Today, May 6, 2023, is the 162nd birth anniversary of Pandit Motilal Nehru who was elected twice as the president of the Indian National Congress (INC) – 1919 (Amritsar), 1928 (Kolkata) – during a crucial phase of the independence movement. Motilal Nehru was born on May 6, 1861 in Agra. He followed the profession of his elder brother, Nandlal Nehru and became an extremely successful lawyer. He attended, as a delegate, the fourth session of the INC at Allahabad in 1888, a year before Jawaharlal was born. He attended the subsequent sessions but it was only after the partition of Bengal that he commenced active participation in national affairs. In the tug of war between Moderates and Extremists, Motilal Nehru sided with the Moderates. In 1909, he was a member of the UP Council and, later, became the president of the UP Congress and a member of the AICC. Jawaharlal Nehru explains in his autobiography why his father, in his initial years, took the side of Moderates:
‘A man of strong feelings, strong passions, tremendous pride and great strength of will, he was very far from the moderate type. And yet in 1907 and 1908 and for some years afterwards, he was undoubtedly a moderate of Moderates and he was bitter against the Extremists, though I believe he admired Tilak. Why was this so? It was natural for him with his grounding in law and constitutionalism to take a lawyer’s and a constitutional view of politics.’
However, in 1917, Motilal Nehru joined the Home Rule League of Annie Beasant, and in 1918 parted company with his Moderate friends. The Jallianwalla massacre in 1919 and the emergence of Mahatma Gandhi on the national scene witnessed a revolutionary change in national politics. Motilal Nehru became a close associate of Gandhiji and presided over the session of INC at Amritsar in 1919. Motilal Nehru came under the Gandhian spell, but his decision to support the Mahatma was no less influenced by the path chosen by his son, Jawaharlal, who had cast his lot with Gandhiji earlier – defying his father’s reservations. The beginning of non-cooperation meant a life of simplicity, austerity and self-sacrifice for the occupants of Anand Bhavan. Motilal Nehru, who had entered his 60th year, resigned from the UP Council, abandoned his legal practice – worth lakhs of rupees – changed his style of living, consigned cartloads of foreign finery to the public bonfire, gave up non-vegetarian food and put on Khadi.
A special session of the Congress was held in Calcutta in September 1920 to give a call for Non-Cooperation under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. The Non-Cooperation resolution was opposed by many senior Congress leaders, including Lala Lajpat Rai, Chittaranjan Das and Madan Mohan Malaviya. But Motilal Nehru’s support to the Mahatma proved crucial and the Calcutta Congress passed the resolution in favour of Non-Cooperation. At the Nagpur session held in December of the same year to ratify the Calcutta resolution, even Lala Lajpat Rai and Chittaranjan Das supported the resolution. In fact, both of them were chosen to move and second the Non-Cooperation resolution.
On December 7, 1921, both Motilal Nehru and Jawaharlal Nehru were arrested (this was the beginning of the younger Nehru’s over nine-year jail term) and sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment. While they were in jail, Gandhiji suspended the Non-Cooperation Movement on February 4, 1922 due to the famous Chauri Chaura incident.
On release from jail in June 1922, Motilal Nehru announced the formation of the Swaraj Party (within the Congress) with C.R. Das as its President. The Swaraj Party advocated the Council entry to extend Non-Cooperation to the Central Assembly and Provincial legislatures. Motilal Nehru was elected leader of the opposition in the Central Legislative Assembly. It was recognised that ‘the Swaraj Party rendered signal service to the country. For the first time the Legislative Assembly wore the appearance of a truly National Assembly where national grievances were fully voiced, national aims and aspirations expressed without any reservation and real character of the British rule exposed. The British autocracy and Indian bureaucracy stood exposed to the whole world.’
According to historian B.R. Nanda, “with his (Motilal Nehru’s) commanding personality, incisive intellect, great knowledge of law, brilliant advocacy, ready wit and combative sprit, he seemed to be cut out for a parliamentary role.” However, with the death of Chittaranjan Das in 1925, the Swaraj Party suffered a serious setback to its morale. Ultimately, Motilal Nehru decided to dissolve the party in 1926. This was also due to the fact that the Viceroy had veto power over all decisions of the assembly, which Motilal Nehru found frustrating.
The Madras (now Chennai) session of the Congress in 1927 authorised the party to draft the future constitution of India in consultation with all political parties. Accordingly, an all-party committee was formed with Motilal Nehru as chairman to prepare the proposed constitution. After having a detailed discussion with all parties, including the Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha, Motilal Nehru submitted his proposals as the country’s goal, proposed joint electorates (in place of existing separate electorates) with reservation for Muslims. Amongst other salient features of the Nehru Report were (a) India will be a secular nation (b) untouchability will be completely abolished (c) women will have the same status as men (d) there will be a Lok Seva Sangh for administration (e) education will be free and compulsory.
Later, at the 1928 Calcutta session, the ‘Young Turks’ led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose who were clamouring for complete independence accepted Dominion Status only after Gandhiji’s compromise formula of declaring complete independence if dominion status was not granted within one year. Purna Swaraj was declared as the goal of the Congress at the Lahore session of the Congress presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru. The Lahore Session also authorised the launching of the Civil Disobedience movement under the leadership of Gandhiji who began the historic salt satyagraha on March 12, 1930.
During Gandhi’s Dandi March, in March-April 1930, Motilal Nehru gifted his palatial house Anand Bhavan in Allahabad to the nation. He died on February 6, 1931, in Lucknow. In an emotional tribute, the Mahatma said, “What I have lost through the death of Motilalji is a loss for ever, ‘rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee’.” Bose, who was opposed to the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, which was signed soon after Motilal Nehru’s death, wrote: “He (Motilal Nehru) towered head and shoulders above his contemporaries and, in 1931, he was the one man in the Congress Working Committee who could have influenced the Mahatma for good. It was therefore a misfortune that at the time of the Delhi negotiations he was on his death bed and it was nothing short of a national calamity that he passed away in early 1931.”
Motilal Nehru was an inspirational figure of the freedom struggle whose sacrifices and selfless services had few parallels. A poetic tribute rightly referred to him as ‘Prince amongst patriots.’
Praveen Davar is a former Army officer and political columnist. He is the author of Freedom Struggle & Beyond.
