en|page=182-85}}</ref> However, other Congress leaders were not yet supportive of extending political activities to princely states. Gandhi criticised Nehru publicly for attacking the government of Mysore in 1937.{{sfn|Gopal|1976|p=233-34}}  

During the Bose presidency, federation became a major political issue, and the party passed more comprehensive resolutions authorising political involvement in the princely states.<ref name="Bandyopadhya?a2004"/> Encouraged by the new Congress policy, many of the princely states witnessed popular agitations in late 1938 and early 1939.<ref name="Bandyopadhya?a2004"/> In February 1939, Nehru accepted the role of President of the AISPC. He gave his inaugural address at [[Ludhiana]] on 15 February 1939 and stated:

<blockquote>Year after year this Conference of the people of the Indian States has met in session and discussed the problems of the States. Year after year it has raised its voice in condemnation of the autocracy and misrule, the corruption and the degradation that have prevailed in many of these States. The labours of this Conference, and far so of the National Congress, have borne fruit, and today there is a mighty awakening among the people of the States...At this vital movement, you have summoned me to this Conference, and I have gladly come at your bidding. I come to you not only because I am intensely interested in the freedom of the people of the States, but as the bearer of the goodwill

of the rest of India and as a pledge of our solidarity.<ref name="unityofindia">{{Cite book|last=Nehru|first=Jawaharlal|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.264720|title=The Unity Of India Collected Writing 1937-1940|publisher=Lindsay Drummond|date=1948|isbn=|language=en|page=27-46}}</ref></blockquote>

In his speech, Nehru stressed the movement must follow principles of non-violence.<ref name="unityofindia"/> However, confronted by repressive state actions, peaceful demonstrations deteriorated into violence, and later into sectarian conflicts in the southern Deccan.<ref name="Bandyopadhya?a2004"/> Congress leaders had to assume personal control of demonstrations to quell the disorder.<ref name="Ashton"/> In April 1939, the princely states ended negotiations over the federation, but the popular agitations continued until autumn.<ref name="Bandyopadhya?a2004"/>{{sfn|Ashton|2023|p=188}} AISPC was to play an important role during the political integration of India, helping Indian leaders negotiate with hundreds of princes.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chandra|first=Bipin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ipwpbhd6sQUC|title=India Since Independence|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|date=2008|isbn=9788184750539|language=en|page=83}}</ref>

On 23 October 1939, the Congress condemned the Viceroy's attitude and called upon the Congress ministries in the various provinces to resign in protest.<ref name="gandhis-passions">{{cite book |title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi |last=Wolpert |first=Stanley |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-515634-X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gandhispassionli00wolp/page/192 192]–193|url=https://archive.org/details/gandhispassionli00wolp |url-access=registration |access-date=4 December 2007 }}</ref> Before this crucial announcement, Nehru urged Jinnah and the Muslim League to join the protest, but Jinnah declined.<ref name="plassey-to-partition" /><ref name="british-empire-fall">{{cite web |url=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kenanderson/histempsequel/page5.html |title=Gandhi – The Great Soul |access-date=4 December 2007 |last=Anderson |first=Ken |work=The British Empire: Fall of the Empire |archive-date=23 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723053926/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kenanderson/histempsequel/page5.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In March 1940, Muhammad Ali Jinnah passed what came to be known as the [[Pakistan Resolution]], declaring that, "Muslims are a nation according to any definition of a nation, and they must have their [[homeland]]s, their territory and their State." This state was to be known as Pakistan, meaning 'Land of the Pure'.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40961603|title=How Jinnah's ideology shapes Pakistan's identity|first=Secunder|last=Kermani|date=18 August 2017|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> Nehru angrily declared that "all the old problems&nbsp;... pale into insignificance before the latest stand taken by the Muslim League leader in Lahore".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chand|first=Attar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgUJAQAAMAAJ|title=India and Asia-Pacific Security Volume 2|pages=223|date=21 May 2010|publisher=Amar Prakashan|isbn=978-81-8542-031-8|via=Google Books}}</ref> Linlithgow made Nehru an [[August Offer|offer]] on 8&nbsp;October 1940, which stated that [[Dominion of India|Dominion status for India]] was the objective of the British government.<ref>Radhey Shyam Chaurasia (2002). ''History of Modern India, 1707 A. D. to 2000 A.'' Atlantic Publishers. pp. 281–283</ref> However, it referred neither to a date nor a method to accomplish this. Only Jinnah received something more precise: "The British would not contemplate transferring power to a Congress-dominated national government, the authority of which was denied by various elements in India's national life".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sears|first=Stephen W.|author-link=Stephen W. Sears|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7xt6BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT616|title=The British Empire|date=10 September 2014|publisher=New Word City|isbn=978-1-61230-809-8|via=Google Books}}</ref>

[[File:Gandhi and Nehru 1942.jpg|thumb|Gandhi and Nehru during the drafting of [[Quit India Resolution]] in [[Bombay]], August 1942 ]]

When the Japanese [[Burma campaign|carried their attack through Burma]] (now [[Myanmar]]) to the borders of India in the spring of 1942, the British government, faced with this new military threat, decided to make some overtures to India, as Nehru had originally desired.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Amy McKenna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3Lc8XRHz7kC&pg=PA223|title=The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time|date=20 December 2009|publisher=[[Rosen Publishing|The Rosen Publishing Group]]|pages=223|isbn=978-1-61530-015-0|via=Google Books}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hoiberg|first=Dale|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISFBJarYX7YC&pg=PA109|title=Students' Britannica India|date=19 December 2018|publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-0-85229-760-5|pages=108–109|volume=4|via=Google Books}}</ref> As soon as he arrived, he discovered that India was more deeply divided than he had imagined. Nehru, eager for a compromise, was hopeful; Gandhi was not. Jinnah had continued opposing the Congress: "Pakistan is our only demand, and by God, we will have it," he declared in the Muslim League newspaper [[Dawn (newspaper)|''Dawn'']].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mansergh|first=Nicholas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZiAAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA145|title=Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs: Problems of Wartime Cooperation and Post-War Change 1939–1952|date=21 August 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-24289-2|pages=145|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Cripps Mission|Cripps' mission]] failed as Gandhi would accept nothing less than independence. Relations between Nehru and Gandhi cooled over the latter's refusal to co-operate with Cripps, but the two later reconciled.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The National Archives – Homepage|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/cripps-nehru-gandhi/|work=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|nationalarchives.gov.uk]]|access-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201235944/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/cripps-nehru-gandhi/|archive-date=1 December 2021|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Nehru and his colleagues were released prior to the arrival of the British [[1946 Cabinet Mission to India]] to propose plans for the transfer of power.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/features/nehru-s-belongings-still-intact-in-almora-jail-157835|title=Nehru's belongings still intact in Almora jail|first=BD|last=Kasniyal|website=Tribuneindia News Service|date=13 November 2015}}</ref><ref name="auto7">{{Cite web|url=https://thewire.in/history/past-continuous-nehru-independence|title=Past Continuous: Those Who Think Nehru Was Power Hungry Should Review Events Leading to Independence|website=The Wire|first=Nilanjan|last=Mukhopadhyay|date=14 November 2018}}</ref> The agreed plan in 1946 led to elections to the provincial assemblies. In turn, the members of the assemblies elected members of the Constituent Assembly. Congress won the majority of seats in the assembly and headed the [[Interim Government of India|interim government]], with Nehru as the prime minister. The Muslim League joined the government later with [[Liaquat Ali Khan]] as the Finance member.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/september-2-when-indias-interim-govt-was-formed-in-1946-5959889/|title=Explained: When India's interim government was formed in 1946|date=3 September 2019|first=Om|last=Marathe|website=The Indian Express}}</ref><ref>V. Krishna Ananth. [https://books.google.com/books?id=X62Sc3muOyQC ''India Since Independence: Making Sense of Indian Politics'']. Pearson Education India. 2010. pp. 28–30.</ref>

In July 1946, Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state could prevail militarily against the army of independent India.<ref name="name=">">{{Cite book|last1=Menon|first1=Shivshankar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eaWWDwAAQBAJ|title=India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present|date=20 April 2021|isbn=978-0-670-09129-4|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|pages=34}}</ref> In January 1947, he said that independent India would not accept the [[divine right of kings]].<ref>Lumby, E. W. R. 1954. ''The Transfer of Power in India, 1945–1947''. London: [[George Allen and Unwin|George Allen & Unwin]]. p. 228</ref> In May 1947, he declared that any [[princely state]] which refused to join the [[Constituent Assembly of India|Constituent Assembly]] would be treated as an enemy state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pib.gov.in/newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=172053|title=Sardar Patel – Man who United India|date=30 October 2017|first=Aaditya|last=Tiwari|website=pib.gov.in}}</ref> Vallabhbhai Patel and V. P. Menon were more conciliatory towards the princes, and as the men charged with integrating the states, were successful in the task.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/research/how-vallabhbhai-patel-v-p-menon-and-mountbatten-unified-india-4915468/|title=How Vallabhbhai Patel, V P Menon and Mountbatten unified India|date=31 October 2017}}</ref> During the drafting of the Indian constitution, many Indian leaders (except Nehru) were in favour of allowing each princely state or covenanting state to be independent as a federal state along the lines suggested originally by the Government of India Act 1935. But as the drafting of the constitution progressed, and the idea of forming a republic took concrete shape, it was decided that all the princely states/covenanting states would merge with the Indian republic.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2753451|title=The Unification of India, 1947–1951|author=Furber, Holden|year=1951|journal=[[Pacific Affairs]]|volume=24|issue=4|pages=352–371|via=JSTOR|doi=10.2307/2753451|jstor=2753451|author-link=Holden Furber}}</ref>

In 1963, 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".<ref>{{cite book|title=Sri Lanka, the Years of Terror: The J.V.P. Insurrection, 1987–1989|author=C. A. Chandraprema|year=1991|page=81|publisher=Lake House Bookshop|isbn=9789559029038 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmRuAAAAMAAJ|quote=Nehru brought in legislation making illegal the demand for secession in 1963. Thereafter, the DMK dropped its demand for a "Dravida Nadu".}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lw7z_JOnv0sC|title=Small Arms Control: Old Weapons, New Issues|quote=Although the campaign for secession has reached its apex in Kashmir, the first Indian state to agitate for separatism was Tamil Nadu. In 1963, in response to the vociferous campaign for a Dravidastan, Premier Nehru introduced the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, making it mandatory for those running for office to take an oath stating, "I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India".|author= Jayantha Dhanapala, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]|year=1999|isbn=9780754620761 }}</ref>

 

Nehru's daughter, [[Indira Gandhi]], as prime minister, derecognised all the rulers by presidential order in 1969, a decision struck down by the [[Supreme Court of India]]. Eventually, her government by the [[Privy Purse in India|26th amendment]] to the constitution was successful in derecognising these former rulers and ending the privy purse paid to them in 1971.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20030818-56-events-that-changed-india-dissolution-of-princely-states-in-1950-791861-2003-08-18|title=56 events that changed India: Dissolution of princely states in 1950|date=18 August 2003|access-date=16 August 2021|website=[[India Today]]}}</ref>

The period before independence in early 1947 was impaired by outbreaks of communal violence and political disorder, and the opposition of the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]] led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who were demanding a separate Muslim state of Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lfcvAQAAIAAJ&q=After+failed+bid+to+form+coalition,+Nehru+reluctantly+supported+the+partition+of+India,+according+to+a+plan+released+by+the+British+on+3+June+1947. |isbn=978-81-7041-859-7 |title=Encyclopaedia Indica: Independent India and wars – I |year=1996 |publisher=Anmol Publications}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x1MwAQAAIAAJ&q=After+failed+bid+to+form+coalition,+Nehru+reluctantly+supported+the+partition+of+India,+according+to+a+plan+released+by+the+British+on+3+June+1947. |isbn=978-81-261-3745-9|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian War of Independence, 1857–1947: Gandhi era : Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sardar Patel |year=2009 |publisher=Anmol Publications}}</ref>

<blockquote>Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history when we step out from the old to the new when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.<ref name="Tryst">{{Cite news|first=Jawaharlal|last=Nehru|date=30 April 2007|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/may/01/greatspeeches|title=A Tryst with Destiny|access-date=16 August 2021 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140524211546/https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/may/01/greatspeeches |archive-date=24 May 2014|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref></blockquote>

{{Main|Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi|The light has gone out of our lives|l2=Nehru's address on Gandhi}}

