Kamala Nehru Biography 
Kamala Nehru was a freedom fighter and the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. Kamala Nehru is the mother of Indira Gandhi and grandmother of Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. She is known for her sincerity, patriotic and sensitive nature. She married Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at the age of 17. She gave birth to Indira one year later.
Kamala was born in a traditional Kashmiri Brahmin middle-class family of old Delhi on 1 August 1899 as the daughter of Rajpati and Jawaharmal Kaul. Kamala was their eldest kid. All her schooling had been at home and she didn’t study English. Later Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, looked upon Kamala. Shortly after her marriage with Nehru, the newly wedded couple went to a trip in the Himalayas. Nehru has later commented about her in his autobiography, "I almost overlooked her." She gave birth to Indira Priyadarshini in November 1917. On November 1924, a boy was born to this couple, but he didn’t survive.
She was in forefront for India’s freedom struggle movement. In the Non Cooperation movement of 1921, she organized groups of women in Allahabad and picketed shops selling foreign cloth and liquor. When Nehru was arrested for delivering public speech, she delivered that speech later from the same place. She has organized women groups against British and after knowing her real strength, British government arrested her twice. She has spent time in Gandhi’s ashram with Kasturba Gandhi and had a close friendship with Prabhavati Devi.
Feroze Gandhi was closely associated with Kamala. Though she rejected his marriage proposal with Indira, stating the reason that she was only 16, later he became a part of Nehru family winning Kamala and Indira’s heart. He arranged foreign trips for her during her ill time and has also accompanied her to the TB Sanatorium at Bhowali in 1934. He was at her bedside during her death time. Kamala died from tuberculosis in Lausanne, Switzerland on 28 February 1936. Many institutions have been named after her including - Kamla Nehru College, Kamala Nehru Degree Evening college and Kamala Nehru Park.
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Updated: January 16, 2014
