The first prime minister of liberated India met with an exceptionally warm welcome in the USSR. He stepped off the plane, greeting those who met him in turn. A crowd of Muscovites, waving flags and bouquets of flowers in greeting, suddenly rushed to the foreign guest. The guards did not have time to react, and Nehru was surrounded. Still smiling, he stopped and began to accept the flowers. Later, in an interview with reporters, Jawaharlal Nehru admitted that he was sincerely touched by such an unplanned mess during his first official visit to Moscow.
Origins and family
Jawaharlal Nehru (a photo of a public figure is in the article) was born in November 1889 in Allahabad, a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. His parents belonged to the Kashmiri Brahmin caste. This group traces its lineage back to the first Brahmins from the Vedic river Sarasvati. Familiesrepresentatives of the caste usually had many children, and due to the high mortality among women, many members of the stronger sex practiced polygamy. Boys were especially expected in families, because it was believed that to achieve moksha (liberation from the cycle of birth and death, all suffering and limitations of existence) is possible only when the father is cremated by his son.
Joe Nehru's mother (as he was called for simplicity in the West) was Swarup Rani, father - Motilal Nehru. Motilal's father, Gangadhar Nehru, was the last head of the Delhi city guard. During the sepoy uprising in 1857, he fled to Agra, where he soon died. Then the family was headed by Matilal's older brothers - Nandalal and Bonsidhar. Matilala Nehru grew up in Jaipur, Rajasthan, where his brother served as chief minister. Then the family moved to Allahabad, where the young man graduated from college. He decided to continue his education at Cambridge.
Matilal Nehru took part in the activities of the National Congress of India, he advocated limited self-government within the British Empire. His views were significantly radicalized under the influence of Gandhi's ideology. The Nehru family, previously leading a Western lifestyle, abandoned English clothing in favor of homespun dress. Matilal Nehru was elected president of the party, took part in the organization of the Congress of Trade Unions, tried to organize a peasant movement. His home in Allahabad, where Nehru's children grew up, quickly became the headquarters of the national liberation struggle of the entire country.
In the familyMotilala Nehru and Swarup Rani had three children. The firstborn was Jawaharlal Nehru, who was born in 1889. A year later, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was born, and after another seven years, Krishna Nehru Khutising. It was one of the most famous families in India. Jawaharlal Nehru became the first prime minister of liberated India, Vijaya the first Indian woman to hold a government post. Krishna Nehru Hutising has taken up a career in writing, in which she has succeeded no less than her relatives in the political arena.
Early Biography
Jawaharlal Nehru received his primary education at home. Motilala Nehru then sent his son, whose name translates as "precious ruby" in Hindi, to a prestigious school in Greater London. In the UK, Jawaharlal was known as Joe Nehru. At twenty-three, the young man graduated from Cambridge. During his studies, he studied law. Even during his stay in Great Britain, the attention of Jawaharlal Nehru was attracted by the activities of Mahatma Gandhi, who returned from South Africa. In the future, Mahatma Gandhi would become Nehru's political mentor and teacher. In the meantime, after returning to India, Joe Nehru settled in his hometown and started working in his father's law office.
Youth Leader
Nehru became one of the active figures of the National Congress, which fought for the independence of the country by non-violent methods. He now looked at his native land through the eyes of a man who had received a European education and assimilated Western culture. Acquaintance with Gandhi helped him synthesize European trends with Indian nation altradition. Joe Nehru, like other members of the National Congress, was well aware of the doctrine of Mahatma Gandhi. The British authorities have repeatedly imprisoned an active figure. In total, he spent about ten years in prison. Nehru took part in the campaign of non-cooperation with the colonial authorities, initiated by Gandhi, and then in the boycott of British goods.
Chairman
At the age of thirty-eight, Joe Nehru was elected chairman of the INC. In the same year, he came to the USSR to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution with his wife Kamala, sister Krishna and father Matilal Nehru. In ten years, the membership of the party increased more than tenfold, but by that time the split between Muslims and Hindus was already clearly visible. The Muslim League advocated the creation of an Islamic state of Pakistan, while Nehru stated that he considered socialism the only key to solving all problems.
