title: Ontario

text: Ontario's official language is English, although there exists a number of French-speaking communities across Ontario. French-language services are made available for communities with a sizeable French-speaking population; a service that is ensured under the "French Language Services Act" of 1989.


title: Ontario

text: In the 2021 census, Ontario had a population of 14,223,942 living in 5,491,201 of its 5,929,250 total dwellings, a 5.8 percent change from its 2016 population of 13,448,494. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The largest population centres in Ontario are Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Kitchener, London and Oshawa, which all have more than 300,000 inhabitants.


title: Ontario

text: The percentages given below add to more than 100 per cent because of dual responses (e.g., "French and Canadian" response generates an entry both in the category "French Canadian" and in the category "Canadian").


title: Ontario

text: The majority of Ontarians are of English or other European descent including large Scottish, Irish and Italian communities. Slightly less than 5 per cent of the population of Ontario is Franco-Ontarian, that is those whose native tongue is French, although those with French ancestry account for 11 per cent of the population. In relation to natural increase or inter-provincial migration, immigration is a huge population growth force in Ontario, as it has been over the last two centuries. More recent sources of immigrants with large or growing communities in Ontario include East Asians, South Asians, Caribbeans, Latin Americans, Europeans, and Africans. Most populations have settled in the larger urban centres.


title: Ontario

text: In 2011, 25.9 per cent of the population consisted of visible minorities and 2.4 per cent of the population was Indigenous, mostly of First Nations and Métis descent. There was also a small number of Inuit in the province. The number of Indigenous people and visible minorities has been increasing at a faster rate than the general population of Ontario.


title: Ontario

text: In 2021, 52.1% of the population was Christian, with the largest religious denominations being the Roman Catholic Church (with 26.0% of the population), Islam (6.7%), Hinduism (4.1%), and the United Church of Canada (4.1%). 31.6% of Ontarians had no religious affiliation.


title: Ontario

text: In Ontario, Catholics are represented by the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario and the Anglican Protestants by the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario. The Ecclesiastical Province covers most of the geographical province of Ontario


title: Ontario

text: As of the 2021 Canadian Census, the ten most spoken languages in the province included English (13,650,230 or 97.28%), French (1,550,545 or 11.05%), Mandarin (467,420 or 3.33%), Hindi (436,125 or 3.11%), Spanish (401,205 or 2.86%), Punjabi (397,865 or 2.84%), Cantonese (352,135 or 2.51%), Arabic (342,860 or 2.44%), Italian (312,800 or 2.23%), and Urdu (295,175 or 2.1%). The question on knowledge of languages allows for multiple responses.


title: Ontario

text: The principal language of Ontario is English, the province's "de facto" official language, with approximately 97.2 per cent of Ontarians having proficiency in the language, although only 69.5 per cent of Ontarians reported English as their mother tongue in the 2016 Census. English is one of two official languages of Canada, with the other being French. English and French are the official languages of the courts in Ontario. Approximately 4.6 per cent of the population identified as francophone, and a total of 11.5 per cent of Ontarians reported having proficiency in French. Approximately 11.2 per cent of Ontarians reported being bilingual in both English and French. Approximately 2.5 per cent of Ontarians have no proficiency in either English or French.


title: Ontario

text: Franco-Ontarians are concentrated in the northeastern, eastern, and extreme southern parts of the province, where under the "French Language Services Act", provincial government services are required to be available in French if at least 10 per cent of a designated area's population report French as their native language or if an urban centre has at least 5,000 francophones.


title: Ontario

text: Other languages spoken by residents include Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, Dutch, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Hebrew, Italian, Korean, Malayalam, Mandarin, Marathi, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Sinhalese, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Telugu, Tamil, Tibetan, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese.


title: Ontario

text: Ontario is Canada's leading manufacturing province, accounting for 52% of the total national manufacturing shipments in 2004. Ontario's largest trading partner is the American state of Michigan. , Moody's bond-rating agency rated Ontario debt at AA2/stable, while S&P rated it AA-. Dominion Bond Rating Service rated it AA(low) in January 2013. Long known as a bastion of Canadian manufacturing and financial solvency, Ontario's public debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to be 38.4% in fiscal year 2023–2024.


title: Ontario

text: Mining and the forest products industry, notably pulp and paper, are vital to the economy of Northern Ontario. As of 2011, roughly 200,000 ha are clearcut each year; herbicides for hardwood suppression are applied to a third of the total. There has been controversy over the Ring of Fire mineral deposit, and whether the province can afford to spend CAD$2.25 billion on a road from the Trans-Canada Highway near Kenora to the deposit, currently valued at CAD$60 billion.


title: Ontario

text: An abundance of natural resources, excellent transportation links to the North American heartland and the inland Great Lakes making ocean access possible via container ships, have all contributed to making manufacturing the principal industry of the province, found mainly in the Golden Horseshoe region, which is the largest industrialized area in Canada, the southern end of the region being part of the North American Rust Belt. Important products include motor vehicles, iron, steel, food, electrical appliances, machinery, chemicals, and paper.


title: Ontario

text: Hamilton is the largest steel manufacturing city in Canada followed closely by Sault Ste. Marie, and Sarnia is the centre for petrochemical production. Construction employed more than 6.5% of the province's work force in June 2011. Ontario's steel industry was once centred in Hamilton. Hamilton harbour, which can be seen from the QEW Skyway bridge, is an industrial wasteland; U.S. Steel-owned Stelco announced in the autumn of 2013 that it would close in 2014, with the loss of 875 jobs. The move flummoxed a union representative, who seemed puzzled why a plant with capacity of 2 million tons per annum would be shut while Canada imported 8 million tons of steel the previous year. Algoma Steel maintains a plant in Sault Ste Marie.


title: Ontario

text: Ontario surpassed Michigan in car production, assembling more than 2,696,000 vehicles in 2004. Ontario has Chrysler plants in Windsor and Bramalea, two GM plants in Oshawa and one in Ingersoll, a Honda assembly plant in Alliston, Ford plants in Oakville and St. Thomas and Toyota assembly plants in Cambridge and Woodstock. However, as a result of steeply declining sales, in 2005, General Motors announced massive layoffs at production facilities across North America, including two large GM plants in Oshawa and a drive train facility in St. Catharines, that resulted in 8,000 job losses in Ontario alone. In 2006, Ford Motor Company announced between 25,000 and 30,000 layoffs phased until 2012; Ontario was spared the worst, but job losses were announced for the St Thomas facility and the Windsor Casting plant. However, these losses will be offset by Ford's recent announcement of a hybrid vehicle facility slated to begin production in 2007 at its Oakville plant and GM's re-introduction of the Camaro which will be produced in Oshawa. On December 4, 2008, Toyota announced the grand opening of the RAV4 plant in Woodstock, and Honda also plans to add an engine plant at its facility in Alliston. Despite these new plants coming online, Ontario has not yet fully recovered following massive layoffs caused by the global recession; its unemployment rate was 7.3% in May 2013, compared to 8.7 percent in January 2010 and approximately 6% in 2007. In September 2013, the Ontario government committed CAD$70.9 million to the Ford plant in Oakville, while the federal government committed CAD$71.1mn, to secure 2,800 jobs. The province has lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs in the decade from 2003, and the Bank of Canada noted that "while the energy and mining industries have benefitted from these movements, the pressure on the manufacturing sector has intensified, since many firms in this sector were already dealing with growing competition from low-cost economies such as China."


title: Ontario

text: Toronto, the capital of Ontario, is the centre of Canada's financial services and banking industry. Neighbouring cities are home to product distribution, IT centres, and manufacturing industries. Canada's Federal Government is the largest single employer in the National Capital Region, which centres on the border cities of Ontario's Ottawa and Quebec's Gatineau.


title: Ontario

text: The information technology sector is important, particularly in the "Silicon Valley North" section of Ottawa, home to Canada's largest technology park. IT is also important in the Waterloo Region, where the headquarters of BlackBerry is located.


title: Ontario

text: Tourism contributes heavily to the economy of Central Ontario, peaking during the summer months owing to the abundance of fresh water recreation and wilderness found there in reasonable proximity to the major urban centres. At other times of the year, hunting, skiing and snowmobiling are popular. This region has some of the most vibrant fall colour displays anywhere on the continent, and tours directed at overseas visitors are organized to see them. Tourism also plays a key role in border cities with large casinos, among them Windsor, Cornwall, Sarnia and Niagara Falls, the latter of which attracts millions of US and other international visitors.


title: Ontario

text: Once the dominant industry, agriculture now uses a small percentage of the workforce. However, much of the land in southern Ontario is given over to agriculture. As the following table shows, while the number of individual farms has steadily decreased and their overall size has shrunk at a lower rate, greater mechanization has supported increased supply to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of a growing population base; this has also meant a gradual increase in the total amount of land used for growing crops.


title: Ontario

text: Common types of farms reported in the 2001 census include those for cattle, small grains and dairy. The fruit- and wine industry is primarily on the Niagara Peninsula, Prince Edward County, and along the northern shore of Lake Erie, where tobacco farms are also situated. Market vegetables grow in the rich soils of the Holland Marsh near Newmarket. The area near Windsor is also very fertile. The Heinz plant in Leamington was taken over in these autumn of 2013 by Warren Buffett and a Brazilian partner, following which it put 740 people out of work. Government subsidies followed shortly; Premier Kathleen Wynne offered CAD$200,000 to cushion the blow, and promised that another processed-food operator would soon be found. On December 10, 2013, Kellogg's announced layoffs for more than 509 workers at a cereal manufacture plant in London.


