{"id":88996,"date":"2026-11-14T17:59:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T12:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=88996"},"modified":"2026-11-14T17:59:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T12:29:20","slug":"jawaharlal-nehru-contribution-to-nation-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-11-2026\/jawaharlal-nehru-contribution-to-nation-building","title":{"rendered":"PM Paid Tribute to Former PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS1\/History&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The PM paid tribute to former<strong> Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the occasion of his 137th birth anniversary.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>November 14<\/strong> is observed as <strong>Children&#8217;s Day<\/strong> across the country to mark the <strong>birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru,<\/strong> who was popularly known as <strong>&#8216;Chacha Nehru&#8217;<\/strong> for his affection towards children.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He was born on <strong>November 14, 1889 at Prayagraj located in <\/strong>Uttar Pradesh.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As the first Prime Minister of Independent India from 1947-1964, he played a crucial role in shaping modern India\u2019s foundation in Nation Building.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Contribution of Jawahar Lal Nehru in Nation Building<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Reorganisation of States: <\/strong>He supported the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines through the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, this supported national unity and territorial integrity while recognising India&#8217;s linguistic and cultural diversity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Promoted Constitutional Values:<\/strong> He emphasised parliamentary debate, rule of law and respect for constitutional institutions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Established Planning Commission:<\/strong> The Planning Commission was established in 1950 to promote planned economic growth.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>His government introduced the First Five-Year Plan (1951\u201356) and Second Five-Year Plan (1956\u201361), focusing on agricultural development and industrialisation respectively.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mixed Economic Structure:<\/strong> He promoted a mixed economy with a significant role for the public sector in strategic and basic industries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Infrastructure Development:<\/strong> A series of major multipropose river valley projects such as Bhakra-Nangal, Hirakud and Damodar Valley projects were supported by his government.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He supported the establishment and expansion of institutions such as the IITs and AIIMS.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Atomic Energy Commission was established in 1948, laying the foundation for India&#8217;s nuclear programme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Research and innovation:<\/strong> He encouraged scientific research through institutions such as the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and national laboratories.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Education:<\/strong> Emphasised universal education and scientific learning as instruments of social transformation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Non-Alignment:<\/strong> He played a leading role in developing the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which preserved India&#8217;s strategic autonomy during the Cold War.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Panchsheel:<\/strong> Under this, he promoted the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in India&#8217;s relations with other countries.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He was a keen advocate of international cooperation, disarmament and peaceful resolution of disputes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Criticism of Nehru&#8217;s Nation-Building Approach<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Centralisation of power:<\/strong> Critics argue that excessive centralisation weakened federal autonomy and local-level decision-making.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Foreign policy setbacks:<\/strong> The 1962 India-China war exposed India\u2019s shortcomings in defence preparedness and its shortsighted foreign policy towards China.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Poverty and inequality:<\/strong> Despite planned development, poverty, unemployment and socio-economic inequalities continued to persist.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Pandit Nehru\u2019s approach of nation-building was aimed at transforming India from a colonial economy into a modern, democratic and industrialised republic.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>His emphasis on democracy, secularism, scientific temper, economic planning and development of institutions built the foundations of modern India.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/pm-modi-pays-tributes-to-first-prime-minister-nehru-on-birth-anniversary\/article71701002.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> The PM paid tribute to former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the occasion of his 137th birth anniversary. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> About <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> November 14 is observed as Children&#8217;s Day across the country to mark the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, who was popularly known as &#8216;Chacha Nehru&#8217; for his affection towards children. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> He was born on November 14, 1889 at Prayagraj located in Uttar Pradesh. <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-11-2026\/jawaharlal-nehru-contribution-to-nation-building \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88998,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88996\/revisions\/88998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}