|
Pandit Motilal Nehru, an
eminent lawyer and politician, was born on May 6, 1861. The Nehrus
hailed from Kashmir, but had settled in Delhi since the beginning of
the eighteenth century. Motilal's grandfather, Lakshmi Narayan,
became the first Vakil of the East India Company at the Mughal Court
of Delhi. Motilal's father, Gangadhar, was a police officer in Delhi
in 1857, when it was engulfed by the Mutiny. When the British troops
shelled their way into the town, Gangadhar fled with his wife
Jeorani and four children to Agra where he died four years later.
Three months after his death Jeorani gave birth to a boy who was
named Motilal. Motilal spent his childhood at Khetri in Rajasthan,
where his elder brother Nandial became the Diwan. In 1870 Nandlal
quit Khetri, qualified as a lawyer and began to practice law at
Agra. When the High Court was transferred to Allahabad, be moved
with it.
Meanwhile Motilal passed
the matriculation examination from Kanpur and joined the Muir
Central College at Allahabad. Athletic, fond of outdoor sports,
specially wrestling, brimming over with an insatiable curiosity and
zest for life, he soon attracted the attention of Principal Harrison
and his British colleagues, in the Muir Central College, who took a
strong liking to this intelligent, lively and restless Kashmiri
youth.
Motilal decided to
become a lawyer, topped the list of successful candidates in the
Vakil's examination in 1883, set up as a lawyer at Kanpur, but three
years later shifted to Allahabad where his brother Nandlal had a
lucrative practice at the High Court. Unfortunately, Nandlal died in
April 1887 at the age of forty-two, leaving behind five sons and two
daughters. Young Motilal found himself, at the age of twenty-five,
as the head of a large family, its sole bread-winner.
In 1889 Motilal's wife
Swarup Rani gave birth to a son, who was named Jawaharlal. Two
daughters, Sarup (later Vijayalakshmi Pandit) and Krishna (later
Krishna Hutheesing) were born in 1900 and 1907 respectively. In 1900
Motilal purchased a house at Allahabad, rebuilt it, and named it
Anand Bhawan (the abode of happiness). His legal practice was
meanwhile growing. A rise in his standard of living was paralleled
by a progressive westernization, a process which was accelerated by
his visits to Europe in 1899 and 1900. Thorough-going changes, from
knives and forks at the dining table to European governesses and
tutors for the children, ensued.
In May 1905 Motilal
again sailed for Europe, this time with his whole family. He
returned in November of the same year after putting Jawaharlal to
school at Harrow. From Harrow, Jawaharlal went to Cambridge where he
took a Tripos in Natural Science before being called to the Bar in
1912.
Motilal's early
incursions into politics were reluctant, brief and sporadic. The
list of 1,400 delegates of the Allahabad Congress (1888) includes: "Pandit
Motilal, Hindu, Brahmin, Vakil, High Court, N.W.P. (North-Western
Provinces)." He attended some of the subsequent sessions of the
Congress, but unlike his Allahabad contemporary Madan Mohan Malaviya,
he was no more than a passive spectator. It was the tug-of-war
between the Moderates and the Extremists in the aftermath of the
Partition of Bengal which drew Motilal into the arena and, strangely
enough, on the side of the Moderates. In 1907 he presided over a
Provincial Conference of the Moderate politicians at Allahabad.
In 1909 he was elected a
member of the U.P. Council. He attended the Delhi Durbar in 1911 in
honour of the visit of King George V and Queen Mary, became a member
of the Allahabad Municipal Board and of the All India Congress
Committee. He was elected President of the U.P. Congress.
Nevertheless, it was not politics but domestic and professional
pre-occupations which were the dominant interest of his life during
this period. But from 1912 onwards when JawaharIal returned from
England, there were forces at work, both at home and in the country,
which were to lead Motilal into the maelstrom of national politics.
The First World War
generated deep discontent in several sectors of Indian Society which
found a focus in the home Rule Movement. Motilal had been reluctant
to join the home Rule League, but the internment of Mrs. Besant in
June 1917 brought him into the fray. He became the President of the
Allahabad branch of the home Rule League. Now began a perceptible
shift in Motilal's politics. In August 1918 he parted company with
his Moderate friends on the constitutional issue, and attended the
Bombay Congress which demanded radical changes in the Montagu-Chelmsford
Reforms. On February 5, 1919 he launched a new daily paper, the
Independent, as a counterblast to the well-established local daily
paper, the Leader, which was much too moderate for Motilal's taste
in 1919.
The emergence of Mahatma
Gandhi on the Indian political stage changed the course of Indian
history; it also profoundly influenced the life of Motilal Nehru and
his family. The Rowlatt Bills and the publication of the Satyagraha
pledge in February 1919 deeply stirred Jawaharlal; he felt an
irresistible call to follow the Mahatma. Motilal was not the man to
be easily swept off his feet; his legal background predisposed him
against any extra-constitutional agitation. It was clear to both
father and son that they were at the crossroads. Neither was
prepared to give in, but at Motilal's instance Gandhiji intervened
and counselled young Nehru to be patient.
