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Jawaharlal Nehru

Statesmen and Political Leaders

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Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was an Indian independence leader and the first Prime Minister of India, serving from independence in 1947 until his death in 1964. A close associate of Mahatma Gandhi within the Indian National Congress, he was repeatedly imprisoned by British colonial authorities during the independence movement before becoming the principal architect of India's government and foreign policy after partition. As prime minister he pursued a program of state-led industrial development and secular, parliamentary democracy, and internationally he was a leading figure in the Non-Aligned Movement, seeking to keep newly independent nations out of the Cold War blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union. His tenure also saw the first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir and, near its end, a border war with China in 1962.

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