• Dr. Shashi Kumar Singh,

Ph.D.,D.Litt.

Barring India, such families are rarely found in the whole world, who have played an important and decisive role in building the destiny of their country and have sacrificed their lives for the country; a rarity that the Nehru family has been blessed within India. Three generations of this family had sacrificed themselves and their entire wealth in the fight for India’s independence. Pandit Motilal Nehru, who was a substantial lawyer of the country at that time, opened the doors of his property to the freedom fighters and made his kothi(Mansion) ‘Anand Bhavan’ the main center of the freedom struggle. As a result of the ardent desire to lay down his wealth for the country, Pandit Motilal Nehru announced to donate his kothi ‘Anand Bhavan’, which is known worldwide as ‘Swarajya Bhawan’. After the death of Pandit Motilal Nehru, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru dedicated this building to the nation on November 24, 1931, in the honor of his father’s announcement. If we look at the philosophy of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (the second generation and son of Pandit Motilal Nehru), we get to see such a charitable talented personality like the brave ones only sometimes incarnated once in a millennium. For the first time in the Lahore session of the Indian National Congress in 1929 under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the demand for complete independence arose and a resolution was passed to this effect.

According to the Property Records of the Government of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru handed over 98% of his property to the country for nation building, in view of the severe shortage of resources in the ‘Navnirman’ of independent India. The donation of 196 crores by Pandit Nehru was the biggest donation of that time dedicated to the nation. The present generation must be aware of the fact that Pandit Nehru was at the top of the richest persons/politicians of the country during the freedom struggle. This height was attained by Pandit Motilal Nehru and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru through their strong legal profession and the sale of books written by themselves.

When India became independent, it was completely broke due to long subjugation and partition. At such a time, besides many famous industrialists of the country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru himself came forward and took the initiative and gave 98% of his wealth to the country. The donation of 196 crores given by Pandit Nehru at that time would amount to around 12 thousand crores in today’s time. The newly independent India was in dire need of donations to stand on its own feet at that time. In such a situation, this sacrifice of Jawaharlal Nehru was unique, unmatched and huge. According to media reports, Pandit Nehru had given almost his entire wealth to the nation till then.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s Personal Secretary MundapallilOommen Mathai, who remained his secretary for the rest of his life, writes in his book ‘Reminiscences of Nehru Age’ thus, “Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had become the Prime Minister of the country. Even after that, he did not have more than 200 rupees in his pocket. He used to spend even that money on the riot victims during the partition of India. There came a time when I stopped keeping money in his purse. Even after that, his tendency to be charitable did not stop and he started helping the victims financially by borrowing money from his subordinates. Mathai also mentions that Pandit Nehru was a man to spend very little money on himself. Living with simplicity had become a major part of his lifestyle. Regarding Nehru Ji’s personal financial management, Mathai has written in the twenty-first chapter ‘Nehru Attitude to the Money’ of his famous book ‘Reminiscences of Nehru Age’ about the Nehru sources of income and what did he do with this money. M.O. Mathai has written in the twenty-first chapter of his book, “When I took over as Personal Secretary to Nehru in 1946, Bachraj& Company of Mumbai looked after his financial affairs.It was a private company of famous industrialist Jamnalal Bajaj. Nehru ji told me that I should go to this company and study their finances. Later, on the instructions of Pandit Nehru ji, the work of his financial management was given to me. At that time, Nehru ji had the money flowing in from the property from his father and the royalty of the books. V.K. Krishna Menon looked after the royalty work of his books from Europe and America. The amount of royalty coming from there was a regular income in lakhs. On September 02, 1946, when Nehru became the head of the interim government, he had the above property from his father of 198 crores to donate to the nation and the money in the bank was around one and a half crore rupees, apart from the ancestral house.’’

The sales of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s three major books, the ‘Glimpses of World History’, the ‘Autobiography’ and the ‘Discovery of India’ grew unexpectedly and the royalty amount also increased. There was a huge increase in the wealth of Nehru ji. Pandit Nehru used to send a major part of this money to two places - First in the account of his daughter Indira, second to the Kamla Nehru Memorial Hospital in Allahabad made in the memory of wife Kamla Nehru. Poor and needy patients were treated in this hospital free of cost. During this time, he also deposited 25000-25000 rupees in the small saving scheme of the Government of India in the name of his two grandsons Rajiv and Sanjay. This amount was definitely less but Pandit Nehru naturally used to dedicate a large amount of his income to the nation. At the same time, it was in his nature to refrain from taking the amount of income tax refund, although it was his natural right. At that time, all the people of the country, whether industrialists or other people all used to take the amount of income tax refund.

Employee Welfare Account opened with the amount of Income Tax CERI fund: The income tax that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru used to pay for his personal income was hefty. The amount of refund received by the Income Tax Department for five years was huge. With this amount, Nehru ji opened the ‘Employee’s Welfare Account’. This helped immensely his employees of ‘kothi’ Anand Bhawan in Delhi and Allahabad. This welfare account continued for many years even after his life.

