Gangadhar Nehru

Gangadhar Nehru (23 September 1827 - 4 February 1861) was an Indian police officer, who served as the last kotwal of Delhi (Chief of Police) in the court of the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II, before the position was abolished following the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

He was the father of Indian independence activist Motilal Nehru and grandfather of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and thus part of the Nehru–Gandhi family.^[1]

Biography[]

During the early part of the 19th century, Gangadhar's father, Laxmi Narain Nehru, worked as a scribe in Delhi for the East India Company.^[2]

Gangadhar Nehru was appointed the Kotwal (a rank similar to Chief of police) of Delhi in the court of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II.^[3] He was the last person to hold that post, as the institution was soon abolished as a result of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.^[4] 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). His youngest child, Motilal, was born posthumously, three months later.^[5][6]

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 practising lawyer in Agra.^[5]

References[]