Pandit Motilal Nehru On Friday, February 6th, Pandit Motilal Nehru
died at the age of sixty-nine. Before the War he was known as a highly successful lawyer who had, as the Times says, a passion for entertaining in his beautiful home. After the War, however, he became one of Mr. Gandhi's inti- mates and colleagues. He adopted the cause of non- co-operation and was imprisoned, and on' his release clothed himself in homespun and abandoned his Western way of life. He turned his home into a school and lived with his family, as the Times tells us, in one of the out-houses. He founded the Independent, an extreme Nationalist .paper, and became the President of the Congress. He joined in the boycott of the Simon Commis- sion, and will be long remembered as the chief author of the " Nehru Report," which was written in answer to Lord Birkenhead's challenge to Indians to publish their own ideas of an Indian Constitution. The Report demanded Dominion status, but was much too sketchy in dealing with the claims of the Moslems and other minorities. The Pandit's son, Jawarhalal Nehru, exceeded his father's demands by declaring for independence pure and simple. The son undoubtedly influenced his father. Otherwise Pandit Motilal Nehru might not have advocated the civil disobedience which began early last year.
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