On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was shot while he was walking in the garden of Birla House on his way to address a prayer meeting. The assassin, [[Nathuram Godse]], was a [[Hindu nationalism|Hindu nationalist]] with links to the extremist [[Hindu Mahasabha]] party, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/the-politics-of-an-assassination-who-killed-gandhi-and-why/story-iUJqKjuw0sP9nAfc5KcOII.html|title=The politics of an assassination: Who killed Gandhi and why?|date=15 August 2015|first=Abhishek|last=Saha|website=Hindustan Times}}</ref> Nehru addressed the nation by radio:

[[Yasmin Khan]] argued that Gandhi's death and funeral helped consolidate the authority of the new Indian state under Nehru and Patel. The Congress tightly controlled the epic public displays of grief over a two-week period—the funeral, mortuary rituals and distribution of the martyr's ashes with millions participating in different events.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/boundaries-of-belonging/performing-the-state-in-post1947-india-and-pakistan/51E29D5CE278C3362B5D10B45D35C71F/core-reader|title=Boundaries of Belonging|chapter='Performing the State' in Post-1947 India and Pakistan|date=31 October 2019|publisher=Cambridge University Press|first1=Sarah|last1=Ansari|first2=William|last2=Gould|pages=23–66|doi=10.1017/9781108164511.003|isbn=978-1-107-19605-6|s2cid=211394653}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/78902926.pdf|title=Performing Peace: Gandhi's assassination as a critical moment in the consolidation of the Nehruvian state|first=Yasmin|last=Khan|website=[[CORE (research service)|core.ac.uk]]}}</ref> The goal was to assert the power of the government, legitimise the Congress party's control and suppress all religious paramilitary groups. Nehru and Patel suppressed the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] (RSS), the Muslim National Guards, and the [[Khaksars]], with some 200,000 arrests.<ref name="Khan2011">{{cite journal |last1=Khan |first1=Yasmin |year=2011|title=Performing Peace: Gandhi's assassination as a critical moment in the consolidation of the Nehruvian state |journal=[[Modern Asian Studies]] |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=57–80 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X10000223|s2cid=144894540 }} {{subscription required}}</ref> Gandhi's death and funeral linked the distant state with the Indian people and helped them to understand the need to suppress religious parties during the transition to independence for the Indian people.<ref name="performingpeace">{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/performing-peace-gandhis-assassination-as-a-critical-moment-in-the-consolidation-of-the-nehruvian-state/B13C16345C0092DF55010CDEFA9ACACF|title=Performing Peace: Gandhi's assassination as a critical moment in the consolidation of the Nehruvian state|first=Yasmin|last=Khan|date=12 January 2011|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=45|issue=1|pages=57–80|via=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0026749X10000223|s2cid=144894540}}</ref> In later years, there emerged a revisionist school of history which sought to blame Nehru for the partition of India, mostly referring to his highly [[centralised]] policies for an independent India in 1947, which Jinnah opposed in favour of a more [[decentralised]] India.<ref name="ibn">{{Cite web |url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gandhi-jinnah-both-failed-jaswant/99323-37.html |title=Gandhi, Jinnah both failed: Jaswant |last=Thapar |first=Karan |date=17 August 2009 |author-link=Karan Thapar |publisher=ibnlive.in.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703195004/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gandhi-jinnah-both-failed-jaswant/99323-37.html |archive-date=3 July 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/After-Advani-Jaswant-turns-Jinnah-admirer/articleshow/4900326.cms |title=After Advani, Jaswant turns Jinnah admirer |date=17 August 2009 |access-date=15 August 2021 |work=[[The Economic Times]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020021442/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/After-Advani-Jaswant-turns-Jinnah-admirer/articleshow/4900326.cms |archive-date=20 October 2017 |location=India}}</ref>

The British Indian Empire, which included present-day India, Pakistan, and [[Bangladesh]], was divided into two types of territories: the Provinces of British India, which were governed directly by British officials responsible to the [[Viceroy]] of India; and princely states, under the rule of local hereditary rulers who recognised British [[suzerainty]] in return for local autonomy, in most cases as established by a treaty.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.thehindu.com/thread/politics-and-policy/article8366115.ece |title=Maps are malleable. Even Bharat Mata's |last=Ghosh |first=Bishwanath |date=17 March 2016 |access-date=15 August 2021 |work=[[The Hindu]]}}</ref> Between 1947 and about 1950, the territories of the princely states were politically integrated into the Indian Union under Nehru and Sardar Patel. Most were merged into existing provinces; others were organised into new provinces, such as [[Rajputana]], Himachal Pradesh, [[Madhya Bharat]], and [[Vindhya Pradesh]], made up of multiple princely states; a few, including Mysore, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Bilaspur, became separate provinces.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Adrija|last=Roychowdhury|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/research/five-states-that-refused-to-join-india-after-independence/ |title=Five states that refused to join India after Independence |date=17 August 2017|access-date=15 August 2021|work=[[The Indian Express]]}}</ref> The Government of India Act 1935 remained the constitutional law of India the pending adoption of a new Constitution.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/time-to-recall-efforts-made-to-create-the-constitution/article8177274.ece|title=Time to recall efforts made to create the Constitution|first=Mohamed Imranullah|last=S.|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|date=1 February 2016|access-date=15 August 2021}}</ref>

After the adoption of the constitution on 26&nbsp;November 1949, the Constituent Assembly continued to act as the interim parliament until new elections. Nehru's interim cabinet consisted of 15 members from diverse communities and parties.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/september-2-when-indias-interim-govt-was-formed-in-1946-5959889/|title=Explained: When India's interim government was formed in 1946|first=Om|last=Marathe|date=3 September 2019|access-date=15 August 2021|website=The Indian Express}}</ref> The first elections to Indian legislative bodies (National parliament and State assemblies ) under the new constitution of India were held in [[1951–52 Indian general election|1952]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3024683|title=India's General Elections|author=Park, Richard Leonard|year=1952|journal=[[Far Eastern Survey]]|volume=21|issue=1|pages=1–8|via=JSTOR|doi=10.2307/3024683|jstor=3024683}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4kNnAAAAMAAJ&q=The+first+elections+to+Indian+legislative+bodies+(National+parliament+and+State+assemblies+)+under+the+new+constitution+of+India+were+held+in+%5B%5B1951%E2%80%9352+Indian+general+election%7C1952%5D%5D. |title=Indian and Foreign Review |year=1969 |publisher=Publications Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India}}</ref> Various members of the cabinet resigned from their posts and formed their own parties to contest the elections. During that period, the then Congress party president, [[Purushottam Das Tandon]], also resigned from his post because of differences with Nehru and since Nehru's popularity was needed for winning elections. Nehru, while being the prime minister, was elected the president of Congress for 1951 and 1952.<ref name="Weiner2015">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xz_WCgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11 |title=Party Politics in India |first=Myron |last=Weiner |author-link=Myron Weiner |date=8 December 2015 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4008-7841-3 |pages=78–79}}</ref><ref name="indianexpress1">Varshney, Ashutosh. 28 March 2015. [http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/faults-and-lines/99/ "Faults and lines"]. ''[[The Indian Express]]''. Retrieved on 16 June 2020.</ref> In the election, despite numerous competing parties, the Congress party under Nehru's leadership won a large majority at both state and national levels.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40209795|title=Democracy's Biggest Gamble: India's First Free Elections in 1952|author=Guha, Ramachandra|author-link=Ramachandra Guha|year=2002|journal=[[World Policy Journal]]|volume=19|issue=1|pages=95–103|doi=10.1215/07402775-2002-2005|jstor=40209795|via=JSTOR}}</ref>

In December 1953, Nehru appointed the [[States Reorganisation Commission]] to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines. Headed by Justice [[Fazal Ali]], the commission itself was also known as the Fazal Ali Commission.<ref name="Koshi">{{Cite news |url=https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/explainer-reorganization-states-india-and-why-it-happened-52273 |title=Explainer: The reorganization of states in India and why it happened |last=Koshi |first=Luke |date=2 November 2016 |website=[[The News Minute]] |access-date=3 April 2019}}</ref> [[Govind Ballabh Pant]], who served as Nehru's [[Minister of Home Affairs (India)|home minister]] from December 1954, oversaw the commission's efforts.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.news18.com/news/india/govind-ballabh-pants-death-anniversary-remembering-the-first-chief-minister-of-uttar-pradesh-3507449.html|title=Govind Ballabh Pant's Death Anniversary: Remembering the First Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh|date=7 March 2021|access-date=15 August 2021|publisher=[[News18]]}}</ref> The commission created a report in 1955 recommending the reorganisation of India's states.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/state-of-the-nation/307830/0|title=State of the Nation|date=11 May 2008|access-date=15 August 2021|website=[[The Indian Express]]}}</ref>

In the [[1957 Indian general election|1957 elections]], under Nehru's leadership, the [[Indian National Congress]] easily won a second term in power, taking 371 of the 494 seats. They gained an extra seven seats (the size of the Lok Sabha had been increased by five) and their vote share increased from 45.0% to 47.8%. The INC won nearly five times more votes than the [[Communist Party of India|Communist Party]], the second-largest party.<ref>{{Cite web|title=1957 India General (2nd Lok Sabha) Elections Results|url=https://www.elections.in/parliamentary-constituencies/1957-election-results.html|access-date=31 August 2020|website=elections.in}}</ref>

In [[1962 Indian general election|1962]], Nehru led the Congress to victory with a diminished majority. The numbers who voted for the [[Indian Communist Party|Communist]] and socialist parties grew, although some right-wing groups like [[Bharatiya Jana Sangh]] also did well.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://zeenews.india.com/lok-sabha-general-elections-2019/the-story-of-1962-lok-sabha-election-all-you-need-to-know-2185457.html|title=INKredible India: The story of 1962 Lok Sabha election – All you need to know|date=6 March 2019|first=Shubhodeep|last=Chakravarty|website=Zee News}}</ref>

From 1959, in a process that accelerated in 1961, Nehru adopted the "[[Forward policy (Sino-Indian conflict)|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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Noorani |first=A.G. |title=Perseverance in the peace process |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2017/stories/20030829001604900.htm |date=29 August 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050326174852/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2017/stories/20030829001604900.htm |archive-date=26 March 2005 |work=[[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]] |publisher=hinduonnet.com |access-date=15 August 2021}}</ref> China attacked some of these outposts, and the [[Sino-Indian War]] began, which India lost. The war ended with China announcing a unilateral ceasefire and with its forces withdrawing to 20 kilometres behind the [[Line of Actual Control|line of actual control]] of 1959.<ref name="Klintworth 1987">{{cite book |last=Klintworth |first=G. |title=China's India War: A Question of Confidence |publisher=Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University |series=Working paper (Australian National University. Strategic and Defence Studies Centre) |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-7315-0087-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nt65AAAAIAAJ |page=10 |quote=China declared a unilateral ceasefire and by December it had withdrawn its forces to positions 20 km behind the line of actual control that had existed in 1959}}</ref>

[[File:India disputed areas map.svg|thumb|alt=See caption|Map showing [[List of disputed territories of India|disputed territories of India]]]]

To date, Nehru is considered the most popular prime minister winning three consecutive elections with around 45% of the vote.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/india/after-nehru-and-indira-modi-is-only-pm-to-come-back-to-power-with-full-majority/articleshow/69464495.cms?from=mdr |title=After Nehru and Indira, Modi is only PM to come back to power with full majority |date=23 May 2019 |newspaper=The Economic Times}}</ref> A [[Pathé News]] archive video reporting Nehru's death remarks "Neither on the political stage nor in moral stature was his leadership ever challenged".<ref>{{cite AV media |title=World Mourns Nehru (1964) |via=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pcR3eceOf4|language=en|access-date=31 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731192854/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pcR3eceOf4|archive-date=31 July 2021}}</ref> In his book ''Verdicts on Nehru,'' [[Ramachandra Guha]] cited a contemporary account that described what Nehru's 1951–52 Indian general election campaign looked like:<blockquote>Almost at every place, city, town, village or wayside halt, people had waited overnight to welcome the nation's leader. Schools and shops closed; milkmaids and cowherds had taken a holiday; the kisan and his helpmate took a temporary respite from their dawn-to-dusk programme of hard work in field and home. In Nehru's name, stocks of soda and lemonade sold out; even water became scarce ... Special trains were run from out-of-the-way places to carry people to Nehru's meetings, enthusiasts travelling not only on footboards but also on top of carriages. Scores of people fainted in milling crowds.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guha|first=Ramachandra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tDikAwAAQBAJ&q=Almost+at+every+place,+city,+town,+village+or+wayside+halt,+people+had+waited+overnight+to+welcome+the+nation%E2%80%99s+leader.+Schools+and+shops+closed;+milkmaids+and+cowherds+had+taken+a+holiday;+the+kisan+and+his+helpmate+took+a+temporary+respite+from+their+dawn-to-dusk+programme+of+hard+work+in+field+and+home.+In+Nehru%E2%80%99s+name,+stocks+of+soda+and+lemonade+sold+out;+even+water+became+scarce+.+.+.+Special+trains+were+run+from+out-of-the-way+places+to+carry+people+to+Nehru%E2%80%99s+meetings,+enthusiasts+travelling+not+only+on+footboards+but+also+on+top+of+carriages.+Scores+of+people+fainted+in+milling+crowds.&pg=PT9|title=Verdicts on Nehru|date=26 May 2013|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|isbn=978-93-5118-757-8|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