title: Ontario

text: The area defined as the Corn Belt covers much of the southwestern area of the province, extending as far north as close to Goderich, but corn and soy are grown throughout the southern portion of the province. Apple orchards are a common sight along the southern shore of Nottawasaga Bay (part of Georgian Bay) near Collingwood and along the northern shore of Lake Ontario near Cobourg. Tobacco production, centred in Norfolk County, has decreased, allowing an increase in alternative crops such as hazelnuts and ginseng. The Ontario origins of Massey Ferguson, once one of the largest farm-implement manufacturers in the world, indicate the importance agriculture once had to the Canadian economy.


title: Ontario

text: Southern Ontario's limited supply of agricultural land is going out of production at an increasing rate. Urban sprawl and farmland severances contribute to the loss of thousands of acres of productive agricultural land in Ontario each year. Over 2,000 farms and of farmland in the GTA alone were lost to production in the two decades between 1976 and 1996. This loss represented approximately 18%". of Ontario's Class 1 farmland being converted to urban purposes. In addition, increasing rural severances provide ever-greater interference with agricultural production. In an effort to protect the farmland and green spaces of the National Capital Region, and Greater Toronto Area, the Federal and Provincial Governments introduced greenbelts around Ottawa and the Golden Horseshoe, limiting urban development in these areas.


title: Ontario

text: Ontario's rivers make it rich in hydroelectric energy. In 2009, Ontario Power Generation generated 70 percent of the province's electricity, of which 51 percent is nuclear, 39% is hydroelectric and 10% is fossil-fuel derived. By 2025, nuclear power is projected to supply 42%, while fossil-fuel-derived generation is projected to decrease slightly over the next 20 years. Much of the newer power generation coming online in the last few years is natural gas or combined-cycle natural gas plants. OPG is not, however, responsible for the transmission of power, which is under the control of Hydro One.


title: Ontario

text: Despite its diverse range of power options, problems related to increasing consumption, lack of energy efficiency and aging nuclear reactors, Ontario has been forced in recent years to purchase power from its neighbours Quebec and Michigan to supplement its power needs during peak consumption periods. Ontario's basic domestic rate in 2010 was 11.17 cents per kWh; by contrast. Quebec's was 6.81. In December 2013, the government projected a 42 percent hike by 2018, and 68 percent by 2033. Industrial rates are projected to rise by 33% by 2018, and 55% in 2033.


title: Ontario

text: The "Green Energy and Green Economy Act", 2009 (GEA), takes a two-pronged approach to commercializing renewable energy; first, it aims to bring more renewable energy sources to the province; and secondly, it aims to adopt more energy-efficiency measures to help conserve energy. The bill envisaged appointing a Renewable Energy Facilitator to provide "one-window" assistance and support to project developers to facilitate project approvals.


title: Ontario

text: The approvals process for transmission projects would also be streamlined and (for the first time in Ontario) the bill would enact standards for renewable energy projects. Homeowners would have access to incentives to develop small-scale renewables such as low- or no-interest loans to finance the capital cost of renewable energy generating facilities like solar panels.


title: Ontario

text: Ontario is home to Niagara Falls, which supplies a large amount of electricity to the province. The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, the largest operational nuclear power plant in the world, is also in Ontario and uses 8 CANDU reactors to generate electricity for the province.


title: Ontario

text: Ontario had the most wind energy capacity of the country with 4,900 MW of power (41% of Canada's capacity).


title: Ontario

text: The "British North America Act 1867" section 69 stipulated "There shall be a Legislature for Ontario consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and of One House, styled the Legislative Assembly of Ontario." The assembly currently has 124 seats (increased from 107 as of the 42nd Ontario general election) representing ridings elected in a first-past-the-post system across the province.


title: Ontario

text: The legislative buildings at Queen's Park are the seat of government. Following the Westminster system, the leader of the party holding the most seats in the assembly is known as the "Premier and President of the Council" (Executive Council Act R.S.O. 1990). The Premier chooses the cabinet or Executive Council whose members are deemed ministers of the Crown.


title: Ontario

text: Although the "Legislative Assembly Act (R.S.O. 1990)" refers to "members of the assembly", the legislators are now commonly called MPPs (Members of the Provincial Parliament) in English and "députés de l'Assemblée législative" in French, but they have also been called MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly), and both are acceptable. The title of Prime Minister of Ontario, correct in French ("le Premier ministre"), is permissible in English but now generally avoided in favour of the title "Premier" to avoid confusion with the Prime Minister of Canada.


title: Ontario

text: Ontario has grown, from its roots in Upper Canada, into a modern jurisdiction. The old titles of the chief law officers, the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General, remain in use. They both are responsible to the Legislature. The Attorney-General drafts the laws and is responsible for criminal prosecutions and the administration of justice, while the Solicitor-General is responsible for law enforcement and the police services of the province.


title: Ontario

text: The Municipal Act, 2001 (Ontario) is the main statute governing the creation, administration and government of municipalities in the Canadian province of Ontario, other than the City of Toronto. After being passed in 2001, it came into force on January 1, 2003, replacing the previous "Municipal Act". Effective January 1, 2007, the Municipal Act, 2001 (the Act) was significantly amended by the Municipal Statute Law Amendment Act, 2006 (Bill 130).


title: Ontario

text: Ontario has numerous political parties which run for election. The four main parties are the centre-right Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP), the centre to centre-left Ontario Liberal Party, and Green Party of Ontario. The Progressive Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats have each governed the province, while the Greens elected their first member to the Legislative Assembly in 2018.


title: Ontario

text: The 2018 provincial election resulted in a Progressive Conservative majority government under party leader Doug Ford, who was sworn in as Premier on June 29. Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was sworn in as the leader of her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.


title: Ontario

text: Ontario has three types of first-level administrative divisions. They include single-tier municipalities, upper-tier municipalities (which may be in the form of either regional municipalities or counties), and districts. Upper-tier municipalities and districts are made up of smaller municipalities and other types of administrative divisions.


title: Ontario

text: Administrative divisions differ primarily in the services that they provide to their residents, with the differing structures of these administrative regions resulting in disparities among Ontario's different regions. The administrative regions of Ontario are roughly coterminous with the census divisions used by Statistics Canada, although some exceptions do exist.


title: Ontario

text: Statistics Canada's measure of a "metro area", the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), roughly bundles together population figures from the core municipality with those from "commuter" municipalities.


title: Ontario

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Parts of Quebec (including Gatineau) are included in the Ottawa CMA. The population of the Ottawa CMA, in both provinces, is shown.


title: Ontario

text: In Canada, education falls under provincial jurisdiction. Publicly funded elementary and secondary schools are administered by the Ontario Ministry of Education, while colleges and universities are administered by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. The Minister of Education is Stephen Lecce, the Minister of Colleges and Universities is Ross Romano, and the Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development Monte McNaughton.


title: Ontario

text: Higher education in Ontario includes post-secondary education and skills training regulated by the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities and provided by universities, colleges of applied arts and technology, and private career colleges. The minister is Merrilee Fullerton. The ministry administers laws covering 22 public universities, 24 public colleges (21 Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATs) and three Institutes of Technology and Advanced Learning (ITALs)), 17 privately funded religious universities, and over 500 private career colleges. The Canadian constitution provides each province with the responsibility for higher education and there is no corresponding national federal ministry of higher education. Within Canadian federalism the division of responsibilities and taxing powers between the Ontario and Canadian governments creates the need for co-operation to fund and deliver higher education to students. Each higher education system aims to improve participation, access, and mobility for students. There are two central organizations that assist with the process of applying to Ontario universities and colleges: the Ontario Universities' Application Centre and Ontario College Application Service. While application services are centralized, admission and selection processes vary and are the purview of each institution. Admission to many Ontario postsecondary institutions can be highly competitive. Upon admission, students may get involved with regional student representation with the Canadian Federation of Students, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, or through the College Student Alliance in Ontario.


title: Ontario

text: In 1973, the first slogan to appear on licence plates in Ontario was "Keep It Beautiful". This was replaced by "Yours to Discover" in 1982, apparently inspired by a tourism slogan, "Discover Ontario", dating back to 1927. Plates with the French equivalent, , were made available to the public beginning in May 2008. (From 1988 to 1990, "Ontario Incredible" gave "Yours to Discover" a brief respite.)


title: Ontario

text: A Place to Stand, a Place to Grow is a song commissioned by the government of Ontario for its pavilion in Expo 67, and an unofficial anthem of the province. As a part of the Canada 150 celebrations in 2017, the provincial government released an updated rendition. In 2007, the provincial tourism agency commissioned a new song, "There's No Place Like This" is featured in television advertising, performed by Ontario artists including Molly Johnson, Brian Byrne, Keshia Chanté, as well as Tomi Swick and Arkells.


