Nehru–Gandhi family

The Nehru–Gandhi family is a prominent Indian political dynasty. Their political involvement has traditionally revolved around the Indian National Congress. Members of the family have traditionally led the Congress party and the Republic of India since independence.

The Guardian wrote in 2007 "The Nehru Gandhi brand has no peer in the world — a member of the family has been in charge of India for 40 of the 60 years since independence. The allure of India's first family blends the right to rule of British monarchy with the tragic glamour of America's Kennedy clan."

The Gandhi surname came from Feroze Gandhi, who was not related to Mahatma Gandhi. Indira Priyadarshini Nehru (the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru) married Feroze Gandhi in 1942 and adopted his surname.

Family tree

First generation

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru (/ˈneɪruː, ˈnɛruː/;Hindustani: [ˈdʒəʋaːɦərˈlaːl ˈneːɦru]; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. He emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian independence movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and ruled India from its establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in 1964. He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state: a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic. He was also known as Pandit Nehru due to his roots with Kashmiri Pandit community while many Indian children knew him as "Uncle Nehru" (Chacha Nehru).

The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and nationalist statesman and Swaroop Rani, Nehru was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple, where he trained to be a barrister. Upon his return to India, he enrolled at the Allahabad High Court, and took an interest in national politics, which eventually replaced his legal practice. A committed nationalist since his teenage years, he became a rising figure in Indian politics during the upheavals of the 1910s. He became the prominent leader of the left-wing factions of the Indian National Congress during the 1920s, and eventually of the entire Congress, with the tacit approval of his mentor, Gandhi. As Congress President in 1929, Nehru called for complete independence from the British Raj and instigated the Congress's decisive shift towards the left.

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (/ˈɡɑːndi, ˈɡæn-/;Hindustani: [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi]; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahatma (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable")—applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa,—is now used worldwide. He is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for "father", "papa") in India. In common parlance in India he is often called Gandhiji. He is unofficially called the Father of the Nation.

Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.

Feroze Gandhi

Feroze Gandhi (born Feroze Jehangir Ghandy; 12 September 1912 – 8 September 1960) was an Indian politician and journalist. He served as the publisher of the The National Herald and The Navjivan newspapers from Lucknow. He was the husband of Indira Gandhi and the son-in-law to Jawaharlal Nehru.

In 1942 he married Indira Nehru (later Prime Minister of India) and they had two sons, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, and thus became part of the Nehru-Gandhi family. His elder son, Rajiv, later also went on to become the Prime Minister of India. He became a member of the provincial parliament (1950–1952), and later a member of the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of India's parliament. He was not related to Mahatma Gandhi.

Early life

Feroze Jehangir Ghandy was born to a Parsi family at the Tehmulji Nariman Hospital situated in Fort, Bombay. His parents, Faredoon Jehangir and Ratimai (formerly Ratimai Commissariat), lived in Nauroji Natakwala Bhawan in Khetwadi Mohalla in Bombay. His father Jehangir Ghandy was a Marine Engineer in Killick Nixon and was later promoted as a Warrant Engineer. Feroze was the youngest of the five children with two brothers Dorab Gandhi and Faridun Jehangir Gandhi, and two sisters, Tehmina Kershashp Gandhi and Aloo Gandhi Dastur. The family had migrated to Bombay from Bharuch in South Gujarat where their ancestral home, which belonged to his grandfather, still exists in Kotpariwad.