Politics
Jawaharlal Nehru
First Prime Minister of India
Born 1889 · Died 1964
Photo: Keystone View Company/FPG · Public domain
«At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.»
Jawaharlal Nehru led India for its first seventeen years of independence, building its parliamentary democracy, its scientific institutions and its policy of non-alignment during the Cold War. He spent about nine years in British prisons before that.
Key achievements
- First Prime Minister of India, 1947–1964
- Founded the Indian Institutes of Technology
- Co-founder of the Non-Aligned Movement
Universities
Cambridge, England
Read natural sciences at Trinity College from 1907, taking his degree in 1910 before studying law in London.
Facts
- He wrote a history of the world, The Discovery of India and a series of letters to his daughter, mostly while imprisoned.
- His daughter Indira Gandhi later became prime minister herself, and she also studied at Oxford without completing her degree.
- He founded the Indian Institutes of Technology, which became among the most competitive engineering schools in the world.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.