An early associate of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru was elected leader of the Indian National Congress, succeeding his father Pandit Motilal Nehru (1861–1931), in 1929. Imprisoned nine times by the British for his nationalist campaigns during the 1930s and 1940s, he eventually played a major part in the negotiations preceding independence. Nehru subsequently became the first Prime Minister of independent India. He was the father of Indira Gandhi.