Nehru appeals for disarmament
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru makes an impassioned speech for nuclear disarmament in New Delhi.Jawaharlal Nehru independent Indias first prime minister was born in Allahabad India in 1889.He was educated in England and in 1912 returned to India to become a lawyer.After the 1919 massacre at Amritsar in which 379 unarmed protesters were gunned down by British troops he decided to devote himself to the struggle for Indian independence.
He became closely associated with the Indian National Congress Party and developed a friendship with independence movement leader Mohandas Gandhi who was 20 years his senior.In 1921 British authorities imprisoned Nehru for his political activities for the first time.During the next 24 years he was to serve another eight prison terms for his civil disobedience which added up to a total of more than nine years behind bars.In 1929 Gandhi helped Nehru become leader of the Indian National Congress and Nehru soon emerged as Gandhis political heir.
In 1942 Gandhi and Nehru launched the Quit India campaign declaring that India would offer no war-time aid to Britain unless Indian independence was immediately granted.Britain responded by jailing them and other Indian leaders from 1942 until after Germanys defeat in 1945.After the war Nehru participated in the talks that led to the division of the Indian subcontinent into the independent states of India and Pakistan.
In 1947 Nehru became independent Indias first prime minister.Subsequently reelected three times he was an enormously popular leader.He skillfully led India through the difficult early years of independence which saw bloody fighting between Hindus and Muslims.
In foreign affairs he advocated nonalignment for India in the divided Cold War world and sought diplomatic and nonviolent solutions in his conflicts with other nations.On November 27 1957 he appealed to the United States and the USSR to end nuclear tests and begin disarmament which he said would save humanity from the ultimate disaster.Nehrus 17 years in office ended with his death in 1964.
