Britannica
Sources used in this answer
What role did Jawaharlal Nehru play in the Non-Aligned Movement?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Jawaharlal Nehru
As India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru was in office for more than 16 years, making him the country's longest-serving prime minister.
Jawaharlal Nehru was a foundational leader of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), an international organization established to represent the interests of developing nations during the Cold War. Alongside leaders such as Josip Broz Tito, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kwame Nkrumah, and Sukarno, Nehru helped formalize the movement at the 1961 Belgrade Conference.1
Nehru’s role evolved significantly over his tenure as prime minister:
- Anticolonialism to Nonalignment: In the years following India's independence, his foreign policy was primarily defined by anticolonialism. By the time of the 1961 Belgrade Conference, he had shifted his focus toward nonalignment as his most pressing international concern.2
- Active Nonalignment: Nehru, along with Tito and Nasser, promoted the concept of "active nonalignment," which encouraged developing countries to avoid military alliances with either the United States or the Soviet Union and instead engage in concerted action in world affairs.13
- Challenges: His policy faced scrutiny and setbacks, notably when India voted with the Soviet Union regarding the Hungarian Revolution and during the 1962 Sino-Indian War, when his call for Western aid challenged the perceived consistency of his nonalignment stance.2