Who is nehru jawaharlal

Nehru understood and practiced it. During the seventeen years he was the Prime Minister, Nehru strode the Indian political stage like a colossus.

But he never imposed his political will and always had an ear for what others had to say. Though not in favour of linguistic states, he adhered to popular wishes. He did not choose chief ministers, but allowed the party organisation at the state-levels to elect their leaders.

When courts challenged his land reform programmes, instead of being critical of the judges, he chose to undertake constitutional amendments. A liberal and a true democrat at heart, Nehru wanted a healthy political debate. In , during free India's first general elections, nearly million voted.

As three-fourths of citizens were illiterate, candidates were given symbols such as bicycles, lanterns, lamps, animals, flowers and symbols of everyday usage. It was a six-month process where those deputed for election work rode camels, took boats and even trekked to remote corners. The general elections in and deepened the legitimacy of the electoral process on the Indian consciousness.

Nehru spent four to five hours every night dictating replies. And "there were the years when the Prime Minister was Today, citizens gleefully point to the Indian democracy's various weaknesses, but the very edifice of democracy and the freedom we enjoy as a sovereign democratic republic would not have been possible without Nehru's unwavering commitment to such institutions.

It is an enduring legacy. Otherwise, power would not have touched all sections of people and made ours a broad-based democracy. Nehru's greatest contribution was the clear establishment of a vision to lift India from the 18th to the 21st century. It spoke of the impoverishment inflicted on India by the imperialists.

So the leaders who inherited the mantle of leadership had to tackle centuries of neglect. But, aided in their leadership was a vision. For example, when Nehru was making his first trip to America as the prime minister, some members of his cabinet suggested that he ask that country for food to tackle shortages at home.

We have to sort this problem ourselves. The Bhakra-Nangal multipurpose river valley project on the Sutlej, India's first and one of the biggest dams in the world was flagged off in Nehru, while inaugurating the completed project, describes it as the "greatest and holiest" of India's modern shrines.

Pundit Jwaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India and a leading figure in the indian indepence struggle and the process of political development in the country post independence. Home tutored and then later having finished his education in law from England, Nehru on returning to India had enrolled himself as an advocate at the Allahabad High Court.

However, his career in law was shortlived and he soon got extensively involved in the independence movement. As president of the Indian National Congress, Nehru had called for complete independence from the British Raj in As prime minister of independent India, Nehru had initiated socio-economic policies of the idealistic socialist kind.

The Nehruvian model of development came under a lot of criticism from opposition parties in years after his death. During his prime ministerial tenure, Nehru mentored his daughter Indira Gandhi in political affairs. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice. Oxford Reference. Publications Pages Publications Pages.

Recently viewed 0 Save Search. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Subscriber sign in You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Username Please enter your Username. 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 and Indian forces were decisively beaten.

This had a significant impact on Nehru's declining health. He died on 27 May Two years later Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister. With an interruption of only three years, she held the post until her assassination in Her son Rajiv was prime minister of India from to , but he too was assassinated.

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