Born: 6 May 1861
Died: 6 February 1931
Shri Motilal Nehru was born on 6 May 1861 in Delhi as the posthumous son of Nehru’s family, who had been settled there for several generations. In 1857, during the struggle for independence, the Nehru family left Delhi and migrated to Agra.
After passing the law examination in 1883 Motilal began his practice as a lawyer in Kanpur. Later in April 1887, he joined the lucrative practice established by his brother Nandlal at Allahabad, the following year his brother died who was forty-two years old and left his five sons and two daughters behind. Thus at the age of 25, Motilal became the only bread-earner of the family.
Soon he made a mark for him in Allahabad’s legal profession as most of his court cases were civil cases and involved large land-owning families. With his dedicated work, in 1900, he bought and rebuilt a large family home in the Civil Lines, which was named Anand Bhavan. In 1909 he reached the top of his career by acquiring the compliance to appear at the Privy Council of Great Britain. Shri Motilal Nehru was the first Chairman of the board of directors of ‘The Leader’, which was a leading daily, published from Allahabad at that time. In 1919, Motilal Nehru launched ‘The Independent’ a daily newspaper, which was a counterblast to The Leader, and was too liberal for his standard.
In 1918, Nehru was one of the first to modify his life by excluding western items, and adopting a more native Indian lifestyle, all under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi, and started his path to become wealthy among some of the leaders of the Indian National Congress.
Motilal Nehru served twice as president of the Congress Party, firstly in 1919, Amritsar and the second time in 1928, Calcutta and was the only front-rank leader who gave his support to non-co-operation at the special Congress in September 1920. In 1928, he chaired the famous Nehru Commission which was a counter to the all-British Simon Commission.
He was the father of India’s first Prime Minister Shri Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Motilal Nehru’s declining health and age kept him away from the historic events of 1929–1931. He was arrested and imprisoned with his son (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru) but due to his health issues he was released on 6 February 1931 following which he passed away.
Swami Vivekanand Subharti University remembers Shri Motilal Nehru for being the patriarch of India’s most powerful political dynasty which produced three powerful Prime Ministers.