My Science School

Jawaharlal Nehru was the president of the Municipal Corporation of Allahabad from 1925 to 1927. This short period is considered one of considerable efficiency and good governance.

Unlike most people in office, who were indifferent or sycophants of the British, Nehru took the time to listen to the common man’s problems and invested his time and efforts in trying to make their lot better.

He insisted that the board meet regularly at least twice a week. He increased efficiency and inventiveness in fund collection and allocation. He also ensured smoother processes and more transparency in dealings. He soon earned the respect of erstwhile detractors and the affection of the citizens he served.

Nehru launched schemes to promote education, sanitation, expand water and electricity supply and reduce unemployment. He achieved moderate success but was dissatisfied by the obstruction of British officials and corruption amongst civil servants. He resigned from the position within two years.

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After the withdrawal of the Non-cooperation Movement by Gandhiji, following the incident at Chauri Chaura, the Congress was split into two camps - the pro-changers and the no-changers. The pro-changers felt that the Non- cooperation Movement should not have been called off and that the Chauri Chaura incident was an isolated one. The no-changers accepted Gandhiji’s decision to withdraw the Movement.

The pro-changers, who consisted of Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru, formed the Swaraj Party (Swaraj means ‘self-rule’ or independence).

Motilal’s son, Jawaharlal remained with the no-changers and faced a dilemma of allegiance. On the one hand, he shared his father’s rationalism, cultural values and sophisticated outlook, but differed with his political strategy. On the other hand, he had not much in common with Gandhiji but believed in his strategy and methods.

However, Jawaharlal’s dilemma was short-lived. The Swaraj Party gradually disintegrated. Das and Motilal had aimed at entering the legislative council with the objective of obstructing British policies from within but soon realized that the legislatures had very limited powers. Their core mission of obstructing British rule failed and over time its members quietly dissolved back into the Congress.

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The United Provinces, or present-day Uttar Pradesh, was where the initial uprisings of the First War of Independence took place, and was at the forefront of the Indian Independence Movement. Several important nationalist leaders came from this region like Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Purushottam Das Tandon.

During the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930-31, farmers from all over the United Provinces arrived for the ‘kisan conference’ at Allahabad. Nehru was one of the speakers at the conference and got to know of the struggles of this hard-working yet marginalized community first hand.

They poured out their woes to him and he was deeply moved. The farmers had to pay landlords tax which was in turn paid to the government. The landlords .exploited the peasants and collected as much money as they could. If they did not pay, they were driven off the land.

They led poor and miserable lives. Nehru spoke to them and encouraged them. A no-tax campaign was launched at the conference that was taken up enthusiastically by the farming community and spread all through the United Provinces. In Nehru’s own words, “The no-tax movement in the United Provinces shifted the centre of gravity from the urban to the rural areas” and gave the movement a broader scope. Under the leadership of Nehru, the farmers joined the national movement in large numbers.

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For Jawaharlal Nehru, the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre was a watershed moment. Although he had identified with and admired the British, the dark side of imperialism was revealed to him. The brutal and mindless killing of hundreds of innocent people tipped the balance for Nehru. He was now fully committed to working towards a free India. He was also convinced that the way forward was through determined resistance and became a firm supporter of Gandhi’s leadership.

In the aftermath of the Amritsar tragedy, the Congress set up a committee to investigate the matter and Nehru was sent to Punjab to gather evidence. It was here that he was exposed to the hardships that the common man faced. Nehru had led a fairly sheltered existence and had no idea what poverty and deprivation were like.

He had no idea of the primitive conditions that the average Indian lived in. The experience filled him with guilt and empathy for the common man. He now saw that freedom from the British was the first step towards bettering the lot of India’s masses and Nehru the social reformer slowly took shape.

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The Rowlatt Act, named after Sir Sidney Rowlatt, was officially called the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act. It was passed by the Imperial Legislative Council on 18 March, 1919 and empowered the British Government to arrest anyone suspected of working against the British Raj.

Under the Rowlatt Act, the government could arrest and detain people for up to 2 years without trial. It allowed the police to search a place without a warrant and placed severe restrictions on the freedom of the Press. It also banned public gatherings of any sort.

The aim of the Rowlatt Act, or the ‘Black Act’ as it came to be known, was to curb the nationalist upsurge that was growing in India, but ironically it served the opposite purpose. It transformed the Indian freedom movement into a formidable force and brought Gandhiji to the forefront.

Gandhiji launched a nationwide satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act on 6 April, 1919 and millions of Indians responded to his call. A widespread hartal brought factories, offices and shops to a grinding halt. Anti-government pamphlets were circulated in the streets and many Indians handed back medals and honours that they had been awarded by the British. The Rowlatt Act served to set off events that were to change the course of the Indian freedom struggle. Nehru began to realize that the weapon called ‘satyagraha’ was capable of bringing the British Raj to its knees.

The movement was called off when riots broke out in various parts of the country, especially in Punjab. The Rowlatt Act was repealed by the Viceroy Lord Reading in 1922.

Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi met for the first time at Charbagh Railway Station in Lucknow on 26 December, 1916. Nehru was 27 years old and Gandhiji was 47 years old at the time. Both of them had come to attend the annual meeting of the Indian National Congress in Lucknow. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes and left a lasting impression on Nehru.

Nehru had more opportunities to observe Gandhi during the Congress and noted that he seemed to be “very distant and... unpolitical”. By then Gandhi was already a legend. His heroic fight for Indian workers in South Africa was known. Gandhiji used the same methods of nonviolent resistance or ‘satyagraha’ when he returned to India to organize the farmers of Champaran, Bihar to oppose growing indigo for the British.

The Champaran Satyagraha was the beginning of the satyagraha movement in India. For the first time young party workers, including Nehru began to see how India’s freedom movement could be mobilized along these lines. Till then the Congress had consisted of moderate and extremist factions and there existed no clear direction as to how to resist the British. Gandhiji’s success electrified the freedom activists who for the first time saw clearly the way forward. Nehru recognized Gandhiji as someone with the moral strength to stand up to the British, and back up political demands with action.

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Upon Nehru’s return to India after completing his studies, his marriage was arranged with a young girl named Kamala Kaul. Nehru was 27 and Kamala was 17 at the time. They were married on 8 February, 1916 in Haksar Haveli, Kamala’s family home in Old Delhi.

Kamala came from a traditional, Kashmiri Pandit family and could not speak or understand English. The cultural divide between the Anglicized, England-returned Nehru and the simple, Indian girl could not have been wider.

Nehru is said to have overlooked her for some time after their marriage. A year later Kamala gave birth to their only surviving child, Indira Priyadarshini.

After her marriage to Nehru, Kamala was exposed to the freedom struggle and became closely involved in politics. Shedding her inhibitions, she emerged as a strong role model and an integral part of her husband’s fight against the British.

She was actively involved in the non-cooperation movement of 1921, where she convinced many women in Allahabad to join her in picketing shops in the city that were selling foreign cloth and liquor. When Nehru was arrested prior to delivering a speech criticising the colonial rulers, Kamala took her husband’s place at the public podium and read out the entire speech that Nehru was supposed to deliver.

The British soon realized the threat that Kamala Nehru posed and how popular she had become with women groups all over India. She was arrested on two occasions for her involvement in freedom struggle activities.

She even started a dispensary at their home Anand Bhavan to provide basic first aid to wounded activists. The dispensary was converted into the Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital after her death in 1936.

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After returning to India in August 1912, Nehru enrolled himself as an advocate of the Allahabad High Court. However, he did not enjoy practising law and soon began to be interested in India’s freedom movement.

He attended an annual session of the Indian National Congress in Patna and collected funds for the civil rights campaigners led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1913. He campaigned against indentured labour and other such discriminations faced by Indians in the British colonies.

In 1917, Nehru joined the All India Home Rule League, an organization devoted to obtaining self-government within the British Empire. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919, in which many Indians were killed and more than a thousand injured, cemented Nehru’s resolve to free India from British rule.

During the Non-cooperation Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru was arrested for the first time. He would go on to spend more than nine years in prison in the coming two and a half decades.

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After completing school at Harrow, Nehru went to Trinity College, Cambridge where he earned an honours degree in natural sciences. He studied chemistry, geology and physics (later substituted by botany as Nehru was weak in mathematics). He also studied politics, economics, history and literature and was exposed to the works of Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, John Maynard Keynes and Bertrand Russell among others.

On the whole, Nehru enjoyed his stay at Cambridge. The liberal atmosphere of the University encouraged him to take up many non-academic activities. He passed the final Cambridge degree examinations in 1910 and obtained a second class. Following Cambridge, Nehru moved to London and studied law at the Inner Temple Inn.

Till the age of 16, Nehru was home-schooled by a number of English governesses and tutors. One of these tutors was Ferdinand T. Brooks, an Irish instructor. In the 3 years that Brooks taught him, Nehru imbibed maths and science and developed a love for English literature and poetry that lasted his whole life.

Brooks was a follower of theosophy, which proposes that each individual must seek God sans the dogma of religion. It also believes in the universal brotherhood of human beings. Brooks was a protégé of Annie Besant, a theosophist and social reformer who was actively involved in India’s freedom movement. Nehru was drawn to this doctrine and became a member of the Theosophical Society at the age of 13.

Nehru wrote of Brooks, “For nearly three years he was with me and in many ways influenced me greatly...F.T. Brooks developed in me a taste of reading and I read many English books...Apart from studies, F.T Brooks brought a new influence to bear upon me which affected me powerfully - this was theosophy”.

Nehru attended weekly meetings of theosophists held by Brooks at Anand Bhavan. His interest however, did not prove to be a lasting one and he left the society after Brooks departed.

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At the age of 16, young Nehru joined one of the oldest and most revered public schools in England - Harrow. Founded in 1572, this school has a long history of educating the aristocracy, world leaders and Nobel Prize winners. It is one of the most difficult schools to gain admission into.