 

 

{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"

| style="text-align: left;" |"This man has overcome two of the greatest failings in human nature; he has neither fear nor hatred."

| style="text-align: right;" |— Winston Churchill on Nehru [1952]<ref name="IJDV_1964">{{cite journal | vauthors = | title = Jawaharlal Nehru | journal = Indian J Dermatol Venereol | pages = 137–138 | date = May–June 1964| volume = 30 | issue = 3 | pmid = 29244383| doi = }}</ref>

 

 

 

 

In 1955, Churchill called Nehru, the light of Asia, and a greater light than [[Gautama Buddha]].<ref name="Sahgal2010">{{cite book|author=Nayantara Sahgal|title=Jawaharlal Nehru: Civilizing a Savage World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KycnN-MlfY4C&pg=PP9|year=2010|publisher=[[Penguin Books India]]|isbn=978-0-670-08357-2|page=59}}</ref> Nehru is time and again described as a charismatic leader with a rare charm.{{efn|<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ian Hall|first=The Conversation|title=Nehru, the architect of modern India, also helped discredit European imperialism|url=https://scroll.in/article/1002353/nehru-the-architect-of-modern-india-also-helped-discredit-european-imperialism|access-date=15 November 2021|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=How the ANC could fade away – OPINION |website=Politicsweb|url=https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/how-the-anc-could-fade-away|access-date=15 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=15 November 2021|title=UP Next: How Nehru, Swami Prabhu Dutt Brahmachari's ideas of India resonate in 2022 polls|url=https://www.firstpost.com/india/up-next-how-nehru-swami-prabhu-dutt-brahmacharis-ideas-of-india-resonate-in-2022-polls-10136981.html|access-date=15 November 2021|website=Firstpost|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=PM Modi is A 'Charismatic' Leader Like Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi: Rajinikanth|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-pm-modi-is-a-chrarismatic-leader-like-jawaharlal-nehru-rajiv-gandhi-rajnikanth/331096|access-date=15 November 2015|website=outlookindia|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=A thousand lies can't dwarf the giant Nehru was|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/a-thousand-lies-cant-dwarf-the-giant-nehru-was-258860|access-date=15 November 2021|website=Tribuneindia News Service|language=en}}</ref>}}

 

[[File:Jawaharlal Nehru with school children at Durgapur copy.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Nehru with schoolchildren at the Durgapur Steel Plant |Nehru with schoolchildren at the [[Durgapur Steel Plant]]. Durgapur, [[Rourkela Steel Plant|Rourkela]] and [[Bhilai Steel Plant|Bhilai]] were three integrated steel plants set up under India's [[Five-Year Plans of India#Second Plan (1956–1961)|Second Five-Year Plan]] in the late 1950s.]]

After the exit of Subhash Chandra Bose from mainstream Indian politics,<ref>{{Cite news|first=Narendra|last=Kaushik|date=11 October 2016|title=How Gandhi softened stance towards Bose|work=[[The Tribune (Chandigarh)|The Tribune]]|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/mobi/news/comment/how-gandhi-softened-stance-towards-bose/307731.htmlc|access-date=2 October 2018}}</ref> the power struggle between the socialists and conservatives in the Congress party balanced out. However, the death of Vallabhbhai Patel in 1950 left Nehru as the sole remaining iconic national leader, and soon the situation became such that Nehru could implement many of his basic policies without hindrance.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5rtGvnMrCTQC&dq=The+death+of+Vallabhbhai+Patel+in+1950+left+Nehru+as+the+sole+remaining+iconic+national+leader&pg=PA506|title=Across The Himalayan Gap|date=1998|pages=506|publisher=Gyan Publishing House|editor=Tan Chung|isbn=81-212-0585-9}}</ref> Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, was able to fulfil her father's dream through the [[Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India|42nd amendment]] (1976) of the Indian constitution by which India officially became "socialist" and "secular", during the state of [[The Emergency (India)|emergency]] she imposed.<ref>{{Cite web|title=THE Constitution (Amendment)|url=http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend42.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328040620/http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend42.htm|archive-date=28 March 2015|access-date=18 May 2017|first=H. R.|last=Gokhale|website=indiacode.nic.in}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=27 December 2017|first=Adrija|last=Roychowdhury|title=Secularism: Why Nehru dropped and Indira inserted the S-word in the Constitution|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/research/anant-kumar-hegde-secularism-constitution-india-bjp-jawaharlal-nehru-indira-gandhi-5001085/|website=The Indian Express}}</ref>

The 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.<ref name="Walsh">{{Cite book |url={{Google books|iekF9X3OwwMC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=A Brief History of India |last=Walsh |first=Judith E. |publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4381-0825-4 |page=190}}</ref> [[Steel mill]] complexes were built at [[Bokaro Steel City|Bokaro]] and [[Rourkela Steel Plant|Rourkela]] with assistance from the [[Soviet Union]] and [[West Germany]]. There was substantial industrial development.<ref name="Walsh" /> The industry grew 7.0% annually between 1950 and 1965—almost trebling industrial output and making India the world's seventh-largest [[Industrial nation|industrial country]].<ref name="Walsh" /> Nehru's critics, however, contended that India's import substitution industrialisation, which continued long after the Nehru era, weakened the international competitiveness of its manufacturing industries.<ref name="Yokokawa">{{Cite book |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=213 |url={{Google books |mypg8XYiwxUC |keywords= |text= |plainurl=yes}} |isbn=978-1-134-09387-8 |last=Yokokawa |first=Nobuharu |author2=Jayati Ghosh |author3=Bob Rowthorn |title=Industrialization of China and India: Their Impacts on the World Economy |year=2013}}</ref> India's share of world trade fell from 1.4% in 1951–1960 to 0.5% between 1981 and 1990.<ref name="Grabowski">{{Cite book |publisher=[[M.E. Sharpe]] |page=161|url={{Google books|5W2IMK7ivigC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-1-134-09387-8 |last=Grabowski |first=Richard |author2=Sharmistha Self |author3=Michael P. Shields |title=Economic Development: A Regional, Institutional, And Historical Approach |year=2007}}</ref> However, India's export performance is argued to have shown actual sustained improvement over the period. The volume of exports grew at an annual rate of 2.9% in 1951–1960 to 7.6% in 1971–1980.<ref name="Shand">{{Cite book |publisher=[[Edward Elgar Publishing]] |page=39|url={{Googlebooks|2Su6YPIgUBsC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-1-78195-943-5 |last=Shand |first=R. Richard Tregurtha |author2=K. P. Kalirajan |author3=Ulaganathan Sankar |title=Economic Reform and the Liberalisation of the Indian Economy: Essays in Honour of Richard T. Shand; papers Presented at a Major Conference on Second Generation Reforms in Chennai from 8 – 10 December 1999 |year=2003}}</ref>

GDP and [[Gross national income|GNP]] grew 3.9 and 4.0% annually between 1950 and 1951 and 1964–1965.<ref name="Thakur">{{Cite book |publisher=Deep and Deep Publications |page=14|url={{Google books|qH4FFyi4-i4C|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-81-8450-272-5 |last=Thakur |first=Anil Khumar |author2=Debes Mukhopadhayay |title=Economic Philosophy of Jawaharlal Nehru |year=2010}}</ref><ref name="Chandra">{{Cite book |publisher=[[Penguin Books India]] |page=449|url={{Google books|dE9qEg-NgHMC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-0-14-310409-4 |last=Chandra |first=Bipan |author2=Aditya Mukherjee |author3=Mridula Mukherjee |title=India Since Independence |year=2008}}</ref> It was a radical break from the British colonial period,<ref name="Kapila1">{{Cite book |publisher=Academic Foundation |page=132|url={{Google books|KTbA2R_6gjAC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-81-7188-711-8 |last=Kapila |first=Uma |title=Indian Economic Developments Since 1947 (3Rd Ed.) |year=2009}}</ref> but the growth rates were considered anaemic at best compared to other industrial powers in Europe and East Asia.<ref name="Grabowski" /><ref name="Kapila2">{{Cite book |publisher=Academic Foundation |page=66|url={{Google books|KTbA2R_6gjAC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-81-7188-711-8 |last=Kapila |first=Uma |title=Indian Economic Developments Sinc 1947 (3Rd Ed.) |year=2009}}</ref> India lagged behind the miracle economies (Japan, West Germany, France, and Italy).<ref name="Giersch">{{Cite book |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=4|url={{Google books|kkXGk_HyIBAC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-0-521-35869-9 |last=Giersch |first=Herbert |author2=Karl-Heinz Paqué |author3=Holger Schmieding |title=The Fading Miracle: Four Decades of Market Economy in Germany |year=1994

}}</ref> State planning, controls, and regulations were argued to have impaired economic growth.{{sfn|Kopstein|2005|p=366}} While India's economy grew faster than both the United Kingdom and the United States, low initial income and rapid population increase meant that growth was inadequate for any sort of catch-up with rich income nations.<ref name="Kapila2" /><ref name="Giersch" /><ref name="Parker">{{Cite book |publisher=Routledge |page=306|url={{Google books|9ydqHszxqEEC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-0-415-67703-5 |last=Parker |first=Randall E. |author2=Robert M. Whaples |title=The Routledge Handbook of Major Events in Economic History |year=2013}}</ref>

Under Nehru's leadership, the government attempted to develop India quickly by embarking on [[agrarian reform]] and rapid industrialisation.<ref>{{Cite book |url={{Google books|w2fXAwAAQBAJ|page=PA149|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Nehru |last=Brown |first=Judith M. |date=17 June 2014 |isbn=978-1-317-87476-8|publisher=Routledge}}</ref> A successful [[land reform]] was introduced that abolished giant [[landholding]]s, but efforts to redistribute land by placing limits on landownership failed. Attempts to introduce large-scale cooperative farming were frustrated by landowning rural elites, who formed the core of the powerful right-wing of the Congress and had considerable political support in opposing Nehru's efforts.<ref name="Varshney1998">{{Cite book |url={{Google books|bnNPJKw9CDsC|page=PR9|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Democracy, Development, and the Countryside: Urban-Rural Struggles in India |last=Ashutosh Varshney |date=18 September 1998 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-64625-3 |pages=30–31}}</ref> Agricultural production expanded until the early 1960s, as additional land was brought under cultivation and some irrigation projects began to have an effect. The establishment of agricultural universities, modelled after land-grant colleges in the United States, contributed to the development of the economy.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2GYZAAAAMAAJ&q=The+establishment+of+agricultural+universities,+modelled+after+land-grant+colleges+in+the+United+States,+contributed+to+the+development+of+the+economy. |title=India Today |year=1963 |publisher=New Horizons}}</ref> These universities worked with high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice, initially developed in Mexico and the Philippines, that in the 1960s began the [[Green Revolution]], an effort to diversify and increase crop production. At the same time, a series of failed monsoons would cause serious food shortages, despite the steady progress and an increase in agricultural production.<ref name="Farmer 1993 120">{{Cite book |url={{Google books|UNINAAAAQAAJ|page=PA120|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=An Introduction to South Asia |last=Farmer |first=B. H. |publisher=Routledge |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-415-05695-3 |page=120}}</ref>

Nehru was a passionate advocate of education for India's children and youth, believing it essential for India's future progress. His 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]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.news18.com/news/lifestyle/childrens-day-2021-heres-why-jawaharlal-nehrus-birthday-celebrated-as-bal-diwas-4439072.html|title=Children's Day 2021: Here's Why Jawaharlal Nehru's Birthday Celebrated as Bal Diwas|date=14 November 2021|publisher=[[News18]]}}</ref> Nehru also outlined a commitment in his [[Five-Year Plans of India|five-year plans]] to guarantee free and compulsory primary education to all of India's children. For this purpose, Nehru oversaw the creation of mass village enrolment programs and the construction of thousands of schools. Nehru also launched initiatives such as the provision of free milk and meals to children to fight [[Malnutrition in India|malnutrition]]. Adult education centres and vocational and technical schools were also organised for adults, especially in the rural areas.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FJu9Dkv_2zEC&pg=PA132 |title=Freedom Fighters of India |last=Lion M.G. Agrawal |publisher=Isha Books |year=2008 |isbn=978-81-8205-470-7 |volume=2 |page=132 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

