Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, in Allahabad, British India (now Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh). His father, Late Motilal Nehru (1861–1931), was a self-made wealthy barrister from the Kashmiri Pandit community who served twice as the president of the Indian National Congress, in 1919 and 1928, and his mother, Late Swarup Rani Thussu (1868–1938), hailed from a prominent Kashmiri Pandit family settled in Lahore and was Motilal's second wife, following the death of his first wife during childbirth.

• Parents:
  Motilal Nehru (Father)
  Swaruprani Thussu (Mother)
• Siblings:
  Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
  Krishna Hutheesing
• Spouse:
  Late Kamala Nehru
• Children:
  Indira Gandhi
• Relatives:
  Feroze Gandhi (Son-in-law)
  Rajiv Gandhi (Grandson)
  Sonia Gandhi (Granddaughter-in-law)
  Rahul Gandhi (Great-grandson)
  Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Granddaughter)

• Jawaharlal Nehru described his childhood as "sheltered and uneventful," growing up in a privileged environment within wealthy homes, including the palatial estate Anand Bhavan.
• His father arranged for his education at home through private governesses and tutors, fostering an early love for learning.
• Influenced by the teachings of Irish theosophist Ferdinand T. Brooks, Nehru developed an interest in science and theosophy during his formative years.
• At the age of thirteen, a family friend, Annie Besant, initiated Nehru into the Theosophical Society; however, he eventually left the society shortly after Brooks departed as his tutor.
• Nehru acknowledged Brooks' significant influence on him, writing, "For nearly three years [Brooks] was with me and in many ways, he influenced me greatly."
• Nehru's interest in theosophy led him to study Buddhist and Hindu scriptures, which provided his first introduction to India's religious and cultural heritage.
• According to B. R. Nanda, these scriptures sparked Nehru's long intellectual quest, which culminated in his famous work, The Discovery of India.

Jawaharlal Nehru attended Trinity College, Cambridge, from October 1907, graduating with an honors degree in natural science in 1910.

He developed interests in politics, economics, history, and literature, influenced by writers such as Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and John Maynard Keynes.

After graduating, Nehru moved to London to study law at the Inner Temple and continued to explore the ideas of Fabian Society scholars like Beatrice Webb. He was called to the Bar in 1912, completing his legal education.

Jawaharlal Nehru married Kamala Nehru on February 8, 1916, in Allahabad (now Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh). Kamala was a lawyer and a social worker, actively involved in the Indian independence movement alongside her husband.

• During the period from 1912 to 1919, Jawaharlal Nehru became increasingly involved in civil rights and home rule movements in India.
• However, Nehru sympathized with the Congress radicals who promoted Swaraj (self-rule), Swadesh (self-sufficiency), and boycott, reflecting a growing discontent with British rule.
• After returning to India in 1912, Nehru attended the Congress annual session in Patna but found it dominated by moderates and elites, describing it as "very much an English-knowing upper-class affair."
• Despite his concerns, Nehru agreed to support the ongoing civil rights movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa.
• After the death of Gokhale in 1915, the influence of moderates declined, leading several nationalist leaders, including Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, to demand Swaraj.
• Nehru joined both Besant's and Tilak's Home Rule Leagues, working closely with Besant, with whom he had a long-standing relationship.
• In June 1917, when the British government arrested Besant, protests erupted, ultimately leading to her release in September after successful negotiations for concessions.

• Nehru and many Congress leaders were initially uncertain about Gandhi's plan for civil disobedience against the British salt tax.
• As the protest gained momentum, they recognized the salt tax's symbolic significance; Nehru noted the unprecedented popular response, stating, "It seemed as though a spring had been suddenly released."
• Nehru was arrested on April 14, 1930, while traveling from Allahabad to Raipur after addressing a large meeting and manufacturing contraband salt.
• He was charged with breaching the salt law and sentenced to six months in Central Jail.
• Nehru nominated Gandhi as his successor as Congress president during his imprisonment, but Gandhi declined, leading Nehru to nominate his father instead.
• Nehru's arrest invigorated the civil disobedience movement, resulting in increased arrests, crowd shootings, and lathi charges by authorities.

