Nehru's Better Half...

The lesser-known Nehru, the better half, the support system Jawaharlal Nehru relied so much on, she was Kamala Nehru and this is about her. A wife, a mother, and a female freedom fighter that India should always be thankful for. Here's a story for a woman who left us too soon, but will be remembered for long.

The person behind India's first Prime Minister; Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

At the age of sixteen, Kamala Kaul was married to a man who was twenty-six. This ten-year wide gap... was she even aware of it? Of what she was doing or who this man was? Well of course not. She really had no choice in the first place, to begin with. After her marriage, the husband left for a trip to Himachal. What could a teenage girl be thinking at a time like this? Fast forward to next year, she was already pregnant with a baby girl.

Saying it was a roller-coaster life would still be an understatement. But Kamala Nehru was a woman who let her thoughts out loud in her mind even if she remained quiet. She was shy but not a person who would sit back and watch things or circumstances control her life that easily. Kaul had started realizing from a young age that she had to make the best out of the situation she was stuck in.

Kamala Nehru wasn't just the wife of the famous Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, she was a woman with her own identity. She was a brave freedom fighter who would stand by her husband and help him come up with good solutions and strategies.

Deeply inspired by Gandhi, Kamala Nehru stepped up and fought for India's freedom by joining the Non-Cooperation movement. In 1921, she empowered many women to picket shops selling foreign liquor and clothes.

She was born on 1st August 1899 to a Kashmiri Pandit family in Old Delhi. Starting from there and ending up as an inspiration to the women around her, Kaul had surely grown up only to become more audacious and fearless. She eventually had a big impact on her husband's life by helping him participate and do more for India's freedom. It was her words that changed Nehru into the radical leader he's known today for.

One heroic highlight of her life was when she took the duty of continuing to read out the same "seditious" speech for which her husband was imprisoned earlier.

"I almost overlooked her."— Jawaharlal Nehru in his autobiography regarding Kamala Nehru.

Kamala Nehru had become her husband's driving force, standing like a rock: strong and gutsy. She comforted Nehru and always made him feel optimistic when he was around. If anything, Nehru was proud and lucky to have her as his wife. Their camaraderie thus is something to always look up to. Even after Nehru got thrown into jail, she continued to protest endlessly.

She would bravely sustain the lathi charges while she was arrested and thrown in prison. Despite that, Kamala Nehru took the liberty of converting Nehru's mansion into a recovery base for treating injured freedom fighters. She was also believed to be one of the leaders who sold salt as contraband during the salt satyagraha protest.

While Nehru was still in prison, Kamala's health started deteriorating. She was thus rushed to her regular hospital in Switzerland where she received her previous treatments. However this time, it seemed much worse than before as she had fallen sick with tuberculosis.

With her condition worsening, Kamala Nehru eventually passed away on 28th February 1936 due to tuberculosis. Upon knowing her death, Nehru was released from prison and rushed to Switzerland only to feel devastated. She was only 37, and thus died young. India was proud to have her fight for its independence and so was Nehru.

This story was thus about a girl who started out young with her own difficult path and later a woman who made lives easier for the ones around her. Rest in power, Kamala Kaul Nehru.