As India pays tribute to the country’s first and oldest prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, recalling his contribution to the nation, few know that he was home-schooled till he turned 15, where he received most of his primary education before going abroad for studies and returned to India in 1912.
Nehru was born in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh on November 14, 1889, and took his last breath from the land on May 27, 1964.
After an active role in the country’s fight for freedom, he became Prime Minister of India on August 15, 1947. He received 11 nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize for keeping peace within the Indian Subcontinent from 1950 to 1955. The first attempt to assassinate him was made during the partition of India, and then three more times in 1955, 1956 and 1961.
He played an important role in making India a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic. He was also a very prolific English writer, author of many books, including The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, and his autobiography Toward Freedom.
Nehru founded universities including IIT, AIIMS and IIM, included free and compulsory primary education for all children in his five-year plan, launched heavy industry, and laid the foundation for creating the National Defence Academy and Atomic Energy Commission and started the non-aligned movement.
Served as Prime Minister for 18 years, initially in an interim capacity and then from 1950 as Prime Minister.
This visionary leader received the Bharat Ratna in 1955. These are some of his inspirational quotes and positive messages that will make you appreciate every aspect of life:
1. “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.”
2. “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.”
3. “The art of a people is a true mirror to their minds.”
4. “A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new; when an age ends; and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance.”
5. “The only alternative to coexistence is co-destruction.”
6. “The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.”
7. “Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognised, ultimately bears fruit.”
8. “It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening of custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, or a rich country inhabited by starving poor… Who indeed could afford to ignore science today? At every turn we have to seek its aid… The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science.”
9. “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”
10. “Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.”
11. “Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes.”
12. “Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.”
13. “There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in life as fear.”
14. “Let us be a little humble; let us think that the truth may not perhaps be entirely with us.”
15. “Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.”
His health began declining in the early 1960s, and he passed away on May 27, 1964. Jawaharlal Nehru’s death was announced to the Parliament in words similar to Nehru’s own at the time of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination: “The light is out.”