Situated on the confluence of three rivers, the ancient religious town ‘Prayag’ is presently known as Allahabad. This beautiful town has a place called ‘Mirganj’ where at one time Motilal Nehru used to live. Here only a brilliant boy was born which was later known by the name ‘Jawahar Lal Nehru.’
History of ancestors
The Nehrus were Brahmins who had come from Kashmir. Right from the beginning they were close to power and powerful/administrative personnels. In knowledge also they were no far behind. The great grandfather of Motilal Nehru’s grandfather Pt. Raj Kaul was a great scholar of Sanskrit and Persian. In 1716, he came to Delhi and gradually the Kauls assumed the double-barreled name of Kaul-Nehru, because, it is said, their house was situated on the banks of a canal (nahar). They later moved on to Agra. Motilal was born there on May 6, 1861. Motilal’s father Gangadhar Nehru was the ‘Kotwal’ of Delhi. He died three months before the birth of Motilal. His elder brothers, Bansidhar Nehru and Nandlal Nehru, brought up Motilal.
Motilal himself was, like his ancestors, more fluent in Arabic and Persian and in Urdu than in any other Indian language. Later at the age of 12-13 years he started learning English language. Motilal attended the Govt. High School in Kanpur and then studied at the Muir Central College in Allahabad. The personality of Motilal was very influential and attractive. He was handsome, brilliant and of a strong will.
Motilal decided to be a lawyer like his brother and stood first in the examination for High Court vakils. After sometime in 1886, he settled down in Allahabad to practice at the High Court.
Birth
Motilal firstly lived in ‘Mirganj’, an old part of the city. Here only Jawahar Lal was born on 12th November 1889. Later he moved to the Civil Lines where mostly Europeans lived. In 1899, when Jawahar was 10, he purchased a big house, 1 Church Road which was named ‘Anand Bhawan.’ It had many rooms, large lawns and a swimming pool.
Jawahar was fond of celebrating his birthday and want it on monthly basis. His mother Swarup Rani always supports his childhood disobedience but father dislikes it. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love Jawahar. Actually he was the man of principle, highly strict, so all decisions were taken with his wish.
Motilal was a well-known and prosperous lawyer of Allahabad. Jawahar was the only son for the first 11 years and was the object of much love. As the pet of the family, he received much affection and enjoyed the luxuries of affluence.
A grand function was organized each year on Jawahar’s birthday and his father Motilal spends lavishly on it. Right from morning the preparations starts. Wheat and other food-grains were given to poor people equivalent to his weight, thereafter he wears beautiful new clothes and finally after gifts, the party starts.
Jawahar’s father was slight strict but very lovable. He brought up Jawahar like an English boy and wanted their son to opt for Indian Civil Services in future. He wanted for his son the best that British education could offer. Hence he selected London’s Harrow School.
Education and interest towards literature
Jawahar was brought up like an English boy. Learned Brahmins taught him Hindi and Sanskrit but with little success. He was first in St. Mary’s Convent School and after six months he was removed from the school and coached at home.
From one of his father’s munshis, he listened to tales from the ‘Arabian Nights’ or other sources and to accounts of the happenings of 1857 and 1858. His mother told him stories from the old Hindu mythology from the epics, the ‘Ramayana’ and the ‘Mahabharata.’
When Jawaharlal was 11 a new resident tutor Ferdinand T. Brooks who had been recommended by Mrs. Annie Besant was in charge of Jawaharlal’s education from 1901 to 1904. Brooks also had other influence on Jawaharlal. From the only other tutor, Jawahar learnt little Hindi and Sanskrit, and he was no good at languages and grammar had no attraction for him. Brooks developed in him a taste for reading and he read a great many English books, though rather aimlessly—the Levis Canolls books, the Alice Series, Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ and ‘Kim’, many of the novels of Scott, Dickens and Thackeray, the romances of H.G. Wells, Mark Twain, the Sherlock Holmes stories, Anthony Hope’s ‘Prisoner of Zenda’, K. Jerone’s Three Men in a Boat, Du Maurier’s Trilby, Paul Ibbetson. He was fascinated by Gustave Dore’s illustrations to Don Ouixote, and Fridof Nausen’s ‘Farthest North’ opened out a new realm of adventure. He also developed a liking for poetry. Brooks also initiated Jawaharlal into the mysteries of Science and rigged up a little laboratory; there Jawaharlal spent long and interesting hours working out experiments in elementary physics and chemistry.
The concept of ethics is what Jawaharlal perhaps rather vaguely comprehended when, at Brook’s instance he read the not-too-easy ‘Upanishads’ and the ‘Bhagvad Gita’. At 13 Jawaharlal joined the Theosophical Society, initiated by Mrs. Besant and Motilal, an old theosophist. Jawaharlal attended the theosophical convention at Banaras. When Brooks left him, Jawaharlal lost touch with theosophy; and in a remarkably short time, it left his life completely.