A system of [[Reservation in India|reservations]] in government services and educational institutions was created to eradicate the social inequalities and disadvantages faced by peoples of the [[Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes]]. Nehru convincingly succeeded in secularism and [[Religious harmony in India|religious harmony]], increasing the representation of minorities in government.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmg9EAAAQBAJ&q=Nehru+championed+secularism+and+%5B%5BReligious+harmony+in+India%7Creligious+harmony%5D%5D%2C+increasing+the+representation+of+minorities+in+government.&pg=PA20|title=Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru|first=Ravi Ranjan & M. K.|last=Singh|date=14 August 2021|publisher=K.K. Publications|pages=20|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Nehru was part of a faction of the Congress party that saw the benefit of an unifying local language, namely, [[Hindi]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/43134213|title=The Effectiveness of Establishing Hindi as a National Language|author=Gusain, Lakhan|year=2012|journal=[[Georgetown Journal of International Affairs]]|volume=13|issue=1|pages=43–50|jstor=43134213|via=JSTOR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Nandini|last=Rathi|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/hindi-diwas-2017-journey-of-hindi-from-pre-partition-india-to-post-independence-language-politics-4843807/|title=Hindi Diwas: Journey of Hindi from pre-Partition India to post-independence language politics|date=15 September 2017|access-date=15 August 2021|website=The Indian Express}}</ref> However, Nehru himself recognised that "English is undoubtedly today the nearest approach to an international language".<ref name="annamalai1">{{cite book|author=E. Annamalai|title=Language movements in India|chapter=Language Movements Against Hindi as An Official Language|url=http://www.ciilebooks.net/html/langMove/hinoff.html|date=1979|publisher=Central Institute of Indian Languages}}</ref> After an exhaustive and divisive debate with the non-Hindi speakers, Hindi was adopted as the official language of India in 1950, with English continuing as an associate official language for 15 years, after which Hindi would become the sole official language. Efforts by the Indian Government to make Hindi the sole official language after 1965 were unacceptable to many non-Hindi Indian states, which wanted the continued use of English. The [[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam]] (DMK), a descendant of [[Dravidar Kazhagam]], led the opposition to Hindi.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/Language-issue-again-the-need-for-a-clear-headed-policy/article16854068.ece |title=Language issue again: The need for a clear-headed policy |last=Viswanathan |first=S. |date=6 December 2009 |access-date=15 August 2021 |work=[[The Hindu]]}}</ref> To allay their fears, Nehru enacted the [[Official Languages Act in 1963]] to ensure the continuing use of English beyond 1965. The text of the Act did not satisfy the DMK and increased their scepticism that future administrations might not honour his assurances. The Congress Government headed by Indira Gandhi eventually amended the Official Languages Act in 1967 to guarantee the indefinite use of Hindi and English as official languages. This effectively ensured the current "virtual indefinite policy of [[bilingualism]]" of the Indian Republic.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tjEdaFbEo0MC&pg=PA392 |title=Indian Government and Politics |last=Ghosh |first=P.E.U |date=3 September 2012 |isbn=978-81-203-4649-9 |publisher=PHI Learning}}</ref>

Throughout his long tenure as the prime minister, Nehru also held the portfolio of [[Minister of External Affairs (India)|External Affairs]].  Usually with the assistance of [[Krishna Menon]], Nehru shaped the new nation's foreign policy. He dealt with five major issues:<ref>David M. Malone et al. eds. ''The Oxford handbook of Indian foreign policy'' (2015) pp. 92–103.</ref><ref>C.H. Heimsath,  Surjit Mansingh, ''A diplomatic history of modern India'' (1971) [https://archive.org/details/diplomatichistor0000char online]</ref>

 

* [[Partition of India]] and [[India–Pakistan relations|Relations with Pakistan]]: One of the major foreign policy issues that India faced after its independence in 1947 was the violent partition of the subcontinent and the emergence of Pakistan as a separate state. India and Pakistan had tense relations due to border disputes, which led to several wars between the two countries, including the first war in 1947–1948 and the second in 1965.<ref>Malone, ''e Oxford handbook of Indian foreign policy'' (2015) pp. 370–83 </ref>

* [[China–India relations|Relations with China]]: Another major foreign policy challenge for India during this period was its relationship with China, a neighbour to the north. India recognised the People's Republic of China in 1950 and established diplomatic relations with it, but border disputes led to the [[Sino-Indian War]] of 1962.<ref>Malone, ''The Oxford handbook of Indian foreign policy'' (2015) pp. 356–369.</ref>

 

* [[Neutrality (international relations)|Non-alignment]]: India also pursued a policy of non-alignment during the [[Cold War]]. Nehru played a leading role in the [[Non-Aligned Movement]], which consisted of developing countries that were not aligned with either the Western (pro-American) or Eastern (pro-Soviet) blocs.<ref> Itty Abraham, "From Bandung to NAM: Non-alignment and Indian foreign policy, 1947–65." ''Commonwealth & Comparative Politics'' 46.2 (2008): 195–219. [https://ap5.fas.nus.edu.sg/fass/seaai/interest/bandung-nam-itty.pdf online] </ref>  Nehru never gave up his grandiose dream of forging some sort of international coalition of non-colonial and the colonised powers. However the world was rapidly bifurcated by the emergence of the Cold War between the West, led by the United States and Britain, and the East, led by the Soviet Union. Nehru decided it was urgent to develop policies regarding the Cold War, as well as relations with Pakistan, Britain, and the Commonwealth. Other plans could wait. Nehru and the Congress looked on the Soviet Union with distrust, reassuring the West that there was not the least chance of India lining up with the Soviet Union in war or peace.<ref>Gopal Sarvepalli, ''Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography. 1947–1956. Volume Two'' (1979) 43–65.</ref> Nehru intensely disliked the Cold War—the more India got involved, he believed, the worse for his long-term objectives of economic and national development.  He took the lead in the non-aligned movement.<ref>Odd Arne Westad, ''The Cold War: A World History'' (2017) pp. 423–448.</ref>

 

 

* [[Economic history of India#Economic history of India|Economic Development]]: India also faced the challenge of promoting economic development and securing foreign aid and investment to achieve this goal. India sought aid from both Western and Eastern bloc countries, but it was often conditioned on political alignment or other considerations. Nehru wanted India to be self-sufficient.<ref>Geoffrey Tyson, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2604331 "Foreign Investment in India"], ''International Affairs'' 31.2 (1955): 174–181. </ref>

After independence, Nehru wanted to maintain good relations with Britain and other British commonwealth countries. As prime minister of the [[Dominion of India]], he signed the 1949 [[London Declaration]], under which India agreed to remain within the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] after becoming a republic in January 1950, and to recognise the British monarch as a "symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and as such the Head of the Commonwealth".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DGU-AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA265 |title=The Journal of Korean Studies, Volume 18, Number 2 (Fall 2013) |last1=Sorensen |first1=Clark W. |last2=Baker |first2=Donald |date=10 December 2013 |isbn=978-1-4422-3336-2|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield}}</ref><ref name="Srinivasan2005">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5FbNCwAAQBAJ&pg=PR2 |title=The Rise, Decline and Future of the British Commonwealth |last=K. Srinivasan |date=7 November 2005 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] UK |isbn=978-0-230-24843-4 |page=11}}</ref> The other nations of the Commonwealth recognised India's continuing membership of the association.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thecommonwealth.org/london-declaration|title=London Declaration|date=16 May 2019|access-date=22 August 2021|archive-date=4 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210704130811/https://thecommonwealth.org/london-declaration|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Jawaharlal Nehru’s tour of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1961 (01).jpg|thumb|alt=See caption |Nehru with [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] and [[Josip Broz Tito]] in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1961]]

On the international scene, Nehru was an opponent of military action and military alliances. He was a strong supporter of the United Nations, except when it tried to resolve the Kashmir question. He 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.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jawaharlal-nehru-the-architect-of-indias-foreign-policy/articleshow/58767014.cms|title=Non-Aligned Movement: Jawaharlal Nehru – The architect of India's foreign policy|date=20 May 2017|first=Affanul|last=Haque|website=The Times of India}}</ref> Recognising the People's Republic of China soon after its founding (while most of the Western bloc continued relations with [[Taiwan]]), Nehru argued for its inclusion in the United Nations and refused to brand the Chinese as the aggressors in their conflict with Korea.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Robert Sherrod |author-link=Robert Sherrod|date=19 January 1963 |title=Nehru:The Great Awakening |magazine=[[The Saturday Evening Post]] |volume=236 |issue=2 |pages=60–67}}</ref> He 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bf8vAQAAIAAJ|title=Encyclopaedia Indica: Great political personalities of Post Colonial Era-I|date=1996|pages=81|first=Shyam Singh|last=Shashi|publisher=Anmol Publications|isbn=9788170418597}}</ref>

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 Nehru's leadership. He envisioned it as his key leadership opportunity on the world stage, where he would bring together emerging nations.<ref>[[Sarvepalli Gopal]],''"Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography" Vol.2'', 2:232–35.</ref> Instead, the Chinese representative, [[Zhou Enlai]], downplayed revolutionary communism and acknowledged the right of all nations to choose their own economic and political systems, including even capitalism upstaged him. Nehru and his top foreign-policy aide, [[V.K. Krishna Menon]], by contrast, gained an international reputation as rude and undiplomatic. Zhou said privately, "I have never met a more arrogant man than Mr. Nehru." A senior Indian foreign office official characterised Menon as "an outstanding world statesman but the world's worst diplomat," adding that he was often "overbearing, churlish and vindictive".<ref>[[H. W. Brands]], ''India and the United States'' (1990) pp. 78, 85</ref>

While averse to war, Nehru led the campaigns against Pakistan in Kashmir. He used military force to annex [[Indian annexation of Hyderabad|Hyderabad in 1948]] and Goa in 1961. While laying the foundation stone of the [[National Defence Academy (India)|National Defence Academy]] in 1949, he stated:<blockquote>We, who for generations had talked about and attempted in everything a peaceful way and practised non-violence, should now be, in a sense, glorifying our army, navy and air force. It means a lot. Though it is odd, yet it simply reflects the oddness of life. Though life is logical, we have to face all contingencies, and unless we are prepared to face them, we will go under. There was no greater prince of peace and apostle of non-violence than Mahatma Gandhi ... but yet, he said it was better to take the sword than to surrender, fail or run away. We cannot live carefree assuming that we are safe. Human nature is such. We cannot take the risks and risk our hard-won freedom. We have to be prepared with all modern defence methods and a well-equipped army, navy, and air force."<ref>''[[Indian Express]],'' 6 October 1949 at Pune at the time of lying of the foundation stone of [[National Defence Academy (India)|National Defence Academy]].</ref><ref>Mahatma Gandhi's relevant quotes, "My non-violence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice. Non-violence is the summit of bravery."

