Jawaharlal Nehru death anniversary: Nehru's lesser known facts, inspiring quotes
- Jawaharlal Nehru Death Anniversary: As India pays homage to the country’s first and longest serving Prime Minister, here are some of his lesser known facts, inspirational quotes and positive messages that will make you fall in love with the beauty of the world, art, life and culture
As India pays homage to the country’s first and longest serving Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, on his 57th death anniversary by remembering 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 he went to study overseas and returned to India in 1912. Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj and breathed his last on May 27, 1964 with as many as 1.5 million people attending his cremation ceremony from all across the country.
Following an active role in the freedom struggle of the country, he became the prime minister of India on August 15, 1947 and went on to win 11 nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize for upholding peace in the Indian subcontinent from 1950 to 1955. It was during the partition of India that the first attempt was made to assassinate him and then thrice again in 1955, 1956 and 1961.
He played a major role in making India a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic and was also a very prolific writer in English who authored a number of books including The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History and his autobiography Toward Freedom. Nehru established institutions of higher learning including IITs, AIIMS and IIMs, included free and compulsory primary education to all children in his five-year plan, established heavy industries, laid the stepping stone for the foundation of the National Defence Academy and the Atomic Energy Commission and initiated the non-aligned movement.
He served as the Prime Minister for 18 years -- first in an interim capacity and then as the PM since 1950. This visionary leader was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1955. Here are some of his inspirational quotes and positive messages that will make you fall in love with the beauty of the world, art, life and culture:
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 deteriorating 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.”