India, May 31 -- New Delhi Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru is dead. His life ebbed away a little before 2pm. He had been unconscious since early in the morning.

At about 6.30am Mr Nehru suffered a heart attack combined with what the doctors described as a "shock".

The news of his death plunged the country into deep gloom the likes of which it had not experienced since Mahatma Gandhi's assassination 16 years before. In Parliament. members looked dazed as they heard the sad news.

Besides his grief-stricken daughter Mrs Indira Gandhi, those present by his bedside at the time of his death were Mr Gulzarilal Nanda, Mr TT Krishnamachari and Mr Lal Bahadur Shastri, President Radhakrishnan and Vice-President Zakir Hussain joined them as soon a...