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.<ref name="http://nuclearweaponarchive.org">{{cite web |last=Sublet |first=Carrie |title=Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha |work=nuclearweaponarchive.org |url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/India/Bhabha.html |access-date=8 August 2011|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807160029/http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/India/Bhabha.html |archive-date=7 August 2011}}</ref>

Many hailed Nehru for working to defuse global tensions and the threat of [[nuclear weapon]]s after the [[Korean War]] (1950–1953).<ref>{{Cite book |publisher=Panchsheel Publishers |page=131 |last=Bhatia |first=Vinod |title=Jawaharlal Nehru, as Scholars of Socialist Countries See Him |year=1989}}</ref> He commissioned the first study of the [[effects of nuclear explosions on human health]] and campaigned ceaselessly for the [[Nuclear disarmament|abolition]] of what he called "these frightful engines of destruction". He also 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.<ref>{{Cite book |publisher=[[C. Hurst & Co.]] Publishers |pages=141, 261|url={{Google books|X90G8gnoqv4C|page=PA141|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-1-85065-180-2 |last=Dua |first=B. D. |author2=James Manor |title=Nehru to the Nineties: The Changing Office of Prime Minister in India |year=1994}}</ref>

Menon was instructed to deliver an unprecedented eight-hour speech defending India's stand on Kashmir in 1957; to date, the speech is the longest ever delivered in the [[United Nations Security Council]], covering five hours of the 762nd meeting on 23 January, and two hours and forty-eight minutes on the 24th, reportedly concluding with Menon's collapse on the Security Council floor.<ref name="nytimes1974" /> During the [[filibuster]], Nehru moved swiftly and successfully to consolidate Indian power in Kashmir (then under great unrest). Menon's passionate defence of Indian sovereignty in Kashmir enlarged his base of support in India and led to the Indian press temporarily dubbing him the "Hero of Kashmir". Nehru was then at the peak of his popularity in India; the only (minor) criticism came from the far right.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8272473.stm |title=A short history of long speeches |date=25 September 2009 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305174645/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8272473.stm |archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Majid, Amir A. |year=2007 |title=Can Self Determination Solve the Kashmir Dispute? |url=http://www.ier.ro/documente/rjea_vol7_no3/RJEA_Vol7_No3_Can_Self_Determination_Solve_the_Kashmir_Dispute.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Romanian Journal of European Affairs |volume=7 |issue=3 |page=38 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316211935/http://www.ier.ro/documente/rjea_vol7_no3/RJEA_Vol7_No3_Can_Self_Determination_Solve_the_Kashmir_Dispute.pdf |archive-date=16 March 2012}}</ref>

In 1956, Nehru criticised the joint invasion of the [[Suez Canal]] by the British, French, and Israelis. His role, both as Indian prime minister and a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, was significant; he tried to be even-handed between the two sides while vigorously denouncing [[Anthony Eden]] and co-sponsors of the invasion. 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. During the [[Suez crisis]], Nehru's right-hand man, Menon attempted to persuade a recalcitrant [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Gamal Nasser]] to compromise with the West and was instrumental in moving Western powers towards an awareness that Nasser might prove willing to compromise.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/indias-moment-in-the-suez-canal-crisis/article9320638.ece|title=India's moment in the Suez Canal crisis|first=Swapna Kona|last=Nayudu|date=8 November 2016|access-date=15 August 2021|website=[[Business Line]]}}</ref>

There were various assassination attempts on Nehru. The first attempt was made during partition in 1947 while he was visiting the [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|North-West Frontier Province]] (now in Pakistan) in a car.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Reminiscences of the Nehru Age |last=Mathai |year=1978}}</ref> A second was by Baburao Laxman Kochale, a knife-wielding [[rickshaw]]-puller, near [[Nagpur]] in 1955.{{efn|<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=19550312&id=xTAmAAAAIBAJ&pg=1451,3268287 |title=Assassination Attempt on Nehru Made in Car |date=22 March 1955 |access-date=14 August 2021 |work=[[Gettysburg Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19550314&id=99cbAAAAIBAJ&pg=3125,3067050 |title=Rickshaw Boy Arrested for Nehru Attack |date=14 March 1955 |access-date=14 August 2021 |work=[[Sarasota Herald Tribune]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19550314&id=nmNTAAAAIBAJ&pg=6416,4776451 |title=Rickshaw Boy Arrested for Attempting to Kill Nehru |date=14 March 1955 |access-date=14 August 2021 |work=[[The Victoria Advocate]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=P4ZjAAAAIBAJ&pg=6064,1041556&dq=nehru+assassination |title=Knife Wielder Jumps on Car of Indian Premier |date=12 March 1955 |access-date=14 August 2021 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]}}</ref>}} The third attempt was a plot by [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) in 1955.<ref>{{cite book | title=Covertaction Quarterly | publisher=Covert Action Publications | year=1992 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eytFAQAAIAAJ |page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=[[William Blum]] | title=Rogue State: A Guide to the Worlds Only Superpower | publisher=[[Zed Books]] | year=2006| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oBM8UiDYz1MC |page=50}}</ref> The fourth attempt took place in [[Bombay Presidency|Bombay]] in 1956,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BDdEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3947,2134723&dq=nehru+assassination |title=Police Say Nehru's Assassination Plot is Thwarted |date=4 June 1956 |access-date=14 August 2021 |work=[[Altus Times-Democrat]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=G8RdAAAAIBAJ&pg=4365,3368509&dq=nehru+assassination |title=Bombay Police Thwart Attempt on Nehru's Life |date=4 June 1956 |access-date=14 August 2021 |work=[[Oxnard Press-Courier]]}}</ref> and the fifth was a failed bombing attempt on train tracks in [[Maharashtra]] in 1961.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19610930&id=v2cUAAAAIBAJ&pg=3440,1262437 |title=Bomb Explodes on Nehru's Route |date=30 September 1961 |access-date=14 August 2021 |work=[[Toledo Blade]]}}</ref> Despite threats to his life, Nehru despised having too much security around him and did not like to disrupt traffic because of his movements.<ref>{{Cite book |title=My Days with Nehru |last=Mathai |first=M.O. |publisher=Vikas Publishing House |year=1979}}</ref>

– Jawaharlal Nehru, 1954.<ref name=roberts-gandhi-nehru>{{cite book |last=Roberts|first=Elizabeth Mauchline|title=Gandhi, Nehru and Modern India|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=De2oDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT143|series=Routledge Library Editions:British in India|year=2017|isbn=978-1-00-063959-9|orig-year=1974}}</ref>

Nehru's health began declining steadily in 1962. In the spring of 1962, he was affected with a viral infection over which he spent most of April in bed.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Sarvepalli Gopal]] |title=Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography Volume 3 1956–1964 |publisher=Random House |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4735-2189-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8pd-BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT293 |page=293}}</ref> In the next year, through 1963, he spent months recuperating in Kashmir. Some writers attribute this dramatic decline to his surprise and chagrin over the Sino-Indian War, which he perceived as a betrayal of trust.<ref name="Encyclopedia of Asian History">{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Asia Society |title=Jawaharlal Nehru |editor-last=Embree |editor-first=Ainslie T. |editor-link=Ainslie Embree |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Asian History |year=1988 |volume=3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofas0000embr/page/98 98–100] |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofas0000embr/page/98 |location=New York |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |isbn=978-0-684-18899-7}}</ref> Upon his return from [[Dehradun]] on 26 May 1964, he was feeling quite comfortable and went to bed at about 23:30 as usual. He had a restful night until about 06:30. Soon after he returned from the bathroom, Nehru complained of pain in the back. He spoke to the doctors who attended to him for a brief while, and almost immediately he collapsed. He remained unconscious until he died at 13:44.<ref>{{Cite news |author=[[Raj Kanwar (journalist)|Kanwar Raj]]|title=The evening 58 years ago when I saw off Nehru on his last flight |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/the-evening-58-years-ago-when-i-saw-off-nehru-on-his-last-flight-1112895.html |access-date=27 May 2022 |newspaper=Deccan Herald}}</ref> His 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.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/27/newsid_3690000/3690019.stm BBC On This Day {{!}} 27 {{!}} 1964: Light goes out in India as Nehru dies] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130811052528/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/27/newsid_3690000/3690019.stm |date=11 August 2013 }}. [[BBC News]]. Retrieved 17 March 2011.</ref> Draped in the Indian national Tri-colour flag, the body of Jawaharlal Nehru was placed for public viewing. "''[[Raghupati Raghava Rajaram]]''" was chanted as the body was placed on the platform. On 28 May, Nehru was cremated in accordance with Hindu rites at the [[Raj Ghat and associated memorials|Shantivan]] on the banks of the [[Yamuna]], witnessed by 1.5 million mourners who had flocked into the streets of Delhi and the cremation grounds.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/29/1-5-million-view-rites-for-nehru.html |title=1.5 Million View Rites for Nehrus; Procession Route Jammed as Indians and Foreigners Pay Last Respects |last=Brady|first=Thomas F.|date=29 May 1964 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=18 May 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802130344/http://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/29/1-5-million-view-rites-for-nehru.html |archive-date=2 August 2017 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

<blockquote>History has already recorded his monumental contribution to the molding of a strong and independent India. And yet, it is not just as a leader of India that he has served humanity. Perhaps more than any other world leader he has given expression to man's yearning for peace. This is the issue of our age. In his fearless pursuit of a world free from war he has served all humanity.<ref>{{cite web |title=Letter to the President of India on the Death of Prime Minister Nehru. |website=The American Presidency Project |date=1964-05-27 |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/letter-the-president-india-the-death-prime-minister-nehru |access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>He 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. This reasonable policy won India respect and due to it, India is now occupying a worthy place in the international arena.<ref>{{cite book |title=Contemporary Indian Literature |author=S.L. Shastry |issue=v. 4–5 |year=1964 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-mvVAAAAMAAJ |access-date=2023-02-21 |page=14}}</ref></blockquote>

Nehru's death left India with no clear political heir to his leadership. [[Lal Bahadur Shastri]] later succeeded Nehru as the prime minister.<ref>{{Cite news|date=28 May 2014|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/28/nehru-india-death-1964-archive|title=From the archive, 28 May 1964: The death of Mr Nehru, hero and architect of modern India|access-date=14 August 2021|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

| 1946–1950

* [[Interim Government of India|Vice President of Executive Council]] {{Small|(2 Sep 1946 – 15 April 1952)}}

* [[Prime Minister of India]] {{Small|(15 Aug 1947 – 15 April 1952)}}  

* [[Minister of External Affairs (India)|Union Minister for External Affairs]] {{Small|(15 Aug 1947 – 15 April 1952)}}

| 1952–1957

* [[Prime Minister of India]] {{Small|(15 Apr 1952 – 17 April 1957)}}  

* [[Minister of External Affairs (India)|Union Minister for External Affairs]] {{Small|(15 Apr 1952 – 17 April 1957)}}

| 1957–1962

* [[Prime Minister of India]] {{Small|(17 Apr 1957 – 2 April 1962)}}

* [[Minister of External Affairs (India)|Union Minister for External Affairs]] {{Small|(17 Apr 1957 – 2 April 1962)}}  

| 1962–1964

* [[Prime Minister of India]] {{Small|(2 Apr 1962 – 27 May 1964)}}  

* [[Minister of External Affairs (India)|Union Minister for External Affairs]] {{Small|(2 Apr 1962 – 27 May 1964)}}  

Nehru served as the prime minister for eighteen years, first as interim prime minister during 1946–1947 during the last year of the [[British Raj]] and then as prime minister of independent India from 15 August 1947 to 27 May 1964. Simultaneously he was Minister for External Affairs in charge of foreign affairs.

[[Maulana Azad]] was the First Minister of Education in the Indian government [[Minister of Human Resource Development]] (until 25&nbsp;September 1958, Ministry of Education). His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as National Education Day across India.<ref name="thehindu">{{cite news|title=International Urdu conference from Nov. 10|url=http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/07/stories/2010110754680500.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101111204425/http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/07/stories/2010110754680500.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 November 2010|date=7 November 2010|work=[[The Hindu]]|access-date=13 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Chawla, Muhammad |title=Maulana Azad and the Demand for Pakistan: A Reappraisal|journal=Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society|year=2016|volume=64|issue=3|pages=7–24|url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-4269551701/maulana-azad-and-the-demand-for-pakistan-a-reappraisal}}</ref>

[[Jagjivan Ram]] became the youngest minister in Nehru's Interim Government of India, a [[Ministry of Labour and Employment (India)|labour minister]] and also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, where, as a member of the [[Dalit]] caste, he ensured that [[social justice]] was enshrined in the [[Constitution of India|Constitution]]. He went on to serve as a minister with various portfolios during Nehru's tenure and in Shastri and Indira Gandhi governments.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=399UDwAAQBAJ&q=Jagjivan+Ram+became+the+youngest+minister+in+Nehru%27s+Interim+government+of+India+a+Labour+Minister+and+also+a+member+of+the+Constituent+Assembly+of+India,+where,+as+a+member+from+the+dalit+caste,+he+ensured+that+social+justice+was+enshrined+in+the+Constitution.&pg=PT591|title=Bihar General Knowledge Digest|isbn=978-93-5266-769-7|last1=Singh|first1=Pradyuman|date=19 January 2021|publisher=Prabhat Prakashan}}</ref>

