The Mentor To A Fledgling Nation: India Under Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru presenting the national flag of India during a meeting of the constituent assembly on July 30, 1947

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Jawaharlal Nehru, born this day (November 14) in 1889, commenced his long stint as the first and, to this day, the longest-serving prime minister of India in exhilarating and yet difficult and unusual circumstances.  His speech as the country’s chosen leader on the intervening night of August 14 and August 15 in 1947 to the Constituent Assembly famously spoke of India’s “tryst with destiny”.   It was a moment long wished for, but Nehru recognised that the man