Nanda worked as a research scholar on labour problems at Allahabad University, and became a Professor of Economics at National College in Bombay in 1921. The same year, he joined the Indian Non-Cooperation Movement against the British Raj. In 1922, he became secretary of the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association where he worked until 1946. He was imprisoned for Satyagraha in 1932, and again from 1942 to 1944.. He was honored with "Proud Past Alumni" in the list of 42 members, from "Allahabad University Alumni Association", NCR, Ghaziabad Chapter 2007–2008 registered under society act 1860 with registration no. 407/2000. He married Lakshmi, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.
Members of Assembly and Parliament
British Raj
In the British Raj, Nanda was elected to the Bombay Legislative Assembly in 1937, and served as parliamentary secretary to the Government of Bombay from 1937 to 1939. As Labour Minister of the Bombay Government during 1946–50, he successfully piloted the Labor Disputes Bill in the state assembly. He served as a Trustee of the Kasturba Memorial Trust. He served as secretary of the Hindustan Mazdoor Sevak Sangh, and Chairman of the Bombay Housing Board. He was a member of the National Planning Committee. He was largely instrumental in organising the Indian National Trade Union Congress, and later became its president. In 1947, Nanda went to Geneva, Switzerland as a government delegate to the International Labor Conference. He worked on The Freedom of Association Committee of the Conference, and visited Sweden, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the UK to study labour and housing conditions in those countries.
Indian Planning Commission
In March 1950, Nanda joined the Indian Planning Commission as its vice-chairman. In September 1951, he was appointed Planning Minister in the Indian Government. He was also given charge of the portfolios of Irrigation and Power. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bombay in the general elections of 1952, and was reappointed Minister for Planning, Irrigation, and Power. He led the Indian Delegation to the Plan Consultative Committee held in Singapore in 1955, and the International Labor Conference held in Geneva in 1959.
Nanda was the Prime Minister of India twice for thirteen days each: the first time after the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, and the second time after the death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966. He was the Home Minister of India during both these periods, and this is the reason why he acted as Prime Minister. Both his terms were uneventful, yet they came at sensitive times because of the potential danger to the country following Nehru's death soon after a war with China in 1962 and Shastri's death after a war with Pakistan in 1965. Nanda died on 15 January 1998 at the age of 99; from 25 November 1997 when former Malawian President Hastings Banda until his own death Nanda was the oldest living former State Leader. At his death, Nanda was the last surviving member of the second and third Nehru cabinets and the last living state leader to have been born in the 19th century.
