Prime Ministers of India – List with Photo

Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014. He is the 18^th Prime Minister of the Republic of India. In this article, we will list out the Indian Prime Ministers from the time of independence in multiple short essays.

Prime Minister of India – List from 1947 to 2019

Jawaharlal Nehru

Born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad, Jawaharlal Nehru was the son of Motilal Nehru, a leader involved in the Indian independence movement. He underwent home schooling till the age of 16. He later shifted to the UK for further studies. Nehru went on to become a barrister in London. He returned to India and got married to Kamala Kaul in 1916.

Nehru was persuaded by Mahatma Gandhi to join the freedom struggle. He was attracted by the non-violent protests led by Gandhi.

In 1929, Nehru was elected as the president of the Congress party. He presided over the historic Lahore session that altered the goal of the party from achievement of dominion status for India to complete independence.

Nehru has spent more than 9 years in jail during the independence movement. During the 1930s, Nehru was seen to be the political heir to Mahatma Gandhi, after attracting the young intelligentsia of India to the freedom struggle. He later went on to become the first Prime Minister of independent India.

• Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is important in Indian history as he has imparted modern ways of thinking and values to the Indian society.
• He was the leader who spearheaded the movement of India into an age of technological development.
• Nehru also created awareness in people on the need for social concern for the poor.
• He helped in bringing about a reform to the ancient Hindu civil code. This provided equality to Hindu widows as far as inheritance was concerned.

Gulzari Lal Nanda

Gulzari Lal Nanda was born on 4 July 1898 in Sialkot, Punjab. He served as the interim Prime Minister of India in 1964 and 1966 for short durations. He was a member of the Cabinet at the time of Jawaharlal Nehru’s death and went on to succeed him as the Prime Minister in 1964. In 1966, he succeeded Lal Bahadur Shastri upon his death. Nanda was remembered for his efforts on labour issues.

• Gulzari Lal Nanda worked as an economics professor at the National College in Mumbai.
• He was also part of the Non-Cooperation movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and was jailed twice.
• He formed the Indian National Trade Union Congress and went on to become its president.
• Nanda was also a representative of the country at the Geneva International Labour Conference.
• In 1951, Nanda was the minister of planning in the Cabinet. He also managed the portfolio of power and irrigation.
• In 1957, Nanda held the position of labour, employment, and planning minister.
• He was the minister of home affairs between 1963 and 1966.
• Nanda took over the role of the railways minister in 1970-71.
• Gulzari Lal Nanda was conferred with the Bharat Ratna in 1997.

Lal Bahadur Shastri

Born on 2 October 1904, Lal Bahadur Shastri was a member of the Non-Cooperation movement led my Mahatma Gandhi against the British rule in India. He studied at a nationalist university, Kashi Vidyapitha. He held several influential positions in the Congress Party.

• After India got independence, Shastri served as the home affairs and transport minister in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
• He also became the union minister for railways and transport, before taking over as the Prime Minister of the country.
• He was skilled in mediating and gained popularity for his firm stand in the matter of India-Pakistan hostilities in the Kashmir region. He had also signed a “no-war” agreement with the President of Pakistan, Ayub Khan.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri died of a heart attack in 1966.

Indira Gandhi

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was the first woman to become the Indian Prime Minister. She was born on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad. She served as the Prime Minister for three terms consecutively. Her fourth term as Prime Minister started in 1980. It was during this term that she was assassinated.

Born as Indira Nehru, she was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru. She studied at the Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan and the Oxford University in England. Her entry into the Congress Party was in 1938. She was elected as party president in 1959. She went on to become the minister of information and broadcasting in the Lal Bahadur Shastri government in 1964.

She was married to Feroze Gandhi who was also a member of the Congress Party. Indira Gandhi’s leadership was continuously challenged by the right wing of the party led by Morarji Desai. Tensions were aplenty within the party, and she was expelled from the party by Desai in 1969. It was after this incident that she formed the New Congress Party which went on to win a huge majority in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections.

