He stood as one of the respected leaders of India. Jawaharlal Nehru fought for independence from the British alongside the Mahatma for decades before turning against his country’s problems, asserting India’s right to choose its own path towards progress.
Early Life
Born
in November 14, 1889, Jawaharlal Nehru came from Allahabad, India to a family
of Kashmiri Brahmans. His father, Motilal Nehru earned a reputation as a
brilliant lawyer and a staunch advocate of Indian independence. Though his
father fought for independence, it did not stop the young Jawaharlal Nehru’s
upbringing to be heavily influence by British culture. Until the age of 15,
Jawaharlal studied under the auspices of English tutors. Even though he also
studied Hindi, he grew up more British than Indian.
In
1905, Nehru went abroad to study in Harrow for 2 years. Then, he attended
Trinity College in Cambridge for another 3 years before studying in Inner
Temple in London to become a barrister. During his time studying in England, he
became influence by socialist writing, especially of George Bernard Shaw, which
later affected his policies as Prime Minister.
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| Motilal Nehru |
In
1912, he returned to India and began to practice law alongside his father. In
1916, Nehru got married and the relationship bore him a daughter, Indira, who
later became Prime Minister of India as well. During his practice of law, he
never relished the prospect of staying in the field. His interest laid in
politics.
In
1916, in the annual meeting of the Indian National Congress (the Congress
Party) in Lucknow, Nehru saw for the first time a rising star in the
independence movement of India – Mohandas K. Gandhi – the Mahatma. Nehru found
Gandhi’s nonviolent means interesting and attracted him to the Mahatma. And so
the relation between the 2 titans of Indian independence movement began.
Nehru the
Independence Fighter
In
1919, the independence movement gained momentum as news of the Amritsar
Massacre spread far and wide. The killing of hundreds or even thousands of
peaceful unarmed Indians during a nonviolent assembly gave impetus for the need
of independence. This inspired Nehru to work hard for independence.
With
new vigor for his crusade, he toured India to get to know the majority of
Indians – the peasants. The conditions and poverty of Indian peasants abhorred
him. He listened to the abuses and the hardships of the peasants under British
colonial rule. From the scenes he saw and words he heard, he leaned further
towards looked back to the socialist principles from his days in England and
viewed it as a solution for the ills of the peasants.
In
1921, Nehru received his first ever prison sentence. For the rest of his
struggle for Indian independence, Nehru went to prison 9 times. Between 1931
and 1935, he went back and forth to prison due to the Salt March and only free
for 6 months. His final and longest incarceration came in 1942 for the Quit
India campaign that led him to be imprisoned until June 1945, being in prison
during the development of World War II.
He
rose to the ranks of the Congress Party, much to the credit of his influential
and highly regarded father. He became the Secretary-General of the Congress
Party in 1923 until 1925 then again in 1927 until 1929.
In
between his 2 terms, in 1926 and 1927, Nehru and his family, to take a respite
from their activities, toured Europe. In Brussels, he attended the Congress for
Oppressed Nationalities, becoming the Congress Party’s representative. Then he
visited Moscow and witnessed the developments, especially in the field of
industrialization, of Russia. Though he abhorred Communism’s authoritarian
tendencies, he applauded its rapid development of industries and its social
welfare system. His trip to the Soviet Union inspired him to imitate the
economic policies he saw and implement them in India later on.
Nehru’s
trip to the Soviet Union placed him in the center left. Socialist economic
policies such as government-led industrialization and economic planning enticed
Nehru, he disliked the brutal and undemocratic means of the political aspect of
communism. He believed in democracy and secularism, thus his moderate views led
him to win the support of Mahatma Gandhi in 1929.
On
that year, Nehru became the President of the Congress Party during its annual
meeting in Lahore. Nehru received the Mahatma’s support to drive the Indian
youth away from the violent and radical Marxist disposition into a more
moderate and peaceful means of attaining independence. As the new President of
the Congress Party and close follower of Gandhi, Nehru began to call for
India’s complete independence and not a status of dominion which would align
the country to same situation as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
 |
| Gandhi making the Salt March |
Nehru
and Gandhi led the party to further non-violent activism against British
colonial rule. In the early 1930’s, the Salt March opposed British monopoly on
salt that led Nehru and other Congress Party leaders to jail. In 1935, the
Government of India Act passed the House of Commons. The act allowed for
provincial legislative elections where the Congress Party won in most of the
provinces of India.
World
War II, however, limited Nehru, Gandhi, and Congress Party’s activities. They
rejected the offer from the British the status of dominion in exchange for
their support to fight in the World War. Then they passed the resolution called
Quit India. This led to their arrest by the British colonial authorities, only
to be released in 1945.
 |
| Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Gandhi |
After
their release, they worked with the new Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten for the
independence of India after the new Clement Attlee government in London decided
to reduce the size of the Empire due to financial constraints. The issue of
partition of India became the hot issue during the transition process. Mohammad
Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League desired a separate state – Pakistan – to
prevent a majority rule of Hindus. Gandhi and Nehru tried to prevent this
partition, even offering Jinnah the position of first Prime Minister, but to no
avail. Secular violence rose and Muslims and Hindus started killing each other
by the thousands. Chaos and violence clouded major cities. Partition seemed to
be inevitable.
In
August 15, 1947, India and Pakistan became independent. During the eve of
Independence Day, Nehru made his famous speech – the tryst with destiny.
First Indian Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
As
India’s first Prime Minister, Nehru had a difficult task at hand. He inherited
from the British an India deeply divided – filled with anger, hatred, and
vengeance. The nation that just recently suffered partition, saw the
displacement and mass exodus of 10 million Hindus and Muslims, and the death of
millions in the process of migration. Secular violence and mistrust between
different ethnic groups, animosity had become one of British India’s legacy and
a challenge for the new Prime Minister of India.
Then
in 1948, his mentor and father figure, Mahatma Gandhi, fell to an assassin’s
bullet due to the partition of India. Nehru described Gandhi’s death: “The
light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere.” Nehru and
other Congress Party leaders then had to face the challenges without the
Mahatma.
See also:
Bibliography:
Websites:
"Jawaharlal Nehru." Encyclopedia of World Biography. . Encyclopedia.com. (June 3, 2018). http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/jawaharlal-nehru
Moraes, Frank et. al. “Jawaharlal Nehru.” In
Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on June 10, 2018. URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jawaharlal-Nehru
Allchin, Frank et. al. “India.” In
Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on June 10, 2018. URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/India/The-transfer-of-power-and-the-birth-of-two-countries#ref486491
General References:
Sonnad, Subhash. “Nehru, Jawaharlal.” In
Encyclopedia of the Developing World. Edited by Thomas Leonard. New York, New
York: Routledge, 2006.
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