Jawahar+Lal+Nehru+by+Dhruv

I was an Indian statesman named Jawarlal Nehru born at 14th November 1889 in Allahabad/India, with affection though I am called Pandit Nehru, a knowledgeable teacher. I was the first and to date the longest serving prime minister to have led India, after being one of the most prominent figures in the Indian Independence movement; I was also one of the founders of Non-aligned movement which made me very famous in international politics. The changes I have introduced are in politics because I was India’s first prime minister, and I’d changed India from a poor, illiterate country to a very famous and well developed country. My path was laden with thorns and I knew from the beginning that for every good result I would have to take some harsh measures, which would be criticized by leaders and the common man, but I risked all I had to take India ahead. I chose that India should be a sovereign, socialist democratic republic. Thus my dream was to have all people as equals as in a democracy, sovereign so that they could choose their religion and socialist so that I could free India from the vices of capitalism. For each of these I faced criticism and opposition but in the end my beliefs helped me win my critics. I was born to Motital Nehru, a famous and wealthy lawyer and Swaroop Rani, a woman who would sacrifice anything for the happiness of others. My family was one of Kashmiri pandits, the aristocratic priestly class from Kashmir; we were one of India’s most distinguished families and we were part of a very small elite society. On 8th February 1916 I married 17 year Kamala Kaul, in our first of year of marriage Kamala gave birth to our only child Indira, a young girl who had made me proud and embarrassed at the same time, and years later became the first woman prime minister of India. I was educated in India and Britain; in England I attended the Independent Boys School Harrow, and Trinity College, Cambridge. I saw my father deeply involved in Indian politics, I was also amazed at the commitment and vision of Mahatma Gandhi. I was getting disturbed by all that was happening around me, but somehow I never thought of leaving my profession. There were appeals from Indian leaders for educated young men to make an entry into politics. The turning point came on 13th April 1919 when I was horrified to see British troops firing at point blank range at 10,000 unarmed innocent Indians at Amritsar/Punjab. That day I decided to fight for my country men, put in all my energies to free India from British rule and work for the good of my own people. This meant sacrificing everything I enjoyed personally, my western lifestyle, my taste for good clothes and my comfortable family life. My first step was to join the Non-corporation movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920. Gandhi’s ideas had a great influence on me which made me one of his most dedicated followers. As you may know that the British came to India for trade, but when they realized the potential of India they decided to stay. The kings of small Indian states fought a lot with each other in an attempt to extend their kingdoms. The British took this as a great opportunity to conquer all of India and get access to its wealth. They did this by encouraging conflicts between kingdoms, whenever fighting broke out between two kings the British would lend their soldiers to one of the kings. After the battle the victorious king would only be a puppet ruler, the British then made the winning king do whatever they wanted. The frequent battles between the Indian kings reduced their strength, and the British took advantage of the lack of unity. Gradually, the British became the rulers of the whole of India except some areas which were conquered by the Portuguese and French. India was freed by the efforts and commitment of a group of leaders led by the one and only Mahatma Gandhi who followed the path of non violence and decided that war was not the answer. This path revealed the strength of his beliefs and his risk taking skills, which led to the British deciding to leave and handing over a free India in 1947 on August 14th. If it wasn’t for me and my colleagues, and Mahatma Gandhi India would still be ruled by the British and insulted by them constantly. God alone knows how many innocent Indians would have died and perhaps all of India would have perished. As the first prime minister of India, I Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the tricolor Indian Flag at the top of the Red fort in Delhi. Since then this ritual is followed on 15th August, which is celebrated as Independence Day. Even though India was now free we still had many problems staring at us, the British had left India alright but they’d left us as a broken country full of poor and illiterate people. I had to be the instrument of change for my country to make it move forward. It was my duty to sort the multiple issues out and sort them out I did, in 50 years I’d made a poor country like India one of the top industrial nations in the world. I’d made a country that once did not possess the technique to make pins and needles, the leading nation in IT. I had many responsibilities that needed urgent attention; my first crisis was the language problem. Indians from various parts of India speak many different languages; for example, in the north people speak Punjabi, in the east they speak Assamese, in the west Marathi or gujrati and in the south, Tamil, Kannada, e.t.c. This was a problem since many people weren’t able to communicate with each other; I decided that I’d solve this problem by choosing one official language and since India’s most common language in India was Hindi and the majority of people knew Hindi we signed Hindi as our official language. My next step was to solve the “untouchability” case, the root cause being the caste system. So whenever anyone from a senior class practiced untouchability, he was arrested. I saw this as the only way people would stop counting people as outcastes. Another problem I’d noticed was India’s low literacy rate; I solved this by grouping poor and illiterate people together under scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (ST/SC). I made reservations for them in educational institutes like colleges of arts, science, engineering, etc. I also got certain jobs in the government reserved for them. I also took necessary steps to raise their social status by providing scholarships, hostel accommodations, grants, loans, housing, health care and legal aid services. My next big step was in developing science and technology, because I believed that it was science alone that could solve the problems of hunger and poverty of a rich country inhabited by poor people, so I set up as many National Science Laboratories specializing in different areas of research to promote self sustaining scientific and technologic growth. In an entirely different field “Wild life conservation” was demanding attention. I gave my orders to the union government to bring under its control 9 major national parks, which were full of game wardens equipped with jeeps, radios and guns. This effort showed remarkable results as the tiger population had increased from 1827 to 3642. I think that I have done a great job as a change maker and prime minister because if it wasn’t for me India wouldn’t have developed into a country with a high yielding agricultural sector and industries that could compete with the best in the world. Had it not been for me, India might still have been under British rule and our country would have been lagging behind as one of the most underdeveloped nations. Whenever I’m compared to the IB learner profile I’m seen as a great risk taker, maybe that’s because I’d taken the responsibility of ruling India and trying to make one of the poorest countries in the world, more developed and advanced. I’d also decided to confront the threatening British being armless and taking with me only my pride and confidence. I’m known as knowledgeable because I studied in one of the best universities of my time, I read a lot on every subject, and all my speeches showed my knowledge and the understanding of India’s problems, which made my people think that I was more capable than the other leaders with me. I read, held intelligent discussions, met world leaders and spent my free time writing. I shared this knowledge with the world in the form of books like Discovery of India, Letters from a Father to his Daughter, Glimpses of World History and so on. I am no great thinker, but the world has considered me a philosopher who has spent a great deal of time analyzing, among other things, the political and religious background of India. My inquisitive mind made me read the Indian Holy Scriptures, the Veda and the Upanishads, besides going into the real reasons that led to the development of new religions like Buddhism and Jainism as off shoots of Hinduism. I tried hard to understand why caste played such an important role in Indian society. The inquirer in me wanted answers to all the social problems that resulted from the rigid caste system. I was thus able to enrich myself with knowledge about India’s culture and traditions that made it the complex nation as it stands today.  Mehta, Nita. //India after Independence//. New Delhi: Nita Mehta, 2002. N. pag. Print.  “ Wikipedia.” Editorial. //Jawahar Lal Nehru//. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2010. [].