List of Prime Ministers (Pradhan Mantri) of India with Duration
It’s been 71 years India is an independent nation and has seen a number of dynamic personalities as its Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is the executive head of the country and all the de facto power are vested in the PM and his respective council of ministers. Jawahar Lal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of Independent India and the current premier is Shri Narendra Modi.
List of Prime Ministers (Pradhan Mantri) of India with Duration in Tabular Format
| Sno | Name | Duration |
| 1 | Jawaharlal Nehru | 15th August 1947 – 27th May 1964 |
| 2 | Gulzari Lal Nanda | 27th May 1964 – 09th June 1964 |
| 11 January 1964 – 24 January 1964 | ||
| 3 | Lal Bahadur Shashtri | 09th June 1964 – 11 January 1966 |
| 4 | Smt. Indira Gandhi | 24 January 1966 – 24 march 1977 |
| 14th January 1980 –31st October 1984 | ||
| 5 | Shri Morarji Desai | 24 March 1977 – 28 July 1979 |
| 6 | Shri Charan Singh | 28 July 1979 – 14 January 1980 |
| 7 | Shri Rajiv Gandhi | 31st October 1984 – 02nd December 1989 |
| 8 | Shri VishwanathPratap Singh | 02 December 1989 – 10 November 1990 |
| 9 | Shri Chandra Shekhar | 10th November 1990 – 21st June 1991 |
| 10 | Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao | 21st June 1991 – 16th May 1996 |
| 11 | Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 16th May 1996 – 01st June 1996 |
| 19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004 | ||
| 12 | Shri H. D. Deve Gowda | 01st June 1996 – 21st April 1997 |
| 13 | Shri Inder Kumar Gujral | 21st April 1997 – 19th March 1998 |
| 14 | Dr. Manmohan Singh | 22nd May 2004 – 26 May 2014 |
| 15 | Shri Narendra Modi | 26th May 2014 – till Date |
Jawaharlal Nehru (15th August 1947 – 27th May 1964)
Shri Jawaharlal Nehru was born in a Brahmin family on 14th November 1889 in Allahabad of Uttar Pradesh. He received his primary education from Allahabad and later moved to England to pursue his higher studies. After his return in 1912, he straightaway got into national politics under a situation when India was boiling under the heat of national independence movement.
Jawaharlal Nehru was an active leader in Indian National Movement and worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi and other congressmen to free India from the shackles of British Raj. Due to his leadership qualities and active role in independence movement, he was certainly the first choice for the first Prime Minister of independent India.
Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru gave the right and appropriate leadership to the independent nation and worked hard to make India a self-sustained nation, which was not in a very good state due to the plunder of British Colonialism. He died a natural death in 1966 while he was serving his third consecutive term of Prime Ministerial ship.
Gulzari Lal Nanda (27th May 1964 – 09th June 1964)
He was the second Prime Minister of India, although for a very short span of time. After the sudden death of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, there was a political gap for the Prime Ministerial candidature and thus it was mutually agreed by the cabinet that Gulzari Lal Nanda would be the acting Prime Minister till a fresh election is done for the premier position.
Gulzari Lal Nanda was born in Sialkot (Punjab) in 1898 and took his education from Lahore, Agra and Allahabad. He did his research scholarship from University of Allahabad and later became an Economics’ professor at the National College Bombay. He had been an active part of the Indian National Movement and gave his active services to the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Lal Bahadur Shashtri (09th June 1964 – 11 January 1966)
Lal Bahadur Shastri was the second active and one of the most influential Prime Ministers of India. He was so influential that his policies and ideologies are still considered to be aggressive and ideal for the Indian polity and society. He represented the Indian National Congress party and was an obvious choice for Prime Minister-ship after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Lal Bahadur Shastri was born in 1901 in Mugalsarai, which is a small town in eastern Uttar Pradesh, close to Varanasi. His father, a school teacher, died at an early age, when Shastriji as just an infant. He was solely brought up by his mother, who took care of her three children.
