Jawaharlal Nehru: Architect of modern India

Born in Allahabad on November 14, 1889 to lawyer Motilal Nehru and political leader Swarup Rani Thussu, Nehru grew up at the palatial Anand Bhavan. As a young boy, he grew up with his sisters Vijaya Lakshmi and Krishna. Vijaya Lakshmi was a freedom fighter who became the first woman to be appointed president of the UN General Assembly and Krishna became a writer.

Nehru left for England in 1905, and joined the famous Harrow Public School the same year and was there till 1907. He studied natural science at Trinity College, Cambridge, and law at Inner Temple, London. In 1912, he returned to India and married Kamala Kaul in 1916. Their only child, Indira Priyadarshini, was born in 1917.

During a train journey in 1919, Nehru had overheard British Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer gloating over the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, in Amritsar, Punjab. 379 people were killed and 1200 wounded, at the massacre on April 13 that year. Such remarks incensed Nehru strengthening his resolve to fight the British and establish a free India.

POLITICAL CAREER

Nehru’s political life began in Allahabad with his involvement in the Home Rule movement (inspired by Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak) and in Gandhi’s Non-cooperation movement in 1919. He was sent to jail several times – amounting to nine and a half years. He developed a rapport with great stalwarts of the freedom movement — Gandhiji, Sardar Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Subhas Chandra Bose.

Life in prison gave him time to read and author works including The Glimpses of World History, the Discovery of India, An Autobiography (also known as Toward Freedom) and the letters to Indira. Playwright George Bernard Shaw had joked that if he had his way, he would always keep Nehru in jail because some of his best writings were penned behind the bars.

Once out of prison, his speeches helped galvanise the youth, exhorted people to develop a scientific temper and deep empathy for the poor. His lofty vision and inspiring words gave people a vision, purpose and a sense of grandness encompassing the idea that India can achieve anything.

LEGACY

Nehru conceptualised a secular, industrial and cosmopolitan nation. He introduced the Five-Year plans. With help from Britain, Germany and the erstwhile USSR, he built several steel plants which laid the foundation for India’s industrial infrastructure. During his prime ministership, Russia, a consortium of US universities and Germany helped set up the Indian Institutes of Technology in Bombay, Kanpur and Madras. Several hundreds of schools, colleges, the Indian Institutes of Management, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, National Museum, Sahitya Akademi, Lalit Kala Akademi and other institutions were also set up.

Nehru took the case of the Jammu Kashmir to the United Nations to not leave it to international mediation, to protect India’s strategic interests. He was among the international leaders who pioneered the Non-Aligned Movement giving Third World nations an alternative to taking sides with either the Communist bloc or the United States-led western alliance. Today, Nehru’s entire life conveys to us the message of hope, democracy and a humane world.

INTERESTING FACTS

1. Nehru’s speech titled the Tryst with Destiny delivered at the Parliament House on the eve of India’s Independence, is considered to be among the greatest political speeches of the 20th century.

2. Bharat Ek Khoj, a historical drama was telecast on Doordarshan TV channel in 1988, was based on Jawaharlal Nehru’s book The Discovery of India. Directed, written and produced by Shyam Benegal with cinematographer VK Murthy, it covered India’s 5,000-year history from its beginnings to Independence in 1947. In the TV serial, Nehru was portrayed by Roshan Seth.

3. Nehru was interested in politics since he was a student. He had studied law but was not keen to practise it. He was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of Satyagraha for attaining freedom.

4. His style of dressing is still popular. He often wore a Gandhi cap and a jacket which is now known as the Nehru jacket. It is similar to the Jodhpuri which itself is an evolution from the angarkha.

TEXT BY: Rakesh Batabyal, Associate professor, Centre for Media Studies, JNU

SOURCE: biography.com