Jawaharlal Nehru
जवाहरलाल नेहरू
India's first prime minister and co-founder of the Non-Aligned Movement
'Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge… At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.' (Independence eve address, 14 August 1947)
A towering leader of the Indian independence movement, he became independent India's first prime minister in 1947 and held the office until his death in 1964. He anchored the new republic in parliamentary democracy, secularism, and planned economic development, while charting a foreign policy of non-alignment that refused subordination to either Cold War bloc. With Tito he issued the 1954 joint statement that first defined 'non-alignment' as a positive, active policy, not passive neutrality, and went on to co-found the Non-Aligned Movement through the 1956 Brioni Declaration and the 1961 Belgrade summit. The Sino-Indian War of 1962 shook his domestic standing, yet he is remembered as the architect of the Indian republic.
Career timeline
- 1929, 1936–37President, Indian National Congress
- 1946–1947Interim Prime Minister of India
- 1947–1964Prime Minister of India
- 1947–1964Minister of External Affairs (concurrent)