Essay - Nehru Introduction When Jawaharlal Nehru Came to Power as Prime...

Nehru

Introduction

When Jawaharlal Nehru came to power as prime minister of the newly independent India in 1947, he inherited not only a country in flux, but a world undergoing great turmoil and change. After nearly 30 years of working alongside the iconic Mohandas Gandhi to procure independence from the British, Nehru was tasked with building a government, trying to preserve national unity and reconstructing a t*****ttered Indian economy. All around him, the post-World War II world was changing and the Cold War heating up, with world super *****s competing for the fragile new government's allegiance.

Without question, Nehru had one of the most difficult political jobs in modern his*****ry, ***** he faced an abund*****ce ***** challenges during his 17-year rein, which ended with his death in 1964. By analyzing Nehru's philosophy, performance and impact on t***** Indian state, we can see that he ***** well prepared to meet t***** challenges posed by the ***** independent nati*****. Despite some ********** missteps, such as he insistence on a centrally planned ec*****omy ***** strained relations ***** Pakistan, China and America, Nehru helped create a legacy of democracy and social reform that is apparent in India to th***** day.

Philosophy

While Nehru was a complex man living in complicated times, he seemed to have a core ***** th*****t revolved around three basic tenets. He believed that India needed ***** secure its ***** as a democratic nation through non-violent means; that ***** plight ***** *****'s poor needed to be improved ***** a soci*****list framework; and that it ***** a mistake ***** align India with any of t***** global powers, such ***** the United States or ***** Soviet Union.

As a young man, Nehru lived a life ***** privilege, the son of a we*****lthy Indian politician. However, there were some formative events ***** his early years that cl***** led ***** toward the ***** independence movement. First, as a boy he was entranced by stories of Indian revolutionaries (Yergin and Stanislaw, 1998). Second, when Nehru attended college in Brita*****, he be***** sympat*****tic to the Sinn Fein independence movement in Ireland, seeing great similarities between ***** plight ***** the Irish and the Indians (Yergin ***** Stanislaw, 1998).

As a young *****, Nehru ***** beginning to cultivate his philosophy that India's destiny was as an independent nation, but it w*****n't until he began ***** with Gandhi that ***** began to understand how it could happen. In 1919, Nehru joined the *****dian National Congress, ***** was the face of the Indian independence ***** and was ***** ***** Gandhi, who had already staged some successful non-violent protests (Yergin and Stanislaw, 1998). ***** quickly became a Gandhi disciple and led non-violent protests across India. Like *****, he was convinced that independence could be won through large-scale civil disobedience. Nehru was arrested repeatedly by t***** British for leading non-violent protests ***** spent the better part ***** a decade in prison, but remained steadfast in his philosophy that the ***** will could be broken ***** non-violent means. It ********** ***** 30 years, but