title: Ontario

text: The province has professional sports teams in baseball, basketball, Canadian football, ice hockey, lacrosse, rugby league, rugby union and soccer.


title: Ontario

text: Transportation routes in Ontario evolved from early waterway travel and First Nations paths followed by European explorers. Ontario has two major east–west routes, both starting from Montreal in the neighbouring province of Quebec. The northerly route, which was a major fur trade route, travels west from Montreal along the Ottawa River, then continues northwestward towards Manitoba. Major cities on or near the route include Ottawa, North Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, and Thunder Bay. The southerly route, which was driven by growth in settlements originated by the United Empire Loyalists and later other European immigrants, travels southwest from Montreal along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie before entering the United States in Michigan. Major cities on or near the route include Kingston, Belleville, Peterborough, Oshawa, Toronto, Mississauga, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, London, Sarnia, and Windsor. This route was also heavily used by immigrants to the Midwestern US particularly in the late 19th century.


title: Ontario

text: Important airports in the province include Toronto Pearson International Airport, which is the busiest airport in Canada, handling nearly 50 million passengers in 2018. Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport is Ontario's second largest airport. Toronto/Pearson and Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier form two of the three points in Canada's busiest set of air routes (the third point being Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport). In addition to airports in Ottawa, and Toronto, the province also operates three other international airports, the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, the Thunder Bay International Airport in Thunder Bay and the London International Airport in London. John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport serves as cargo hub, reliever for Pearson, and a hub for ULCC Swoop.


title: Ontario

text: Most Ontario cities have regional airports, many of which have scheduled commuter flights from Air Canada Jazz or smaller airlines and charter companies – flights from the mid-size cities such as Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, North Bay, Timmins, Windsor, London, and Kingston feed directly into larger airports in Toronto and Ottawa. Bearskin Airlines also runs flights along the northerly east–west route, connecting Ottawa, North Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Kitchener and Thunder Bay directly.


title: Ontario

text: Isolated towns and settlements in the northern areas of the province rely partly or entirely on air service for travel, goods, and even ambulance services (MEDIVAC), since much of the far northern area of the province cannot be reached by road or rail.


title: Ontario

text: Via Rail operates the inter-regional passenger train service on the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, along with "The Canadian", a transcontinental rail service from Southern Ontario to Vancouver, and the Sudbury–White River train. Additionally, Amtrak rail connects Ontario with key New York cities including Buffalo, Albany, and New York City. Ontario Northland provides rail service to destinations as far north as Moosonee near James Bay, connecting them with the south.


title: Ontario

text: Freight rail is dominated by the founding cross-country Canadian National Railway and CP Rail companies, which during the 1990s sold many short rail lines from their vast network to private companies operating mostly in the south.


title: Ontario

text: Regional commuter rail is limited to the provincially owned GO Transit, and serves a train-bus network spanning the Golden Horseshoe region, with Union Station in Toronto serving as the transport hub.


title: Ontario

text: There are several city rail-transit systems in the Province. The Toronto Transit Commission operates subways, as well as streetcars (being one of the busiest streetcar systems in North America). OC Transpo operates a light rail metro system in Ottawa. In addition, Waterloo region operates a surface light rail system. Plans to build a light rail line is also underway in the Regional Municipality of Peel.


title: Ontario

text: 400-series highways make up the primary vehicular network in the south of province, and they connect at a number of points to border crossings to the United States, and Quebec, the busiest being the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel and Ambassador Bridge and the Blue Water Bridge (via Highway 402). Some of the primary highways along the southern route are Highway 401, Highway 417, and Highway 400, Highway 401 being the busiest highway in North America. Other provincial highways and regional roads inter-connect the remainder of the province.


title: Ontario

text: The Saint Lawrence Seaway, which extends across most of the southern portion of the province and connects to the Atlantic Ocean, is the primary water transportation route for cargo, particularly iron ore and grain. In the past, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River were also a major passenger transportation route, but over the past half century passenger travel has been reduced to ferry services and sightseeing cruises. Ontario's three largest ports are the Port of Hamilton, Port of Thunder Bay and the Port of Windsor. Ontario's only saltwater port is located in the town of Moosonee on James Bay.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Mehmet Cengiz Öz (; born June 11, 1960), known professionally as Dr. Oz (), is an American–Turkish television presenter, author, and former political candidate. He is a retired professor and cardiothoracic surgeon.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: The son of Turkish immigrants, Oz was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. A dual citizen of the U.S. and Turkey, Oz served in the Turkish Army during the 1980s for 60 days of mandatory training, specifically for citizens who reside in foreign countries, to maintain his Turkish citizenship. He subsequently began his residency in surgery at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in 1986. In 2001, he became a professor of surgery at Columbia University, and later retired to professor emeritus in 2018. In 2003, Oprah Winfrey was the first guest on the Discovery Channel series "Second Opinion with Dr. Oz", and he was a regular guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," making more than sixty appearances. In 2009, "The Dr. Oz Show", a daily television program about medical matters and health, was launched by Winfrey's Harpo Productions and Sony Pictures Television, running for 13 seasons. Oz's promotion of pseudoscience, including on the topics of alternative medicine, faith healing, and various paranormal beliefs, has earned him criticism from a number of medical publications and physicians.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz ran in the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania as a conservative Republican, and lost to Democratic lieutenant governor John Fetterman. Oz was the first Muslim candidate to be nominated by either major party for U.S. Senate.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Mehmet Oz was born in 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Suna and Mustafa Öz, who had emigrated from Konya Province, Turkey. Oz has said that he was named after Mehmed the Conqueror, the Ottoman sultan who conquered Constantinople in 1453. Mustafa was born in Bozkır, a small town in southern Turkey, and graduated at the top of his class at Cerrahpaşa Medical School in 1950 and moved to the United States to join the general residency program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where Mehmet was born. Mustafa trained in cardiothoracic surgery at Emory University in Atlanta and was chief of thoracic surgery at the Medical Center of Delaware for several years before moving back to Turkey. Suna ( Atabay), who comes from a wealthy Istanbul family, is the daughter of a pharmacist with Circassian (Shapsug) descent on her mother's side. Oz has said, "My mother is Circassian, her great grandmother was brought from the Caucasus to Istanbul as a concubine in Sultan Mahmud II's harem". After Mahmud died, she married an imam. Oz has two sisters, Seval Öz and Nazlim Öz. Oz grew up in a mixed Muslim environment where his father's family practiced more traditional Islam, while his mother's family were more secular Muslims. As a child, he spent summers in Turkey and served in the Turkish Army for 60 days after college to maintain his dual citizenship.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz was educated at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1982, he received his undergraduate degree in biology magna cum laude at Harvard University. He played safety on Harvard's football team and was a goalkeeper on the men's varsity water polo team. In 1986, he obtained MD and MBA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Penn's Wharton School.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: He was awarded the Captain's Athletic Award for leadership in college and was class president and then student body president during medical school.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz began his medical career with a residency at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, then affiliated with Columbia University, in 1986 after being hired by Eric Rose. During his residency, Oz earned the Blakemore research award. In April 1995, Oz and his colleague Jerry Whitworth founded the Cardiac Complementary Care Center to provide various types of alternative medicine to heart disease patients. The publicity of Oz's work created tension with hospital administration, who expressed alarm at Oz's use of therapeutic touch, which he dropped in response to their objections.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 1996, Oz and Rose received media publicity following their work on a successful heart transplant for Frank Torre, brother of New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, during the 1996 World Series, which the Yankees won. Rose later remarked that while he did not enjoy the media attention, Oz "loved it". Meanwhile, Oz and Whitworth's professional relationship grew strained due to the attention Oz was receiving; Whitworth later recounted in an interview with "Vox" that he asked Oz to "stop the media circus". In 2000, Whitworth departed the Cardiac Complementary Care Center, which Oz reopened that same year as the Cardiovascular Institute and Integrative Medicine Program at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where he served as director.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz became a professor at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2001, a title he held until 2018, when his current title changed to professor emeritus.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: He has helped develop numerous devices and procedures related to heart surgery, including the MitraClip and the left ventricular assist device (LVAD), and by 2015 held a number of patents related to heart surgery.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2003, Oz was scheduled to present medical research regarding heart bypass surgery and heart-lung machines to the yearly conference of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, but the presentation was withdrawn and for two years he was banned from further presentations to the association or publishing work in the association's medical journal. Association officials said that the ban was not due to academic dishonesty, but in part due to Oz's team having changed the methodology of the study from what was agreed upon for presentation. Oz's 2022 political campaign said that the incident was due to Oz's team having extended "the scope of the work with more patients". Anonymous sources cited by "The Washington Post" said that another reason for the rejection was due to having data from too few test subjects to reach a strong conclusion.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2010, Oz joined Jeff Arnold as co-founder of Sharecare, Inc. In 2015, a group of 10 physicians demanded Columbia remove Oz from the faculty for his alleged "disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine". Columbia defended Oz and dismissed calls for his termination, saying that they are "committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding faculty members' freedom of expression". Oz responded to the call, saying "I bring the public information that will help them on their path to be their best selves" and that his show provides "multiple points of view, including mine, which is offered without conflict of interest."


