1. Home
2. Opinion

The children of midnight! Kamla Nehru: She was the wife of first prime minister of India! She incidentally was a Kashmiri Pandit!

MAJOR KULBIR SINGH. Dated: 9/15/2017 1:36:58 PM

‘Kamala Nehru was born on 1 August 1899 and brought up in a traditional Kashmiri Brahmin middle-class family of old Delhi. Rajpati and Jawaharmal Kaul were Kamala Nehru’s parents; Kamala, their eldest child, had two brothers, Chand Bahadur Kaul and the botanist, Kailas Nath Kaul, and a sister, Swaroop Kathju. All her schooling had been at home, under the guidance of a Pandit and a Maulvi.’

By: Major Kulbir Singh
Kamala Kaul Nehru 1( August 1899 – 28 February 1936) was a freedom fighter, wife of Jawaharlal Nehru (leader of the Indian National Congress and the Prime Minister of India), and the mother of Indira Gandhi, also another Prime Minister. Her grandson Rajiv Gandhi too was a Prime Minister of India for a term of 5 years. She was known to be deeply sincere, highly patriotic, a women’s rights activist, serious minded and sensitive.
Kamala Nehru was born on 1 August 1899 and brought up in a traditional Kashmiri Brahmin middle-class family of old Delhi. Rajpati and Jawaharmal Kaul were Kamala Nehru’s parents; Kamala, their eldest child, had two brothers, Chand Bahadur Kaul and the botanist, Kailas Nath Kaul, and a sister, Swaroop Kathju. All her schooling had been at home, under the guidance of a Pandit and a Maulvi.
Kamala married Jawaharlal Nehru at the age of 17. Her husband went to a trip in the Himalayas shortly after their marriage. In his autobiography, Jawaharlal Nehru, referring to his wife, stated “I almost overlooked her.” Kamala gave birth to a girl child in November 1917, Indira Priyadarshini, who later succeeded her father as prime minister and head of the Congress party. Kamala gave birth to a boy in November 1924, but he lived for only a week. Kamala was involved with the Nehrus in the national movement, that she emerged into the forefront. In the Non Cooperation movement of 1921, she organized groups of women in Allahabad and picketed shops selling foreign cloth and liquor. When her husband was arrested to prevent him delivering a “seditious” public speech, she went in his place to read it out. The British soon realized the threat that Kamala Nehru posed to them and how popular she had become with women’s groups all over India. She was thus arrested on two occasions for involvement in Independence struggle activities, along with Sarojini Naidu, Nehru’s mother and other women of the Indian freedom struggle. During this period she started a dispensary in her house Swaraj Bhawan, converting few rooms into a Congress Dispensary to treat wounded freedom fighters, their families, and other residents of Allahabad. After her death, Mahatma Gandhi with the help of other prominent leaders converted this dispensary into a proper hospital known as Kamla Nehru Memorial Hospital in her memory. Kamala Nehru spent some time at Gandhi’s ashram with Kasturba Gandhi where she built a close friendship with Prabhavati Devi - the wife of freedom fighter Jayaprakash Narayan. Kamala died from tuberculosis in Lausanne, Switzerland on 28 February 1936, with her husband, daughter and mother-in-law by her side. During her last few years, Kamala was frequently ill and taken to a sanatorium in Switzerland for treatment, though she returned to India as she got well. In early 1935, as Kamala’s health again deteriorated, she was taken to Baudweiller (Black forest, Switzerland) and admitted to a sanatorium for treatment. Her husband (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru) was in jail in India at that time. As her health worsened, Nehru was released from prison and rushed to Switzerland in October 1935. While Kamala’s health improved initially, it started to deteriorate again in 1936, and she died in February. In the prologue to his autobiography, in a chapter added after Kamala’s death, Nehru recounts that he was devastated and remained mourning for a few months.
A number of institutions in India, such as Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital & Regional Cancer Centre , Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi, Kamala Nehru Degree Evening college (Bangalore), Kamala Nehru Park, Kamla Nehru Institute of Technology (Sultanpur), Kamala Nehru Zoo (Indore), Kamala Nehru Polytechnic (Hyderabad), Shri Ramdeobaba Kamala Nehru Engineering college(Nagpur) are named after her. Kamala Kaul Nehru (1899–1936) was the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru - leader of the Indian National Congress and first Prime Minister of India. Kamala married Nehru on 8 February 1916. Their marriage was arranged by his parents.
Born and brought up in a traditional Kashmiri Brahmin family of old Delhi, Kamala was simple, quiet and unobtrusive . She felt alienated amongst the more Westernized Nehrus. It was only with the involvement of the Nehrus in the national movement, that she emerged into the forefront.[citation needed] In the Non Cooperation movement of 1921, she organized groups of women in Allahabad and picketed shops selling foreign cloth and liquor. When her husband was arrested to prevent him delivering a “seditious” public speech, she went in his place to read it out. She was twice arrested by British authorities.
Rajpati and Jawahar Mull Kaul were Kamala Nehru’s parents. Kamala, their eldest child, had two brothers, Chand Bahadur Kaul and the botanist, Kailas Nath Kaul, and a sister, Swaroop Kathju. In November 1917, Kamala gave birth to a daughter, Indira Priyadarshini, who later succeeded her father as prime minister and head of the Congress party. Kamala gave birth to a boy in November 1924, but he was premature and died 2 days later.
Kamala Nehru was born in the year 1899 in a family of Kashmiri Brahmins residing in Delhi. According to records in history, Kamala Nehru was a very shy and quiet girl, largely because of the fact that she hailed from a very simple family and was brought up in a conservative atmosphere. Though the westernized Nehru family was a culture shock to Kamala Nehru, the sense of alienation was soon replaced by one of motivation to work for the freedom of India. Kamala Nehru married Jawaharlal Nehru on February 7, 1916 in an arranged traditional Hindu wedding ceremony. Jawaharlal Nehru was then the leader of the Indian National Congress. Her total Indian background meant that Kamala Nehru could not even speak the English language at the time of her marriage to Jawaharlal Nehru. Kamala Nehru was the eldest daughter of Rajpati and Jawaharmal Mull Atal-Kaul.
She had three siblings, brothers Chand Bahadur Kaul and agricultural scientist Kailas Nath Kaul and a sister Swaroop Kathju. After her marriage to Jawaharlal Nehru in the year 1916, Kamala Nehru gave birth to her first child daughter Indira Nehru on November 19, 1917. Her second child, a son was born in November 1924. However the baby was born premature and died two days after birth. Kamala Nehru shared a close bonding with Kasturba Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s wife and also stayed at her ashram for some time. It was in this ashram that Kamala Nehru developed a strong friendship with Prabhavati Devi, the freedom fighter from Bihar.