• The salt satyagraha attracted global attention, leading to increased recognition of the Congress party's claims for independence by Indian, British, and international opinion.
• Nehru viewed the salt satyagraha as the pinnacle of his association with Gandhi, emphasizing its lasting significance in transforming Indian attitudes.
• He noted that while the movements exerted pressure on the British government, their real impact was on the Indian populace, particularly the village masses.
• Nehru believed that non-cooperation empowered people, instilling self-respect and self-reliance, encouraging them to resist unjust oppression.
• He observed a remarkable transformation in the people's outlook, as they began to consider India as a whole, crediting the Congress and Gandhi's leadership for this change.

• 1935: Nehru's wife, Kamala, became terminally ill; he was released from prison to care for her, but she died on February 28, 1936.
• 1936: Elected Congress president; condemned the Government of India Act as a "new charter of bondage."
• 1937 Elections: Led Congress campaign, winning most general seats; opposed the Muslim League and the Communal Award.
• CWC Tensions: Experienced isolation within the Congress Working Committee due to disagreements over accepting power under the 1935 Act.
• 1938: Did not seek re-election as president; traveled to Europe, concerned about the threat of another world war.
• December 1938: Returned to India; accepted the Planning Commission role and became president of the All India States Peoples Conference in February 1939.
• Split in Congress: Attempted to mediate during the internal conflicts under Subash Chandra Bose’s presidency but was not directly involved.

At the onset of World War II, Nehru supported India's participation in the war against fascism but demanded full independence and a constituent assembly. 

After the Viceroy rejected these demands, the Congress Party, under Nehru, called for the resignation of its ministries in protest, while urging the Muslim League to join, but Jinnah declined.

• In March 1940, Muhammad Ali Jinnah announced the Pakistan Resolution, claiming that Muslims were a separate nation and deserved their own country, called Pakistan. Nehru strongly opposed this idea.
• Later, in October 1940, Nehru was arrested during a civil disobedience campaign led by Gandhi and sentenced to four years in prison. He was released after spending a little over a year in jail, just before the Pearl Harbor attack.

• In the spring of 1942, as the Japanese advanced through Burma toward India, the British government, under pressure, sent Sir Stafford Cripps to negotiate with Indian leaders about constitutional changes.
• Nehru was hopeful for a compromise, but Gandhi wanted full independence, and Jinnah insisted on Pakistan.
• Cripps’ mission failed, leading to tensions between Nehru and Gandhi, though they eventually reconciled.
• In August 1942, Gandhi launched the Quit India movement, demanding the British leave, which resulted in the arrest of the entire Congress working committee, including Nehru, who was imprisoned until June 1945.

• While the Congress leaders were imprisoned, the Muslim League under Jinnah gained significant power, capturing governments in Bengal and the North-West Frontier Province in 1943, which helped advance the idea of a separate Muslim state.
• However, by 1944, Jinnah's influence began to decline due to sympathy for the jailed Congress leaders and the blame placed on the Muslim League for the Bengal famine that claimed two million lives.
• Jinnah's support dwindled, and he briefly withdrew from politics. His situation changed when Gandhi, released from prison in May 1944, met with him and offered a plebiscite for Muslim areas to decide on separation after the war, effectively acknowledging the principle of Pakistan.
• Jinnah insisted on explicit wording for this agreement, which Gandhi refused, causing the negotiations to fail.
• Despite this, Jinnah's status was bolstered as he had successfully negotiated with Gandhi on an equal footing.

• Nehru was concerned about the princely states of South Asia from the 1920s, emphasizing that they could not remain separate from India.
• In 1929, he stated that rulers must recognize their limitations. By 1946, he asserted that no princely state could resist independent India's military might, and in 1947, he declared that any state refusing to join the Constituent Assembly would be treated as an enemy.
• While leaders like Patel and Menon were more conciliatory towards the princes, ultimately, the idea of merging all princely states into the Indian republic prevailed during the constitution's drafting.
• In 1963, Nehru enacted legislation to prohibit secession demands and introduced the Sixteenth Amendment, requiring officeholders to pledge allegiance to India's sovereignty and integrity.

