It was around 2:00 PM on the afternoon of May 27, 1964. Suddenly, telephones in government offices across Delhi began to ring. Employees of All India Radio rushed to their studios, while a palpable sense of chaos gripped the corridors of the Parliament House. Just a few minutes later, the entire nation heard a solemn voice over the airwaves: *"Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is no longer amongst us."*

At that time, India’s population stood at approximately 460 million. For millions of those people, it was the first time they truly realized that a nation could, in fact, become orphaned.

The Final Hours at Teen Murti Bhavan

The day had begun with a sudden turn of health. Around 6:20 AM that morning, Nehru had turned to his daughter, Indira Gandhi, and said, "I am experiencing severe back pain." A short while later, he whispered in a faint voice, "I think I am finished."

Dr. B.N. Chugh, Dr. Talwar, and several other senior physicians arrived immediately. An oxygen cylinder was administered, and injections were given. However, at 1:44 PM, his heart ceased to beat. Indira Gandhi remained present in the room throughout the ordeal.
Senior leader Gulzarilal Nanda was summoned immediately. By that time, a deep sense of unease already prevailed outside Teen Murti Bhavan, as the staff had sensed that the situation was critical. Upon hearing the news of Nehru’s passing, many long-serving employees—some of whom had been by his side since before India’s independence—began to weep inconsolably. An elderly gardener kept repeating just one phrase over and over: "Pandit-ji is gone... who will come here now to inspect the garden in the morning?"

A Nation Comes to a Standstill

As the news spread, the capital and the country ground to a halt. Many cinema halls halted their screenings midway. Shops in Connaught Place began to shut down spontaneously. At the Old Delhi Railway Station, passengers crowded around radios to catch every update. In distant villages—even those without electricity—people gathered at post offices or village squares to listen to the radio broadcasts.

On the morning of May 28, 1964, the funeral procession departed from Teen Murti Bhavan. Nehru’s mortal remains were placed upon an army gun carriage. Adorned with white flowers, the carriage moved forward slowly. Indira Gandhi wept intermittently throughout the journey, accompanied by a 19-year-old Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi.
According to historians and contemporary newspaper accounts, more than 1.5 million people thronged the streets of Delhi, with some foreign reports placing the figure as high as 2 million. Mourners climbed trees to catch a glimpse; many even perched atop electric poles. Women hoisted their children onto their shoulders, striving to afford them just one final look, and many individuals fainted amidst the crushing crowd. The army faced immense difficulties in managing the massive surge of people. Among them was an elderly farmer who had travelled all the way from Agra, declaring simply, "I have come to see, for the last time, the man who gave us the power of the vote."

Global Grief and Lasting Foundations

The procession saw the participation of prominent national leaders, including President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Acting Prime Minister Gulzarilal Nanda, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai, Jagjivan Ram, K. Kamaraj, V.K. Krishna Menon, and Chief Ministers from across the country.
 

The global community also arrived to pay their respects. Lord Mountbatten travelled from Britain, while both the Soviet Union and the United States sent formal messages of condolence. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser hailed Nehru as the "Voice of Asia and Africa," and Yugoslavia’s Marshal Tito remarked that the world had lost a great leader of peace.
In his last will and testament, Nehru had written that a portion of his ashes should be immersed in the Ganges River at Allahabad, while the remainder should be scattered from an aircraft over the fields of India, so that they might mingle with the very soil of the land. This final wish was honoured; his ashes were scattered over the country's fields from an Indian Air Force aircraft. Perhaps this was because he viewed himself not merely as a man of power, but as an integral part of the very soil of this land.

Following his death, the nation faced more than a crisis of political succession; a deep sense of apprehension gripped the public regarding what would now become of India. For he was the man who, in the wake of independence, had held together a fractured nation; who had established a democracy anchored by a constitution; and who had laid the foundations of modern India. His legacy was etched into pioneering institutions such as the IITs, AIIMS, the Bhakra Nangal Dam, the nascent vision for ISRO, the nuclear programme , major public sector industries, and scientific research institutes.
 

Today, people often determine history by watching a 10-second reel on social media. But the India of 1964 knew that it was not merely a Prime Minister lying upon that funeral pyre; burning there was the very first dream of independent India. On May 27, 1964—for the first time—India felt truly alone.

Sources:
 

• Contemporary media broadcasts of All India Radio (May 27–28, 1964)
• Historical archives and newspaper reports of Nehru's funeral procession (May 1964)
• The Last Will and Testament of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
• Official diplomatic condolence records and statements from global heads of state (May 1964)

( The author is a former member of the history faculty at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.)