[[Morarji Desai]] was a nationalist with anti-corruption leanings but was socially conservative, pro-business, and in favour of free enterprise reforms, as opposed to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's socialistic policies. After serving as chief minister of [[Bombay state|Bombay State]], he joined Nehru's cabinet in 1956 as the finance minister of India. he held that position until 1963 when he along with other senior ministers in the Nehru cabinet resigned under the [[K. Kamaraj|Kamaraj plan]].The plan, as proposed by Madras Chief Minister K.Kamaraj, was to revert government ministers to party positions after a certain tenure and vice versa. With Nehru's age and health failing in the early 1960s, Desai was considered a possible contender for the position of Prime Minister.<ref name="HaqqiAssociation1986">{{cite book|author1=Anwarul Haque Haqqi|author2=Indian Political Science Association|title=Indian Democracy at the Crossroads|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk7c6O2XlGwC&pg=PA150|year=1986|publisher=Mittal Publications|page=123|id=GGKEY:X2U27GYQ2L1}}</ref><ref name="Singh1981a">{{cite book|author=Mahendra Prasad Singh|title=Split in a Predominant Party: The Indian National Congress in 1969|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOQRWuMXyRMC&pg=PAPR5|year=1981|publisher=Abhinav Publications|isbn=978-81-7017-140-9|page=50}}</ref> Later  Desai alleged that Nehru used the Kamaraj Plan to remove all possible contenders 'from the path of his daughter, Indira Gandhi.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Da |first1=S |title=The Nehru years in Indian politics |journal=Edinburgh Papers in South Asian Studies |date=2001 |volume=16 |page=24 |url=http://www.issti.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/38480/WP16_Suranjan_Das.pdf |access-date=10 September 2021 |archive-date=10 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210910183407/http://www.issti.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/38480/WP16_Suranjan_Das.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Desai succeeded Indira Gandhi as the prime minister in 1977 when he was selected by the victorious Janata alliance as their parliamentary leader.<ref name="Mirchandani2003">{{cite book|author=G.G. Mirchandani|title=320 Million Judges|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5xj0g8euumQC&pg=PA11|date=June 2003|publisher=Abhinav Publications|isbn=978-81-7017-061-7|pages=177–178}}</ref>

[[C. D. Deshmukh]] was one of five members of the Planning Commission when it was constituted in 1950 by a cabinet resolution.<ref name="google106">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=376oAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 |title=Vision and Strategy in Indian Politics: Jawaharlal Nehru's Policy Choices and the Designing of Political Institutions |last=Jivanta Schoettli |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-136-62787-3 |location=Oxon |page=106}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F_2KeZsYcjQC&pg=PT84 |title=Development Administration |last=S. A. Palekar |publisher=PHI Learning |year=2012 |isbn=978-81-203-4582-9 |location=New Delhi |page=74}}</ref> Deshmukh succeeded [[John Mathai]] as the [[Finance minister of India|Union Finance Minister]] in 1950 after Mathai resigned in protest over the transfer of certain powers to the Planning Commission.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/once-upon-a-plan/ |title=Once upon a plan |first=Inder |last=Malhotra |date=26 September 2014 |work=[[The Indian Express]] |access-date=11 July 2016}}</ref> As finance minister, Deshmukh remained a member of the Planning Commission.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/history/ref_man03032011.pdf |title=Reference Material 2010 Notes of the Functioning of Various DiviionsI |date=2010 |publisher=Planning Commission of India |access-date=11 July 2016 |archive-date=8 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161208211549/http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/history/ref_man03032011.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Deshmukh's tenure, during which he delivered six budgets and an interim budget,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newcenturypublications.com/servlet/ncpGetBiblio?bno=000106 |title=India: Central Government Budgets – 1947–48 to 2003–04 |last=M M Sury |date=2003 |publisher=New Century Publications |access-date=20 July 2016}}</ref> is noted for the effective management of the Indian economy and its steady growth which saw it recover from the impacts of the events of the 1940s.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/north-block-mavericks-197030101130_1.html |title=North Block Mavericks |date=1 March 1997 |work=[[Business Standard]] |access-date=11 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDmPKwQQdokC&pg=PA134 |title=The Politics of Poverty: Planning India's Development |last=D K Rangnekar |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2012 |isbn=978-81-321-0902-0 |location=New Delhi |page=134}}</ref> During Deshmukh's tenure, the [[State Bank of India]] was formed in 1955 through the nationalisation and amalgamation of the [[Imperial Bank of India|Imperial Bank]] with several smaller banks.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/21/stories/2004122100050902.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221085824/http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/21/stories/2004122100050902.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 December 2016 |title=dated December 21, 1954: State Bank of India |date=21 December 2004 |work=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=12 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030420/spectrum/book11.htm |title=Tracing history of the SBI |first=B. S.|last=Thaur |date=20 April 2003 |work=[[The Tribune (Chandigarh)|The Tribune]] |access-date=12 July 2016}}</ref> He 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.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDqppvb19TsC&pg=PT180 |title=India: The Emerging Giant |last=Arvind Panagariya |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-989014-9 |location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KlN819nQS-wC&pg=PT41 |title=Insurance in India: Changing Policies and Emerging Opportunities |last1=P S Palande |last2=R S Shah |publisher=Response Books |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7619-9747-4 |location=New Delhi |page=31}}</ref> Deshmukh resigned over the Government's proposal to move a bill in Parliament bifurcating [[Bombay State]] into [[Gujarat]] and Maharashtra while designating the city of [[Mumbai|Bombay]] a Union territory.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzNnwUasQ3wC&pg=PA280 |title=Dr. Zakir Hussain, Quest for Truth |last=Ziaul Hasan Faruqi |publisher=APH Publishing |year=1999 |isbn=978-81-7648-056-7 |location=Delhi |page=280}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/vSENKsR3LEwbCgaG4zMw8K/The-anxiety-that-lingers.html |title=The anxiety that lingers |last=Niranjan Rajadhyaksha |date=7 December 2012 |work=[[Mint (newspaper)|Mint]] |access-date=11 July 2016}}</ref>

[[Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon|V. K. Krishna Menon]] (1896–1974) was a close associate of Nehru and has been described by some as the second most powerful man in India during Nehru's tenure as prime minister. Under Nehru, he served as India's high commissioner to the UK, UN ambassador, and Union minister of defence. He resigned after the debacle of the 1962 China War.<ref name="autogenerated3">{{Cite news|first=Norman D.|last=Palmer|date=12 January 2007|url=http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~kandathi/vkkm1962.pdf |title=The 1962 Election in North Bombay|access-date=14 August 2021 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318032815/http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~kandathi/vkkm1962.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2012 |work=[[New York University|cs.nyu.edu]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yQM4AAAAIAAJ&q=vengalil+landowner&pg=PR6 |title=The Nayars today&nbsp;– Christopher John Fuller |last=Fuller |first=C. J. |date=30 December 1976 |isbn=978-0-521-29091-3 |access-date=11 July 2012 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>Michael Brecher, and Janice Gross Stein, eds., ''India and world politics: Krishna Menon's view of the world'' ([[Praeger Publishing]], 1968).</ref>

In the years following independence, Nehru frequently turned to his daughter Indira Gandhi for managing his personal affairs.<ref>{{Cite book |url={{Google books|EZIBxpeRXxsC|page=PR7|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Women in power : the personalities and leadership styles of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher |last=Steinberg |first=Blema S. |date=2008 |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7735-3356-1 |location=Montreal |page=20 |access-date=2 December 2015}}</ref>  Indira moved into Nehru's official residence to attend to him and became his constant companion in his travels across India and the world. She would virtually become Nehru's chief of staff.<ref>{{Cite book |url={{Google books|EZIBxpeRXxsC|page=PR7|keywords=indira%20nehru%20hostess|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Women in power : the personalities and leadership styles of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher |last=Steinberg |first=Blema S. |date=2008 |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7735-3356-1 |location=Montreal |page=20 |access-date=2 December 2015}}</ref> Towards the end of the 1950s, Indira Gandhi served as the president of the Congress. In that capacity, she was instrumental in getting the Communist-led [[Government of Kerala|Kerala]] State Government dismissed in 1959.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Upadhyaya |first=Prakash Chandra |date=1989 |title=Review of Marxist State Governments in India, Politics, Economics and Society by T. J. Nossiter |journal=Social Scientist |volume=17 |issue=1/2 January – February 1989 |pages=84–91 |doi=10.2307/3520112 |jstor=3520112}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Frank">{{Cite book |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] Books |page=250|url={{Google books|0eolM37FUWYC|page=PA250|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|isbn=978-0-395-73097-3 |last=Frank |first=Katherine |title=Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi |year=2002}}</ref> Indira herself was at loggerheads with her father over policy; most notably, she used his oft-stated personal deference to the [[Congress Working Committee]] to push through the dismissal of the [[Communist Party of India]] government in the state of [[Kerala]], over his own objections.<ref name="Frank" /> 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.<ref name="Marlay 1999 368">{{Cite book |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |page=368 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7i0jGxysUUcC&pg=PAPA368 |isbn=978-0-8476-8442-7 |last=Marlay |first=Ross |author2=Clark D. Neher |title=Patriots and Tyrants: Ten Asian Leaders |year=1999 |access-date=19 August 2021 |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205064008/https://books.google.com/books?id=7i0jGxysUUcC&pg=PAPA368 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

After Kamala's death in 1936, Nehru was rumoured to have had relationships with certain women from time to time. These included Shraddha Mata,<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article/if-i-werent-a-sanyasin-he-would-have-married-me/223036 |title=If I Weren't A Sanyasin, He Would Have Married Me |last=Reddy |first=Sheela |date=23 February 2004 |access-date=14 August 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150808052023/http://www.outlookindia.com/article/if-i-werent-a-sanyasin-he-would-have-married-me/223036 |archive-date=8 August 2015 |publisher=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]]}}</ref> [[Padmaja Naidu]]<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/mar/01nehru.htm |title=The Rediff Interview / Stanley Wolpert 'I have tried to tell Nehru's story as honestly as possible' |last=Srinivasan |first=Rajeev |access-date=6 August 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924160656/http://www.rediff.com/news/mar/01nehru.htm |archive-date=24 September 2015 |work=[[Rediff.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url={{Google books|Cg9uAAAAMAAJ|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Nehru: A Tryst with Destiny |last=Wolpert |first=Stanley |date=1996 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-510073-0 |author-link=Stanley Wolpert |access-date=6 August 2015}}</ref> and [[Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma|Edwina Mountbatten]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=15 July 2007|url=http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/nehruedwina-were-in-deep-love-says-daughter/205099/ |title=Nehru-Edwina were in deep love, says daughter|access-date=13 August 2021|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813142417/http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/nehruedwina-were-in-deep-love-says-daughter/205099/ |archive-date=13 August 2021 |work=[[The Indian Express]]}}</ref> Countess Mountbatten's daughter [[Lady Pamela Hicks]] acknowledged Nehru's platonic relationship with Lady Mountbatten.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-04-21/people/28137788_1_lady-edwina-mountbatten-lord-mountbatten-edwina-and-nehru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811065740/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-04-21/people/28137788_1_lady-edwina-mountbatten-lord-mountbatten-edwina-and-nehru |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 August 2011 |title=Love, longing & politics! |date=21 April 2010 |website=[[The Times of India]] |access-date=2 September 2012}}</ref>

<blockquote>was to endure until Edwina Mountbatten's death: intensely loving, romantic, trusting, generous, idealistic, even spiritual. If there was any physical element it can only have been of minor importance to either party. [India's Governor-General] Mountbatten's reaction was one of pleasure.... He 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.<ref>Philip Ziegler, ''Mountbatten'' (1985) p. 473.</ref></blockquote>

Described as a [[Hindus|Hindu]] [[Agnosticism|agnostic]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography, Volume 3; Volumes 1956–1964 |last=Sarvepalii|first=Gopal|page=17|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|quote=Nehru was still an agnostic, but a Hindu agnostic.|author-link=Sarvepalli Gopal}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/may/28/death-of-nehru-archive-1964|title=The death of Nehru: From the archive, 28 May 1964|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=28 May 2013}}</ref> and styling himself as a "[[secular humanism|scientific humanist]]",<ref>{{cite web|work=[[The Times of India]]|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nehrus-Scientific-Humanism/articleshow/8590304.cms|title=Nehru's Scientific Humanism|last=Vohra |first=Ashok |date=27 May 2011|access-date=18 August 2017}}</ref> Nehru thought that religious taboos were preventing India from moving forward and adapting to modern conditions: "No country or people who are slaves to dogma and dogmatic mentality can progress, and unhappily our country and people have become extraordinarily dogmatic and little-minded."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ypZ-BAAAQBAJ&pg=PP103|title=Jawaharlal Nehru;a Biography Volume 1 1889–1947|author=[[Sarvepalli Gopal]]|date=8 January 2015|isbn=978-1-4735-2187-2|publisher=[[Random House]]}}</ref>

