Motilal Nehru

Motilal Nehru (Kashmiri/Hindi: ) (6 May 1861 – 6 February 1931) was an early Indian independence activist and leader of the Indian National Congress. He was the founder patriarch of India's most powerful political family, the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Early life and education

The Nehrus originally Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir, settled in Delhi in the beginning of 18th century, where Motilal Nehru's grandfather, Lakshmi Narayan, became the first lawyer (Vakil) of the East India Company at the Mughal Imperial Court of Delhi. His son Gangadhar, was a police officer in Delhi in 1857, and during the Mutiny, when the British troops began shelling their way into the city, he fled to Agra along with his wife Jeorani and four children. He died here four years later, and ten months after his death, his youngest son Motilal was born.

He spent the early part of childhood in Khetri, second largest thikana estate within the princely Jaipur State, now in Rajasthan, where his elder brother, Nandlal was Diwan (Chief Minister). Thereafter in 1870, when Nandlal left his job, qualified as a lawyer and started practicing law at Agra, the family moved with him. Subsequently the High Court shifted base to Allahabad, and the family settled there. ...
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