Jawaharlal was married in 1916 and the bride was ‘Kamla Kaul’. Kamla soon showed that she was a brave women of strong will. She joined Jawaharlal and the family in the freedom struggle.
In the summer of 1920, he had taken the family up to Mussoorie, a hill station and was spending his time teaching his wife and sisters when, as he wrote to his father, greatness was thrust on him by the Govt. An Afghan delegation was staying at the same hotel and the authorities well knew that Jawaharlal had, during the period of over a fortnight when he was there, not seen anything of them. Yet suddenly the local superintendent of police called on him and asked him either to furnish a positive undertaking not to get into touch with the Afghan delegation or to leave Mussoorie on his own. Jawaharlal, faced with this unnecessary provocation refused to bind himself not to meet the Afghans or to leave Mussoorie on his own. However, he departed after an expulsion order had been served on him.
Although he was very annoyed on leaving Mussorrie this way but it proved very fortunate for him. He came to Allahabad and met some ‘peasants’ residing on the banks of river Yamuna. Their leader was Baba Ram Chandra, who addressed large crowds, calling on them to stand up for their rights and resist the landlords, to pay their rents but not illegal cases. In this way casual circumstances thrust Jawaharlal into the problem of the Indian peasantry and gave a new and permanent dimension to his outlook.
He found a new adventure among the peasants of U.P. That province along with Bihar and Bengal had been permanently settled under Cornwallis and for a country, the peasantry had been under the exacting overlordship of middle man, landlords or Zamindars, as they were called. Life under them was oppressive. He wandered from village to village and saw a new aspect of India, the terrifying aspect of peasant India ready to revolt. This was also the real India, the veil was lifted. And among the peasants, Jawaharlal found articulation and discovered not only the vitality of the people of India but his own abundant vitality and capacity for hard, unrelenting work.
Their peaceful firmness impressed him profoundly to write—
“I have had the privilege of washing for them, of mixing with them, of living in their mudhuts and partaking in all reverence of their lowly fare. And I, who for long believed in the doctrine of the sword, have been converted by the Kisans to the doctrine of non-violence. I have come to believe that non-violence is ingrained in them and is part of their very nature.”
The beginning of gandhian era
In September 1920, Congress had a special session in Calcutta. The beginning of Gandhi age had been started and every where there was ‘Khadi’ and only ‘Khadi.’
At the Calcutta Congress Gandhiji favoured non-cooperation against the government. He was opposed by Malviya, Das and Lajpat Rai himself, though Motilal stood by him. A resolution on boycott of legislatures was narrowly carried and the programme of non-cooperation was drawn up, including a sweeping boycott of foreign cloth, of school and colleges, of law courts and legislatures. This was the beginning of the transformation of the Nehru family to a life of Khadi and simplicity, from aristocratic modes to ways of living closer to the people.
Motilal accepted it as a necessity, not as a principle. He gradually converted not because he believed in all that Gandhi said or did, but because he was attracted to Gandhi as a personality, a man with a will of steel, great courage and prophetic fervour.
Jawahar was the first among the youngsters who had taken a vow to threw out the Britishers from India by following the path of non-violence. This decision had already confirmed his future planning of what he has to do.
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