Former US President Jimmy Carter dies at 100 after an extraordinary life

Former US president Jimmy Carter — only the third American leader to visit India during which a village in Haryana was named Carterpuri in his honour — has died at 100. He passed away at a hospice in the small town of Plains, Georgia, on Sunday (December 29) after spending around 22 months in its care.

“Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the Carter Center said on X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family.

A hero, says son

Carter is survived by his children, Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love. My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honouring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs,” Chip Carter said.

A man of many parts

Carter, the longest-lived American president, and his wife, Rosalynn, spent most of their lives in Plains until Rosalynn died at 96 in November 2023. He donned many a hat — peanut farmer, businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker — in his illustrious life.

He conducted diplomatic missions into his 80s and built houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said.

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Surprise presidency

James Earl Carter Jr was born on October 1, 1924. The moderate Democrat entered the 1976 presidential race in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War. The little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores, and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer led a no-frills campaign that depended on public financing.

But his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and US defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon.

Camp David

Carter, the 39th US president, led a tumultuous term, governing amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets, and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights, and America’s global role. He brokered a Middle East peace deal by keeping then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978.

That Camp David experience would go on to inspire the Carter Center after the end of his term, rocked by double-digit inflation and a 444-day hostage crisis in Iran in which eight Americans died in a failed rescue bid in April 1980. It helped ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan.

A friend of India

Carter was considered a friend of India. He was the first American president to visit India after the removal of Emergency and victory of the Janata Party in 1977. In his address to the Indian parliament, Carter spoke against authoritarian rule.

“India’s difficulties, which we often experience ourselves and which are typical of the problems faced in the developing world, remind us of the tasks that lie ahead. Not the Authoritarian Way,” Carter said on January 2, 1978.

“But India’s successes are just as important because they decisively refute the theory that in order to achieve economic and social progress, a developing country must accept an authoritarian or totalitarian government and all the damage to the health of the human spirit which that kind of rule brings with it,” he told members of parliament.

“Is democracy important? Is human freedom valued by all people?... India has given her affirmative answer in a thunderous voice, a voice heard around the world. Something momentous happened here last March, not because any particular party won or lost but rather, I think, because the largest electorate on earth freely and wisely choose its leaders at the polls. In this sense, democracy itself was the victor,” Carter said.

Birth of Carterpuri

A day later, at the signing of the Delhi declaration along with then Prime Minister Morarji Desai, Carter said at the heart of the friendship between India and the US is their determination that the moral values of the people must also guide the actions of the states, the governments.

According to the Carter Centre, on January 3, 1978, Carter and then First Lady Rosalynn Carter travelled to the village of Daulatpur Nasirabad, an hour southwest of New Delhi. He was the third American president to visit India and the only one with a personal connection to the country – his mother, Lillian, had worked there as a health volunteer with the Peace Corps during the late 1960s.

“The visit was so successful that shortly after, village residents renamed the area ‘Carterpuri’ and remained in contact with the White House for the rest of President Carter’s tenure. The trip made a lasting impression: Festivities abounded in the village when President Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, and January 3 remains a holiday in Carterpuri,” the Carter Centre said, adding that the visit laid the groundwork for an enduring partnership that has greatly benefited both countries.

Beginning of US-India ties

President Carter understood that shared democratic principles formed a strong foundation for a long, fruitful relationship between the US and India. It is, therefore, no surprise that the two nations grew steadily closer in the decades after he left office, it said.

“In fact, since the Carter administration, the US and India have worked closely on energy, humanitarian aid, technology, space cooperation, maritime security, disaster relief, counterterrorism, and more. In the mid-2000s, the United States and India struck a landmark agreement to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation, and bilateral trade has since skyrocketed,” the centre said.

Ronak D Desai, Partner and India Practice Leader at Paul Hastings law firm, said Carter’s presidency marked a pivotal moment in US-India relations.

After the strain caused by the Nixon administration’s infamous “tilt” towards Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, Carter understood the critical importance of re-engaging with India as a democratic partner in a rapidly evolving global order. His visit to India in 1978 was not merely symbolic but a substantive effort to rebuild trust and establish a framework for dialogue rooted in mutual respect and shared values, he said.

“While Carter’s presidency was often viewed through the lens of domestic challenges, his contributions to US-India relations were transformative,” Desai said.

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Peace messenger

After the end of his term as the US president, the Carter couple founded the Carter Center in 1982, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping avert a US invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan.

The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

Biden’s statement

President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend.

Biden cited Carter’s work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections and house the homeless as an example for others.

“To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning — the good life — study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility,” Biden said in a statement.

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President-elect Donald Trump said while he “strongly disagreed” with Carter “philosophically and politically”, he also realised that he truly loved and respected “our country, and all it stands for”.

“He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect. He was a truly good man and, of course, will be greatly missed. He was also very consequential, far more than most Presidents, after he left the Oval Office,” Trump said.

State funeral in Washington

Biden recalled the former president being a comfort to him and his wife Jill when their son Beau died in 2015 of cancer. The president remarked how cancer was a common bond between their families, with Carter himself having cancer later in his life.

“Jimmy knew the ravages of the disease too well,” said Biden, who has ordered a state funeral for Carter in Washington.

Carter spent most of his days in the same one-storey Plains house later expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the COVId-19 pandemic struck. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral.

(With agency inputs)