On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist who blamed Gandhi for weakening India. In a radio address, Nehru expressed profound sorrow, stating that "the light has gone out of our lives."

Gandhi's death was pivotal in consolidating the authority of the new Indian state, as the Congress party controlled public mourning events to legitimize its power and suppress religious paramilitary groups. Nehru and Patel arrested around 200,000 individuals from organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Khaksars. 

Later, some historians controversially blamed Nehru for India's partition, arguing that his centralized policies opposed Jinnah's vision for a more decentralized India.

• The British Indian Empire, which included India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, was divided into provinces directly governed by British officials and princely states ruled by local hereditary leaders who recognized British authority in exchange for local autonomy.
• From 1947 to around 1950, these princely states were integrated into the Indian Union under Nehru and Sardar Patel, with many merging into existing provinces or forming new ones.
• In December 1946, Nehru proposed the Objectives Resolution, which later became the Preamble of the Indian Constitution, embodying its spirit.
• The new Constitution came into effect on January 26, 1950, establishing India as a sovereign democratic republic and defining it as a "Union of States."

After the Constitution was adopted on November 26, 1949, the Constituent Assembly served as the interim parliament until new elections were held. Nehru's interim cabinet included 15 members from various communities and political parties. 

The first elections under the new Constitution took place in 1952, during which the Indian National Congress, led by Nehru, achieved a significant majority in both the national parliament and state assemblies.

• From 1952 to 1957, Nehru served as Prime Minister and took significant steps to reorganize India's states based on language.
• In December 1953, he established the States Reorganisation Commission, led by Justice Fazal Ali, to assess how states could be created along linguistic lines.
• Govind Ballabh Pant, Nehru's home minister from December 1954, oversaw the commission's work.

The commission submitted its report in 1955, recommending the reorganization of states. 

• Following this, the Seventh Amendment abolished the previous classifications of states (Parts A, B, C, and D) and replaced Part C and Part D states with a new category called union territories.
• Nehru emphasized unity among Indians and focused on promoting a sense of pan-Indian identity, resisting any attempts to reorganize states based on religious or ethnic divisions.

• Nehru introduced several key policies that shaped India's political, economic, social, and international landscape:
• Mixed Economy: Nehru promoted a blend of public and private sectors in economic development.

Five-Year Plans: Centralized economic planning focusing on infrastructure, industry, and state ownership.

• Industrial Policy: Prioritized public sector control of key industries for self-sufficiency.
• Agrarian Reform: Aimed at land redistribution and abolishing landlordism to reduce rural inequality.
• Secularism: Advocated a secular state with a separation of religion and politics.
• Education and Science: Established premier institutions like IITs and focused on scientific progress.
• Health and Welfare: Expanded primary healthcare and targeted disease eradication.
• Socialism: Emphasized reducing inequality and uplifting the working class.
• Non-Alignment: Maintained neutrality during the Cold War by not aligning with either the U.S. or Soviet blocs.
• Panchsheel: Nehru's five principles of peaceful coexistence guiding India’s foreign relations.

• First Attempt (1947): Occurred during partition while Nehru was in a car in the North-West Frontier Province (now Pakistan).
• Second Attempt (1955): A knife-wielding rickshaw-puller, Baburao Laxman Kochale, attempted to attack Nehru near Nagpur.
• Third Attempt (1955): A plot by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was uncovered.
• Fourth Attempt (1956): Another assassination attempt took place in Bombay.
• Fifth Attempt (1961): A failed bombing attempt on train tracks in Maharashtra.

Jawaharlal Nehru's health began to decline in 1962, worsened by a viral infection that kept him bedridden for much of April. In 1963, he recuperated in Kashmir, with some attributing his decline to the shock of the Sino-Indian War. 

On May 26, 1964, after returning from Dehradun, he felt comfortable but collapsed the next morning after complaining of back pain. 

Nehru remained unconscious and died at 1:44 PM on May 27, with a heart attack believed to be the cause. His body was draped in the Indian national flag for public viewing, and he was cremated on May 28 at Shantivan, attended by 1.5 million mourners.