Monarch Bahadur Shah II Role Police officer Name Gangadhar Nehru | Parents Lakshmi Narayan Nehru Spouse(s) Jeorani Died 1861, Agra | |
Children Motilal Nehru, Nandlal Nehru, Patrani Nehru Grandchildren Jawaharlal Nehru, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Krishna Hutheesing Great grandchildren Indira Gandhi, Nayantara Sahgal, Ajit Hutheesing Similar People Motilal Nehru, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Krishna Hutheesing, Jawaharlal Nehru | ||
Gangadhar Nehru (1827 – February 1861) was an Indian police officer, who served as the last kotwal of Delhi (Chief of police) in the court of Bahadur Shah II, before the position was abolished following the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He was the father of freedom fighter Motilal Nehru and grandfather of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and thus part of the Nehru–Gandhi family.
Biography
During the early part of the 19th Century, Gangadhar's father, Lakshmi Narayan Nehru, worked as a scribe in Delhi for the East India Company. Gangadhar was appointed the Kotwal (a rank similar to Chief of police) of Delhi in the court of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II. He was the last person to hold that post, as the institution was soon abolished as a result of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Later when the British troops began shelling their way into the city, he fled to Agra along with his wife Jeorani and their four children (two teenage sons, Bansidhar and Nandlal, and two daughters, Patrani and Maharani). The daughters' marriages into suitable Kashmiri Brahmin families were arranged soon after their arrival in Agra. Gangadhar died in February 1861 and his youngest child, Motilal, was born posthumously, three months later.
Gangadhar's eldest son, Bansi Dhar Nehru worked in the judicial department of the British Government and, being appointed successively to various places, was partly cut off from the rest of the family. The second son, Nandlal, entered the service of an Indian State and was Diwan of Khetri State in Rajputana for ten years. Later he studied law and settled down as a practicing lawyer in Agra.