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Jawaharlal Nehru (World Leaders Past and Present)
Jawaharlal Nehru - World Leaders Past and Present Author:John P. Hayes, Lila Finck Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India's first prime minister, was a great national leader and a world statesman. He guided his country's struggle against British colonialism and oversaw India's emergence as a self-governing nation. — Nehru was born into a wealthy Kashmiri Brahman family in 1889, and studied at Harrow and Cambridge in En... more »gland. Despite his upper-class birth and foreign education, Nehru was deeply concerned with the welfare of his less fortunate countrymen. An ardent opponent of British colonial rule, Nehru worked alongside India's spiritual leader, Mohandas Gandhi, in a nonviolent struggle for Indian independence. He became India's prime minister until his death in 1964, blending socialist and democratic principles to address India's internal problems of crippling poverty and interreligious antagonism. He was able to place national issues within the larger framework of international politics, and advocated a policy of nonalignment with respect to the superpowers that continues to be followed by many Third World nations to this day.
The name of Jawaharlal Nehru is synonymous with India's rebirth as an independent nation. He embodied the best traditions of East and West, and is remembered today as a courageous and visionary leader.« less