Shortly afterwards
events marched to a tragic climax in the Punjab; the holocaust of
Jallianwala Bagh was followed by Martial Law. Motilal did what he
could to bring succour and solace to that unhappy province. He gave
his time freely, at the cost of his own legal practice, to the
defence of scores of helpless victims of Martial Law, who had been
condemned to the gallows or sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
Elected to preside over
the Amritsar Congress (December 1919), Motilal was in the centre of
the gathering storm which pulled down many familiar landmarks during
the following year. He was the only front rank leader to lend his
support to non-cooperation at the special Congress at Calcutta in
September 1920. Motilal's fateful decision to cast in his lot with
Gandhiji was no doubt influenced by the tragic chain of events in
1919. Apart from the compulsion of events, there was another vital
factor without which he may not have made, in his sixtieth year, a
clean break with his past and plunged into the unknown. This was the
unshakeable resolve of his son to go the way of Satyagraha.
Immediately after the
Calcutta Congress Motilal resigned from the U.P. Council, abandoned
his practice at the Bar, curtailed the vast retinue of servants in
Anand Bbawan, changed his style of living, consigned cartloads of
foreign finery to public bonfires and put on khadi.
In December 1921 both
father and son were arrested and sentenced to six months'
imprisonment. In February 1922 came the anti-climax, when Gandhiji
first announced and then suddenly cancelled mass civil disobedience.
In March the Mahatma himself was arrested, tried for sedition and
sentenced to six years' imprisonment.
When Motilal came out of
gaol in the summer of 1922, he found that the movement had declined,
the Congress organisation was distracted by internal squabbles, and
the constructive programme could not evoke the enthusiasm of the
intelligentsia. Motilal felt that the time had come to revise the
programme of non-cooperation so as to permit entry into Legislative
Councils. This revision was resisted by those who regarded
themselves as the faithful followers of the Mahatma. A long and
bitter controversy, which nearly split the Congress, ensued.
However, Motilal and C. R. Das founded the Swarajya Party in January
1923, had their way, and contested the elections at the end of 1923.
The Swarajya Party was the largest Party in the Central Legislative
Assembly as well as in some of the Provincial Legislatures. From
1925 onwards it was recognised by the Congress as its political
wing.
The spotlight shifts for
the next six years to the Legislative Assembly where Motilal was the
leader of the Opposition. With his commanding personality, incisive
intellect, great knowledge of law, brilliant advocacy, ready wit and
combative spirit, he seemed to be cut out for a Parliamentary role.
The Legislative Assembly, however, was no Parliament. It was a
hybrid legislature elected on a narrow and communal franchise; it
had a solid bloc of official, nominated, European and some Indian
members who took their cue from the irremovable executive. At first
Motilal was able to secure sufficient support from the Moderate and
the Muslim legislators to outvote the Government. He ruled his own
party with an iron hand, but found his task increasingly difficult
from 1926 onwards when communal and personal squabbles divided and
weakened the Swarajya Party.
Towards the end of 1927,
with the appointment of the Simon Commission, there came a political
revival. The exclusion of Indians from the Commission united Indian
parties in opposition to the Government. An All-Parties Conference
was convened by Dr. Ansari, the Congress President, and a Committee,
including Tej Bahadur Sapru and headed by Motital, was appointed to
determine the principles of a constitution for free India. The
report of the Committee - the Nehru Report as it came to be called -
attempted a solution of the communal problem which unfortunately
failed to receive the support of a vocal section of Muslim opinion
led by the Aga Khan and Jinnah.
The Nehru Report,
representing as it did the highest common denominator among a number
of heterogeneous Parties was based on the assumption that the new
Indian Constitution would be based on Dominion Status. This was
regarded as a climb-down by a radical wing in the Congress led by
Subhash Bose and Motilal's own son who founded the "Independence for
India League". The Calcutta Congress (December 1928) over which
Motilal presided was the scene of a head-on clash between those who
were prepared to accept Dominion Status and those who would have
nothing short of complete independence. A split was averted by a via
media proposed by Gandhiji, according to which if Britain did not
concede Dominion Status within a year, the Congress was to demand
complete independence and to fight for it, if necessary, by
launching civil disobedience.
The way was thus opened
for Gandhiji's return to active politics and for the revival of
Satyagraha. Motilal was at first more amused than impressed by
Gandhiji's plans for the breach of the salt laws, but as the
movement caught on. It found him against the advice of his doctors
in the centre of the political arena. He was arrested and
imprisoned; but his health gave way and he was released. But there
could be no peace for him when most of his family was in gaol and
the whole of India was passing through a baptism of fire. In the
last week of January 1931 Gandhiji and the Congress Working
Committee were released by the Government as a gesture in that chain
of events which was to lead to the Gandhi-lrwin Pact. Motilal had
the satisfaction of having his son and Gandhiji beside him in his
last days. On February 6, 1931 he passed away.
Motilal had a rational,
robust, secular and fearless outlook on life. A brilliant lawyer, an
eloquent speaker, a great parliamentarian, and a greater organizer,
Motilal was one of the most notable and attractive figures of Indian
nationalism in the Gandhian era.
|
