Jawalharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru (जवाहरलाल नेहरू) (November 14, 1889 - May 27, 1964), was a leader of the (moderately) socialist wing of the Indian National Congress during and after India's struggle for independence from the British Empire. He became the first Prime Minister of India at independence on August 15, 1947, holding the office until his death.
Brief biography
The son of prominent Congress leader Motilal Nehru, he returned from education in England at Harrow School and Cambridge University to practise law before following his father into politics, emerging as a protege of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and entering the first rank in Indian nationalist politics as president of Congress (an annual post) for the first time in 1929. Nehru was highly impressed with Fabian Socialist methods during his schooling in England.
Imprisoned for 32 months after the Quit India movement of 1942, Nehru formed the country's first Indian government in July 1946 in the face of mounting opposition from the All-India Muslim League, whose campaign for a separate state led to the creation of a separate Pakistan in 1947.
Nehru was extremely close to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who often favored him over his other disciple - Sardar Patel. In fact, nine of the fifteen provincial councils at that time voted for Sardar Patel to become the first Prime Minister of India. However, on Gandhi's request, Sardar Patel relinquished the post to placate Nehru.
As prime minister, Nehru pursued a foreign policy of non-alignment and became a founder and leader of the Non-Aligned Movement. He pursued India's claim to Kashmir in the face of Pakistani opposition, resulting in the First Kashmir War (1947-49). Though professing distaste for armed force,under pressure his powerful authoritarian Home Minister, Sardar_Patel he used India's army to secure the territories of Hyderabad (September 1948) and Portuguese-ruled Goa (December 1961). Military defeat at the hands of the People's Republic of China in the Sino-Indian War in October 1962 brought strong criticism of military unpreparedness and Nehru's policy of friendship with India's mighty neighbour.
During the Cold War on November 27, 1946, Prime Minister Nehru appealed to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."
The Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital, Rose Belle, Mauritius was named after him.
Institutional Legacy
Nehru helped create a country with enduring civic institutions, a strong socially responsive judiciary, a commitment to civilian oversight of the army and overall egalitarianism.
Nehru's policies are credited with setting up India's infrastructure for scientific education, the Nuclear Programme, the Space Programme, the extensive Indian Railways network, the Pharmaceutical Industry. Due his intellectual, charismatic, and socially committed nature, Nehru was faced with unprecedant. It is to his considerable credit that he did not abuse this power and constantly attempted to deepen the democratic nature and institutions of the newly independent India. his charisma extended to the world stage where under his leadership, India was often able to be "punching above its weight." In his later years, he has been criticised by nationalists, both past and present, for not sufficiently confronting Pakistan and China in their differences with India. India's heavy defeat in the war with China seemed to bear out his critics, dimmed his public stature slightly, affecting him greatly at a person. He died shortly thereafter, having achieved so much but being found wanting.
Nehru's economic policy
Nehru was fascinated by Soviet Union's Piatiletka or 5-year plan and tried implementing the same for the Indian Economy. He wanted India to have the best combination of Socialism and Capitalism and tried to implement Democratic Socialism in India. He wanted the state to be a principal enterprenuer and all its citizens to be equal share holders. He strengthened the democratic pillars of nation immensely by creating proper wealth distribution systems at all levels.
Nehru's economic policies are often confused by critics with those of his daughter, Indira Gandhi, who was more left-wing. Nehru's economics of state intervention and investment were conceived at a time when transfers of capital and technology important to India were not easily forthcoming from the developed world (which incidentally also had plenty of state-sponsored capital controls.) Nehru is often criticised by ill-informed commentators of the present-day, when transfers of capital are unhindered, easily channelled by recipient nations, and even encouraged for their high returns in emerging markets.
The Soviet Union was the only major power to allow India to develop independent capabilities in many spheres of heavy industry, engineering, and cutting-edge technologies. India's combination of internal political freedom, economic and political independence throughout its existence can be favourably comapred with many client-states of the United States and the Soviet Union.
Books written by Nehru
Nehru's letters to his daughter Indira during successive periods of imprisonment in 1930-34 were later compiled into a book called Glimpses of World History. His 1942-45 incarceration produced The Discovery of India. He has written his biography too, titled An Autobiography. All of Nehru's writings bear strong imprints of his intellectual and sensitive mind along with a poetic temperament. In a review of The Glimpses of World History, Tom Wrightington says that Indians can learn English not from Macaulay or Gibbon, but from Nehru. Albert Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore have written letters, praising the content and Nehru's mastery over English and rhythm.
His only daughter, Indira Gandhi, went on to become Prime Minister following the death of his immediate successor Lal Bahadur Shastri in January 1966.
Nehru's famous Tryst with Destiny speech on the eve of Indian Independence can be found here.
Trivia about Nehru
- Nehru had golden bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi and a hand of Abraham Lincoln on his office desk.
- Nehru had written letters anonymously warning his colleagues not to give too many of power temptations to Nehru, the prime minister, as it could lead to an autocracy.
See also
Further reading
- Shashi Tharoor (November 2003) Nehru: A BiographyArcade Books. ISBN 155970697X
- Jawaharlal Nehru (Edited by S. Gopal and Uma Iyengar) (July 2003) The Essential Writings of Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195653246
- Autobiography, Toward freedom Oxford University Press
- Speech in the Constituent Assembly of India, on the eve of India's Independence