• She was a significant supporter of East Pakistan and played a role in the creation of Bangladesh.
• Her party continued to win with large majorities in several elections across the country.
• The Socialist Party charged that her party had violated election laws in the 1971 national elections. The Allahabad High Court also ruled against her in this matter. This led to the deprivation of her seat in the parliament. She went on to declare an emergency in India and imprisoned her opponents.
• During the period of emergency, she brought about a lot of new reforms, including large-scale sterilisation for population control.
• The emergency period went on for 2 years. At the end of this, in 1977, the national parliamentary elections were held. The New Congress Party was soundly defeated and Gandhi had to leave office. The Janata Party took over and appointed Morarji Desai as Prime Minister.
• Gandhi returned to power in the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, and all legal cases against her were withdrawn.
• In the early 1980s, Sikh separatists in Punjab started using violence to get an independent state. In 1982, a large number of Sikhs occupied the Harmadir Sahib complex in Amritsar. Gandhi ordered an attack on them, which led to the damage of some of the buildings in the complex. At least 450 Sikhs were also killed in the attack.
• After 5 months, Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in New Delhi to avenge the attack on the Sikhs in Amritsar.

Morarji Desai

Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was born on 29 February 1896 in Bhandeli, Gujarat. He was the first leader of independent India who did not represent the Indian National Congress party.

He was educated at the University of Bombay. He joined the civil service of the province after his studies. In 1930, he joined Mahatma Gandhi in the Civil Disobedience movement. He spent a considerable amount of time in prison during the independence struggle. His sharp administrative skills were reputed.

• Desai became the commerce and industry minister in the Indian government in 1956.
• He went on to become the deputy Prime Minister in 1967.
• He was the chairman of the Janata Party, a coalition of four smaller parties, formed to oppose the Congress Party.
• In 1977, the Janata Party achieved a surprising victory over the Congress Party in the national elections and Desai became the Prime Minister.
• He resigned from office on 15 July 1979, in an attempt to avoid a vote of no confidence.

Charan Singh

Chaudhuri Charan Singh was born on 23 Dec 1902 in Noorpur, Uttar Pradesh. He was a lawyer who went on to join the Indian National Congress in 1929. He was jailed several times during the Indian independence struggle.

• Charan Singh was imprisoned during the state of emergency in 1975-77.
• He served in the state assembly of the United Provinces that is currently the state of Uttar Pradesh. He was also the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1967, 1968, and 1970.
• His Indian Revolutionary Party allied with Morarji Desai’s Janata Party in 1977. He was the minister of home affairs and deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government.
• Tensions brewed in the coalition government and he took over as the Prime Minister in July 1979. Indira Gandhi, his former political enemy, had supported him in this matter.
• A month later, Gandhi withdrew her support for the Charan Singh government and Indira Gandhi came back to power.
• Singh did not hold any positions in the government after that.

Rajiv Gandhi

Born on 20 August 1944, Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the leader of the Congress (I) Party, a faction of the Indian National Congress, formed by Indira Gandhi. He took over as the Prime Minister of India after his mother, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated in 1984.

He was educated at the Doon School in Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand. He also went to Imperial College in London and completed a course in engineering at the University of Cambridge.  After his return to India, he got a commercial pilot’s license and worked for the Indian Airlines.