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz appeared as a health expert on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for five seasons. In 2009, Winfrey offered to produce a syndicated series hosted by him through her company, Harpo Productions. "The Dr. Oz Show" debuted on September 14, 2009, distributed by Sony Pictures Television.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: On the show, Oz addressed issues like Type 2 diabetes and promoted resveratrol supplements, which he claimed were anti-aging. His "Transplant!" television series won both a Freddie and a Silver Telly award. He was a consultant on heart transplantation for Denzel Washington's "John Q".


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In January 2011, Oz premiered as part of a weekly show on OWN called "Oprah's Allstars". In each episode, he, Suze Orman, and Dr. Phil answer various questions about life, health and finance. In the 2010s he also did a health segment on 1010 WINS titled "Your Daily Dose".


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In September 2016, during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump appeared on "The Dr. Oz Show". In the lead-up to the show's taping, Oz promoted Trump's appearance with a claim that Oz would assess medical records submitted to the show by Trump and reveal his assessment on the show. CNN speculated that Trump's appearance aimed to appeal to "The Dr. Oz Show"s large female viewership. Oz would later be appointed to the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition in 2018 during Trump's administration.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Beginning on March 22, 2021, Oz guest-hosted the trivia television game show "Jeopardy!" for two weeks. The decision to make him a guest host was met with criticism from "Jeopardy!" fans and former contestants.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz's image and quotes have been exploited by many weight loss product scammers. While he himself has not been found to be involved in these scams, he has made statements that were exploited by scammers. During a 2014 Senate hearing on consumer protection, Senator Claire McCaskill said that "the scientific community is almost monolithic against you" for airing segments on weight loss products that are later cited in advertisements, concluding that Oz plays a role, intentional or not, in perpetuating these scams, and that she is "concerned that you are melding medical advice, news, and entertainment in a way that harms consumers." He has been a spokesman and advisor for the website RealAge.com, which "The New York Times" has criticized for its pharmaceutical marketing practices.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Oz's television appearances influenced Trump's decision-making, and he became an informal advisor to the Trump administration. Oz had promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a cure for COVID-19 on more than 25 Fox News broadcasts in March and April 2020. Trump claimed to be taking the drug in May 2020. In June 2020, the Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine, saying that it was "no longer reasonable to believe" that the drug was effective against COVID-19 or that its benefits outweighed "known and potential risks". Oz also owns at least $630,000 of stock in two companies that manufacture or distribute hydroxychloroquine, Thermo Fisher and McKesson Corporation.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In April 2020, Oz appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity and said that reopening schools in the United States might be worth the increased number of deaths it would cause. Referencing an article published in the medical journal "The Lancet", Oz said, "I just saw a nice piece in "The Lancet" [medical journal] arguing that the opening of schools may only cost us 2–3% in terms of total mortality." Oz's comments provoked a backlash online, and he apologized, saying he had misspoken and that his goal was "to get our children safely back to school."


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2007, it was reported that Oz had been active in his local chapter of the Republican Party of New Jersey for several years, and had donated to Republicans John McCain and Bill Frist. He supported the re-election campaign of President George W. Bush in 2004 and the candidacy of Shmuley Boteach, a rabbi who ran for Congress as a Republican in New Jersey in 2012.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2018, Oz was appointed to the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition by President Donald Trump; he was removed from the position by President Joe Biden in 2022, after Oz was asked to resign.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: On November 30, 2021, Oz announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate seat in Pennsylvania in 2022. After Oz announced his candidacy, a number of TV stations in Philadelphia, New York City, and Cleveland said that they would remove his show from the air, compelled by the FCC's equal-time rule that provide an equivalent air time to any opposing political candidates who request it. In his campaign, he called for immunologist Anthony Fauci, the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, to be fired and also opposed vaccine requirements. In March 2022, Oz was fired from the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition due to his candidacy for public office.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: On April 9, 2022, Oz's campaign was endorsed by former president Donald Trump. Oz's ties to Turkey, including his dual citizenship, were criticized by his Republican primary opponents. Oz called these issues a "distraction" and said that he would renounce his Turkish citizenship if elected, while his campaign called the attacks "pathetic and xenophobic". Senate Republicans, including Lindsey Graham and Kevin Cramer, defended Oz over the issue.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In May 2022, Columbia University cut ties with Oz and removed his presence from their website. The Republican primary was held on May 17. A day after the election, Oz narrowly led his main opponent David McCormick by a difference of just 0.1% of the vote, triggering a mandatory statewide recount. When the election was still too close to call and the mail-in ballots had not yet been counted, Trump urged Oz to declare victory. On May 27, before the recount started, Oz prematurely declared victory, calling himself the presumptive nominee and opposing counting certain mailed ballots. On June 3, Oz became the Republican nominee after McCormick conceded that the recount would not make up the deficit in votes. Oz was subsequently endorsed by three out of four major Republican candidates from the primary, including McCormick, with only Kathy Barnette initially declining to endorse him. Barnette later stated that she would vote for Oz, while still declining to explicitly endorse him.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: During the race, Oz's opponents accused him of carpetbagging, as he did not live in Pennsylvania prior to 2020. Oz denied these accusations, noting that he owns a home within the state. A representative of Oz's campaign also pushed back on the claims, stating "Dr. Oz lives in Pennsylvania, votes in Pennsylvania, and has his medical license in Pennsylvania. Dr. Oz grew up in the Greater Philadelphia region, less than 5 miles from the PA border. He went to school in Pennsylvania, met his wife and got married in Pennsylvania, and 2 of his children were born in Pennsylvania. He currently resides in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, where his wife's family has lived for a hundred years."


title: Mehmet Oz

text: On August 15, a campaign video from April of Oz shopping in a grocery store went viral. In the video, Oz says that he is shopping for produce to make crudités, and says that the perceived high prices are the fault of President Joe Biden. The video was widely ridiculed on social media and became the subject of media coverage. It was filmed at a Redner's Warehouse market, which Oz mistakenly identifies as a "Wegner's". Oz responded to criticism over the video, noting that when creating it, "I was exhausted. When you're campaigning 18 hours a day, I've gotten my kids' names wrong, as well. I don't think that's a measure of someone's ability to lead the commonwealth." Had he been elected, Oz would have been the first Muslim to serve in the U.S. Senate, the first Muslim to serve in the United States Congress as a Republican, and one of the wealthiest members of Congress.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz's rival candidate John Fetterman suffered a stroke in May 2022 and needed time during the campaign to recover. In late August 2022, the Oz campaign released a list of mock debate concessions it would be willing to make, saying they would "pay for any additional medical personnel [Fetterman] might need to have on standby", that Oz "promises not to intentionally hurt John's feelings", and that "at any point, John Fetterman can raise his hand and say, 'Bathroom break!. The next day, Fetterman announced that due to his recovery, he would "not be participating in a debate the first week of September"; in response, the Oz campaign said in a statement that "if John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn't have had a major stroke and wouldn't be in the position of having to lie about it constantly", adding that Fetterman's statement was "whiny". Fetterman replied, "Today's statement from Dr. Oz's team made it abundantly clear that they think it is funny to mock a stroke survivor. I chose not to participate in this farce. My recovery may be a joke to Dr. Oz and his team, but it's real for me."


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In September 2022, Oz called on Fetterman to participate in a debate against him before early voting begins in Pennsylvania on September 19. Fetterman agreed to debate Oz in "the middle to end of October" but would not commit to an exact date or to a debate in September. Fetterman's approach to the debate was criticized by Oz and Senator Pat Toomey. On September 15, Oz and Fetterman agreed to a single debate, which was held on October 25.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz lost to Fetterman in the Senate election, conceding defeat on November 9, 2022, and further urging "everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done".


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Making his 2022 Senate campaign announcement in late 2021, Oz identified himself as a "conservative Republican". In 2022, after his primary win, Oz described himself as "a moderate leader, but not passive."


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2007, Oz had described himself as a "moderate Republican" and cited Arnold Schwarzenegger and Theodore Roosevelt as inspirations.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2022, Oz announced that he supported overturning the 1973 Supreme Court "Roe v. Wade" decision and was against abortion, except for when the mother's life is in danger or in cases of rape or incest. In June 2022, he said he was "relieved" by the Supreme Court's decision in "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization". During a telephone town hall in May 2022, Oz said: "I do believe life starts at conception, and I've said that multiple times... If life starts at conception, why do you care what stage our hearts starts beating at? It's, you know, it's still murder."


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Prior to 2019, Oz had supported abortion rights, although he said that he disliked abortion on "a personal level". He said that when he was in medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, he saw the results of "traumatic... coat hanger events" in which women had been "harmed for life" before "Roe". He also noted at the time that he was opposed to six-week abortion bans.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In October 2022, Oz said that "women, doctors, local political leaders" should put "ideas forward so states can decide for themselves" how to regulate abortions, but also clarified that "I don't want the federal government involved with that, at all".


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In March 2020, Oz suggested that hydroxychloroquine, a drug typically used to treat rheumatological conditions and as an anti-malarial, could be used to treat COVID-19 as well. He called for the reopening of schools in April of the same year. Oz has however promoted the efficacy of wearing masks and of getting vaccinated against the virus.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: He initially praised Anthony Fauci as a "pro" and lauded his role in combating the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Upon running for the Senate, however, Oz changed his tone on Fauci and referred to him as a "tyrant". Oz said in 2022 when running for the Senate that "it's time we get back to normal".


