Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister and one of its founding fathers, was born on November 14, 1889, at Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) to a Kashmiri Pandit family. He grew up partly in a huge house called Anand Bhawan and was largely educated at home by private teachers. Nehru was attracted to nationalism from a young age. Events like the Boer War filled his mind with "nationalistic ideas". In 1907 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge and secured a degree in natural science three years later. He studied the works of writers such as Bernard Shaw, J.M. Keynes, and Bertrand Russell. After Cambridge, he studied law in London for two years, passing his bar examination in 1912.
By the early 1920s, Nehru had emerged among the most important leaders of the Congress. He looked at the Indian independence struggle movement through a larger, internationalist prism, and was acutely aware of similar movements in other countries. Finally, on August 15, 1947, Nehru, after decades of struggle and years spent in jail, ushered in a free nation with these memorable words:" At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom....". Prime Minister Nehru led India for nearly 17 years. He was fond of children that's why his birthday is celebrated as "Children's Day" across the nation.