123. Kamala Nehru ( 1899-1936)

Kamala Kaul Nehru  (1 August 1899 - 28 February 1936)(Jawaharlal Nehru - leader of the Indian National Congress and the first prime minister of India and the mother of Indira Gandhi.
 She was known to be deeply sincere, highly patriotic, serious minded and
  was a freedom fighter and the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Kamala Nehru was born on 1 August 1899 and brought up in a traditional Kashmiri Brahmin middle class family of old Delhi. Rajpati and Jawaharmal Kaul were Kamala Nehru's parents. Kamala, their eldest child, had two brothers, Chand Bahadur Kaul and the botanist, Kailas Nath Kaul, and a sister, Swaroop Kathju. All her schooling had been at home, under the guidance of a Pandit and a Maulvi.and she did not know a word of English. Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, looked upon Kamala with that unique contempt that only an English-speaking Indian can have for the unanglicized.

Marriage

Kamala wedded Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru at the age of 17. Her husband went to a trip in the Himalayas shortly after their marriage. In his autobiography, Jawaharlal Nehru, referring to his wife, stated "I almost overlooked her." Kamala gave birth to a girl child in November 1917, Indira Priyadarshini, who later succeeded her father as prime minister and head of the Congress party. Kamala gave birth to a boy in November 1924, but he lived for a week only.

Nehru in 1918 with wife Kamala and daughter Indira

Contribution to the Indian Freedom Movement

Nehru was involved with the Nehrus in the national movement, that she emerged into the forefront. In the Non Cooperation movement of 1921, she organized groups of women in Allahabad and picketed shops selling foreign cloth and liquor. When her husband was arrested to prevent him delivering a "seditious" public speech, she went in his place to read it out. The British soon realized the threat that Kamala Nehru posed to them and how popular she had become with women's groups all over India. She was thus arrested on two occasions for involvement in freedom struggle activities.

Friends

Kamala Nehru spent some time at Gandhi's ashram with Kasturba Gandhi where she built a close friendship with Prabhavati Devi.

Death and legacy

Kamala died from tuberculosis in Lausanne, Switzerland on 28 February 1936, with her daughter and her mother-in-law by her side. Kamala was cremated at the Lasagna Crematorium. A number of institutions in India, such as Kamla Nehru College, University of Delhi, Kamala Nehru Degree Evening college (Bangalore), Kamala Nehru Park, Kamala Nehru Institute of Technology(Sultanpur), Kamala Nehru Hospital are named after her.