Motilal Nehru was one of the key figures of Indian politics and also in the history of the Indian National Congress.
He was a lawyer by profession and served as the President of Congress twice. An important figure in the Indian freedom struggle, he was the father of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and grandfather of Indira Gandhi, the first woman PM of India.
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Today on his 158th birth anniversary, let us look at some important moments in his life:
- Motilal Nehru was born on May 6, 1861 to Gangadhar Nehru
- Motilal had two elder brothers, Bansidhar and Nandlal Nehru, the latter was the Diwan of Khetri in Rajasthan and had taken care of Motilal as his own heir, financing his education by sending him to the University of Cambridge where he graduated with a Law degree, becoming one of the first Indians to get ‘Western education’
- He started his career by practicing as a lawyer in Kanpur and later moving to Allahabad. With time, he became one of the best lawyers in the country as he used to deal with mostly land owning cases where clients were from large families.
- In 1900, he purchased a huge mansion in Civil Lines in Allahabad and named it Anand Bhavan later on. It was later turned into a museum when Indira Gandhi handed it over to the Indian government. The museum displays everything about the Nehru-Gandhi family.
- He reached the peak of his law career in 1909, when he gained the approval of appearing in the Privy Council of Great Britain
- He became the President of the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1919 from Amritsar and the second time in Calcutta in 1928.
- He was arrested in 1922 during the Non-Cooperation Movement.
- He formed the Swaraj Party with Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das and was also elected to the United Provinces Legislative Council of British India in New Delhi and became the leader of the opposition.
- Nehru is also known to have written the Nehru report which is the first constitution written only by Indians. The report conceived a dominion status for India within the Empire.
- He was very fond of Mahatma Gandhi, under whose advice Nehru gave up his lavish lifestyle and started wearing khadi.
- Due to the deterioration of his health, he passed away on Febuary 6, 1931
Motilal Nehru College, Delhi University was named after him.