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In an October 2022 interview with NBC, Oz said that he would "potentially" support the death penalty for dealers of fentanyl.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz is a supporter of school choice and charter schools. He has criticized the power of teachers' unions and their close relationship with the Democratic Party.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2017, Oz co-authored an article that highlighted the threats of climate change including extreme heat, wildfires and floods. When running for the Senate, he downplayed the risk that carbon dioxide poses when contributing to the role of the greenhouse effect in contributing to climate change. In a March 2022 campaign event while running for the U.S. Senate, Oz said "The ideology that carbon is bad – which itself is a lie. Carbon dioxide, my friends, [is] 0.04% of our air. That’s not the problem"—overlooking the fact that carbon dioxide levels are higher than they have been in at least 3 million years, and that 0.04% of the atmosphere constitutes billions of tons of heat-trapping gas.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2022, Oz said that he supports the process of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") and believes that natural gas can help the United States become energy independent and reduce gasoline prices. In keeping with this view, he says he supports reducing environmental regulations on fracking. However, in 2014, Oz had called for more regulations on fracking, including halting the practice until the environmental impact had been researched more, because of the possible connection between fracking and the pollution of air and waterways.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz has ties to Turkey’s authoritarian Justice and Development Party, ties that include foreign agents and proxies. Oz was accused of operating a secret lobby in the U.S. and spying on American citizens.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2013, Oz had celebrated a partnership with Neusoft Xikang, the health technology subsidiary of Chinese tech company Neusoft, serving as their chief health officer in the process. Neusoft CEO Liu Jiren said that his company's partnership with Oz "marks a perfect combination of leading health management methodologies and innovative technology platform."


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Since declaring his senate campaign, though, Oz has taken a "tough on China" stance similar to the Trump wing of the Republican Party. A key part of his campaign during the primaries was attacking rival David McCormick's business ties to mainland China.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2022, Oz said that Israel is "an ally and a vibrant democracy in the world's most troubled region" and that he opposes the BDS Movement, supports keeping the US Embassy in Jerusalem and supports continued military aid to Israel. Oz has long been a supporter of Israel and visited the country in 2013. When speaking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an interview with "The Forward", Oz said "It's not black and white. The ultimate solution will be driven by financial means. Peace is an imperative for that. When people love their children so much, they'll do whatever it takes to make their future brighter."


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz has said that he is a gun owner and that he supports the constitutional right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. At a campaign event in February 2022, Oz said that he supports red flag-style laws for those expressing dangerous behavior, but opposes a national red flag law registry. Previously, in 2017, Oz had expressed support for waiting periods before someone can acquire a gun, and in 2019 he co-wrote a column that called for the United States to ban assault rifles altogether.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2022, Oz said that he would vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act if he were elected to the Senate, and backed Medicare Advantage Plus.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: By contrast, in 2009, Oz said "It should be mandatory that everybody in America have healthcare coverage. If you can't afford it, we have to give it to you..." And in 2010, Oz supported a government-backed healthcare system and was featured in an advertisement that promoted The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Oz has said that the healthcare systems that he thinks work the best are Germany and Switzerland, which are both universal healthcare systems.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Regarding those without healthcare coverage, Oz said they "don't have a right to health, but they have a right to access, to get that health."


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2010, Oz hosted and offered support to transgender youth and their families on his television show. In 2012, after facing criticism for hosting a guest who supported pseudoscientific reparative or conversion therapy on his show, he announced that he is opposed to conversion therapy and called conversion therapy "dangerous". Oz also had guests from GLAAD on his show who spoke out against conversion therapy.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: As a Senate candidate, Oz endorsed enacting federal protections of same-sex marriage. In April 2022, Oz supported legislation to prohibit transgender people from participating in sports that are divided by gender-based categories rather than sex-based categories. In May 2022, he said that a transgender youth movement is based on "false science", while not supporting a ban on hormone blockers, adding that the doctor and family should decide, rather than politicians.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2014, Oz said on "Larry King Live" that "marijuana is hugely beneficial when used correctly for medicinal purposes" and in 2017 criticized the federal government for classifying marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which prevents more scientific research on marijuana.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: While running for the Senate in 2022, Oz said he opposes the legalization of recreational cannabis, but was not against it for medical purposes. In an interview with NBC News, Oz expressed support for President Joe Biden's effort to pardon those convicted of simple marijuana possession at the federal level.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In August 2010, Oz was diagnosed with a pre-cancerous polyp in the colon during a routine colonoscopy which was performed as part of his show. Oz said that the procedure likely saved his life.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In 2019, Oz played for the Home roster during the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game at the Bojangles' Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The roster was made up of celebrities with Carolina roots. He previously played in the 2010 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. Also in 2019, Oz played for Team Cleveland in Major League Baseball's All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game at Progressive Field in Cleveland.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. He lived with his wife, Lisa, in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, for several decades, and holds his medical license within Pennsylvania.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In late 2020, Oz moved to Pennsylvania and changed his voter registration to his in-laws' home in Bryn Athyn, where he says he pays market price rent. He has since voted twice in Pennsylvania and acquired a Pennsylvanian driver's license and a Pennsylvania concealed carry permit.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz and his wife own at least ten properties throughout the United States and Turkey, including an estate in Palm Beach, Florida valued between $5 million and $25 million, and a cattle farm in Okeechobee, Florida.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Turkey. He has said that he maintains his Turkish citizenship to care for his ailing mother with Alzheimer's, but Oz expressed he would renounce it before being sworn in if he was ultimately elected to the Senate. There is no U.S. law which forbids members of Congress from being dual citizens.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz married his wife, Lisa Oz, an author and television personality, in 1985. The two met in Philadelphia through their fathers, while Oz was attending the University of Pennsylvania. According to Oz, he proposed to her on a city street corner, using a tab from a discarded soda can as a makeshift ring. The couple have four children together, including eldest daughter Daphne, who is also an author and television host. Oz and his wife founded HealthCorps, a non-profit organization for health education and peer mentoring.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In November 2020, Oz was sued by his sister Nazlim Öz. Nazlim alleged that he was withholding her rental income from apartments owned by their late father Mustafa Öz. Oz said that he was forced to hold payments from the apartments in escrow, as their mother and other relatives were suing Nazlim in Turkish probate court over the distribution of Mustafa Öz's estate.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: , Oz identifies as "secular Muslim" and, according to the Associated Press, "has said that the spiritual side of Islam resonates with him more than the religious law side of it." Oz has expressed to CBN News his opposition to Sharia law in the US. Noting that his wife and children are Christians, Oz told CBN that he believes that the U.S. was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Oz aligns his personal Muslim religious views with Sufism. His wife Lisa introduced Oz to the teachings of the 18th-century Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg as well as to alternative medicines or Eastern mysticisms such as reiki and transcendental meditation.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: In a 2012 interview with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Oz said that his father strictly followed Islam, while his mother was a secular Kemalist.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz has faced criticism for his promotion of pseudoscience, homeopathy, and alternative medicine. "Popular Science" and "The New Yorker" have published critical articles on Oz for giving "non-scientific" advice. "HuffPost" has accused Oz of promoting quackery.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: A 2014 study published in the "British Medical Journal" found that medical talk shows such as "The Dr. Oz Show" and "The Doctors" often lack adequate information on the specific benefits or evidence of their claims. Forty episodes of each program from early 2013 were evaluated, determining that evidence supported 46 percent, contradicted 15 percent, and was not found for 39 percent of the recommendations on "The Dr Oz Show". Unfounded claims included saying apple juice had unsafe levels of arsenic and cell phones could cause breast cancer.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz was awarded the James Randi Educational Foundation's Pigasus Award three times from 2009 to 2012 for his promotion of energy therapies, support of faith healing, psychic communication with the dead and "quack medical practices, paranormal belief, and pseudoscience".