• After the death of his brother, Sanjay Gandhi, who was a prominent political power, Rajiv Gandhi entered the Indian political scene.
• He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1981.
• He was also a member of the Indian Youth Congress.
• Rajiv Gandhi was known for his composure and non-abrasive nature in taking decisions.
• He was sworn in as the Prime Minister of the country after the assassination of his mother in 1984.
• He led the Congress (I) Party to a sweeping victory in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections.
• His government took actions to liberalise the economy of the country.
• He has also tried to discourage separatist movements in Kashmir and Punjab.
• In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi sent Indian troops to Sri Lanka to help in enforcing peace, but they went on to fight the Tamil separatists.
• The Congress (I) Party was defeated in the 1989 parliamentary elections, and Rajiv Gandhi resigned from his post.
• He was assassinated in May 1991 while campaigning in Tamil Nadu for the parliamentary election. The attackers were Tamil militants from Sri Lanka and their Indian counterparts who were looking to take revenge on him for fighting the Tamil separatists in 1987.
• After Rajiv Gandhi’s death, his widow, Sonia Gandhi became the leader of the Congress Party. The “I” designation of the party was formally removed in 1996.

Vishwanath Pratap Singh

V.P. Singh was born on 25 June 1931 in Allahabad and studied at institutions in Allahabad and Pune. He was a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in the year 1969, representing the Congress Party. He won the Lok Sabha election in 1971 and became the deputy minister of commerce in 1974.

• P. Singh has served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1980 to 1982.
• He continued as the commerce minister in 1983.
• In 1984, he became the minister of finance for the Rajiv Gandhi government.
• His efforts in identifying and prosecuting tax frauds were praised by many.
• He also worked to minimise governmental regulation of businesses.
• Singh became the defense minister in 1987. He left the Congress (I) Party and resigned from his position, soon after.
• He was one of the main founders of the Janata Dal (JD) party in 1988. JD was a merger of several opposition parties to the Congress.
• Singh started gathering a nationwide opposition coalition, called the National Front (NF).
• NF was part of the parliamentary elections in November 1989. NF formed a coalition government with support from two other opposition parties.
• P. Singh became the Prime Minister of India on 2 December 1989.
• In 1990, the coalition gained control of both parliament houses.
• Singh resigned on 7 November 1990, as disputes brewed within the coalition. He also received a vote of no-confidence in the Lok Sabha.
• Later, Singh was actively involved in the United Front coalition that came into the limelight at the time H.D Deve Gowda was the Prime Minister.

Chandra Shekhar

Chandra Shekhar was born on 1 July 1927 in Ibrahimpatti. He was a leader of the Socialist Party before he moved to the Congress Party. He was a member of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha before he was sworn in as the Indian Prime Minister.

• In 1975, Chandra Shekhar moved out of the Congress Party.
• He was also imprisoned at the time of emergency declared by Indira Gandhi.
• Shekhar went on to become the president of the Janata Party in 1977, which formed a coalition with the Morarji Desai government.
• The Janata Party united with other opposition parties to create the Janata Dal Party in 1988.
• Chandra Shekhar moved out of the Janata Dal Party on 5 November 1990 and formed the Janata Dal-Socialist faction.
• He got the support of the Congress (I) Party and replaced V.P. Singh as the Prime Minister of India.
• He resigned from office on 6 March 1991 after his party stopped receiving support from the Congress (I) Party.
• V. Narasimha Rao replaced him as the Prime Minister.
• In 2004, Shekhar was elected to the Lok Sabha for the eighth time.

P.V. Narasimha Rao

Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao was born in a village near Karimnagar of current Telangana on 28 June 1921. He attended the Fergusson College in Pune and also studied at the Bombay and Nagpur Universities. He graduated as a lawyer. His entry into politics was during the pre-independence era, when he worked as a Congress Party activist.