First Prime Minister
At the end of August 1946, Joe Nehru became Prime Minister of the country's Provisional Government - the Executive Committee under the King, and a year later - the first head of government, Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs of liberated India. Jawaharlal Nehru at the head of the government accepted the proposal of the British Empire on the division of India into two states, namely Pakistan and the Indian Union. Nehru raised the flag of an independent state over the Red Fort in Delhi.
The last contingents of British troops left the former dominion at the beginning of 1948, but the next two yearswere overshadowed by the war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. As a result, two-thirds of the disputed state ended up in India, the rest of the territories were included in Pakistan. After these events, the majority of the population trusted the INC. In the elections in 1947, the associates of Jawaharlal Nehru received 86% of the votes in the government. The chairman managed to achieve the accession of almost all Indian principalities (555 out of 601). A few years later, first French and then Portuguese enclaves on the coast were attached to India.
In 1950, India was proclaimed a secular republic. The constitution included guarantees of all fundamental democratic freedoms, prohibition of discrimination based on nationality, religion or caste. The main power in a presidential-parliamentary republic belonged to the prime minister, who was elected by the parliament. Parliament consisted of the House of States and the House of the People. Twenty-eight Indian states received internal autonomy and the right to freedom in the regulation of economic activity, their own legislation and police. The number of states subsequently increased, as several new ones were created on a national basis. All the new provinces (unlike the old states) had a more or less homogeneous ethnic composition.
Domestic policy
As prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru sought to reconcile all the peoples of India and Hindus with the Sikhs and Muslims who make up the warring political parties. In economics, he adhered to the principles of planning and the free market. Joe Nehru managed to keepunity of the right, left and centrist factions of the government, balance in politics, avoiding radical decisions. The prime minister warned the Indian people that poverty cannot be immediately turned into we alth using the capitalist or socialist method. The way lies through the improvement of labor productivity, hard work and the organization of a fair distribution of benefits. Jawaharlal Nehru's quote about ways to overcome poverty has become a ray of hope for many millions of citizens. He believed that continuous progress could only be achieved through a planned socialist approach.
In any short biography of Jawaharlal Nehru, it is always mentioned that he emphasized his desire to smooth out various class and social contradictions. The Prime Minister believed that this problem could be solved through peaceful cooperation. We must try to smooth out class conflicts, and not exacerbate them, so as not to threaten people with struggle and destruction. Nehru proclaimed a course towards the creation of a socialist society, which meant supporting small businesses, developing the public sector, and creating a nationwide social insurance system.
In the first elections in 1951-1952, Congress received 44.5% of the vote, more than 74% of the seats in the House. Then Nehru actively strengthened the national sector. In 1948, he proclaimed a resolution, according to which a state monopoly was established on the production of railway transport, atomic energy and weapons. In the coal and oil industries, mechanical engineering and ferrous metallurgy, only the state could create newenterprises. Seventeen key industries were then declared nationalized. The Bank of India was also nationalized and control over private banks was established.
In the agricultural sector, the former feudal duties were abolished only in the fifties. Landowners were now forbidden to take away land from tenants. The size of land holdings was also limited. In the 1957 elections, Nehru again won, retaining a majority in parliament. The number of votes increased to forty-eight percent. In the next election, the party lost three percent of the vote, but at the same time retained control over the governments of most states and parliament.
Foreign policy
Jawaharlal Nehru enjoyed great prestige in the international arena. He also became the author of the policy of non-alignment with various political blocs. The main principles of the foreign policy of liberated India were formulated by him in 1948 at a congress in Jaipur: the preservation of peace, neutrality, non-alignment with military-political blocs, anti-colonialism. The government of Joe Nehru was one of the first to recognize the PRC, but this did not prevent sharp conflicts over Tibet. Nehru's discontent within the country grew. This led to the resignation of government members who belonged to the left faction. But Nehru managed to keep the post and the unity of the political party.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, an important area of work of the parliament headed by Nehru was the elimination of the enclaves of European states in Hindustan. After negotiations withThe French government incorporated the territories of French India into independent India. After a short military operation in 1961, Indian troops occupied the colonies of Portugal on the peninsula, namely Diu, Goa and Daman. This accession was only recognized by Portugal in 1974.