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Oz has been criticized for the guests he has invited onto "The Dr. Oz Show", including psychics, faith healers, peddlers of unproven or disproven medical treatments, and anti-vaccination activists, including Joseph Mercola, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Christiane Northrup.


title: Mehmet Oz

text: From 1999 to 2004, Oz was named a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum and was listed on "Time Magazine's" "100 Most Influential People" of 2008. He has been nominated for ten Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show Host since "The Dr. Oz Show" premiered in 2009, and has won the award four times (in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016).


title: Mehmet Oz

text: Eight of Oz's books have been "New York Times" bestsellers; seven were written with Michael F. Roizen. He has a regular column in "Esquire" magazine and "O, The Oprah Magazine" and his article "Retool, Reboot, and Rebuild" was awarded the 2009 National Magazine Award for Personal Service. Oz and the Hearst Corporation launched the bi-monthly magazine "Dr. Oz The Good Life" on February 4, 2014.


title: Kardashian family

text: The Kardashian family, also referred to as the Kardashian–Jenner family, is an American family prominent in the fields of entertainment, reality television, fashion design, and business. Founded by Robert Kardashian and Kris Jenner (née Houghton), it consists of their children Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian, as well as their grandchildren. After Robert and Kris' divorce in 1991, Kris married Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner) with whom she had two daughters: Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Notable extended relatives include Kendall and Kylie's half-siblings (through Caitlyn and her marriage to actress Linda Thompson), Brandon and Brody Jenner.


title: Kardashian family

text: Kourtney previously dated American entrepreneur Scott Disick; they have three children. In 2022, she married Travis Barker. Kim was married to American rapper and record producer Kanye West; they have four children. Khloé previously dated Canadian basketball player Tristan Thompson; they have two children. Rob previously dated American rapper and model Blac Chyna; they have one child. Kylie is in a long-term relationship with American rapper and singer Travis Scott; they have two children.


title: Kardashian family

text: Robert initially received attention for being one of O. J. Simpson's lawyers during the O. J. Simpson murder case, but the family parlayed Kim's 2003 sex tape with singer Ray J, "Kim Kardashian, Superstar", into a reality-TV and business empire. They have since been referred to as "America's most famous family" by "Glamour", "one of the most influential family 'dynasties' in the world" by "Insider", and the biggest influencers of the 2010s by "Vogue". They are the focus of the book "Kardashian Dynasty: The Controversial Rise of America's Royal Family" by Ian Halperin.


title: Kardashian family

text: Best known for its involvement in reality television shows, the family's longest running show was "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" (2007–2021). Spinoffs included "Kourtney and Kim Take Miami" (2009–2013); "Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami" (2009–2013); "Kourtney and Kim Take New York" (2011–2012); "Khloé & Lamar" (2013); "Kourtney and Kim Take Miami" (2014–2015); "Kourtney and Khloé Take The Hamptons" (2014–2015); "Dash Dolls" (2015) and "Life of Kylie" (2017). In 2022, the family debuted their new series "The Kardashians".


title: Kardashian family

text: Robert Kardashian Sr. is the son of Helen and Arthur Kardashian. All four of his grandparents were Armenian who emigrated from the Russian Empire to the United States in the early 20th century, originating from the towns of Karakale and Erzurum in modern-day Turkey. The family left the Russian Empire before the Armenian genocide began in 1915.


title: Kardashian family

text: The family and media give Kim the credit for helping them start their careers. The family has been criticized as being famous for being famous. In late May 2020, "Forbes" released an investigation into Kylie's finances, alleging she misrepresented her billionaire status. Writers Chase Peterson-Withorn and Madeline Berg stated, "...white lies, omissions and outright fabrications are to be expected from the family that perfected—then monetized—the concept of 'famous for being famous.'" Even with the family's mainstay show "Keeping up with the Kardashians", some have said the family has "no real skills beyond 'being famous for being famous.'" "Vogue" stated the Kardashians have "...proved that although they were 'famous for being famous' in the 2000s, in the 2010s they became a cultural force to be reckoned with." They were given keys to Beverly Hills on September 2, 2010, intentionally arranged to match the area's zip code of 90210. The family are often critized for blackfishing and cultural appropriation of African-American culture.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a principal leader of the Indian nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s. Upon India's independence in 1947, he served as the country's prime minister for 16 years. Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation. In international affairs, he steered India clear of the two blocs of the Cold War. A well-regarded author, his books written in prison, such as "Letters from a Father to His Daughter" (1929), "An Autobiography" (1936) and "The Discovery of India" (1946), have been read around the world. During his lifetime, the honorific Pandit was commonly applied before his name in India.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and Indian nationalist, Jawaharlal Nehru was educated in England—at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and trained in the law at the Inner Temple. He became a barrister, returned to India, enrolled at the Allahabad High Court and gradually began to take an interest in national politics, which eventually became a full-time occupation. He joined the Indian National Congress, rose to become the leader of a progressive faction during the 1920s, and eventually of the Congress, receiving the support of Mahatma Gandhi who was to designate Nehru as his political heir. As Congress president in 1929, Nehru called for complete independence from the British Raj. Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s. Nehru promoted the idea of the secular nation-state in the 1937 Indian provincial elections, allowing the Congress to sweep the elections, and to form governments in several provinces. In September 1939, the Congress ministries resigned to protest Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's decision to join the war without consulting them. After the All India Congress Committee's Quit India Resolution of 8 August 1942, senior Congress leaders were imprisoned and for a time the organisation was crushed. Nehru, who had reluctantly heeded Gandhi's call for immediate independence, and had desired instead to support the Allied war effort during World War II, came out of a lengthy prison term to a much altered political landscape. The Muslim League, under Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had come to dominate Muslim politics in the interim. In the 1946 provincial elections, Congress won the elections but the League won all the seats reserved for Muslims, which the British interpreted to be a clear mandate for Pakistan in some form. Nehru became the interim prime minister of India in September 1946, with the League joining his government with some hesitancy in October 1946.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Upon India's independence on 15 August 1947, Nehru gave a critically acclaimed speech, "Tryst with Destiny"; he was sworn in as the Dominion of India's prime minister and raised the Indian flag at the Red Fort in Delhi. On 26 January 1950, when India became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, Nehru became the Republic of India's first prime minister. He embarked on an ambitious program of economic, social, and political reforms. Nehru promoted a pluralistic multi-party democracy. In foreign affairs, he played a leading role in establishing the Non-Aligned Movement, a group of nations that did not seek membership in the two main ideological blocs of the 1950s.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Under Nehru's leadership, the Congress emerged as a catch-all party, dominating national and state-level politics and winning elections in 1951, 1957 and 1962. Nehru remained popular with the Indian people despite India's defeat in the Sino-Indian War of 1962 for which he was widely blamed. His premiership spanning 16 years, 286 days—which is, to date, longest in India—ended with his death on 27 May 1964 due to a heart attack. His birthday is celebrated as Children's Day in India. His legacy has been hotly debated by Indians and international observers alike. In the years following his death, Nehru was hailed as the "architect of Modern India", who secured democracy in India and prevented an ethnic civil war.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad in British India. His father, Motilal Nehru (1861–1931), a self-made wealthy barrister who belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community, served twice as president of the Indian National Congress, in 1919 and 1928. His mother, Swarup Rani Thussu (1868–1938), who came from a well-known Kashmiri Brahmin family settled in Lahore, was Motilal's second wife, his first having died in childbirth. Jawaharlal was the eldest of three children. His elder sister, Vijaya Lakshmi, later became the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly. His youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing, became a noted writer and authored several books on her brother.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru described his childhood as a "sheltered and uneventful one". He grew up in an atmosphere of privilege at wealthy homes, including a palatial estate called the Anand Bhavan. His father had him educated at home by private governesses and tutors. Influenced by the Irish theosophist Ferdinand T. Brooks' teaching, Nehru became interested in science and theosophy. A family friend, Annie Besant subsequently initiated him into the Theosophical Society at age thirteen. However, his interest in theosophy did not prove to be enduring, and he left the society shortly after Brooks departed as his tutor. He wrote: "for nearly three years [Brooks] was with me and in many ways, he influenced me greatly".


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru's theosophical interests had induced him to the study of the Buddhist and Hindu scriptures. According to B. R. Nanda, these scriptures were Nehru's "first introduction to the religious and cultural heritage of [India]. ...[They] provided Nehru the initial impulse for [his] long intellectual quest which culminated…in "The Discovery of India"."


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru became an ardent nationalist during his youth. The Second Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War intensified his feelings. Of the latter he wrote, "[The] Japanese victories [had] stirred up my enthusiasm. ...Nationalistic ideas filled my mind. ... I mused of Indian freedom and Asiatic freedom from the thraldom of Europe." Later, in 1905, when he had begun his institutional schooling at Harrow, a leading school in England where he was nicknamed "Joe", G. M. Trevelyan's Garibaldi books, which he had received as prizes for academic merit, influenced him greatly. He viewed Garibaldi as a revolutionary hero. He wrote: "Visions of similar deeds in India came before, of [my] gallant fight for [Indian] freedom and in my mind, India and Italy got strangely mixed together."


