Politics and the Independence Struggle

Jawaharlal Nehru returned to India in August of 1912, where he began a halfhearted practice of law in the Allahabad High Court. Young Nehru disliked the legal profession, finding it stultifying and insipid.He was much more inspired by the 1912 annual session of the Indian National Congress (INC), however, the INC dismayed him with its elitism. Nehru joined a 1913 campaign led by Mohandas Gandhi, in the start of a decadeslong collaboration. Over the next few years, he moved more and more into politics, and away from law.During the First World War (191418), most upper class Indians supported the Allied cause even as they enjoyed the spectacle of Britain humbled. Nehru himself was conflicted, but came down reluctantly on the side of the Allies, more in support of France than of Britain.More than 1 million Indian and Nepalese soldiers fought overseas for the Allies in World War I, and about 62,000 died. In return for this show of loyal support, many Indian nationalists expected concessions from Britain once the war was over, but they were to be bitterly disappointed.