Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

Why in news?

• On May 27, 1964, the first Prime Minister of India took his last breath. He was the PM from 1947 to 1964 till he died at the age of 74.
• Nehru’s birth anniversary on November 14 is also celebrated as Children’s Day every year in India. He had a great fondness for kids, and children use to call him Chacha Nehru.

Facts about Jawahar Lal Nehru:

• Jawahar Lal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, in Allahabad (officially known as Prayagraj) to Pandit Motilal Nehru and Swarup Rani.
• He went to Trinity College in Cambridge in October 1907 and graduated with an honours degree in natural science in 1910. After completing his degree in 1910, Nehru moved to London and studied law at Inner Temple Inn.
• After returning to India in August 1912, he enrolled himself as an advocate of the Allahabad High Court.
• Inspired by Mahatama Gandhi’s ideology of fighting British imperialism, Nehru joined the freedom struggle.
• He became the Indian National Congress president on two occasions — in 1919 and 1928. Jawaharlal Nehru was first imprisoned in 1929.
• In the 60s, he played a key role in the formation and operation of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). NAM was a platform for newly liberated third-world colonies to empower each other during the Cold War while staying away from the two power blocs (Communist and Capitalist). It opposed “imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression”.
• Nehru wrote several books, including ‘The Discovery of India’, ‘Glimpses of World History’, and his autobiography, ‘Toward Freedom’. A collection of letters he had written to his daughter Indira Gandhi was published as a book: ‘Letters from a Father to His Daughter’.
• His elder sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly, and youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing, became a noted writer.

Q1) What is Non-Aligned Movement India?

For India, the concept of non-alignment began as a policy of non-participation in the military affairs of a bipolar world and in the context of colonialism aimed towards optimum involvement through multi-polar participation towards peace and security.

Source: PM Modi pays tribute to Jawaharlal Nehru on death anniversary

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