Jawaharlal Nehru Biography Quotes 34 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) into a Kashmiri Pandit family prominent in law and public life. His father, Motilal Nehru, was a celebrated lawyer and an influential figure in the Indian National Congress, and his mother, Swarup Rani Nehru, presided over a household that nurtured his early curiosity. Educated first at home, he was sent to England, studied at Harrow, read natural sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, and qualified for the bar at the Inner Temple in London. Returning to India in 1912, he briefly practiced law in Allahabad but found himself drawn rapidly into politics and the intellectual currents of nationalism, theosophy, and anti-colonial thought. He married Kamala Kaul in 1916; their daughter, Indira Priyadarshini, later Indira Gandhi, would become a central figure in Indian politics.

Entry into the National Movement
Nehru entered public life in the shadow and guidance of Motilal Nehru and the veterans of Congress such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, but it was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who decisively shaped his political compass. After meeting Gandhi around 1916 and witnessing the power of noncooperation, Nehru embraced mass politics and civil disobedience. He worked alongside Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, C. Rajagopalachari, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and other leaders as the freedom struggle broadened its base. In 1929, as Congress president at Lahore, he steered the historic Purna Swaraj resolution demanding complete independence, and the national flag was unfurled on the banks of the Ravi as 26 January was declared Independence Day in anticipation of freedom.

Prison, Writing, and Political Formation
The 1920s through the 1940s subjected him to repeated imprisonment for nonviolent resistance, experiences that deepened both his democratic convictions and his internationalist outlook. In prison and in moments between campaigns, he wrote influential books: An Autobiography, Glimpses of World History (letters to his young daughter), and The Discovery of India, the last composed in Ahmednagar Fort during the Second World War. These works reveal a mind conversant with world history and science, a temperament sympathetic to socialism, and a commitment to secularism and social reform. Differences with colleagues, including Bose over strategy and with Patel over organizational styles and certain policies, were real but generally managed within a shared commitment to national emancipation.

Toward Independence
The approach of World War II split political strategies. Nehru opposed fascism and sympathized with anti-Nazi forces, yet resisted unconditional Indian support for the British war effort without a credible pledge of freedom. During the Quit India movement of 1942 he was incarcerated along with Gandhi and other Congress leaders. After the war, as Viceroys Archibald Wavell and later Louis Mountbatten sought a political settlement, Nehru headed the interim government in 1946 as vice president of the Executive Council. Negotiations with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League failed to bridge deep divisions, and the Mountbatten Plan led to Partition in August 1947, with catastrophic communal violence that Nehru strove to quell alongside Patel and others.

Prime Ministership and Nation-Building
On independence, Nehru became Indias first prime minister, delivering the Tryst with Destiny speech at midnight on 14, 15 August 1947. He and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, aided by V. P. Menon, oversaw the integration of princely states; B. R. Ambedkar, as law minister and chair of the drafting committee, led the making of the Constitution adopted in 1950 under President Rajendra Prasad, with Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan as vice president. Nehru championed universal adult franchise, parliamentary democracy, and a secular state, while seeking social justice through land reforms and a mixed economy. He established the Planning Commission with statistician P. C. Mahalanobis as a key architect of the Second Five-Year Plan, built public sector enterprises, and supported major steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela, and Durgapur.

Science, Education, and Culture
Committed to scientific temper, he backed institutions that would underpin technological and medical capacity: the Indian Institutes of Technology (beginning with Kharagpur), the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, national laboratories, and atomic energy under Homi J. Bhabha. He called large dams the temples of modern India, promoting projects like Bhakra-Nangal, Hirakud, and the Damodar Valley. Education and culture were expanded through the University Grants Commission and academies for the arts and sciences. He supported the linguistic reorganization of states culminating in the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, after the creation of Andhra in 1953, balancing regional identities with national coherence. The first general elections in 1951, 52, and victories again in 1957 and 1962, affirmed mass faith in the new democratic experiment.

Foreign Policy and the World
Nehru crafted a foreign policy of nonalignment amid the Cold War, seeking space for newly independent nations to assert sovereignty without joining rival blocs. He worked with Gamal Abdel Nasser, Josip Broz Tito, Kwame Nkrumah, and Sukarno, building momentum from Bandung in 1955 to the first Non-Aligned summit at Belgrade in 1961. With China, his government signed the Panchsheel principles with Zhou Enlai in 1954, but border disputes hardened, culminating in the 1962 war that shocked India. Defense minister V. K. Krishna Menon resigned amid criticism, and Nehru faced a crisis that tested his leadership. Relations with Pakistan were fraught over Kashmir since Maharaja Hari Singh acceded to India in 1947; yet Nehru could also strike accords such as the 1950 Liaquat, Nehru Pact to protect minorities. He engaged with Western leaders while maintaining an independent line, opposing colonialism and apartheid.

Later Years, Family, and Legacy
Personal and political worlds intersected for Nehru. His wife, Kamala Nehru, died in 1936, a loss that left him deeply affected. His daughter Indira Gandhi became a close confidante and political organizer, later entering Parliament and eventually succeeding him as prime minister after the brief tenure of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Nehru was affectionately called Panditji and Chacha Nehru; his birthday came to be observed as Childrens Day, reflecting his emphasis on youth and education. Though confident in Indias path, he accepted that democratic governance meant enduring criticism and setbacks. The debacle of 1962 weighed on him, but he persisted with institutional consolidation, a free press, an independent judiciary, and a non-sectarian national ethos.

Death and Assessment
Nehru died on 27 May 1964 in New Delhi after a period of declining health. Colleagues, rivals, and international figures alike recognized the breadth of his contribution: he had helped steer a vast, diverse country from colony to republic, laid down robust democratic procedures, and invested in economic planning and scientific capacity. The picture is not uncritical; debates continue over the pace of reforms, the balance between public and private sectors, the handling of Kashmir, and the China policy. Yet his imprint endures in the institutions he built, the constitutional values he defended with Ambedkar and Azad, the administrative partnerships forged with Patel and Rajendra Prasad, and the global role asserted in conversation with leaders like Mountbatten, Nasser, and Tito. His life remains pivotal to understanding the birth and early trajectory of modern India.

Our collection contains 34 quotes who is written by Jawaharlal, under the main topics: Ethics & Morality - Wisdom - Truth - Justice - Leadership.

Other people realated to Jawaharlal: John Kenneth Galbraith (Economist), Lord Mountbatten (Soldier), Sarojini Naidu (Politician), Yuri Gagarin (Astronaut), Zhou Enlai (Statesman), Stafford Cripps (Politician), Tenzing Norgay (Explorer), Lord Halifax (Politician), Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (Diplomat), Morarji Desai (Politician)

• 1946 The Discovery of India (Non-fiction)
• 1936 Toward Freedom (An Autobiography) (Autobiography)
• 1934 Glimpses of World History (Non-fiction)
• 1929 Letters from a Father to His Daughter (Children's book)