Motilal Nehru
President of the Indian National Congress | |
---|---|
In office 1919–1920 | |
Preceded by | Syed Hasan Imam |
Succeeded by | Lala Lajpat Rai |
In office 1928–1929 | |
Preceded by | Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari |
Succeeded by | Jawaharlal Nehru |
Personal details | |
Born | 6 May 1861 Activist |
Motilal Nehru (6 May 1861 – 6 February 1931) was an Indian lawyer, activist, and politician affiliated with the
Early life and education
Motilal Nehru was born on 6 May 1861, the posthumous son of Gangadhar Nehru and his wife Indrani. During the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, Gangadhar Nehru was the kotwal or police officer of Delhi.[2][3]
Thus, Motilal came to spend his childhood in
According to Nanda, by their teenage years Motilal and other sons of Gangadhar had learnt to speak English.[8] According to historian Sarvepalli Gopal, Motilal was more fluent in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu more than any other Indian language.[9]
Career
Motilal passed the bar examination in 1883 and began practicing law at Kanpur. Three years later, he moved to Allahabad to join the lucrative practice already established by his brother Nandlal. The following year, in April 1887, his brother died at the age of forty-two, leaving behind five sons and two daughters. Thus Motilal at the age of 25 became sole bread-earner of the extended Nehru family.[1]
Many of Motilal's suits were civil cases concerning large land-owning families. He soon made a name for himself in the civil society of Prayagraj. With the success of his practice, in 1900, he bought a large family home in the Civil Lines area of the city, rebuilt it and named it
On 5 February 1919 he launched a new daily paper, The Independent, as a counterpoint to 'The Leader', which was much too liberal for Motilal's standard and articulate thought in 1919.[1]
He started on the path to become wealthy among the few leaders of the Indian National Congress. Under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi in 1918, Nehru became one of the first to transform his life to exclude western clothes and material goods, adopting a more native Indian lifestyle[citation needed].
To meet the expenses of his large family and large family homes, Nehru had to occasionally return to his practice of law[
Political career
Motilal Nehru twice served as President of the Congress Party, once in Amritsar (1919) and the second time in Calcutta (1928).
Motilal later joined the
In March 1926, Nehru demanded a representative conference to draft a constitution conferring full Dominion status on India, to be enacted by the British parliament. This demand was rejected by the Assembly, and as a result Nehru and his colleagues resigned their Assembly seats and returned to the Congress party.[19]
The entry of Motilal's son Jawaharlal Nehru into politics in 1916, started the most powerful and influential Indian political dynasty. When, in 1929, Jawaharlal Nehru was elected as Congress president it greatly pleased Motilal and Nehru family admirers to see the son take over from his father[citation needed]. Jawaharlal had opposed his father's preference for dominion status, and had not left the Congress Party when Motilal helped found the Swaraj Party.[citation needed]
Nehru report
Motilal Nehru chaired the famous Nehru Commission in 1928, a counter to the all-British Simon Commission. The Nehru Report, the first constitution written only by Indians, envisioned a dominion status for India within the Empire, akin to Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It was endorsed by the Indian National Congress, but rejected by more nationalist Indians who sought complete independence. The report was rejected by the Muslim leadership of India, especially Muhammad Ali Jinnah over concerns that the lack of constitutional safeguards against majoritarianism created unacceptable risks for Indian Muslims.
Death and legacy
Motilal Nehru's age and declining health kept him out of the historic events of 1929–1931, when the Congress adopted complete independence as its goal and when Gandhi launched the
Motilal Nehru is remembered for being the patriarch of India's most powerful political dynasty which has since produced three Prime Ministers. Two of his great-great-grandsons, Rahul Gandhi, and Varun Gandhi are members of the lower house of Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha and belong to the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party respectively.
Tribute
Paying tribute to Motilal Nehru, the British Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, Sir Grimwood Mears,[20] stated:
He had a profusion of gifts, and as an advocate he had the art of presenting his case in its most attractive form...He had an exquisite public speaking voice and a charm of manner which made it a pleasure to listen to him...With his wide range of reading and the pleasure that he had taken in travel he was a very delightful private companion and wherever he sat at a table there was the head of the table and there was the centre of interest. He has left behind a very great reputation in this court and his name will always be associated with this Court and be one of the traditions of this Court.[21][22]
Works
- The Voice of Freedom: selected speeches of Pandit Motilal Nehru. ed. Kavalam Madhava Panikkar, A. Pershad. Asia Pub. House, 1961
- Motilal Nehru: essays and reflections on his life and times, by Preet Chablani. S. Chand, 1961.
- Selected Works of Motilal Nehru (Volume 1–6), ed. Ravinder Kumar, D. N. Panigrahi. Vikas Pub., 1995. ISBN 0-7069-1885-1.
Biographies
- Bhattacharyya, Upendra Chandra; Chakravarty, Shovendu Sunder (1934). Pandit Motilal Nehru: His life and work. Modern Book Agency. OCLC 82455581.
- Goswami, D.C.; Nayak, R.K.; Singh, Shankar Dayal (1976). Pandit Motilal Nehru, a great patriot. National Forum of Lawyers and Legal Aid. OCLC 2799459.
- Jain, A. Pershad; Suri, Promilla (1961). Motilal Nehru: a short political biography. S. Chand. OCLC 1318940.
- OCLC 773250260.
- Nanda, Bal Ram (2007). The Nehrus: Motilal and Jawaharlal. OUP India. ISBN 9780199081387.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Past Presidents- Motilal Nehru, archived from the original on 6 September 2010
- ISBN 978-81-7011-035-4. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
- ^ Nanda 1963, p. 2.
- ^ Pandit Motilal Nehru Profile Archived 27 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine Congress Sandesh.
- ^ Motilala Nehru I Love India.com
- Britannica.com.
- ^ "Motilal Nehru". Archived from the original on 2 January 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
- ^ Nanda 1963, p. 19.
- ^ Gopal, Sarvepalli (1976). Jawaharlal Nehru: 1889-1947. Harvard University Press. p. 17.
- ISBN 978-1-317-87476-8. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
- ^ Goswami, D.C.; Nayak, R.K.; Singh, S.D. (1976). Pandit Motilal Nehru, a Great Patriot. National Forum of Lawyers and Legal Aid. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-7069-1885-4. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
- ISBN 9788123767994. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
- ^ Nanda, B.R. (1963). The Nehrus: Motilal and Jawaharlal. Oxford University Presss. p. 38-40.
- ^ "Role of Press in India's Struggle for Freedom". Archived from the original on 23 July 2010.
- ^ "The Little Magazine – Ghosts – David Lelyveld – The mystery mansion". www.littlemag.com. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ISBN 9781471166440.
- ISBN 9788176482561.
- ^ ISBN 9780370313139
- ^ "Sir Edward Grimwood-Mears Captain 1939 to 1942". Retrieved 5 July 2015.
- ^ "Pandit Moti Lal Nehru" (PDF). Official website of Allahabad High Court. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
- ISBN 9788170233695.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-00-255646-4.
- Jawaharlal Nehru, My Autobiography