Nehru stayed at Harrow for two years and was exposed to a gamut of subjects and gained an understanding of the cultural ethos of Britain. He was called ‘Joe’ by his classmates, who found his Indian name too difficult to pronounce! Although he participated in school activities, including sports and debating clubs, he did not distinguish himself in any field.

At Harrow, Nehru was exposed to revolutionary literature which empowered him as a political thinker. He was introduced to G. M. Trevelyan’s trilogy on Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian soldier who played a central role in the rise of Italian nationalism. Nehru began to dream of a similar fight for freedom in India. He spent two years at Harrow before moving on to Trinity College, Cambridge.

Motilal Nehru was born on 6 May, 1861 to Gangadhar Nehru and Jeorani Nehru.

Gangadhar Nehru was the last Kotwal of Delhi (chief of Police) under the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II.

Gangadhar died three months before Motilal was born. Owing to financial hardships, the family moved from Delhi to Agra, then to Khetri in Rajasthan and finally to Allahabad. Motilal was brought up by his brother Nandlal who trained as a lawyer. Showing exemplary brilliance as a young scholar, Motilal followed in his brother Nandlal’s footsteps and became a barrister.

In 1883 he began practising in Kanpur and after three years moved to Allahabad to join his brother Nandlal. Following his brother’s death a year later, Motilal became the sole breadwinner of the Nehru family.

Motilal proved to be extremely successful and many of his suits were civil cases involving large land-owning families. He was also actively involved in the Indian independence movement and was elected president of the Indian National Congress held in Amritsar, in 1919.

In 1923 Motilal was one of the founders of the Swaraj Party, which sought to gain entry to the Central Legislative Assembly and obstruct its proceedings from within. He participated in the civil disobedience movement of 1930 and was actively involved in the Salt March, for which he was imprisoned.

Motilal Nehru died soon after his release.

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Swarup Rani Nehru was born in 1868 in Lahore, now in Pakistan. She married Motilal Nehru after his first wife and son died in childbirth.

The mother of three surviving children, Swarup Rani had an affluent lifestyle till the 1920s. Together with an extended family, she lived in a luxurious mansion called ‘Anand Bhavan’ in Allahabad, which had a tennis court, swimming pool, stables, electricity and running water.

However, when the non-cooperation movement was launched by Mahatma Gandhi, the lifestyle of the Nehru household became austere. Motilal and Jawaharlal Nehru gave up their legal practices and Anand Bhavan was donated to the Indian National Congress.

The resulting financial difficulties meant a meagre one-meal-a-day for the family and the sale of the Nehru women’s jewellery. Anand Bhavan became the cradle for the Indian freedom struggle and Swarup played a prominent role in the same.

She encouraged women to make salt in defiance of the prevalent British salt laws. She is quoted to have said, “If you are true to your motherland, then you should start manufacturing salt in every household”. She also rejoiced at her husband and son’s arrests during the freedom struggle, saying it was a “privilege” granted to those who dreamed of a free India. She was a devoted wife and mother and exerted a profound influence on her children. She was responsible for maintaining a traditional balance in their upbringing.

The Swarup Rani Nehru Hospital in Allahabad is named in her honour.

Nehru’s parents belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community. His father Motilal Nehru was a wealthy lawyer and a prominent leader in the Indian independence movement. His mother Swarup Rani came from Lahore in British India and married Motilal after his first wife and son died in childbirth. Swarup Rani and Motilal had four children together but only three survived. They lived in a sprawling mansion called ‘Anand Bhavan’ in Allahabad, along with a large, extended family.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the eldest of three surviving children. A fourth child, Ratan Lal died in infancy.

Jawaharlal had two younger sisters, both of whom had distinguished careers. His older sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was an Indian diplomat and politician. She became the first woman president of the United Nations General Assembly and the first woman to hold a cabinet post in pre-independent India. Nehru’s youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing was a noted author and wrote several books documenting her own life as well as her illustrious brother’s.

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Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889 in Allahabad. He was the first Prime Minister of India and held office for 17 years from 15 August 1947 to 27 May, 1964.

When Nehru took over as Prime Minister of India, the country had been ravaged by centuries of colonial rule. Nehru captained the shift from a deeply polarized and plundered nation towards an inclusive and self-reliant one. He was the face of the newly emerging nation on the world stage and the architect of modern India. He was a true visionary who crafted and established India’s secular and democratic identity.

Nehru’s vision of a modern India was based on the tenets of secularism, democracy, industrialization, socialism, scientific development and non-alignment. He ensured that polarizing forces were kept at bay within the nation and ensured technical and financial support for India from both the power blocs of the Soviet Union and USA, through his policy of non-alignment. His five principles of peaceful coexistence, or ‘Panchsheel’ guided India’s international relations with China until the outbreak of the Sino-Indian War in 1962.

It may be said that if Mahatma Gandhi is the Father of the Nation, then Nehru is the father of Indian Democracy.

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