Jawaharlal Nehru is best remembered as India’s first Prime Minister. But long before that, he was a working freedom fighter. He was arrested nine times by the British. He spent close to nine years of his life in jail. This article covers his pre-1947 role in the independence movement, not his years in government.

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Modern Indian History · ModHist0092

Jawaharlal Nehru — Freedom-Fighter Timeline

6 DECEMBER 1921

First Arrest

Arrested during the Non-Cooperation Movement. 88 days in Lucknow jail — the first of nine prison terms.

DECEMBER 1929

Congress President, Lahore

Elected Congress President. The Lahore session adopts Purna Swaraj; Nehru hoists the tricolour on the banks of the Ravi.

9 AUGUST 1942

Quit India — Operation Zero Hour

Arrested with Gandhi, Patel and Azad the day after the Quit India resolution. Held at Ahmednagar Fort — his longest, last term.

JUNE 1945

Released — The Discovery of India

Freed after nearly three years at Ahmednagar Fort, where he wrote “The Discovery of India.” Simla Conference talks on transfer of power follow.

The pattern

Nine arrests. Close to nine years in jail, spread across 25 years. Just over two years after his last release, Nehru became independent India’s first Prime Minister — on 15 August 1947.

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Must Know

• Nehru was born on 14 November 1889, in Allahabad. His father, Motilal Nehru, was a leading lawyer and a senior Congress figure.
• He studied in England, at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He trained as a barrister at the Inner Temple.
• He returned to India in 1912 and joined the Indian National Congress.
• Gandhi’s ideas, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, pulled him into full-time politics. He worked as the Uttar Pradesh provincial Congress secretary during the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22).
• The British arrested him for the first time on 6 December 1921. He spent 88 days in Lucknow jail. It was the first of nine prison terms.
• Across his freedom-struggle years, Nehru was arrested nine times. He spent close to nine years in jail in total, between 1921 and 1945.

Good to Know

• In 1928, Nehru co-founded the Independence for India League with Subhas Chandra Bose. The League pushed Congress toward full independence, not just dominion status.
• Congress elected him President at its Lahore session in December 1929. This session adopted the Purna Swaraj (complete independence) resolution.
• On 31 December 1929, Nehru hoisted the tricolour on the banks of the river Ravi in Lahore. Congress marked 26 January 1930 as Independence Day, a pledge later echoed in India’s Republic Day.
• Nehru joined the Salt Satyagraha and the wider Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930. He was arrested again during this phase.
• He served as Congress President four times in all: 1929, 1936, 1937, and 1946.
• Congress passed the Quit India resolution on 8 August 1942. In the early hours of 9 August 1942, the British launched “Operation Zero Hour.” They arrested Nehru, Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, and other top leaders without trial.
• Nehru was moved to Ahmednagar Fort. He stayed there from August 1942 until June 1945. It was his longest, and his last, term in prison.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. In which year did British authorities first arrest Jawaharlal Nehru, starting his prison record in the freedom struggle?

1921

1919

1930

1942

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Great to Know

• Nehru wrote three major books in jail, not just one. “Glimpses of World History” (letters to his daughter Indira) and his autobiography “Toward Freedom” came from earlier terms.
• “The Discovery of India” came from his longest term, at Ahmednagar Fort, in 1944.
• His prison record looks different from Gandhi’s. Gandhi’s resistance often took the form of long fasts and a few high-profile terms. Nehru’s took the form of nine separate arrests, spread across 25 years, adding up to years lost to organizing and agitation rather than to any single dramatic act.
• The British released Nehru from Ahmednagar Fort in June 1945. That release came just ahead of the Simla Conference, where Britain and Congress discussed transferring power.
• He went on to lead the Interim Government in 1946, then became independent India’s first Prime Minister on 15 August 1947 — closing out the freedom-fighter chapter of his career.