Kamala Nehru: Difference between revisions

| birth_place        = [[Delhi]], [[British India]]

| death_place        = [[Lausanne]], [[Switzerland]]

| spouse            = {{marriage|[[Jawaharlal Nehru]]|1916|1936}}

'''Kamala Nehru''' ([[Née|''née'']] '''Kaul'''; {{audio|Kamla Nehru.ogg|pronunciation}}; 1st August 1899 – 28 February 1936) was an Indian independence activist and the wife of [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], the first Prime Minister of [[India]]. Her daughter [[Indira Gandhi]] was the first female Prime Minister of India.

 

Kamala was born on 1 August 1899 to Rajpati and Jawahar Mull Atal-Kaul who were from a [[Kashmiri Pandit]] family of [[Old Delhi]].<ref name=Jayakar1995>{{cite book|last1=Jayakar|first1=Pupul|title=Indira Gandhi, a biography|date=1995|publisher=Penguin|location=New Delhi, India|isbn=978-0140114621|pages=9–11|edition=Rev.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gm5JGkb2rhkC&q=%22kamala+marriage&pg=PR9}}</ref> She was the eldest child and had two brothers, Chand Bahadur Kaul and the botanist, [[Kailas Nath Kaul]], and a sister, Swaroop Kathju.

Kamala married [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] at the age of 16.<ref name=Jayakar1995/> Her husband went to a trip in the [[Himalayas]] shortly after their marriage.<ref name=windsor/> In his autobiography, Jawaharlal Nehru, referring to his wife, stated "I almost overlooked her."<ref name=windsor>{{cite news|title=From years 1916 to 1964...The man and the times|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tzA_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=81AMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4355,5162968&dq=kamala+nehru&hl=en|access-date=19 January 2013|newspaper=The Windsor Star|date=27 May 1964}}</ref> Kamala gave birth to a girl child in November 1917, [[Indira Gandhi|Indira Priyadarshini]], who later succeeded her father as prime minister and head of the Congress party.<ref name=windsor/>

Kamala was involved with Harilal Gandhi   in the national movement, that she emerged into the forefront. In the Non Cooperation movement of 1931, 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 Independence struggle activities, along with [[Sarojini Naidu]], Nehru's mother and other women of the Indian freedom struggle.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Nehru|first1=Jawaharlal|title=An Autobiography|date=26 January 1936|publisher=Bodley Head|location=London}}</ref><ref name="iloveindia1">{{cite web|url=http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/kamala-nehru.html|title=Kamala Nehru Biography|publisher=Iloveindia|access-date=15 September 2012}}</ref> During this period she started a dispensary in her house [[Swaraj Bhavan]], converting few rooms into a Congress Dispensary to treat wounded activists, their families, and other residents of Allahabad(now Prayagraj). After her death, [[Mahatma Gandhi]] with the help of other prominent leaders converted this dispensary into a proper hospital known as [[Kamla Nehru Memorial Hospital]] in her memory.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.knmhospital.org/legacy.aspx|title=KNMH : The Legacy|website=www.knmhospital.org}}</ref>  

Kamala died from [[tuberculosis]] in [[Lausanne]], [[Switzerland]] on 28 February 1936, with her daughter and mother-in-law by her side. During her last few years, Kamala was frequently ill and taken to a [[sanatorium]] in Switzerland for treatment, though she returned to India as she got well. In early 1935, as Kamala's health again deteriorated, she was taken to [[Badenweiler]] (Southern Germany) by [[Subhas Chandra Bose|Subhash Chandra Bose]] and admitted to a sanatorium for treatment. Her husband (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru) was in prison in India at that time. As her health worsened, Nehru was released from prison and rushed to Germany in October 1935. While Kamala's health improved initially, it started to deteriorate again in 1936, and she died in February. In the prologue to his autobiography, in a chapter added after Kamala's death, Nehru recounts that he was devastated and remained mourning for a few months.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Nehru|first1=Jawaharlal|title=An Autobiography|date= 1940|publisher=Bodell Head|location=London|edition=2nd}}</ref>

[[File:Kamala Nehru 1974 stamp of India.jpg|thumb|Kamala Nehru on a 1974 stamp of India]]

A number of institutions in India, such as [http://knmhospital.org/ Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital & Regional Cancer Centre], [[Kamla Nehru Prani Sangrahalay]] ([[Indore]]), [[Kamala Nehru College]], [[University of Delhi]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20130516122849/http://knec.webs.com/ Kamala Nehru Degree Evening College (Bangalore)],

[[Kamla Nehru College for Women, Jodhpur]], Kamala Nehru Park (Pune), [[Kamla Nehru Institute of Technology]] (Sultanpur), [[Kamla Nehru College, Korba]], Kamala Nehru Women's College (Bhubaneswar), Kamala Nehru Polytechnic (Hyderabad), [[Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management|Shri Ramdeobaba Kamala Nehru Engineering College (Nagpur)]], Kamala Nehru Memorial Vocational Higher Secondary School Vatanappally (Kerala), andShaskiya Kamla Nehru Girls Higher Secondary School (Bhopal) are named after her.

In Pakistan, [[Karachi]] has a road named after Kamla Nehru.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ndtv.com/blog/finding-kamala-nehru-in-pakistan-jinnah-in-guntur-764557|title=Blog: Finding Kamala Nehru in Pakistan, Jinnah in Guntur|work=NDTV.com|date=20 May 2015}}</ref>

''Kamala Kaul (Nehru) '' is a 1986 Indian [[documentary film]] directed by Ashish Mukherjee. Produced by the [[Government of India]]'s [[Films Division of India|Films Division]] it provides an overview of her life and contributions.<ref>{{Cite web|title=KAMALA NEHRU {{!}} Films Division|url=https://filmsdivision.org/shop/kamala-nehru|access-date=2021-06-12|website=filmsdivision.org}}</ref>

==See also==