Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) was an Indian nationalist and a political leader who played a prominent role during India’s independence movement. As Mahatma Gandhi’s chosen political heir, Nehru became the first prime minister of independent India in 1947 and served until his death.
Born in Allahābād, India, Nehru was the son of Motilal Nehru, a renowned lawyer from a family that had its roots in Kashmir. Jawaharlal was educated in England, and, influenced by Gandhi, joined India’s fight for greater autonomy from the British. During the 1920s and the 1930s, the British imprisoned him repeatedly for civil disobedience.
After becoming the first prime minister (1947–64) of independent India, Nehru worked as a modernizer and a reformer, with an emphasis on creating a secular constitution for the newly formed state. He also implemented socialist economic reforms and earmarked India to a policy of industrialization.
Nehru was a prolific writer in English; his notable works include The Discovery of India (1945,) Letters from a Father to His Daughter (1929,) and his autobiography, Toward Freedom (1936.)
Nehru’s descendants, the so-called ‘Nehru dynasty,’ have dominated Indian politics since the 1940s. His daughter Indira Gandhi succeeded him as prime minister.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Jawaharlal Nehru
It is far better to know our own weaknesses and failings than to point out those of another.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Procrastination, Getting Going, Inaction
A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Intuition
Most of us seldom take the trouble to think. It is a troublesome and fatiguing process and often leads to uncomfortable conclusions. But crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Crises, Strength
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Beauty
The purely agitation attitude is not good enough for a detailed consideration of a subject.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Argument
The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Risk
The wheel of change moves on, and those who were down go up and those who were up go down.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Change
A language is something infinitely greater than grammar and philology. It is the poetic testament of the genius of a race and a culture, and the living embodiment of the thoughts and fancies that have moulded them.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Danger
I think the years I have spent in prison have been the most formative and important in my life because of the discipline, the sensations, but chiefly the opportunity to think clearly, to try to understand things.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Adversity, Difficulties
A country is known by the way it treats its animals.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: One liners
Those who are prepared to die for any cause are seldom defeated.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Defeat
The ideals and objectives of yesterday was still ideals of today, but they lost some of their luster and even, as one seemed to go towards them, they lost the shining beauty which had warmed the heart and vitalized the body. Evil triumphed often enough, but what was far worse was the coarsening and distortion of what seemed so right. Was human nature so essentially bad that it would take ages of training, through suffering and misfortune, before it could behave reasonably and raise man above the creature of lust and violence and deceit that he now was? And, meanwhile, was every effort to change radically in the present or the near future doomed to failure.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in life as fear.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Fear
The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Virtue
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Indira Gandhi Indian Head of State
Mohandas K. Gandhi Indian Hindu Political leader
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Indian Head of State, Scientist
Winston Churchill British Head of State
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Indian Engineer
Annie Besant British-born Indian Theosophist
Lyndon B. Johnson American Head of State
Nikita Khrushchev Russian Head of State
Margaret Thatcher British Head of State
Anwar el-Sadat Egyptian Head of State