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Jawaharlal Nehru in the foreground with several other Indian political leaders in the background ;

Nehru Memorial Lecture

The Nehru Memorial Lecture was endowed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust in 1966 as an annual lecture to be given in memory of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru by a distinguished scholar, scientist or administrator from the UK or India.

The lecture has been given by former Prime Ministers, senior political figures, esteemed scholars and leading figures in the fields of commerce and the arts. 

In 2016, management of the Nehru Memorial Lecture was transferred to King’s India Institute.

2025 Nehru Memorial Lecture by Dr G N Devy

‘Language, Civilization and Hegemony’

In this talk, Dr Devy makes a case for treating language as the most useful prism for comprehending the many histories of India. It details the major language shifts in South Asia's history since the onset of the Holocene, and describes the contemporary linguistic composition of the sub-continent. If language has been the backbone of India's civilization, it has also been the primary instrument of social dominance and subjugation of a large number of communities. The lecture offers an account of the close connections between language and hegemony in the context of India's encounters with Sanskrit, Persian and English.

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2024 Nehru Memorial Lecture by Professor Priya Satia

Professor Priya Satia, Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History at Stanford University, traced the journey of Nehru's ideals and his shift from revolutionary to statesman at the 2024 Nehru Memorial Lecture titled ‘Nehru’s other Indias’.

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Gallery

The Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust was established in 1966 by The Earl Mountbatten of Burma as a memorial to his great friend the late Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. The annual lecture series started in the same year. Below is a list of past speakers and lecture titles. The full lecture text is provided where available. 

1966 -  Lord Butler of Saffron Walden, 'Jawaharlal Nehru - The struggle for independence' (PDF)

1968 - The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 'Reflections on the transfer of power and Jawaharlal Nehru' (PDF)

1970 - Vengalil K. Krishna Menon, 'Personal memories of Jawaharlal Nehru' (PDF)

1971 - Lord Blackett of Chelsea, 'Aspects of India's development' (PDF)

1973 - General J N Chaudhuri, 'Nehru and the Indian Armed Forces' (PDF)

1974 - P N Haksar, 'The relevance of Jawaharlal Nehru' (PDF)

1975 - Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 'The Nehru family and its imprint on modern India' (PDF)

1978 - Sir Harold Wilson, 'Nehru and the New Commonwealth' (PDF)

1980 - The Earl of Listowel, 'The British partner in the transfer of power' (PDF)

1983 - T N Kaul, 'Nehru, the Idealist and Revolutionary' (PDF)

1985 - Shridath S Ramphal, 'Rekindling Nehru's internationalism' (PDF)

1988 - Dr Sarvepalli Gopal, 'The English language in India since Independence and its future role' (PDF)

1989 - Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, 'Nehru's internal impact on India as Prime Minister' (PDF)

1990 - Nani A Palkhivala, 'Forty-three years of Independence' (PDF)

1991 - Mark Tully, 'The Media in India' (PDF)

1993 - Amartya Sen, 'The idea of India' (PDF)

1993 - Kapila Vatsyayan, 'Indian art: the one and many'.

1994 - John Grigg, 'Indo-British mythology about the approach to Independence' (PDF)

1995 - Shyam Benegal, 'The Indian film industry and popular cinema' (PDF)

1997 - Dr Manmohan Singh, 'India and the world economy'.

1998 - Kenneth Clarke, 'India and the New Global Economy' (PDF)

1999 - Arundhati Roy, 'The cost of living' (PDF)

1999 - Narayana N R Murthy, 'Software enterprises - temples of New India' (PDF)

2001 - Asma Jahangir, 'Human rights in South Asia' (PDF)

2003 - Linda Colley, 'The Indian Armed Forces and politics since 1947: putting difference in context' (PDF)

2003 - HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan, 'Multilateralism: alignment for peace?' (PDF)

2005 - Montek Singh Ahluwalia, 'India in a globalising world' (PDF)

2006 - Lord Patten, 'Democracy and development: friends or foes' (PDF)

2007 - Ratan Tata, 'Entrepreneurship in Modern India' (PDF)

2009 - Lord Nicholas Stern, 'Climate change, internationalism and India in the 21st century' (PDF)

2010 - Gopalkrishna Gandhi, 'Britan, Gandhi and Nehru' (PDF)

2011 - Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh, 'The crisis of Indian democracy' (PDF)

2012 - Professor Sunil Khilnani, 'Making Asia: India, China, and the struggle for an Idea' (PDF)

2014 - Dr Neil MacGregor

2014 - Shivshankar Menon, Jawaharlal Nehru and world order'.

2023 - Professor Madhavan Palat, 'Nehru's democratic dilemmas' (PDF)

See also