Jawaharlal Nehru Spent His 45th Birthday Waiting For Flowers In Prison, But Their Arrival Brought Little Joy

Jawaharlal Nehru’s 45th Birthday In Almora Jail, Waiting For Flowers From Kamala (Picture Credit – Reddit)

On 14 November 1934, Jawaharlal Nehru turned 45 inside Almora Jail. He expected little of the day, yet he waited for something ordinary: flowers, a telegram, a sign that the people he loved were thinking of him. The morning passed without a message, and so did much of the afternoon. Even the jailer, ordinarily a frequent visitor, failed to appear.

In his diary, Nehru called it “one of the blankest birthdays” he had experienced. The man writing those words was a husband, father and son, separated from his family at a particularly frightening moment.

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Nehru had been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in February 1934 following a sedition prosecution under British rule. After spells in Alipore, Dehradun and Naini jails, he was moved to Almora in late October. His new quarters were a large, solitary barrack, and the isolation was already troubling him.

A more immediate worry weighed on him. His wife, Kamala Nehru, was seriously ill with tuberculosis and receiving treatment at Bhowali, in the Himalayan foothills. Even news of…

Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle