Jawaharlal Nehru 

(/ˈneɪru, ˈnɛru/;[1] Hindi: [ˈdʒəʋɑːɦəɾˈlɑːl ˈneːɦɾuː] ( listen); JUH-wah-hurr-

LAHL NAY-hroo; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial
nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat 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 nationalist
movement in the 1930s and 1940s. Upon India's independence in 1947, he served as
the country's prime minister for 17 years. Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism,
and 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), An Autobiography (1936), and The Discovery of India (1946), were read around
the world.
The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and 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 complete independence from the British Raj.
Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s. Nehru promoted the idea of
the secular nation-state in the 1937 Indian provincial elections, allowing the Congress to sweep
the elections, and to form governments in several provinces. In September 1939, the Congress
ministries resigned to protest Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's decision to join the war without consulting
them. After the All India Congress Committee's Quit India Resolution of 8 August 1942, senior
Congress leaders were imprisoned and for a time the organization was crushed. Nehru, who had
reluctantly heeded Gandhi's call for immediate independence, and had desired instead to
support the Allied war effort during World War II, came out of a lengthy prison term to a much
altered political landscape. The Muslim League, under Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had come to
dominate Muslim politics in the interim. In the 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.