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1907 and graduated with an honours degree in natural science in 1910. During this period, he studied politics, economics, history and literature with interest. The writings of Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand Russell, Lowes Dickinson and Meredith Townsend moulded much of his political and economic thinking.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: After completing his degree in 1910, Nehru moved to London and studied law at the Inner temple Inn. During this time, he continued to study Fabian Society scholars including Beatrice Webb. He was called to the Bar in 1912.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: After returning to India in August 1912, Nehru enrolled as an advocate of the Allahabad High Court and tried to settle down as a barrister. But, unlike his father, he had very little interest in his profession and relished neither the practice of law nor the company of lawyers: "Decidedly the atmosphere was not intellectually stimulating and a sense of the utter insipidity of life grew upon me." His involvement in nationalist politics was to gradually replace his legal practice.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru had developed an interest in Indian politics during his time in Britain as a student and a barrister. Within months of his return to India in 1912, Nehru attended an annual session of the Indian National Congress in Patna. Congress in 1912 was the party of moderates and elites, and he was disconcerted by what he saw as "very much an English-knowing upper-class affair". Nehru doubted the effectiveness of Congress but agreed to work for the party in support of the Indian civil rights movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa, collecting funds for the movement in 1913. Later, he campaigned against indentured labour and other such discrimination faced by Indians in the British colonies.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: When World War I broke out, sympathy in India was divided. Although educated Indians "by and large took a vicarious pleasure" in seeing the British rulers humbled, the ruling upper classes sided with the Allies. Nehru confessed he viewed the war with mixed feelings. As Frank Moraes writes, "[i]f [Nehru's] sympathy was with any country it was with France, whose culture he greatly admired". During the war, Nehru volunteered for the St. John Ambulance and worked as one of the organisation's provincial secretaries Allahabad. He also spoke out against the censorship acts passed by the British government in India.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru emerged from the war years as a leader whose political views were considered radical. Although the political discourse at the time had been dominated by the moderate, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who said that it was "madness to think of independence," Nehru had spoken, "openly of the politics of non-cooperation, of the need of resigning from honorary positions under the government and of not continuing the futile politics of representation". He ridiculed the Indian Civil Service for supporting British policies. He noted someone had once defined the Indian Civil Service, "with which we are unfortunately still afflicted in this country, as neither Indian, nor civil, nor a service". Motilal Nehru, a prominent moderate leader, acknowledged the limits of constitutional agitation, but counselled his son that there was no other "practical alternative" to it. Nehru, however, was dissatisfied with the pace of the national movement. He became involved with aggressive nationalists leaders demanding Home Rule for Indians.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: The influence of moderates on Congress' politics waned after Gokhale died in 1915. Anti-moderate leaders like Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak took the opportunity to call for a national movement for Home Rule. However, in 1915, the proposal was rejected because of the reluctance of the moderates to commit to such a radical course of action.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru married Kamala Kaul in 1916. Their only daughter Indira was born a year later in 1917. Kamala gave birth to a boy in November 1924, but he lived for only a week.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nevertheless, Besant formed a league for advocating Home Rule in 1916. Tilak, after releasing from a term in prison, had formed his own league in April 1916. Nehru joined both leagues, but worked primarily for the former. He remarked later that "[Besant] had a very powerful influence on me in my childhood  ... even later when I entered political life her influence continued." Another development that brought about a radical change in Indian politics was the espousal of Hindu-Muslim unity with the Lucknow Pact at the annual meeting of the Congress in December 1916. The pact had been initiated earlier in the year at Allahabad at a meeting of the All India Congress Committee, which was held at the Nehru residence at Anand Bhawan. Nehru welcomed and encouraged the rapprochement between the two Indian communities.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Several nationalist leaders banded together in 1916 under the leadership of Annie Besant to voice a demand for self-governance, and to obtain the status of a Dominion within the British Empire as enjoyed at the time by Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Newfoundland. Nehru joined the movement and rose to become secretary of Besant's Home Rule League.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: In June 1917, the British government arrested and interned Besant. The Congress and other Indian organisations threatened to launch protests if she was not freed. Subsequently, the British government was forced to release Besant and make significant concessions after a period of intense protest.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru's first big national involvement came at the onset of the non-co-operation movement in 1920. He led the movement in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). Nehru was arrested on charges of anti-governmental activities in 1921 and released a few months later. In the rift that formed within the Congress following Gandhi's sudden halting of the non-Cooperation movement after the Chauri Chaura incident, Nehru remained loyal to him and did not join the Swaraj Party formed by his father Motilal Nehru and CR Das. In 1923, Nehru was imprisoned in Nabha, a princely state, when he went there to see the struggle that was being waged by the Sikhs against the corrupt Mahants.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru played a leading role in the development of the internationalist outlook of the Indian independence struggle. He sought foreign allies for India and forged links with movements for independence and democracy around the world. In 1927, his efforts paid off, and the Congress was invited to attend the congress of oppressed nationalities in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting was called to co-ordinate and plan a common struggle against imperialism. Nehru represented India and was elected to the Executive Council of the League against Imperialism that was born at this meeting.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Increasingly, Nehru saw the struggle for independence from British imperialism as a multinational effort by the various colonies and dominions of the Empire; some of his statements on this matter, however, were interpreted as complicity with the rise of Hitler and his espoused intentions. Faced with these allegations, Nehru responded:We have sympathy for the national movement of Arabs in Palestine because it is directed against British Imperialism. Our sympathies cannot be weakened by the fact that the national movement coincides with Hitler's interests.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru drafted the policies of the Congress and a future Indian nation in 1929. He declared the aims of the congress were freedom of religion; right to form associations; freedom of expression of thought; equality before law for every individual without distinction of caste, colour, creed, or religion; protection of regional languages and cultures, safeguarding the interests of the peasants and labour; abolition of untouchability; introduction of adult franchise; imposition of prohibition, nationalisation of industries; socialism; and the establishment of a secular India. All these aims formed the core of the "Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy" resolution drafted by Nehru in 1929–1931 and were ratified in 1931 by the Congress party session at Karachi chaired by Vallabhbhai Patel.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru was one of the first leaders to demand that the Congress Party should resolve to make a complete and explicit break from all ties with the British Empire. The Madras session of Congress in 1927, approved his resolution for independence despite Gandhi's criticism. At that time, he formed the Independence for India League, a pressure group within the Congress. In 1928, Gandhi agreed to Nehru's demands and proposed a resolution that called for the British to grant Dominion status to India within two years. If the British failed to meet the deadline, the Congress would call upon all Indians to fight for complete independence. Nehru was one of the leaders who objected to the time given to the British—he pressed Gandhi to demand immediate actions from the British. Gandhi brokered a further compromise by reducing the time given from two years to one.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: The British rejected demands for Dominion status in 1929. Nehru assumed the presidency of the Congress party during the Lahore session on 29 December 1929 and introduced a successful resolution calling for complete independence. Nehru drafted the Indian declaration of independence, which stated:


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities for growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it. The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually. We believe, therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: At midnight on New Year's Eve 1929, Nehru hoisted the tricolour flag of India upon the banks of the Ravi in Lahore. A pledge of independence was read out, which included a readiness to withhold taxes. The massive gathering of the public attending the ceremony was asked if they agreed with it, and the majority of people were witnessed raising their hands in approval. 172 Indian members of central and provincial legislatures resigned in support of the resolution and in accordance with Indian public sentiment. The Congress asked the people of India to observe 26 January as Independence Day. Congress volunteers, nationalists, and the public hoisted the flag of India publicly across India. Plans for mass civil disobedience were also underway.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: After the Lahore session of the Congress in 1929, Nehru gradually emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi stepped back into a more spiritual role. Although Gandhi did not explicitly designate Nehru as his political heir until 1942, as early as the mid-1930s, the country saw Nehru as the natural successor to Gandhi.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru and most of the Congress leaders were ambivalent initially about Gandhi's plan to begin civil disobedience with a "satyagraha" aimed at the British salt tax. After the protest had gathered steam, they realised the power of salt as a symbol. Nehru remarked about the unprecedented popular response, "it seemed as though a spring had been suddenly released". He was arrested on 14 April 1930 while on a train from Allahabad for Raipur. Earlier, after addressing a huge meeting and leading a vast procession, he had ceremoniously manufactured some contraband salt. He was charged with breach of the salt law and sentenced to six months of imprisonment at Central Jail.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: He nominated Gandhi to succeed him as the Congress president during his absence in jail, but Gandhi declined, and Nehru nominated his father as his successor. With Nehru's arrest, the civil disobedience acquired a new tempo, and arrests, firing on crowds and lathi charges grew to be ordinary occurrences.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: The salt satyagraha ("pressure for reform through passive resistance") succeeded in attracting world attention. Indian, British, and world opinion increasingly recognised the legitimacy of the claims by the Congress party for independence. Nehru considered the salt satyagraha the high-water mark of his association with Gandhi, and felt its lasting importance was in changing the attitudes of Indians:


