Timeline History

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru (November 14, 1889 – May 27, 1964), also called Pandit (Scholar or Teacher) Nehru, was one of the most important leaders of the Indian Independence Movement and, as the head of the Indian National Congress, became the first Prime Minister of India when India won its independence on August 15, 1947.
Jawaharlal Nehru was born in Allahabad on November 14, 1889, to Swarupani, the wife of Motilal Nehru, a wealthy Allahabad-based barrister prominent in the Indian National Congress. He was Motilal Nehru's only son; he had three younger sisters including Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. The Nehru family is of Kashmiri lineage and of the Saraswat Brahmin caste.
Educated in the finest schools in India and abroad, Nehru returned from education in England at Harrow, Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple to practice law before following his father into politics.
By his parents' arrangement, Nehru married Kamala Kaul, then seventeen in 1916. At the time of his wedding on 8 February 1916, Jawaharlal was twenty-six, a British-educated barrister. Kamala came from a well-known business family of Kashmiris in Delhi.

His father Motilal Nehru was already a prominent figure in the Indian National Congress and had served as its president. Thus when a young and glamorous Jawaharlal entered the Congress, much was expected of him.
It soon became clear that the younger Nehru did not share his father's moderate-liberal line. He began to grow closer to the rising leadership of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a former barrister who had won battles for equality and political rights for Indians in South Africa, and had emerged a national hero with the successful struggles in Champaran, Bihar and Kheda in Gujarat. Nehru was instantly attracted to Gandhi's commitment to active, but peaceful, civil disobedience. Gandhi himself saw promise in the young man.
The Nehru family transformed their lifestyle according to Gandhi's teachings. Jawaharlal and Motilal Nehru abandoned western clothes and tastes for expensive possessions and pastimes, and adopted Hindustani as their common language of use. Young Jawaharlal now wore a khadi kurta and a Gandhi cap, all in white - the new uniform of the Indian nationalist. Nehru was first arrested by the British during the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920-1922, but released after a few months.
After Gandhi suspended civil resistance in 1922 as a result of the killing of policemen in Chauri Chaura, thousands of Congressmen were disillusioned. When Gandhi opposed participation in the newly created legislative councils, many followed Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru into the Swaraj Party, which advocated entry but only to sabotage government from within, as a tool to extracting concessions from the British to ensure stability. But Nehru did not join his father and stayed with Gandhi and the Congress.
Jawaharlal was elected President of the Allahabad Municipal Corporation in 1924, and served for two years as the city's chief executive. This would be valuable but the only administrative experience Nehru would have before taking on India's whole government in 1947. He used his tenure to expand public education, health care and sanitation. He resigned citing lack of cooperation from civil servants and obstruction from British authorities.
From 1926 to 1928, Jawaharlal served as the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee, an important step in his rise to Congress national leadership.

Elections were held in 1946 to the Constituent Assembly of India. The Congress swept the vote at the central level and most of British India's provinces. The All India Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah had become the prime political opponent of the Congress. The League demanded a separate Muslim state, and enjoyed the support of many of India's Muslims. Nehru and the Congress Party strongly opposed India's partition, or any excessive political concessions to the League to prevent this. The party accepted the May 16 Plan proposed by the Cabinet Mission led by Sir Stafford Cripps as the only resort to preventing India's division as proposed in the June 16 plan. Although the May 16 plan envisioned communal grouping of India's provinces, the Congress accepted to keep the League from usurping control of the new interim government. When the League pulled out from the process, Congress was left in complete control of the new government. Nehru became the Vice President of the Viceroy's Executive Council, de facto head of government. But Jinnah's Direct Action Day to protest this left over 10,000 Hindus and Muslims dead in the following months. Fearing communal chaos, the Congress decided to allow the League to enter the council. However, Nehru's leadership was rejected by the new League ministers, and the council stalled over every policy decision. Considering a political coalition unworkable and the communal situation dangerous enough to lead to full civil war between Hindus and Muslims, Nehru and Sardar Patel backed the plan of Lord Louis Mountbatten, India's last viceroy to partition the country into India and Pakistan. Nehru and Patel managed to convince Gandhi, who was fearful about partition but even more fearful of civil war. The AICC adopted the resolution in June, 1947. Nehru served on the Partition Council that finalized the separation of government institutions and provincial resources between the two new dominions. On August 15th, 1947, India became an independent nation. At the age of 58, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister of India. Lord Louis Mountbatten became the Governor General of the Dominion, and the Constituent Assembly began work to draft the Constitution of India and transition to a sovereign Republic

The Essential Writings Of Jawaharlal Nehru

The Essential Writings Of Jawaharlal Nehru

The Essential Writings Of Jawaharlal Nehru




Nehru; A Political Life

Nehru; A Political Life

No Synopsis Available




Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: October 1952-31st December 1952

Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: October 1952-31st December 1952

No Synopsis Available




Nehru

Nehru

No Synopsis Available






© Deepthi.com, 2003-2005. All Rights Reserved.
Contact webmaster@deepthi.com for comments and suggestions.