Lal Bahadur Shastri was a man of principles and propagate a socialist society. He laid extra emphasis on self sustenance. At a time when the country was fighting with food crisis, he gave the time changing slogan to his countrymen, ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kissaan’. It was during his short tenure that India moved aggressively towards mass farming and self sustenance.
Gulzari Lal Nanda (11 January 1964 – 24 January 1964)
It was again after the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri that there was a void for the Prime Minister position and this was aptly filled by Gulzari Lal Nanda again. This was infact the second time when Shri Nanda became the Prime Minister of India. He was the only apt choice at the time of political crisis in the country, till a fresh elections were held and Mrs. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of the nation.
Smt. Indira Gandhi (24 January 1966 – 24 march 1977)
Smt. Indira Gandhi was the third active and the first and last female Prime Minister of India. She was daughter of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and was born in 1917, when the nation and her family was fighting against the British rule. He did her higher studies from Switzerland and then from Pune and Bombay and took active participation during the national movement for independence.
Smt. Indira Gandhi was a woman of principles and a headstrong lady who set examples and lead the nation from the front. She had as many supporters as she had her critics too. She was the pivotal personality behind imposing political emergency in India.
It was during her tenure that the 1971 war with Pakistan was fought, in which India made aggressive advancements against Pakistan and helped Bangladesh get independence from Pakistan. Few believe that had Smt. Indira Gandhi lived longer as a Prime Minister, the picture of India as a nation on the world map would have been different.
Shri Morarji Desai (24 March 1977 – 28 July 1979)
Morarji Desai was a Prime Minister who brought many revolutions in Indian Political System. He tried to break the trend from what was normal, for which he had to face many restrictions from outside and within the party. He was born in 1896 in Bulsar district of Gujarat. Since his father was an ordinary man and a school teacher, Shri Desai received a lot of his value system from his father, who was a strict disciplinarian.
He was arrested during the national emergency of India and was released when Lok Sabha elections were declared to happen in 1977, after which his Janata Party won with re-sounding victory and he became the first non-congress prime minister of India.
Shri Charan Singh (28 July 1979 – 14 January 1980)
Shri Charan Singh served as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh before he became the Prime Minister of India in 1979. He was a hard task master and had worked for many social alleviation campaigns in his time. His ideologies and policies were focused more on farming and agricultural welfares. He was born in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh in the year 1902 in a peasants’ family and did his higher education from Agra University.
Smt. Indira Gandhi (14th January 1980 –31st October 1984)
After unprecedented defeat of Indian National Congress against Janta Dal in 1977, it was time again for INC lead by Smt. Indira Gandhi to bounce back to power. After all, it was people’s verdict. This was the time, Smt. Gandhi lead the country with a different perspective, however had to lose her life during prime minister-ship in 1984. During her last tenure, Smt. Gandhi tried to fight the militancy in Punjab, which had become a cause of concern for the Indian government.
Shri Rajiv Gandhi (31st October 1984 – 02nd December 1989)
Shri Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India after sudden death of Smt. Indira Gandhi in 1984. He has been the youngest prime minister of India at 40 years of age and perhaps one of the youngest head of governments from other countries too.
Shri Rajiv Gandhi is considered to be a youngster-centric Prime Minister. He looked upon national governance from a fresh perspective and had quite active and able council of ministers at his time. He was born in 1944 in Bombay and his father was a hardworking and fearless Parliamentarian along with her mother Indira Gandhi, who had herself been the Prime Minister of India.
Just like her mother and former Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi too was assassinated during an election campaign.
Shri VishwanathPratap Singh (02 December 1989 – 10 November 1990)
Born in Allahabad, Shri VishwanathPratap Singh came from a royal family and his father was Raja Bahadur Ram Gopal Singh. Shri Singh was an excellent student and received his higher education from Allahabad University and later from Poona University.