• Narasimha Rao was part of the legislative assembly in the state of Andhra Pradesh from 1957 to 1977.
• He supported Indira Gandhi when she separated from the Congress Party and formed the Congress (I) Party.
• He was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 1971 onwards.
• Rao was known for his efforts in implementing a land reform policy that brought about various benefits and inclusion for the lower castes.
• He was part of the Lok Sabha and also held various ministries during this time.
• Narasimha Rao was also a well-known scholar and head of the Andhra Pradesh Telugu Academy from 1968 to 1974.
• Fluent in six languages, he wrote books in Marathi, Hindi, and Telugu.
• V. Narasimha Rao became the tenth Prime Minister of India in May 1991, succeeding Rajiv Gandhi.
• While he was in office, he brought about significant reforms in the economy that included privatisation of state-run industries. This also led to increase in foreign investment and improvement in the growth of industries. However, the hike in inflation was a noteworthy factor.
• The Congress (I) Party was defeated in the parliamentary elections in 1996. Rao stepped down as the leader of the party and resigned from his post as the Prime Minister.
• The next year, he was embroiled in several controversies, including those related to bribery and corruption. He was the first Indian Prime Minister to be charged in a criminal case.
• Although he was found guilty in 2000, the conviction was overturned later on.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born on 25 December 1924 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. He was a respected leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and became the Prime Minister of India for two terms.

He was a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) when he was first elected to the parliament. BJS merged with two other parties to create the Janata Party. He was a foreign minister when the Janata Party was in power. He was well-known for his efforts in improving the relations with neighbouring countries, Pakistan and China.

• When there were tensions in the Janata Party, Vajpayee split out of it and formed the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980.
• He was against the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya by anti-Muslim extremists, and fearlessly spoke about his stand in the matter.
• Vajpayee became the Indian Prime Minister in May 1996. His party did not get support from other parties and hence, he had to step down after 13 days.
• Vajpayee became the Prime Minister again after the 1998 elections.
• He was praised for reforms that made Muslim minorities more inclusive.
• The Vajpayee government ensured that the country had a steady economic growth. India also became the world leader in the field of information technology.
• He stepped down from office in 2004 after his party was defeated in the parliamentary election.

H.D. Deve Gowda

H.D. Deve Gowda was born on 18 May 1933 in Haradanahalli village of Hassan district in Karnataka. He was born into an agrarian family and hence, wanted to take up the cause of poor farmers and underprivileged sections of the society.

He is a Civil Engineering Diploma holder. He got actively involved in politics at the age of 20. Gowda was a member of the Congress Party from 1953 to 1962. At the age of 28, he contested the elections as an independent candidate and had a sweeping victory over the others. He went on to become a member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

• Deve Gowda was the opposition leader in the Assembly between 1972 and 1977, in two terms. He was appreciated for his leadership.
• He served as the minister of public works and irrigation. During this time, he has helped in the set up of many irrigation projects. He resigned from his position in 1987, as he thought that the government had set aside insufficient funds for irrigation.
• He was imprisoned during the time of emergency declared by Indira Gandhi.
• Deve Gowda was the President of the Janata Party at the state level twice. He was actually responsible for the party’s rise to power in 1994.
• He contested for the elections from the Ramanagar Assembly constituency and won by a huge majority. He took over as the Chief Minister of Karnataka on 11 December 1994.
• He is known for bringing a peaceful solution to the Idgah Maidan issue.
• On 30 May 1996, Deve Gowda resigned from the position of Karnataka Chief Minister. He was appointed as the Prime Minister of India on 1 June 1996, leading a coalition government.
• In April 1997, the Congress (I) Party withdrew support for the coalition and Gowda had to step down from his position.

Inder Kumar Gujral

Inder Kumar Gujral was born on 4 December 1919 in Jhelum, India (currently Pakistan). He is remembered for the Gujral Doctrine, which is a policy based on which India would reach out diplomatically to its neighbouring countries without expecting anything in return.

Gujral’s family played a significant role in the Indian struggle for independence. He studied at the DAV College, Hailey College of Commerce, and Forman Christian College in Lahore. He was the president of Lahore Students’ Union and the general secretary of Punjab Students’ Federation.

• He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1964 while he was part of the Congress Party.
• During this time, he was a minister at the cabinet level for several positions across multiple terms.
• He was the minister of information and broadcasting during the state of emergency in 1975. At that time, he rejected the government’s decision to censor news and editorials. Hence, he had to resign from his post.
• He became the ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1976.
• Gujral became a member of the Lok Sabha in 1989.
• In April 1997, Prime Minister Deve Gowda lost a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha. Gujral was appointed as the leader of the United Front in his place. The Congress (I) Party backed him and he became the Prime Minister on 21 April.
• In November that year, the Congress (I) Party withdrew its support to the Gujral government and he had to resign from his position.
• He became a member of the Lok Sabha again in 1998.

Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh was born in Gah, West Punjab (currently in Pakistan). He was a renowned economist and politician. Manmohan Singh was the first non-Hindu Prime Minister of India.

He studied at the Panjab University and University of Cambridge. He got a doctorate in economics from the Oxford University. Singh was the chief economic advisor to the government in the 1970s. He also held the positions of director and governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

• Manmohan Singh became the finance minister in 1991. During this time, the economy of the country was on a decline. Singh was responsible for lowering taxes, encouraging investments from foreign entities, and privatising state-run industries. These reforms helped in boosting the economy to a great extent.
• He was a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1991.
• In 1999, he was defeated while contesting for a place in the Lok Sabha.
• When the Congress Party won the parliamentary elections in May 2004, the leader of the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, declined prime ministership. She recommended Manmohan Singh to take the position. Hence, he was sworn in as Prime Minister on 22 May 2004.
• During his tenure, he tried to improve the situation of the underprivileged sections of the society. He also worked to improve ties with Pakistan.
• While Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister, there was a rise in fuel costs that resulted in a spike in inflation.
• The Prime Minister entered into a nuclear cooperation pact with the US President in 2005. As per the deal, India would be able to receive fuel technology for its nuclear plants. The country was also able to buy nuclear fuel from the global market. This was criticised by the opposition parties who pushed for a vote of confidence in the Parliament in July 2008. The Congress Party survived the vote.
• In the 2009 parliamentary elections, Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister for the second consecutive term. During this term, the party had to face several allegations of slowdown in economic growth and corruption.
• Manmohan Singh stepped down from the post of Prime Minister on 26 May 2014. He was succeeded by Narendra Modi.

Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on 17 September 1950 in Vadnagar. He is a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Under his leadership, the party won the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, following which he became the Prime Minister of India. He has also served as the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat between 2001 and 2014.

Modi’s early days were spent in northern Gujarat. He has an M.A. political science degree from the Gujarat University. He was part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organisation from the early 1970s. He was also the founder of a unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in his locality. His association with the RSS has significantly boosted his political career.

• In 1987, Narendra Modi joined BJP. He worked to strengthen the presence of the party in Gujarat, while he was general secretary.
• In 2001, he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, replacing Keshubhai Patel who was involved in a controversy regarding the Bhuj earthquake.
• Modi’s first electoral contest was in the year 2002. He won a seat in the Gujarat state assembly.
• Modi’s government in Gujarat was involved in several extrajudicial killings (encounters) by the police.
• He received repeated political success in Gujarat, and this reinforced his position as an influential leader within the party.
• Under the Modi government, the economy of the state of Gujarat flourished. This gave him the reputation of an able administrator.
• Modi led the BJP campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He promised to improve the underperforming economy of India though his campaigns. His party emerged victorious and he took over as the Prime Minister on 26 May 2014.
• The Modi government has introduced several reforms, including infrastructure projects for the improvement in transportation and connectivity. Reforms were also seen on direct foreign investment.
• The government has introduced several measures that appealed to the Hindus. This includes the ban on cattle sale for slaughter.
• The demonetisation exercise and the replacement of the 500 and 1000 rupee notes were some of the sweeping reforms introduced by the Modi government. This led to a lot of structural changes in the economy, while also causing temporary disruptions. The purpose of demonetisation was to stop black money that was being used for illicit activities.
• The government also introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that streamlined the taxation system in the country and mitigated the problem of cascading tax.
• BJP returned to power in the 2019 elections. Narendra Modi became the first Prime Minister who was reelected after a full term while supporting a party other than the Congress.

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