Nehru, Jawaharlal

Abstract Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) served as the first prime minister of India after the country gained independence from British colonial rule, and was a key figure in the Indian independence movement. Nehru's key policies included secularism, democratic socialism, and nonalignment. He was the father of Indira Gandhi, who served as the third prime minister of India (1966–77, 1980–84), and the maternal grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi, who served as the sixth prime minister (1984–89). Nehru's policies were committed to building an India that would be a unified, secular, and socialist republic supported by a parliamentary democracy. Nehru established a state‐controlled, planned economy that regulated industrialization and the growth of domestic industries, sheltering them from foreign competition and ensuring equality across regions. He was committed to state secularism, ensuring that India's full diversity of religious groups felt accommodated and protected by the state, for the sake of national unity.