Shri VishwanathPratap Singh began his political carrier while he was President of Student’s Union at UP College, Varanasi and later became the vice-president of Students Union, University of Allahabad. He was one of the active donators of Bhoodan Movement in 1957. Shri Singh, while in his term as Prime Minister was the pioneer of Reservation System that is prevalent in employment and education system of India.
Shri Chandra Shekhar (10th November 1990 – 21st June 1991)
Shri Chandra Shekhar was the Prime Minister of India for short few months and was elected as PM during a political turmoil in the parliament, when he became the only and obvious choice for the premiership. He was born in a farmer’s family in 1927 in the famous district Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. He presided Janata Party from the year 1977 to 1988.
He had been an over-active political leader both in his student days as well as his full time political career. He joined the political career by entering Indian National Congress and became a Member of Parliament. Later, with the Jay Prakash Narayan revolution, he played an active part with the later and became an indispensable part of the Janata Party.
Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao (21st June 1991 – 16th May 1996)
Shri Rao was born in 1921 at Karimnagar district. He did his higher education from Osmania and Bombay University. He was a staunch believer of liberalization of economy and the present liberalization that we see today in our economy may be termed as his brain child.
He was an agriculturist and an advocate and joined Indian National Congress during his college days. He is considered to be one of the most literate and broad minded Prime Ministers of India. Few even call him a person who are above political aspirations. He was a visionary and his contribution to the nation’s growth of his time is and would be always remembered.
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (16th May 1996 – 01st June 1996)
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee is considered to be a man of political convictions and of the masses. He took charge as the Prime Minister of India in 1996 due to a political instability in the country for a short time and was later elected as the Prime Minister in the year 1999. In his short tenure for the first time, there was not much he could do as a PM.
Shri H. D. Deve Gowda (01st June 1996 – 21st April 1997)
Shri Deve Gowda is considered to be a crusader of socio-economic development. He was born in 1933 in Hassan district of Karnataka. He was a civil engineer by education, however, he was always connected to political manifestation and was an influential activist.
He started his political career as a member of Karnataka Legislative Assembly. At the time when was sworn as the 11th Prime Minister of India, he was already the Chief Minister of Karnataka.
Shri Inder Kumar Gujral (21st April 1997 – 19th March 1998)
Shri I K Gujral was the 12th Prime Minister of Independent India. He was again one of the most educated and intellectual Prime Ministers India has seen. Shri Gujral has been a commentator and writer on various issues of national and international affairs.
Working closely within the Congress governments, he held many positions before becoming Prime Minister like Minister for Communications and Parliamentary Affairs, Minister of Planning, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Minister of Works and Housing, etc.
Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004)
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee is considered to be a man of political convictions and of the masses. This was his second stint with the premiership position and he stayed there for good five years, although with the support of a lot many regional political parties towards the Bhartiya Janata Party. One of his remarkable achievements as the Prime Minister was the nuclear tests that India conducted that made India stand among the nuclear powers of India.
Dr. Manmohan Singh (22nd May 2004 – 26 May 2014)
Dr. Manmohan Singh is the 14th Prime Minster of India. While his contributions towards national development would always be remembered, his good work as the Governor and Finance Minister is something that has made a great difference to the nation.
Shri Manmohan Singh was born in undivided India in Punjab Province and received his higher education from Punjab University. He was the man of literary and intellectual achievements and is known for his calm and composed personality.
Shri Narendra Damodardas Modi (26th May 2014 – till Date)
Shri Narendra Modi is one of the most famous Prime Ministers of India. With an unprecedented win of his party, BJP in 2014, he was the obvious choice for Prime Ministerial position. Few believe that India would never get a more progressive and aggressive Prime Minister as Shri Modi. Shri Modi is considered to be one of the most famous Prime Ministers in India with a lot of popularity and follower ship among youngsters.
Shri Modi is quite instrumental during his tenure and is behind a lot many developmental progressive scheme launched in India, from time to time. It is just a matter of time that history would remember such an influential Prime Minister of India.
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