Mathai has also written in his book on the income of Nehru Ji’s books that “Later the condition was such that Nehru ji started to get more money from communist countries for his books than what he got from the royalty of his books from Europe.”

Mathai further writes, “Nehru Ji used to spend very little money on himself. He did not believe in spending too much on himself. Overwhelmed by the honour, he even bought expensive paintings of Gandhiji.”

It has been written in Mathai’s book, “It was quite improbable that Nehru ji, before and after becoming the Prime Minister, may have asked someone for money for some personal work or told someone personally that he should put his money in this better work. He used to refuse to accept donations of any kind. No matter for what purpose the donation was being given.” Mathai has written at another place in the same book that, once Nehru ji came to know that his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit had met huge personal expenses while being ambassador in America. It had been paid for by government funds and money received from industrialist Birla. Nehru ji got this matter secretly investigated. As a result, Vijayalakshmi had to return this amount in instalments.” In this case, when Mathai met Birla to know the truth, another interesting information surfaced. Birla’s company had made a register, in which the names of almost all the big Congress leaders and the amount given to them from time-to-time were written. These amounts were often given to politicians as financial aid or as expenses for their personal staff. It included names from Gandhiji to Sardar Patel, except for only one leader and that was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Jawahar Bal Bhavan

Bal Bhavan operates from Swarajya Bhavan itself. It was founded by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru because he felt that Bal Bhavan could channelize the potential of the nation’s students to proper use. Bal Bhavan helps the meritorious poor students to become creative thinkers, compassionate and responsible citizens of the future so that they can contribute to the society.

Imbued with the imagination of developing the talents of the talented poor students run by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s Bal Bhavan and making them fully responsible citizens, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, during his Prime Ministership, made Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya a main pillar of the New Education Policy. In this regard, his views were, “The test of any education system is that it should advance the talent. One of the responsibilities that we have towards the children of our nation is to discover the talent. In any society, talent is not limited to one class or one area. The education policy stresses the importance of providing quality education to children from all sections of the society, whether in rural or urban areas. Keeping this in view, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (Model Schools) have been started. Some critics, who are not aware of the facts, describe this new experiment as a special class experiment. In fact, it is the first bold step towards making quality education non-categorical and an attempt to provide education to children who cannot afford the high cost of public schooling.”

The unprecedented contribution made by the Nehru family right from the Indian freedom struggle to the creation of independent India, is an exemplary one. There is no other example of dedicating all their wealth to the name of the country in the struggle for freedom better than Pandit Moti Lal Nehru to Jawaharlal Nehru. After independence, the tendency of Nehru Ji to be charitable is not hidden from anyone. At the time of Chinese aggression in 1962, Smt. Indira Gandhi came forward and dedicated all her jewellery to the country. This is unprecedented and incomparable for any Indian woman.

The immense personality of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru can be gauged from the fact that when on May 27, 1964, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s poet-heart cried on the death of Jawaharlal Nehru. What he said while paying homage to Panditji in the Rajya Sabha is unforgettable and it is possible only in a democracy like India that a leader of the opposition can say these words with such feeling, with such deep respect and reverence. He said, “Chairman sir, it was a dream, which merged into infinity. The dream was of a world free from fear and hunger. It was a song of an epic, which had the echo of Gita and the smell of rose. It was a flame of a lamp, which kept burning through the night, fighting every darkness and by showing us the way, attained Nirvana itself one morning.” Death is the pole; the body is mortal. The destruction of the body which we set ablaze on the pyre of sandalwood was certain. But was it necessary that death should come so stealthily, when the companions were asleep? When the guards were unaware. The priceless treasure of our life is looted. Mother India is mourning today, she has lost her dearest prince. Humanity is sorry today as its priest fell asleep. Peace is disturbed today as its protector is gone. Dalits lost their support. The apple of everyone’s eye is gone. The main actor of the world’s theater died after performing his last act. It is no exaggeration to say that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the biggest philanthropist and superhero of the 20th century.

Reference

1. Mathai, M.O. Reminiscences of Nehru Age, Delhi.
2. Singh, Krishna Hathi, Indu to PM, pp. 13, 16
3. Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography, pp. 598-599
4. Sir William Muir, Confidential Dispatches, Imperial Records.
5. The Municipal Building Records.
6. B. N. Pandey, Allahabad: Retrospect and Prospect pp. 26-27
7. Motilal Nehru Birth Centenary Souvenir, 1961, The Spirit of India, pp. 293-6
8. Sunder Lal: Naya Hind, February, 1957.
9. Speech of Rajiv Gandhi in the Lok Sabha on December 13, 1988, regarding Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya.

(The author is Chairman, Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee, Vichar Vibhag)