The great peacemaker Jawaharlal Nehru visited the United States of America in 1949. This contributed to the establishment of benevolent ties, the active flow of American capital to India and the development of trade and economic relations between the countries. For the United States, India acted as a counterbalance to communist China. In the early fifties, a number of agreements on technical and economic assistance were signed between the countries, but Nehru rejected the offer of the Americans to provide military assistance during the conflict between India and China. He preferred to remain committed to a policy of neutrality.
India accepted economic assistance from the Soviet Union, but did not become a strategic ally, but advocated the peaceful coexistence of countries with different political systems. In 1954, Nehru put forward five principles of coexistence in peace and harmony. Based on this patch, the Non-Aligned Movement later emerged. Jawaharlal Nehru briefly put forward the following theses: respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, non-aggression, non-interference in internal state affairs, observance of the principles of mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence.
In 1955, the Prime Minister of India paid a visit to Moscow, during which he became close to the USSR. He visitedStalingrad, Tbilisi, Tashkent, Y alta, Altai, Magnitogorsk, Samarkand, Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). Joe Nehru visited the Uralmash plant, with which India signed a contract after this visit. The plant delivered more than 300 excavators to the country. As contradictions intensified, relations between the USSR and India became better, and after the death of Nehru, they actually became allied.
Private life
In 1916, on the day of the Hindu holiday that marks the arrival of spring, Nehru married Kamala Kaul, who was then only sixteen. A year later, their only daughter was born. Jawaharlal Nehru named his daughter Indira. Indira first met Mahatma Gandhi at the age of two. Already at eight, she organized a children's home weaving union on his advice. Jawaharlal Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi studied management, anthropology and history at Oxford in England. In 1942, she became the wife of Feroz Gandhi - the namesake, and not a relative of Mahatma Gandhi. Interracial marriages were considered blasphemous in relation to the laws and traditions of India, but young people got married in spite of caste and religious barriers. Indira and Feroz had two sons - Rajiv and Sanjay. The children were mostly cared for by their mother and lived in their grandfather's house.
The leader's "mistress"
Kamaoa Kaul died young and Joe Nehru was left a widower. But there was another woman in his life with whom he did not tie the knot. Joe Nehru was deeply involved with Edwina Mountbatten, wife of Lord Louis Mountbatten - Britishviceroy in India. Edwina's daughter always maintained that the relationship between her mother and Nehru was always purely platonic, although Lord Mountbatten's wife had a history of extramarital affairs. While various love letters were found, the public also knew that the two loved each other.
Jawaharlal Nehru was twelve years older than Edwina. With the Mountbatten couple, they became friends with similar liberal views. In the future, the Lord's wife accompanied the Prime Minister of India on his most risky trips. She traveled with him to different parts of the country, torn apart by religious contradictions, suffering from poverty and disease. The husband of Edwina Mountbatten was calm about this connection. His heart was broken after the first betrayal, but he was an adequate and reasonable politician who was aware of the scale of Nehru's personality.
At a farewell dinner on the occasion of the couple's departure back to the UK, Nehru practically confessed his love to the lady. The people of India already fell in love with Edwina. But now she and Joe Nehru lived in different countries. They exchanged letters filled with tenderness. The woman did not hide the messages from her husband, because she and Louis broke up. Then Lady Mountbatten realized how much she had fallen in love with India. It was Jawaharlal who personified the former colony for her. The people of India also noted how much their leader had aged since Edwina's departure. Lady Mountbatten died at the age of fifty-eight in 1960.
Death of Joe Nehru
It is noted that Nehru's he alth deteriorated greatly after the war with China. He leftfrom life at the end of May 1964 in the city of Delhi. The cause of Jawaharlal Nehru's death was a heart attack. The ashes of a public, political and statesman were scattered over the Yamuna River, as indicated in the will.
