NEHRU, JAWAHARLAL

born Nov. 14, 1889, Allahabad, India died May 27, 1964, New Delhi Jawaharlal Nehru, photograph by Yousuf Karsh, 1956 byname Pandit (Hindi: Pundit, or Teacher) Nehru first prime minister of independent India (194764), who established parliamentary government and became noted for his neutralist policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India's independence movement in the 1930s and '40s. Additional reading Biographies of Nehru include Michael Brecher, Nehru (1959); V.B. Kulkarni, The Indian Triumvirate: A Political Biography of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, and Pandit Nehru (1969); Sarvepalli Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, 3 vol. (197584), a sympathetic account; and M.J. Akbar, Nehru: The Making of India (1988). Walter Crocker, Nehru: A Contemporary's Estimate (1966); and Geoffrey Tyson, Nehru: The Years of Power (1966), are also useful. Bimla Prasad, The Origins of Indian Foreign Policy, 2nd ed. (1962), contains a wealth of material on Nehru's views on foreign affairs before 1947. H.V. Hodson, The Great Divide: Britain, India, Pakistan (1969, reissued with an updated epilogue, 1985), examines Nehru's relations with Lord Mountbatten. V.T. Patil (ed.), Studies on Nehru (1987), contains scholarly critical assessments.