Nehru, Motilal Further reading: Abel, Theodore Why Hitler Came into Power New York: Prentice Hall, 1966; Fest, Joachim Hitler New York: Harvest, 1974; Turner, Henry Ashby Hitler’s Thirty Days to Power New York: Addison-Wesley, 1996 269 Further reading: Arnold, A James Modernism and Negritude: The Poetry and Poetics of Aimé Césaire Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981; Frutkin, Susan Aimé Césaire: Black between Worlds Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami, 1973 Collin Boyd Justin Corfield négritude Négritude was a literary and then a political movement that developed from the 1930s by a number of intellectuals from French African backgrounds, the most wellknown proponents being Aimé Césaire from Martinique, Leopold Sédar Senghor from Senegal, and Léon Damas from French Guiana They saw the common African heritage as a uniting force against the French colonial system and the inherent racism in French rule The original ideas of négritude drew from the Harlem Renaissance and were influenced by the works of African Americans such as Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and James Weldon Johnson These ideas were distilled by Aimé Césaire in the third issue of the journal L’Étudiant Noir, the word négritude being used for the first time The magazine was established in Paris by Césaire and two other students, Leopold Senghor and Léon Damas, and became a focus for the concept of a united heritage of the black diaspora in the French colonies; a similar movement, negrismo, was used to describe the same ideas in former Spanish colonies After World War II, the concept of négritude became a powerful force, with Césaire being elected as mayor of Fort de France, the capital of Martinique, and then to the French chamber of deputies In 1948 Jean-Paul Sartre endorsed the ideas of négritude in an essay called Orphée Noir (Black Orpheus), which was published as an introduction to an anthology of African poetry compiled by Léopold Senghor, who was urging for independence for Senegal He became its first president, remaining in office from 1960 until 1980 In 1958 the French film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) was released, set around the Rio de Janeiro carnival Sartre idealized négritude as a more powerful force than that of French colonial racism, but the négritude concept became criticized in the 1960s with some subsequent African scholars and political thinkers feeling that it never went far enough, as it defined the French African diaspora more by what it was against than standing by its own values Nevertheless, it remained an important development in political thinking in the period of decolonization Nehru, Motilal (1861–1931) Indian leader Motilal Nehru was one of the prominent leaders of the Indian National Congress (INC) and father of India’s first premier, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Descended from a Kashmir Brahmin family, Motilal was born on May 6, 1861, to Gangadhar and Jeorani in Agra He studied at Muir Central College, Allahabad After passing the law examination in 1883, he began to practice in Allahabad, where his elder brother, Nandlal, had a roaring practice Motilal’s legal practice was also very successful In 1899 and 1900 he went to Europe and began to develop a Westernized outlook This liberal outlook was in line with that of the moderates in congress He began to attend the congress’s annual sessions His rise in politics was gradual: member of the U.P council, member of the Allahabad municipal board, and ultimately president of the U.P congress World War I brought momentous changes in the Indian struggle for independence, and Motilal Nehru emerged as a prominent leader in Indian politics The ministry (1911–15) of Herbert Henry Asquith (1852– 1928) declared India at war with the Central Powers Nationalist leaders like Nehru supported the war efforts of the British government with the hope that India would be suitably rewarded in its path toward selfgovernment Nehru followed a strategy of cooperation with the colonial power to achieve self-government A resolution of self-government on December 1916 was passed by the INC The moderate and extremist wings of the INC were united at the Lucknow session of 1916 Nehru played an important role in this His contribution also was present in bringing about Hindu-Muslim unity in the Lucknow Pact of 1916 This was also the time of the Home Rule League, which was founded by the English theosophist Annie Besant (1847–1933), who had emigrated to India After much deliberation, Nehru joined the league when Annie Besant was imprisoned in June 1917 He was made the president of the Allahabad branch of the Home Rule League and demanded