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Of course these movements exercised tremendous pressure on the British Government and shook the government machinery. But the real importance, to my mind, lay in the effect they had on our own people, and especially the village masses. ... Non-cooperation dragged them out of the mire and gave them self-respect and self-reliance. ... They acted courageously and did not submit so easily to unjust oppression; their outlook widened and they began to think a little in terms of India as a whole. ... It was a remarkable transformation and the Congress, under Gandhi's leadership, must have the credit for it.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru's trip to Europe in 1936 happened to be the turning point in his political and economic mindset. It's the visit that sparked his interest in Marxism and his socialist thought pattern. Time later spent incarcerated enabled him to research Marxism more deeply. Appealed by its ideas but repelled by some of its tactics, he never could bring himself to buy Karl Marx's words as revealed gospel. However, from that time on, the benchmark of his economic view remained Marxist, adapted, where necessary, to Indian circumstances.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru spent the early months of 1936 in Switzerland visiting his ailing wife in Lausanne, where she died in March. While in Europe, he became very concerned with the possibility of another world war. At that time, he emphasised that, in the event of war, India's place was alongside the democracies, though he insisted India could only fight in support of Great Britain and France as a free country.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: At its 1936 Lucknow session, despite opposition from the newly elected Nehru as the party president, the Congress party agreed to contest the provincial elections to be held in 1937 under the Government of India Act 1935. The elections brought the Congress party to power in a majority of the provinces with increased popularity and power for Nehru. Since the Muslim League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah (who was to become the creator of Pakistan) had fared badly at the polls, Nehru declared that the only two parties that mattered in India were the British colonial authorities and the Congress. Jinnah's statements that the Muslim League was the third and "equal partner" within Indian politics were widely rejected. Nehru had hoped to elevate Maulana Azad as the preeminent leader of Indian Muslims, but Gandhi, who continued to treat Jinnah as the voice of Indian Muslims, undermined him in this.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: In the 1930s, under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, Narendra Deo, and others, the Congress Socialist Party group was formed within the INC. Though Nehru never joined the group, he acted as a bridge between them and Gandhi. He had the support of left-wing Congressmen Maulana Azad and Subhas Chandra Bose. The trio combined to oust Rajendra Prasad as the Congress president in 1936. Nehru was elected in his place and held the presidency for two years (1936–37). His socialist colleagues Bose (1938–39) and Azad (1940–46) succeeded him. During Nehru's second term as general secretary of the Congress, he proposed certain resolutions concerning the foreign policy of India. From then on, he was given "carte blanche" ("blank cheque") in framing the foreign policy of any future Indian nation. Nehru worked closely with Bose in developing good relations with governments of free countries all over the world.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru was one of the first nationalist leaders to realise the sufferings of the people in the states ruled by Indian princes. The nationalist movement had been confined to the territories under direct British rule. He helped to make the struggle of the people in the princely states a part of the nationalist movement for independence. Nehru was also given the responsibility of planning the economy of a future India and appointed the National Planning Commission in 1938 to help frame such policies. However, many of the plans framed by Nehru and his colleagues would come undone with the unexpected partition of India in 1947.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: The All India States Peoples Conference (AISPC) was formed in 1927 and Nehru, who had supported the cause of the people of the princely states for many years, was made the organisation's president in 1939. He opened up its ranks to membership from across the political spectrum. AISPC was to play an important role during the political integration of India, helping Indian leaders Vallabhbhai Patel and V. P. Menon (to whom Nehru had delegated integrating the princely states into India) negotiate with hundreds of princes.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: When World War II began, Viceroy Linlithgow had unilaterally declared India a belligerent on the side of Britain, without consulting the elected Indian representatives. Nehru hurried back from a visit to China, announcing that, in a conflict between democracy and fascism, "our sympathies must inevitably be on the side of democracy, ... I should like India to play its full part and throw all her resources into the struggle for a new order".


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: After much deliberation, the Congress under Nehru informed the government that it would co-operate with the British but on certain conditions. First, Britain must give an assurance of full independence for India after the war and allow the election of a constituent assembly to frame a new constitution; second, although the Indian armed forces would remain under the British Commander-in-chief, Indians must be included immediately in the central government and given a chance to share power and responsibility. When Nehru presented Lord Linlithgow with these demands, he chose to reject them. A deadlock was reached: "The same old game is played again," Nehru wrote bitterly to Gandhi, "the background is the same, the various epithets are the same and the actors are the same and the results must be the same".


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: On 23 October 1939, the Congress condemned the Viceroy's attitude and called upon the Congress ministries in the various provinces to resign in protest. Before this crucial announcement, Nehru urged Jinnah and the Muslim League to join the protest, but Jinnah declined.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: As Nehru had firmly placed India on the path of democracy and freedom at a time when the world was under the threat of Fascism, he and Bose split in the late 1930s when the latter agreed to seek the help of Fascists in driving the British out of India. At the same time, Nehru had supported the Republicans who were fighting against Francisco Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War. Nehru and his aide V. K. Krishna Menon visited Spain and declared support for the Republicans. When Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, expressed his desire to meet, Nehru refused him.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: In March 1940, Muhammad Ali Jinnah passed what came to be known as the Pakistan Resolution, declaring that, "Muslims are a nation according to any definition of a nation, and they must have their homelands, their territory and their State." This state was to be known as Pakistan, meaning 'Land of the Pure'. Nehru angrily declared that "all the old problems ... pale into insignificance before the latest stand taken by the Muslim League leader in Lahore". Linlithgow made Nehru an offer on 8 October 1940, which stated that Dominion status for India was the objective of the British government. However, it referred neither to a date nor a method to accomplish this. Only Jinnah received something more precise: "The British would not contemplate transferring power to a Congress-dominated national government, the authority of which was denied by various elements in India's national life".


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: In October 1940, Gandhi and Nehru, abandoning their original stand of supporting Britain, decided to launch a limited civil disobedience campaign in which leading advocates of Indian independence were selected to participate one by one. Nehru was arrested and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. On 15 January 1941, Gandhi had stated:


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Some say Jawaharlal and I were estranged. It will require much more than a difference of opinion to estrange us. We had differences from the time we became co-workers and yet I have said for some years and say so now that not Rajaji but Jawaharlal will be my successor. After spending a little more than a year in jail, Nehru was released, along with other Congress prisoners, three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: When the Japanese carried their attack through Burma (now Myanmar) to the borders of India in the spring of 1942, the British government, faced by this new military threat, decided to make some overtures to India, as Nehru had originally desired. Prime Minister Winston Churchill dispatched Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the War Cabinet who was known to be politically close to Nehru and knew Jinnah, with proposals for a settlement of the constitutional problem. As soon as he arrived, he discovered that India was more deeply divided than he had imagined. Nehru, eager for a compromise, was hopeful; Gandhi was not. Jinnah had continued opposing the Congress: "Pakistan is our only demand, and by God, we will have it," he declared in the Muslim League newspaper "Dawn". Cripps' mission failed as Gandhi would accept nothing less than independence. Relations between Nehru and Gandhi cooled over the latter's refusal to co-operate with Cripps, but the two later reconciled.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: In 1942, Gandhi called on the British to leave India; Nehru, though reluctant to embarrass the allied war effort, had no alternative but to join Gandhi. Following the Quit India resolution passed by the Congress party in Bombay on 8 August 1942, the entire Congress working committee, including Gandhi and Nehru, was arrested and imprisoned. Most of the Congress working committee including Nehru, Abdul Kalam Azad, Sardar Patel were incarcerated at the Ahmednagar Fort until 15 June 1945.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: During the period when all the Congress leaders were in jail, the Muslim League under Jinnah grew in power. In April 1943, the League captured the governments of Bengal and, a month later, that of the North-West Frontier Province. In none of these provinces had the League previously had a majority—only the arrest of Congress members made it possible. With all the Muslim dominated provinces except Punjab under Jinnah's control, the concept of a separate Muslim State was turning into a reality. However, by 1944, Jinnah's power and prestige were waning.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: A general sympathy towards the jailed Congress leaders was developing among Muslims, and much of the blame for the disastrous Bengal famine of 1943–44 during which two million died had been laid on the shoulders of the province's Muslim League government. The numbers at Jinnah's meetings, once counted in thousands, soon numbered only a few hundred. In despair, Jinnah left the political scene for a stay in Kashmir. His prestige was restored unwittingly by Gandhi, who had been released from prison on medical grounds in May 1944 and had met Jinnah in Bombay in September. There, he offered the Muslim leader a plebiscite in the Muslim areas after the war to see whether they wanted to separate from the rest of India. Essentially, it was an acceptance of the principle of Pakistan—but not in so many words. Jinnah demanded that the exact words be used. Gandhi refused and the talks broke down. Jinnah, however, had greatly strengthened his own position and that of the League. The most influential member of Congress had been seen to negotiate with him on equal terms.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru and his colleagues were released prior to the arrival of the British 1946 Cabinet Mission to India to propose plans for the transfer of power. The agreed plan in 1946 led to elections to the provincial assemblies. In turn, the members of the assemblies elected members of the Constituent Assembly. Congress won the majority of seats in the assembly and headed the interim government, with Nehru as the prime minister. The Muslim League joined the government later with Liaquat Ali Khan as the Finance member.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru served as prime minister for 18 years, first as the interim prime minister and from 1950 as the prime minister of the Republic of India.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: In July 1946, Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state could prevail militarily against the army of independent India. In January 1947, he said that independent India would not accept the divine right of kings. In May 1947, he declared that any princely state which refused to join the Constituent Assembly would be treated as an enemy state. Vallabhbhai Patel and V. P. Menon were more conciliatory towards the princes, and as the men charged with integrating the states, were successful in the task. During the drafting of the Indian constitution, many Indian leaders (except Nehru) were in favour of allowing each princely state or covenanting state to be independent as a federal state along the lines suggested originally by the Government of India Act 1935. But as the drafting of the constitution progressed, and the idea of forming a republic took concrete shape, it was decided that all the princely states/covenanting states would merge with the Indian republic.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, as prime minister, derecognised all the rulers by presidential order in 1969, a decision struck down by the Supreme Court of India. Eventually, her government by the 26th amendment to the constitution was successful in derecognising these former rulers and ending the privy purse paid to them in 1971.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: The period before independence in early 1947 was impaired by outbreaks of communal violence and political disorder, and the opposition of the Muslim League led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who were demanding a separate Muslim state of Pakistan.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: He took office as the prime minister of India on 15 August and delivered his inaugural address titled "Tryst with Destiny".


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history when we step out from the old to the new when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru

text: On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was shot while he was walking in the garden of Birla House on his way to address a prayer meeting. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha party, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Nehru addressed the nation by radio: