7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7Jawaharlal Nehru
(b. Nov. 14, 1889, Allahabad, India—d. May 27, 1964, New Delhi)
J
awaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister of inde-
pendent India, serving from 1947 to 1964. Known as
Pandit (Teacher), he was also one of the principal leaders
of India’s independence movement in the 1930s and 1940s.
Early Years and Introduction to Politics
Nehru was born to a family of Kashmiri Brahmans that
had migrated to India early in the 18th century. He was the
son of Motilal Nehru, a renowned lawyer and one of
Mahatma Gandhi’s prominent lieutenants. When
Jawaharlal was 16, he went to England to study at Harrow,
Trinity College, and later Cambridge. He returned to India
in 1912 and became a lawyer in Allahabad.
Nehru met Gandhi for the first time in 1916 at the
annual meeting of the Indian National Congress (Congress
Party) in Lucknow, and he later became absorbed in
Gandhi’s campaign for Indian independence. In 1923 he
became general secretary of the party for two years and
again, in 1927, for another two years. His interests and duties
took him on journeys over wide areas of India, winning sup-
port for Gandhi’s program of nonviolent resistance to
British rule. Between 1921 and 1945, he would be jailed
nine times for his political activity.
Struggle for Indian Independence
In 1929 Nehru became president of the Congress Party,
presiding over the historic Lahore session that proclaimed
complete independence (rather than dominion status) as
India’s political goal. In 1935 India was granted limited