As a humanist, Nehru considered that his afterlife was not in some mystical heaven or reincarnation but in the practical achievements of a life lived fully with and for his fellow human beings: "... Nor am I greatly interested in life after death. I find the problems of this life sufficiently absorbing to fill my mind," he wrote.<ref name="auto4" /> In his Last Will and Testament, he wrote: "I wish to declare with all earnestness that I do not want any religious ceremonies performed for me after my death. I do not believe in such ceremonies, and to submit to them, even as a matter of form, would be hypocrisy and an attempt to delude ourselves and others."<ref name="auto4" />

Jawaharlal Nehru, next to Mahatma Gandhi, is regarded as the most significant figure of the [[Indian independence movement]] that successfully ended British rule over the Indian subcontinent.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Gail Omvedt]] |title=We Will Smash this Prison!.: Indian Women in Struggle |publisher=Zed Press |series=Women in the Third World series |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-905762-44-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IEe3AAAAIAAJ |quote=Jawaharlal Nehru was the most famous leader, next to Mahatma Gandhi, of the Indian independence movement |page=124}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wiatr |first=J.J. |title=Political Leadership Between Democracy and Authoritarianism: Comparative and Historical Perspectives |publisher=Verlag Barbara Budrich |year=2022 |isbn=978-3-8474-1693-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tcJZEAAAQBAJ |page=71|quote=scholars underline the importance of demographic political culture and its roots in the decades of peaceful struggle for independence (Vidyarthi 1967). Next to Gandhi himself, it was Nehru who deserved credit for such development.|author-link=Jerzy Wiatr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Patil |first=V.T. |title=Studies on Nehru |publisher=Facet Books International |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-932377-14-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTluAAAAMAAJ |page=117|quote=Among the many giants of the freedom movement, next to Gandhi, Nehru was the tallest}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cannon |first1=P.G. |last2=Cannon |first2=G. |last3=Brine |first3=K. |title=Objects of Enquiry: The Life, Contributions, and Influences of Sir William Jones, 1746–1794 |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8147-1517-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvMJ7draBvkC |quote="In the generation that won independence for India and the one following it [...] Jawaharlal Nehru, the second most important Indian nationalist next to Gandhi|page=158}}</ref>

As India's first Prime minister and external affairs minister, Nehru played a major role in shaping modern India's government and political culture along with the sound foreign policy.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|first=Karuna|last=Madan|date=13 November 2014|url=https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/the-relevance-of-jawaharlal-nehru-1.1411887|title=The relevance of Jawaharlal Nehru|website=[[Gulf News]]|access-date=13 August 2021}}</ref> He is praised for creating a system providing universal primary education,<ref>{{Cite news|date=September 1997|first=R. M. |last=Pal|url=http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/Academia/primary-education-pm.htm |title=Universal primary education first on the Prime Minster<!--sic-->'s agenda |access-date=13 August 2021 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924083134/http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/Academia/primary-education-pm.htm |archive-date=24 September 2015 |publisher=[[People's Union for Civil Liberties|pucl.org]]}}</ref> reaching children in the farthest corners of rural India. Nehru's education policy is also credited for the development of world-class educational institutions like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aiims.ac.in/aiims/aboutaiims/aboutaiimsintro.htm |title=Introduction |website=[[AIIMS]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140625122618/http://aiims.ac.in/aiims/aboutaiims/aboutaiimsintro.htm |archive-date=25 June 2014}}</ref> Indian Institutes of Technology,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/institute/history.php |title=Institute History |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813213137/http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/institute/history.php |archive-date=13 August 2007 |publisher=[[Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur]]|access-date=13 August 2021}}</ref> and the Indian Institutes of Management.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/28/archives/nehru-a-queer-mixture-of-east-and-west-led-the-struggle-for-a.html|title=Nehru, a 'Queer Mixture of East and West,' Led the Struggle for a, Modern India; Devoted His Life to Nation's Cause; Blended Skill in Politics With the Spiritualism of His Mentor, Gandhi|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=28 May 1964}}</ref>

Following the independence, Nehru popularised the credo of 'unity in diversity' and implemented it as state policy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Vertovec |first=Steven |title=Routledge International Handbook of Diversity Studies |publisher=Taylor & Francis |series=Routledge International Handbooks |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-317-60069-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=az2LBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 |page=140}}</ref> This proved particularly important as post-Independence differences surfaced since British withdrawal from the subcontinent prompted regional leaders to no longer relate to one another as allies against a common adversary. While differences in culture and, especially, language threatened the unity of the new nation, Nehru established programs such as the [[National Book Trust]] and the [[Sahitya Akademi|National Literary Academy]] which promoted the translation of regional works of literatures between languages and organised the transfer of materials between regions. In pursuit of a single, unified India, Nehru warned, "Integrate or perish."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harrison, Selig S. |date=July 1956 |title=The Challenge to Indian Nationalism |journal=[[Foreign Affairs]] |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=620–636 |doi=10.2307/20031191 |jstor=20031191}}</ref>

Called an "architect of Modern India",{{efn|<ref>{{Cite web|title=Architect of modern India|url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/article25402011.ece|access-date=4 December 2021|website=Frontline|date=8 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title='Architect of modern India': Congress pays tributes to Jawaharlal Nehru on death anniversary|url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/may/27/architect-of-modern-india-congress-pays-tributes-to-jawaharlal-nehru-on-death-anniversary-2308208.html|access-date=4 December 2021|website=The New Indian Express}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=14 November 2019|title=Jawaharlal Nehru: Architect of modern India|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/inspiring-lives/jawaharlal-nehru-architect-of-modern-india/story-Ch4DgrerxtY448l0yxulTO.html|access-date=4 December 2021|website=Hindustan Times|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Ian Hall|first=The Conversation|title=Nehru, the architect of modern India, also helped discredit European imperialism|url=https://scroll.in/article/1002353/nehru-the-architect-of-modern-india-also-helped-discredit-european-imperialism|access-date=4 December 2021|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Dixit |first1=J. N. |title=From the archives: How Jawaharlal Nehru shaped India in the 20th century |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/from-the-archives-how-jawaharlal-nehru-shaped-india-in-the-20th-century-1876654-2021-11-14 |date=14 November 2021 |website=India Today |language=en |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Editorial: Master's voice|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/kangana-ranauts-statement-is-a-testament-to-the-quid-pro-quo-arrangement-between-the-current-regime-and-its-pets/cid/1838908|access-date=4 December 2021|website=[[The Telegraph (India)|The Telegraph]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=26 May 2021|title=Opinion: Nehruvian legacy is his idea of India|url=https://www.siasat.com/nehruvian-legacy-is-his-idea-of-india-2141877/|access-date=4 December 2021|website=The Siasat Daily|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Service|first=Tribune News|title=A thousand lies can't dwarf the giant Nehru was|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/a-thousand-lies-cant-dwarf-the-giant-nehru-was-258860|access-date=4 December 2021|website=Tribuneindia News Service|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=16 November 2014|title=Nehru, the real architect of modern India|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/141116/commentary-op-ed/article/nehru-real-architect-modern-india|access-date=4 December 2021|website=Deccan Chronicle|language=en}}</ref>}} he is widely recognised as the greatest figure of modern India after Mahatma Gandhi.<ref name="Subramanian">{{cite book |last=Subramanian |first=V.K. |title=The Great Ones Vol. IV |publisher=Abhinav Publications |year=2003 |isbn=978-81-7017-472-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpGFRh_YbpkC |quote=He was the greatest figure after Gandhi in the history of modern India. |page=161}}</ref><ref name="Malhotra">{{cite book |author=[[Inder Malhotra]] |title=Indira Gandhi: A Personal and Political Biography |publisher=Hay House |year=2014 |isbn=978-93-84544-16-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wRxnDwAAQBAJ |page=124|quote=Jawaharlal Nehru, the greatest of all Indians after Gandhi and free India's first prime minister}}</ref> On the occasion of his first death anniversary in 1965, [[Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan]], [[Lal Bahadur Shastri]] and others described Nehru as the greatest figure of India after Gandhi.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bhatia |first=V. |title=Jawaharlal Nehru, as Scholars of Socialist Countries See Him |publisher=Panchsheel Publishers |year=1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-RHAAAAMAAJ |page=105|quote=Jawaharlal Nehru was incomparably the greatest figure after Gandhi in our history – a man of dynamic force, intellectual power and profound vision.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Lok Rajya |publisher=Directorate-General of Information and Public Relations. |issue=v. 19, nos. 2–17 |year=1965 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_8gdyzTBTrgC |page=40|quote=Nehru was the greatest man produced by the nation after Mahatma Gandhi and the torch he lit must remain burning forever.}}</ref>

Writing in 2005, [[Ramachandra Guha]] wrote that while no other Indian prime minister was ever close to the challenges that Nehru dealt with and if Nehru had died in 1958 then he would be remembered as the greatest statesman of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Guha |first=Ramachandra |title=Verdicts on Nehru: Rise and Fall of a Reputation |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=40 |issue=19 |year=2005 |issn=0012-9976 |eissn=2349-8846 |jstor=4416605 |pages=1958–1962 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4416605 |access-date=21 February 2023}}</ref> However, in recent years, 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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Craig Jeffrey, [[John Harriss]] |title=Keywords for Modern India |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-966563-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hRVCBAAAQBAJ |access-date=21 February 2023 |page=134}}</ref>

In his lifetime, Jawaharlal Nehru enjoyed an iconic status in India and was generally admired across the world for his idealism and statesmanship.<ref name="auto1" /><ref name="Kaur">{{cite journal |last=Kaur |first=Navtej |title=Nehru as a prophet of world peace |journal=The Indian Journal of Political Science |publisher=Indian Political Science Association |volume=69 |issue=1 |year=2008 |issn=0019-5510 |jstor=41856405 |pages=203–222 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/41856405 |quote=He was generally praised and supported for his statesmanship. Nehru did a commendable job in promoting world peace. As a statesman, committed to world peace, he strive hard to promote international understanding and co-operation}}</ref> Nehru's ideals and policies continue shaping the Congress Party's [[manifesto]] and core political philosophy.<ref name="google2010" /> His birthday, 14&nbsp;November is celebrated in India as ''Bal Divas'' ("[[Children's Day in India|Children's Day]]") in recognition of his lifelong passion and work for the welfare, education and development of children and young people. Children across India remember him as ''Chacha Nehru'' ("Uncle Nehru").<ref name="google2010">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qtuRMJCIe0cC&pg=PA175 |title=Gandhi Nehru and Globalization |last=Thakur |first=Harish |year=2010 |isbn=978-81-8069-684-8|publisher=Concept Publishing}}</ref> Nehru remains a popular symbol of the Congress Party which frequently celebrates his memory. people often emulate his style of clothing, especially the [[Gandhi cap]] and the [[Nehru jacket]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/290519/remembering-jawaharlal-nehru.html|title=Remembering Jawaharlal Nehru|date=29 May 2019|website=Deccan Chronicle}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/modish-designs/294045|title=Modish Designs|website=outlookindia|date=4 February 2022}}</ref> Nehru's preference for the [[sherwani]] ensured it continues to be considered formal wear in North India today.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Tripti|last=Lahiri|url=http://www.jnmf.in/history.html |title=A Profile of the Nehru Jacket|date=20 January 2012 |access-date=13 August 2021 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303195903/http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/01/20/a-profile-of-the-nehru-jacket/ |archive-date=3 March 2015 |work=[[The Wall Street Journal|blogs.wsj.com]]}}</ref>

[[File:5 Rupees coin of India commemorating the birth centenary of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.jpg|thumb|[[Indian 5-rupee coin|Indian 5 rupees coin]], [[Commemorative coin|commemorating]] the birth centenary of Nehru in 1989.]] Many public institutions and memorials across India are dedicated to Nehru's memory. The [[Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi|Jawaharlal Nehru University]] in Delhi is among the most prestigious universities in India. The [[Jawaharlal Nehru Port]] near the city of Mumbai is a modern port and [[dock (maritime)|dock]] designed to handle a huge cargo and traffic load. Nehru's residence in Delhi is preserved as the [[Teen Murti House]] now has the [[Nehru Memorial Museum & Library]], and one of five [[Nehru Planetarium]]s that were set in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Allahabad and Pune. The complex also houses the offices of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, established in 1964 under the chairmanship of [[Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan]], then president of India. The foundation also gives away the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fellowship, established in 1968.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.jnmf.in/history.html |title=Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund |access-date=13 August 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107075119/http://www.jnmf.in/history.html |archive-date=7 November 2015 }}</ref> The Nehru family homes at Anand Bhavan and [[Swaraj Bhavan]] are also preserved to commemorate Nehru and his family's legacy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/the-relevance-of-jawaharlal-nehru-1.1411887|title=The relevance of Jawaharlal Nehru|website=Gulf News}}</ref> In 1997, Nehru was voted as the greatest Indian since independence in ''[[India Today]]'''s poll.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hl9DAAAAYAAJ|title=India Today, Volume 22|publisher=Thomson Living Media India Limited|year=1997|page=77|quote=on the choice of the greatest Indian since 1947. Jawaharlal Nehru was the clear choice of 42 percent}}</ref> In 2012, he ranked number four in ''[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]]''{{'}}s poll of [[The Greatest Indian]].<ref>{{Cite web|first=Uttam|last=Sengupta|date=20 August 2012|url=https://magazine.outlookindia.com/story/a-measure-of-the-man/281949|title=A Measure Of The Man|website=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]]|access-date=13 August 2021}}</ref>

There have been many documentaries about Nehru's life, and he has been portrayed in fictionalised films. The canonical performance is probably that of [[Roshan Seth]], who played him three times: in [[Richard Attenborough]]'s 1982 film ''[[Gandhi (film)|Gandhi]]'',<ref name="Donnell2002">{{cite book|author=Suman Bhuchar|editor-link=Alison Donnell|editor=Alison Donnell|title=Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfdpdZ9DwH0C&pg=PA276|year=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-70025-7|page=276|chapter=Seth, Roshan}}</ref> [[Shyam Benegal]]'s 1988 television series ''[[Bharat Ek Khoj]]'', based on Nehru's ''The Discovery of India'',<ref>{{cite news |title=What makes Shyam special... |url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2003/01/17/stories/2003011700990100.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030627193719/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2003/01/17/stories/2003011700990100.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 June 2003 |date=17 January 2003 |newspaper=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=6 June 2013}}</ref> and in a 2007 TV film entitled ''The Last Days of the Raj''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/universal-studio-scraps-nehru-edwina-film/668111|title=Universal Studio Scraps Nehru-Edwina Film}}</ref> Benegal directed the 1984 documentary film, ''[[Nehru (1984 film)|Nehru]]'', covering his political career.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sharma |first1=Garima |title=Shyam Benegal on his film Nehru |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/shyam-benegal-on-his-film-nehru/articleshow/5651571.cms |website=[[The Times of India]] |language=en |date=7 March 2010|access-date=13 August 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Documentary Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oIeWcOf-_k8C|year=2010|page=7|publisher=[[Films Division of India|Films Division]], [[Government of India]]}}</ref> In [[Ketan Mehta]]'s film ''[[Sardar (1993 film)|Sardar]]'', [[Benjamin Gilani]] portrayed Nehru.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.culturalindia.net/leaders/jawaharlal-nehru.html |title=Jawaharlal Nehru Biography – Childhood, Facts & Achievements of India's First Prime Minister |access-date=25 August 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813223309/http://www.culturalindia.net/leaders/jawaharlal-nehru.html |archive-date=13 August 2017 |work=culturalindia.net |language=en-US}}</ref> ''[[Naunihal]]'' ({{lit|Young man}}), a 1967 Indian Hindi-language drama film by Raj Marbros, follows Raju, an orphan, who believes that Jawaharlal Nehru is his relative and sets out to meet him.<ref>{{cite web |title=Naunihal |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqwfCtoflUk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609103731/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqwfCtoflUk |archive-date=9 June 2021 |url-status=dead|work=[[Shemaroo]]|publisher=[[YouTube]] |date=22 February 2016}}</ref>

Similarly, in the 1957 film ''[[Ab Dilli Dur Nahin]]'' ({{lit|Now Delhi is not far away}}) by Amar Kumar, Rattan, a young boy, travels to Delhi and seeks to avert the death sentence of his wrongly convicted father by asking Prime Minister Nehru for help.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957) |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ab-dilli-dur-nahin |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|access-date=13 August 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Another 1957 [[English language]] short documentary ''[[Our Prime Minister]]'' was produced, compiled and directed by [[Ezra Mir]], who also directed ''Three weeks in the life of Prime Minister Nehru'' in 1962.<ref name="RajadhyakshaWillemen2014">{{cite book|author1=Ashish Rajadhyaksha|author2=Paul Willemen|title=Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rF8ABAAAQBAJ&pg=RA9-PA1979|access-date=17 August 2015|date=10 July 2014|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-94325-7|pages=9–|chapter=Mir, Ezra}}</ref><ref name="Barsam1992">{{cite book|author=Richard Meran Barsam|title=Nonfiction Film: A Critical History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7p36FdLYdIC&pg=PA271|access-date=26 February 2013|year=1992|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-20706-7|pages=271}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=India, 1951–1960 |url=http://www.moviemoviesite.com/Countries/Countries%20I/India/india_1951_1960.htm |date=2009–2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113084937/http://www.moviemoviesite.com/Countries/Countries%20I/India/india_1951_1960.htm |archive-date=13 January 2018 |website=Movie Movie |access-date=29 September 2022}}</ref> [[Girish Karnad]]'s historical play, ''[[Tughlaq (play)|Tughlaq]]'' (1962) is an allegory about the Nehruvian era. It was staged by [[Ebrahim Alkazi]] with the [[National School of Drama]] Repertory at [[Purana Qila]], Delhi in the 1970s and later at the Festival of India, London in 1982.<ref name="hin">{{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20011230180843/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1603/16031170.htm "AWARDS: The multi-faceted playwright"]}} ''[[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]]'', Vol. 16, No. 3, 30 January – 12 February 1999.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Authors speak |last=Sachindananda |publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-81-260-1945-8 |page=58 |chapter=Girish Karnad |chapter-url={{Google books|PGWa7v08JikC|page=PT82|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref>

Nehru's books have been widely read.<ref name="Roberts">{{cite book |author1=Adam Roberts |author2=Michael J. Willis |author3=Rory McCarthy |author4=Timothy Garton Ash |title=Civil Resistance in the Arab Spring: Triumphs and Disasters |publisher=OUP Oxford |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-19-108833-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHt9DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT44 |page=44|quote=Nehru's books were translated into Arabic and widely read}}</ref><ref name="Rana">{{cite book |last=Rana |first=A.P. |title=Four Decades of Indo-U.S. Relations: A Commemorative Retrospective |publisher=Har-Anand Publications |year=1994 |isbn=978-81-241-0156-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3x1uAAAAMAAJ |page=203|quote=Nehru's books were widely read and reviewed.}}</ref> ''An Autobiography'', in particular, has been critically acclaimed. [[John Gunther]], writing in ''Inside Asia'', contrasted it with Gandhi's autobiography:<blockquote> The Mahatma's placid story compares to Nehru's as a cornflower to an orchid, a rhyming couplet to a sonnet by MacLeish or Auden, a water pistol to a machine gun. Nehru's autobiography is subtle, complex, discriminating, infinitely cultivated, steeped in doubt, suffused with intellectual passion. Lord Halifax once said that no one could understand India without reading it; it is a kind of 'Education of Henry Adams,' written in superlative prose—hardly a dozen men alive write English as well as Nehru ...<ref name=gunther-inside-asia-nehru>{{cite book |last=Gunther|first=John|author-link=John Gunther|title=Inside Asia|page=429|year=1942|publisher=Harper and Brothers |location=New York and London|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.275215/page/n451/mode/2up}}</ref></blockquote>

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'':<blockquote> Nehru's books were not scholarly, nor were they intended to be. He 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 these works, he also revealed a sensitive literary style.... ''Glimpses of World History'' is the most illuminating on Nehru as an intellectual. The first of the trilogy, ''Glimpses'', was a series of thinly connected sketches of the story of mankind in the form of letters to his teenage daughter, Indira, later prime minister of India.... Despite its polemical character in many sections and its shortcomings as an impartial history, ''Glimpses'' is a work of great artistic value, a worthy precursor of his noble and magnanimous ''Autobiography''.<ref name=brecher-nehru>{{cite book |last=Brecher|first=Michael|title=Political Leadership and Charisma: Nehru, Ben-Gurion, and Other 20th-Century Political Leaders, Intellectual Odyssey I|date=23 September 2016|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=London|pages=80–81|isbn=978-3-319-32627-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1EiDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA81}}</ref></blockquote>

Michael Crocker thought ''An Autobiography'' would have given Nehru literary fame had the political fame eluded him:<blockquote>It is to his years in prison that we owe his three main books, ... Nehru's writings illustrate a cerebral life, and a power of self-discipline, altogether out of the ordinary. Words by the million bubbled up out of his fullness of mind and spirit. Had he never been prime minister of India he would have been famous as the author of the ''Autobiography'' and the autobiographical parts of ''The Discovery of India''. ''An Autobiography'', at least with some excisions here and there, is likely to be read for generations.... There are, for instance, the characteristic touches of truism and anticlimax, strange in a man who could both think and, at his best, write so well ...<ref name=crocker-nehru>{{cite book |last=Crocker|first=Walter|title=Nehru: A Contemporary's Estimate|year=2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQ8p4XTRZgEC&pg=PT96|publisher=Penguin Random House India|isbn=9788184002133}}</ref></blockquote>

Nehru's speech ''[[Tryst With Destiny|A Tryst With Destiny]]'' was rated by the British newspaper ''[[The Guardian]]'' to be among the great speeches of the 20th-century. [[Ian Jack]] wrote in his introduction to the speech: <blockquote>Dressed in a golden silk jacket with a red rose in the buttonhole, Nehru rose to speak. His 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.... The nobility of Nehru's words – their sheer sweep – provided the new India with a lodestone that was ambitious and humane. Post-colonialism began here as well as Indian democracy, which has since outlived many expectations of its death.<ref name=jack-guardian-tryst>{{cite news |last=Jack|first=Ian|title=Noble words|series=Great speeches of the 20th-century: Nehru|newspaper=The Guardian|date=1 May 2007|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/may/01/jawaharlal-nehru-tryst-with-dignity-speech-introduction}}</ref></blockquote>

He was posthumously awarded the [[Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo]] by the Government of South Africa in 2005.<ref>{{cite web | last=Solutions | first=Absol Internet Business | title=The Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo | website=The Presidency | date=2019-04-25 | url=https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/order-companions-o.r.-tambo-0}}</ref>

{{clear}}

*{{Cite book |last=Zachariah|first=Benjamin |author-link=|title=Nehru|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qaaBAgAAQBAJ|year=2004 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=9781134577392 }}

* Brecher, Michael. ''Nehru: A Political Biography'' (1959). London:[[Oxford University Press]].

* Das, Manmath Nath. ''The political philosophy of Jawaharlal Nehru'' (Taylor & Francis, 2022) [https://books.google.com/books?id=3pRwEAAAQBAJ&dq=NEHRU&pg=PT16 online].

* Frankel, Francine. ''When Nehru Looked East: Origins of India-US Suspicion and India-China Rivalry'' (Oxford University Press, 2019) [https://books.google.com/books?id=CNnBDwAAQBAJ&dq=NEHRU&pg=PP1 online].

* Nath, Sushmita. ''The Secular Imaginary: Gandhi, Nehru and the Idea(s) of India'' (Cambridge University Press, 2022) [https://books.google.com/books?id=xD2CEAAAQBAJ&dq=NEHRU+INDIA&pg=PP1 online].

* {{Cite web |url=https://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/pdf/prof_jawaharlalnehru.pdf |title=Commanding Heights |last=Stanislaw, Joseph and Daniel A. Yergin |year=1988 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster, Inc.]] |location=New York}}

*{{Cite book |last=Tharoor |first=Shashi |author-link=Shashi Tharoor |title=Nehru: The Invention of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PN-CYKb4FcAC |year=2003 |publisher=[[Penguin Group]] |isbn=9780670092000 |access-date=}}

* Westcott, Stephen P. "Mao, Nehru and the Sino-Indian border dispute: A poliheuristic analysis." ''India Quarterly'' 75.2 (2019): 155–171. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Westcott-2/publication/333687633_Mao_Nehru_and_the_Sino-Indian_Border_Dispute_A_Poliheuristic_Analysis/links/60408450a6fdcc9c780f8642/Mao-Nehru-and-the-Sino-Indian-Border-Dispute-A-Poliheuristic-Analysis.pdf online]

* [https://inc.in/our-inspiration/pandit-jawaharlal-nehru Jawaharlal Nehru], [[Indian National Congress]]

* [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jawaharlal-Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru] at ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''

* [https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/former_pm/shri-jawaharlal-nehru/ Jawaharlal Nehru], [[Prime Minister's Office (India)]]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20151103174317/http://www.india-today.com/itoday/millennium/100people/nehru.html Profile of Nehru], ''[[India Today]]''