It was after her marriage to Jawaharlal Nehru in February 1916 that Kamala Nehru took an understanding to the national struggle which had engulfed India and the politics that her husband was an integral part of. Shedding all her inhibitions, Kamala Nehru emerged as a strong woman to provide leadership in the fight for freedom. The Non Cooperation Movement of 1921 saw Kamala Nehru’s entry into the freedom struggle. She convinced a large number of women in Allahabad to join hands with her in picketing shops in the city that were selling foreign cloth and liquor. After Jawaharlal Nehru was put behind bars for not cooperating with the British government and planning to deliver a public speech aimed to malign the colonial rulers, it was Kamala Nehru who took the public podium in her husband’s place and read out the entire speech that Jawaharlal Nehru was supposed to deliver. Such was the change after marriage in a girl who even a few years back was not only shy but also lacked basic knowledge in the English language. The British soon realized the threat that Kamala Nehru posed to them and how popular she had become with women groups all over India. She was thus arrested on two occasions for involvement in freedom struggle activities. Kamala Nehru breathed her last on February 28, 1936. She had been suffering from tuberculosis for a long time, the cause of her untimely death. Kamala Nehru was at the Nehru home in Lausanne, Switzerland at the time of her death. Her daughter Indira Nehru, husband Jawaharlal Nehru, mother in law and several other members of the Nehru family were present by her side at the time of death. Kamala Nehru was cremated at the Lasagna Crematorium. Till today her contributions to the Indian Freedom Movement are recognized and appreciated. A large number of institutions and places of public interest in Delhi have been named after Kamala Nehru to recognize her contribution in the well being of independent India. The Kamala Nehru College in the University of Delhi, the Kamala Nehru Hospital and the Kamala Nehru Park are some of the institutions built in memory of Kamala Nehru.