1964 - Jawaharlal Nehru | Commemorative Coin

The first commemorative coin of independent India was issued upon Nehru's death in 1964. Jawaharlal Nehru also holds the distinction of being the only person to have coins released thrice. The second time was in 1989 to mark the birth centenary, and the third one was in 2014 to commemorate his 125th Birth Anniversary.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first and to date the longest serving Prime Minister of independent India, from the independence in 1947 to his death in 1964.

Jawaharlal Nehru was a leading figure in the Indian independence struggle. He was a charismatic and radical leader who advocated complete independence from foreign rule and self governance. He is also known as "the architect of modern India" and "Pandit Nehru" where "Pandit" is an honorific for a scholarly and learned person or a teacher. His birthday; 14th November, is celebrated as children's day in India. His book “The discovery of India” gives a good history of evolution of India from ancient times to modern age.

In times when the world was polarized into NATO and WARSAW members backed by US and USSR, He started the Non Aligned movement in 1955 where one was not aligned to any super power; created the atmosphere of an neutrality giving lot of member countries to join a neutral world. Although there are 118 members in the NAM, with the collapse of USSR and the new world economic dependency; NAM is no longer relevant or important as it used to be earlier.