Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was the Prime Minister of India from 15 August 1947 to 27 May 1964, preceding Gulzarilal Nanda. Nehru, a leader of the socialist Indian National Congress party, was known as a political leftist, and he oversaw the creation of a secular state of India as its first Prime Minister. Nehru was also infamous for being a womanizer, having an affair with Louis Mountbatten's wife Edwina Mountbatten.
Biography[]
Nehru in 1915
Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad, North-Western Provinces, British Raj to a family of Hindu Kashmiri Pandits. Nehru graduated from Trinity College in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and he became a lawyer. Nehru became President of the Indian National Congress in the 1920s, and in 1929 he called for Indian independence. In 1937, the Indian National Congress won landslide provincial elections, but in 1942 the rise of the Quit India Movement led to the British government putting down the party. Soon, the Muslim League of Muhammad Ali Jinnah became a major party, and the failure of a power-sharing deal led to the 1947 Partition of India, with India and Pakistan separately gaining independence. He was elected as the first Prime Minister of India for the INC on 15 August 1947, and he created a secular and multi-party democracy. Although his country was socialist, Nehru helped in the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement to keep India out of the Cold War. He left office only with his death in 1964.