Political career of Jawaharlal Nehru began after his return from England in the year 1912. On his return he joined the Allahabad High Court as a barrister, but soon he lost interest in legal career. Instead he was attracted towards the national movements for home rule. In the year 1912 he made his first appearance at the Indian National Congress as a delegate to the Bankipore Session. During World War I, Nehru volunteered for St. John Ambulance and spoke out against the censorship acts passed by the British government in India. He also took active interest in All India Home Rule League under Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Beasant. Nehru campaigned on behalf of Indian National Congress against the bonded labour system forced upon Indian workers in Fiji as well as the prejudice faced by Indians in South Africa.

In the year 1916, the leaders of India met at the Anand Bhavan to hammer out the Lucknow Pact, which united the reunified Congress with the Muslim League. The Lucknow Session in the year 1916 first brought together the three men who would shape the fortune of subcontinent, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Meanwhile, his father - Motilal Nehru has become the president of Congress in Allahabad branch and had also rallied the moderates in support of Annie Beasant, who had been arrested by the British in June 1917. Nehru who had been working to provide military training for Indian middle class in cooperation with the British through the Indian Defence Forces (modelled on the European defence forces in India), managed to convince the committee members of the project (led by his father, Tej Bahadur Sapru, and C. Y. Chintamani) - to call it off as a protest against the arrest of Beasant. In the year 1915, Nehru became an active member in the functioning of Kisan Sabha (farmers association) of Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and became its deputy president in 1918. Nehru`s contacts with peasants changed his life style. Soon he became one of the most well-known leaders of India due to his common people appeal. His work for the farmers and labourers endeared him to the lower middle class and peasant classes of India. These were the qualities that moved Gandhi (who was looking to broaden the support base of the Congress and who had met him in the 1916 Lucknow session of the party) to include Nehru in the inner circles of the Congress.