Presentation on the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru

8. ON HIS DESK
On his desk , Jawaharlal Nehru kept two totems- a
gold statuette of Mahatma Gandhi and a bronze
cast of the hand of Abraham Lincoln, which he
would occasionally touch for comfort. The two
objects reflected the range of his sources of
inspiration; he often spoke of his wish to confront
problems with the heart of the Mahatma and the
hand of Lincoln.

9. The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
These words by famous poet, Robert Frost (1874–1963), U.S.
poet ( Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening) , were found on
a scrap of paper on the desk of Indian prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru when he died.

10. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime
minister of independent India (1947–
64), who established parliamentary
government and became noted for
his neutralist (nonaligned) policies in
foreign affairs.
He was also one of the principal
leaders of India’s independence
movement in the 1930s and ’40s.

11. Jawaharlal Nehru
Few leaders of the world had the intellect, charm and vision of Nehru

12. Personal details
Born
Died
Spouse
Children
14 November 1889
27 May 1964
(aged 74)
Kamala Kaul
Indira Gandhi

13. BIOGRAPHY
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, had a strong and
influential lineage. Born on the 14th of November, 1889 at Allahabad,
Jawaharlal Nehru was the eldest child of Motilal Nehru and Swarup Rani.
His family was from Kashimiri heritage and belonged to a high Hindu
caste

14. Motilal Nehru
He was a barrister by profession and won several
accolades for his legal works from different spheres

15. Swaroop Rani Nehru Motilal nehru's wife and Mother of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru

16. The Nehru family ca.
1890s

20. Nehru dressed in cadet
uniform
at Harrow School in England

25. Jawaharlal Nehru played a significant role in shaping the
policies and ideology of the Congress party and remains a
popular icon of the party till today . Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
was born on November 14th 1889 in Allahabad to Motilal
Nehru, an affluent barrister and Swarupini Thussu. Nehru grew
up in a privileged home and went on to Trinity College,
Cambridge for further education in 1907, from where he
graduated with an honours degree. After obtaining his degree,
Nehru lived in London for a few years where he studied law and
was admitted to the English bar in 1912.

28. Anand Bhavan (Nehru's Drawing Room

30. Gandhi`s Room, Anand Bhavan, Allahabad

31. JAWARLAL NEHRU’S PICTURE
IN ALLAHABAD BHAVAN

32. Anand Bhawan, Allahabad

33. A peek inside the extensive Nehru personal library @ Anand Bhavan

34. He was educated in England, at Harrow
School, and then at Trinity College,
Cambridge. He studied law at the Inner
Temple in London. He returned to India in
1912 and practised law for some years. In
1916, he married Kamala Kaul and the
following year they had a daughter, Indira.

43. With daughter Indira Priyadarshani in 1918

50. By 1912, Nehru returned to India and became an advocate in the
Allahabad High Court, where he was working as a barrister, though he
was not entirely interested in practicing law. While he was in Britain,
Nehru had developed a healthy interest in Indian politics and
eventually joined the Congress party to support the Indian Civil Rights
movement in South Africa. Nehru assisted in collecting funds for the
Civil Rights campaigners led by Mahatma Gandhi. He also took part in
movements against the discrimination of Indians in British colonies.
By 1919, Nehru was an intrinsic part of the Indian National Congress
which was fighting for freedom from British rule. Nehru drew
immense inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and his policy of non-
violence and was imprisoned many times during the 1920s and 1930s
by the British on charges of civil disobedience. By 1928, Nehru had
been elected the president of the Congress party.

51. In 1919, Nehru joined the Indian National Congress which
was fighting for greater autonomy from the British. He was
heavily influenced by the organization's leader Mohandas
Gandhi. During the 1920s and 1930s Nehru was repeatedly
imprisoned by the British for civil disobedience. In 1928, he
was elected president of the Congress.

52. PRISON

53. This Place was kept as the secluded prisons by Britishers because of the Fort’s mighty
structure and vast compound.

54. These are the pages from his personal diary and letters written to daughter Indira
Gandhi during his detention here written in three different languages i.e, English,
Hindi and Urdu. Handwriting very difficult to comprehend.

57. Letters from a Father to His
Daughter
is an enormously heartening and
a strong reminder for readers of
all ages and eras about how we
shape the world we live in
through our understanding of it
and the choices we make in it.

58. Nehru letters to Indira
In one of the first letters, Nehru reminds his daughter that we need to
consistently step outside of our biases and boundaries.
“England is only a little Island and India, though a big country is only a
small part of the earth’s surface. If we want to know something about
the story of this world of ours we must think of the countries and all the
peoples that we have inhabited it, and not merely of one little country
where we may have been born .
In a letter exploring the origin of different races, Nehru dispels the
irrational beliefs that lie at the heart of racism by telling Indira the story of
how early humans migrated across the earth and developed into different
races based on the conditions of the lands they lived in.

59. We find that people’s complexions are the result of the climate they
live in. They have nothing to do with the worthiness or goodness or
beauty of a person.
Reflecting on the different complexions of people in different regions of
India — fairer in the north where it is cooler and darker in the hotter
south — and on the flawed cultural beliefs that associate fairer with
better, Nehru adds a disclaimer about privilege:
Of course, it may be that some people, even though they may live in a
hot country, do not work in the open and are rich enough to live in big
houses and take care of themselves and their complexions. A rich
family may live like this for generations and may thus not be affected
by the climate very much. But not to work oneself and to live on the
work of others is nothing to be proud of.

60. He adds a prescient note on India’s own geopolitical
destiny — a country that, nearly a century after Nehru’s
letters, is emerging as a global force of innovation:
If we find anything good in other countries, we should
certainly take it.
Indians we have to live in India and work for India. But
we must not forget the world and the people living in
other countries are after all our cousins. It would be
such an excellent thing if all the people in the world
were happy and contented. We have therefore to try
to make the whole world a happier place to live in.

61. In a letter exploring the origin and social purpose of religion, Nehru
explores the inner contradictions of religion, which haunt us to this day:
This seems horrible but a man who is afraid will do anything.
This must have been the beginnings of religion. So religion first came
as fear, and anything that is done because of fear is bad. Religion, as
you know, tells us many beautiful things. When you grow up, you will
read about the religions of the world and of the good things and the
bad things that have been done in their name. . . . We see even today
that people fight and break each other’s heads in the name of religion.
And for many people it is still something to be afraid of. They spend
their time trying to please some imaginary beings by making presents
in temples and even sacrifices of animals.

62. Ultimately, he tells his daughter that civilization
is not a matter of external material evidence but
of internal spiritual disposition:
Fine buildings, fine pictures and books and
everything that is beautiful are certainly
signs of civilization. But an even better sign
is a fine man who is unselfish and works
with others for the good of all. To work
together is better than to work singly, and to
work together for the common good is best
of all.

63. The Discovery Of India was
written by Jawahar Lal Nehru
during his 3 years
imprisonment inside the
Ahmednagar Fort. He had
written the book while he
was interned in the room
in the record period of five
months from April 1944 to
September 1944 and during
his Twentieth month of stay
in this prison.

64. Reading through his Book, one could empathise
with his state of mind, the intense feeling and the
person one grows into, after living in an enclosed
self plus environment for almost 3 years. One
attains a spiritual self with solitude. Walking
through the compound where the leaders were
kept, the devotee in me dipped several times in
the holy river of knowledge, into the history of the
Book, an epic in the making which will be bible for
historians and youth and will be read and
remembered till eternity.

65. In Pandit Nehru’s Words –
“The sensation is heightened when the
writing had been done in close and
abnormal atmosphere of prison. It
seems almost that I was reading some
familiar piece written by another, who
was near to me and yet who was
different. Perhaps that is the measure of
change that has taken place in me (after
a prison tenure).
This book is mine and not wholly mine,
as I am constituted today, it represents
rather some past self of mine which has
joined the long succession of other
selves that existed for a while and faded
away, leaving only a memory behind.”
Anand Bhawan Allahabad
December 29, 1945
— Nehru

66. An Autobiography: Toward Freedom
By Jawaharlal Nehru
First published in 1936. This book was
written by Nehru almost entirely in
prison from June 1934 to February
1935. His account, though replete with
autobiographical details, is much more
than a personal document; in the
words of Rabindranath Tagore,
"Through all its details there runs a
deep current of humanity which
overpasses the tangles of facts and
leads us to the person who is greater
than his deeds, and truer than his
surroundings."

67. Nehru's India: Select Speeches
By Jawaharlal Nehru
Focusing on topical issues and
with an introduction by Mushirul
Hasan, this important collection
of Jawaharlal Nehru's speeches
showcases the relevance of his
vision in India today.

68. JAWAHARLAL NEHRU AS A WRITER OF ENGLISH PROSE
"I am not a man of letters," wrote Jawaharlal Nehru in
one of his missives from jail to his daughter Indira, but
of course he was. All through his life Nehru lost no
opportunity to write. His words took the form of drafts
and resolutions for the Congress party, essays on the
great issues of the day for newspapers and journals, and
letters to friends, family, and colleagues in the
independence movement. When he became Prime
Minister of India, Nehru wrote a long letter addressed
jointly to his chief ministers every fortnight, containing
his deliberations on domestic and world affairs. It is
clear that, despite the burdens of his worldly
commitments, words set down on paper were for
Nehru a way of making sense of the commotion of life,
politics and ideas.

69. Letters for a Nation : From Jawaharlal Nehru to His
Chief Ministers 1947-1963
In October 1947, two months after he became independent
India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote the first of
his fortnightly letters to the heads of the country’s provincial
governments-a tradition that he kept until his last letter in
December 1963, only a few months before his death. Carefully
selected from among nearly 400 such letters, this collection
covers a range of themes and subjects, including citizenship,
war and peace, law and order, national planning and
development, governance and corruption, and India’s place in
the world. The letters also cover momentous world events and
the many crises and conflicts the country faced during the first
sixteen years after Independence. Visionary, wise and
reflective, these letters are not just a testimony to Nehru’s
statesmanship and his deep engagement with every aspect of
India’s democratic journey, but are also of great contemporary
relevance for the guidance they provide for our current
problems and predicaments.

74. By 1919, Nehru was an intrinsic part of the Indian National
Congress which was fighting for freedom from British rule.
Nehru drew immense inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi
and his policy of non-violence and was imprisoned many
times during the 1920s and 1930s by the British on charges
of civil disobedience. By 1928, Nehru had been elected the
president of the Congress party.
Soon, Nehru was being looked at as a successor of Gandhi
and was at the center of the negotiations for Independence
with the British. He also opposed the creation of a separate
Muslim state of Pakistan by the leader of the All India
Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, even though the
nation was ultimately divided into India and Pakistan.

76. Pandit Nehru with the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi,
centre, and Vallabhai Patel (right), waiting for a car outside Birla
House, Bombay.

78. Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru participate in a
'charkha' demonstration held in the Bhangi colony in New
Delhi, April 19, 1946.

79. Vallabhbhai Patel and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit at
Anand Bhavan in Allahabad

83. Glimpses of World History, a book written
by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1934

84. Glimpses of World History, a book written by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1934, is a
panoramic sweep of the history of humankind. It is a collection of 196 letters
on world history written from various prisons in British India between 1930–
1933. The letters were written to his young daughter and were meant to
introduce her to world history.
The letters start off with one he sends to his daughter on her birthday. He says
he is sad about not being able to send her any "material" gift from prison, so
he would try to give her something he can "afford", a series of letters from his
heart.
Written from prison, where he had no recourse to reference books or a library
but his personal notes, Glimpses of World History contains the history of
humankind from 6000 BC to the time of writing of the book. It covers the rise
and fall of great empires and civilizations from Greece and Rome to China and
West Asia great figures such as Ashoka and Genghis Khan, Mohan Das K.
Gandhi and Vladimir Lenin wars and revolutions, democracies and
dictatorships.
Contd….

85. He wrote about many cultures throughout the globe in detail because,
as he himself said, he didn't like the way history was taught in schools
where it was confined to the history of a single country and that too
narrow, and he wanted his daughter Priyadarshini to know why people
did what they did. It was possible only through knowing the history of
the whole world.
The letters are written in informal language, with the contemporary and
personal events too mentioned. They reflect the world view of Nehru,
and his grasp of history.
It could be considered as one of the first attempts at historiography
from a non-Eurocentric angle - a statement that is itself subject to the
charge of Eurocentrism, given the long history of historical writing
outside of Europe, for instance in China (from The Classic of History, c.
550 BC) or the Islamic world (from Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari in the
9th century AD to Biruniand ibn Khaldun).

86. Jawaharlal Nehru shortly after his arrival in
London on Dec 3, 1946.

87. By the end of World War Two,
Nehru was recognised as Gandhi's
successor. He played a central role
in the negotiations over Indian
independence. He opposed the
Muslim League's insistence on the
division of India on the basis of
religion. Louis Mountbatten, the
last British viceroy, advocated the
division as the fastest and most
workable solution and Nehru
reluctantly agreed.

88. New Delhi: Nehru during an historic conference on partition
of India , with Lord Mountbatten and Mohammed Ali
Jinnah, president of the Muslim League.

90. On August 15th 1947, Nehru became the first Prime
Minister of Independent India and served the position
until his death in May 1964. Nehru is applauded for
introducing India to socialist economic reforms and
ushering in an era of industrialization. Nehru served in
various positions in the Indian cabinet and handled
portfolios such as the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of
External Affairs and Ministry of Finance.

95. On July 15th 1955, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,
India’s first Prime Minister, was awarded
the Bharat Ratna (India’s highest civilian
honour) by then President Rajendra Prasad.

100. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru with the Nizam of Hyderabad (C) and Indian
Military Governor Major General Jayanto Chaudhury, at the Nizam's
King Kothi Palace, in Hyderabad on Dec. 25, 1949.

101. Pandit Nehru is remembered not only as India’s first Prime
Minister, but also as India’s most charismatic leader who was
greatly admired, not only in India, but across the globe, for his
idealism and statesmanship. Nehru is believed to have given
Indians an image of themselves which no other leader had
succeeded in doing.
Nehru invested a lot of his energy into the emancipation of
children and the youth, who he believed to be the future of the
country. Nehru was fondly known as Chacha Nehru by young
children and his birthday (November 14th) is celebrated as
Children’s Day across India.

106. During the Cold War, Nehru maintained a “positive
neutrality” for India and became a popular agent for
the non-aligned Asian and African countries, most of
which were former colonies and wanted to avoid
being dependent on any major world power.
Indo-Chinese border tension broke out in 1962,
which led to India’s defeat, which is also believed to
be one of the causes that led to the decline of
Nehru’s health. He died shortly after on May 27th
1964.

108. Nehru’s Bedroom (Tinmurti bhavan)

109. Drawing room in Tinmurti bhavan

110. Nehru’s Study ( Tinmurti bhavan)

111. Tryst with Destiny - Speech Text

113. gifts gallery which displays some of the most beautiful gifts received by Nehru during his
travels in India and abroad. In addition to the permanent display in the Museum, special
exhibitions are arranged periodically to depict different facets of Nehru's life and phases of the
Indian national movement

114. NEHRU’S FOREIGNPOLICY

115. Jawaharlal Nehru’s concept of nonalignment brought India considerable
international prestige among newly independent states that shared India's
concerns about the military confrontation between the super powers and
the influence of the former colonial powers.
Nonalignment had its origins in India's colonia Indian independence
struggle experience and the nonviolent left India determined to be the
master of its fate in an international system dominated politically by Cold
War alliances and economically by Western capitalism and
Soviet Communism. The principles of nonalignment, as articulated by
Nehru and his successors, were preservation of India's freedom of action
internationally through refusal to align India with any bloc or alliance,
particularly those led by the United States or the Soviet Union;
nonviolence and international cooperation as a means of settling
international disputes. Nonalignment was a consistent feature of Indian by
the late 1940s and enjoyed strong, almost unquestioning support among
the Indian elite.

116. India’s foreign policy was conducted under the guidance of Pt. Jawaharlal
Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India. The shaping of India’s
foreign policy was largely influenced by the international development
after the Second World War, the weakening of the forces of imperialism
and growth of the forces of democracy and progress.
But at that point the internal situation of India did not permit them to pay
attention to international developments. It was mainly due to Nehru’s
efforts that since the mid-twenties the Congress party began to take
interest in international affairs.
The Congress resolved to support the subject peoples and races in their
struggle for freedom and equality. They also decided to condemn racial
discriminations throughout the world. After 1927 Nehru took an active
part in formulating the foreign policy of the Congress that was in effect its
first foreign policy statement.
Contd…

117. It contained a declaration that India should not participate in imperialist and any
other war. This position was taken up as the key foreign policy principle in late
1920s and 1930s. When in 1930s Japan, Italy and Germany engaged themselves
in imperialist aggressions, the Congress condemned their brutal imperialist
designs and passed resolutions to defend the cause of the nationalist forces in
various countries such as China, Ethiopia, etc.
The inter-war period shaped a substantial portion of India’s foreign policy. India
agreed to cooperate with Britain against Nazi Germany but since the
cooperation was sought on British terms, the newly constituted Congress
ministries resigned.
The dropping of atom bomb by the Americans on Japanese soil wounded India’s
feelings and was strongly condemned. Soon after the formation of the interim
government in September 1946, India took steps to establish friendly relations
with all countries. During the time that the interim government was in office,
India established diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors with the USA,
USSR, China and some other countries.

118. After independence, Nehru became the virtual director of India’s foreign policy. And
under his guidance India became the first state to have pursued a policy that was new
in the history of international relations- the policy of Non-Alignment. He was ably
supported by Naser of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia and Joseph Broz Tito of Yugoslavia.
Early in 1947, at the initiative of India, the Asian Relations Conference at Delhi was
convened where the principles of foreign policy of independent India were
proclaimed. It was attended by representatives of 29 countries. The Conference
helped to strengthen the solidarity of all Asian countries.
Nehru also participated in the Afro-Asian Conference held in 1955 in Bandung and
popularized the policy of non-alignment there. The agenda contained in these
conferences was the economic and cultural cooperation, respect for human rights and
self-determination and finally the promotion of world peace and cooperation.
The policy of Non-alignment meant the acceptance of the inevitability of war but on
the conviction that was could also be avoided. Non-Alignment stood for an
independent policy conditioned and controlled by India’s own strength. It meant not
to entangle oneself with any kind of alliances or commitments that would lead to war
and conflict.

119. The policy of Non-alignment was based on the five principles of Panch Shila,
enumerating international conduct. These were first envisaged and formulated in
1954.
These principles were:
a. Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
b. Non-aggression
c. Non interference in each other’s military affairs
d. Equality and mutual benefit
c. Peaceful coexistence
Non-alignment was a tactic or technique to maintain world peace in such a way
that each nation pursues his own interest without disturbing the other. The policy
was also in tune with the domestic requirements of democracy and socialism.
A major economic factor for the adoption of the policy of non-alignment had been
India’s economic backwardness. Foreign aid was an important component for
developing our underdeveloped economy. Therefore aid was welcome from all
quarters- USSR, UK, USA, Germany and Japan. This presupposes non-alignment.
India was both tied up with the east and west for economic development.

120. National security and foreign
policy

121. Leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement: (L to R) PM
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Pres. Kwame Nkrumah
of Ghana, Pres. Gamal Abdel Nasser of United Arab.

122. Nehru's three visits to the United States of America

123. September 8, 1961: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (left)
and Indian Prime Minister .

124. Nehru receiving US President Dwight
D. Eisenhower at Parliament House,
1959

136. WITH YOUNG INDIRA

140. Pandit Nehru with his daughter Indira Gandhi ascending a flight of
Persepolis Palace near Shiraz in Iran, Sept 23, 1959. stone steps as they
tour the ruins of the 3,000-year-old

144. Indian Premier Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, take
their seats for the final session, of the Afro-Asian conference at Bandung,
Indonesia, April 24, 1955.

145. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Having a Meal with His Family

149. A 1956 file picture of Vijayalakshmi Pandit with her three
daughters at Anand Bhavan, the family home of Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru in Allahabad.

150. Vijayalakshmi Pandit (left), India's Ambassador to the
United States confers with her sister Krishna Hatee Singh
after the former's arrival at Santa Cruz Airport in Bombay
from United States on September 2, 1951

152. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, president of the U.N.
General Assembly, visiting Winston Churchill,
war-time Prime Minister of the U.K., at his
home in Chartwell, Kent, on July 11, 1954.
Krishna Hutheesing meeting David Ben
Gurion (the first Prime Minister of
Israel) in Israel, 1958

153. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit by Rex Coleman, for
Baron

162. Jawaharlal Nehru steps back after placing a wreath of the tomb of George
Washington at Mount Vernon in Virginia, Oct 12, 1949.

164. JAWAHARLAL NEHRU BUILDER OF MODERN
SCIENCE AND PROMOTER OF SCIENTIFIC
TEMPER

165. Jawaharlal Nehru’s farsighted vision and admirable leadership is responsible for
developing modern science in our country. He played a major role in establishing a
modern scientific and technological infrastructure and strove to promote scientific
temper.
To Nehru, scientific temper was something to be inculcated in society at large.
To accomplish his dream to establish world class institutions of science Nehru
actively corresponded with and invited several reputed scientists and academicians
from across the world. J.B.S. Haldane, one of the greatest geneticists of the 20th
century, emigrated from England to spend the last years of his life in India, in part
because of his admiration for Nehru.
The growth of scientific temper is a measure of the extent to which society applies
the methods of science to solve its problems. Science should serve society. A clear
awareness among the masses needs to be cultivated.
Contd…..

166. Pandit Nehru laid the brick and mortar of science in newly
independent India. Nehru’s enormous contributions to the
establishment of the IITs, of the large network of research
laboratories of the CSIR and DRDO and of the atomic energy
establishment are all well known. To accomplish his dream of
making these institutions world class centres of research and
learning, Pandit Nehru invited and encouraged a number of
renowned scientists and academicians like Homi Bhaba, J.B.S.
Haldane, Sir C.V. Raman, Satish Dhavan, Nalini Ranjan Sarkar,
J.C. Ghosh, Humayun Kabir and many others. It was Nehru’s
sustained and spontaneous political support that translated
the idea into a reality. Over 45 Central laboratories in
different fields of science were launched during his time. He
was also responsible for initiating the first steps to launch
India into the electronics and space era. ….contd

167. But more than the brick and mortar—the hardware or
establishment of physical facilities as it were—Nehru
was preoccupied with what he at different times called
the “scientific method”, the “scientific approach”, the
“scientific outlook” and the “scientific temper”—the
software. Inaugurating the 34th session of the Indian
Science Congress, which met in Delhi in January 1947,
Pandit Nehru expressed the hope that as “India was on
the verge of independence and science in India too was
coming of age, it would try to solve the problems of
new India by rapid planned development in all sectors
and try to make her more and more scientific minded”.

168. He said: ”Science was not merely an individual’s search for
truth; It was something infinitely more than that if it
worked for the community.” He explained: “For a hungry
man or hungry woman, truth has little meaning. He
wants food. For a hungry man God has no meaning. And
India is starving and to talk of truth and God and many
of the finer things is mockery. We have to find food for
them, clothing, housing, education and health are
absolute necessities that every person should possess.
When we have done that we can philosophise and think
of God. So, science must think in those terms and work
along those lines on the wider scale of coordinated
planning.”

169. JAWAHARLAL NEHRU BUILDER OF
DEMOCRACY

170. Underlying the strong institutional base Nehru laid for
the growth of Indian democracy was the value
system shaped under Gandhiji’s leadership, The
relevance of those highly cherished values –
communal harmony, non-violence and emancipation
of the oppressed sections of the society – has not
decreased with the passage of time. Even today they
occupy a high place in our system though
euphemistically we may describe them as national
integration and social justice. Nehru’s commitment
to democracy stemmed from that value system
nurtured by Gandhiji.

171. With all its faults the Indian democracy under Nehru’s leadership grew to be
the most enduring system in the third world. The uniqueness of Nehru’s
democracy which was hailed as the Hellas of Asia lay in the fact that it could
survive severe tests both from within and outside. Disproving some western
critics who had prophesied the collapse of Indian democracy after Nehru,
the Indian democracy not only survived Nehru but came out with
flying colours from the most trying years that followed. The sudden death of
Nehru and Shastri (whose succession was described as Two Successions by a
Western scholar) and later of Indira Gandhi and the unprecedented drought
and economic misery of the mid-sixties besides the three wars that were
forced on India in 1962, 1965 and 1971 were the most severe tests faced by
free India. And Indian democracy proved worthy of Nehru’s faith in it.

172. Throughout his 17 years in the prime minister’s office,
he held up democratic socialism as the guiding star,
emphasizing that India needed to achieve both
democracy and socialism. With the help of the
overwhelming majority that the Congress Party
maintained in the parliament during his term of office,
he advanced toward that goal. The four pillars of his
domestic policies were democracy, socialism, unity,
and secularism. He succeeded to a large extent in
maintaining the edifice supported by those four pillars
during his lifetime.

173. The political ethos Nehru promoted was
one of staunch anti-imperialism, a
determination to safeguard India against
foreign domination and internal division,
and a commitment- at least in principle- to
the uplift of the poorest sections of the
Indian Country.

174. On 15 August 1947, Nehru became the first prime minister of independent
India. He held the post until his death in 1964. He implemented moderate
socialist economic reforms and committed India to a policy of industrialisation.
Nehru also served as foreign minister of India. In October 1947, he faced
conflict with Pakistan over the state of Kashmir, which was disputed at
independence. Nehru sent troops into the state to support India's claim. A
United Nations ceasefire was negotiated, but Kashmir remains deeply unstable
to this day.
Against the background of the Cold War, Nehru developed a policy of 'positive
neutrality' for India. He became one of the key spokesmen for the non-aligned
countries of Africa and Asia, many of which were former colonies that wanted
to avoid dependence on any major power.
Despite efforts at cooperation by both countries, Indian-Chinese border
disputes escalated into war in 1962 and Indian forces were decisively beaten.
This had a significant impact on Nehru's declining health. He died on 27 May
1964.

175. His most comprehensive biographer, the late S.Gopal put it
best:
No one who lived in India during the enchantment of Nehru
years needs to be reminded of the positive, generous spirit,
the quality of style, the fresh and impulsive curiosity, the
brief flares of temper followed by gentle contrition and the
engaging streak of playfulness, all of which went along with
an unrelenting sense of duty , a response to large issues, an
exercise of reason and unaffiliated intelligence in human
affairs, and intense but not exclusive, patriotism and, above
all, complete and transparent personal integrity …to a whole
generation of India he was not so much a leader as a
companion who expressed and made clearer a particular
view of the present and a vision of the future. The
combination of intellectual and moral authority was unique
in his time.

177. Jawahalal Nehru has left behind a strong legacy in India and many
memorials have been built for him, along with many colleges and
universities which have been named after him, including the famous
Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Nehru is also remembered for his
preferred style of clothing and has lent his name to garments such as the
Nehru jacket and the Nehru cap, still worn by many politicians.
Many documentaries have been made on the life of Nehru and he has
been portrayed in many films, such as Richard
Attenborough’s Gandhi, Sardar, Shyam Benegal’s TV series, Bharat Ek
Khoj and The Last Days of the Raj. Apart from this, Nehru had penned
many books, such as The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History and
his autobiography, Toward Freedom.

178. REFERENCES
1. wikipedia
2. Nehru, Jawaharlal. Glimpses of World History. Penguin Books India. ISBN 0-670-
05818-1
3. Jawaharlal Nehru- Builder of Modern Science and Promoter of Scientific Temper-
Soma S. Marla, Mainstream, VOL LI, No 48, November 16, 2013
4. Jawaharlal Nehru Builder of Indian democracy by Dr. A. Prasanna Kumar
5. Jawaharlal Nehur Prime Minister of India written by Frank Moraes
6. BBC-Historic Figures: Jawaharlal Nehru (www.bbc.co.uk)
7. Nehru: The Invention of India by Shashi Tharoor
8. Jawaharlal Nehru’s Foreign Policy-Indian History by Mamata Aggarwal

179. Ms. Dayamani Surya holds Master’s Degree in the English Literature from Osmania University,
Hyderabad (India), Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching of English from CIEFL, Post Graduate
Diploma in Teaching of English from CIEFL, Bachelor’s degree in Science (Osmania University)
and Bachelor’s degree in Education from St.Ann’s College of Education , Secunderabad
(affiliated to Osmania University), Hyderabad.
She holds online professional certifications like:
•Project Management
•Human Resource Management
•Financial Accounting
• Management and Accounting
• Business Process Outsourcing
•Advance Learning Certificate in English Literature Analysis from Ireland.
She was a student of the Nehru Memorial Govt. High School, Malakpet, Hyderabad, India. She
worked as a teacher in many Public Schools in Hyderabad, India. At present, she works as a
Research Associate in the District Centre for English Scheme, Department of Training and
Development, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad since 1 May 2007, her
work focuses on Administration, Curriculum Development and Teaching in the International
Training Programme for Foreign Students at the University.
She works online as a mentor, helps the students and research scholars in their project work,
compilation of articles and research papers, contributes to the publication of articles and
journals. She is involved in materials production, paper evaluation of some educational
organizations.
She published papers in Lang Lit –An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal ISSN
2349-5189. She also published articles in English Language Teaching Institute, Rajasthan
Journal ISSN No.2250 317X.