Even as the excitement of the new Prime Minister of the country having taken charge continues, this day brings back memories of the country’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who was also a great writer and loved the Himalayas. He died on May 27, 50 years ago but even today his memories linger on in the Doon valley and Mussoorie where he spent many vacations.
On May 26, 1964, Nehru left the Doon valley for New Delhi after a brief vacation .The next afternoon, he passed away. Nehru liked to describe himself as “a child of the Himalayas” and never missed an opportunity to be in close contact with the hills. He had great love for this valley and spent many relaxed vacations here in the fifties and the sixties.
The Circuit House in Dehradun cantonment(now the Raj Bhavan) was where he stayed and was usually accompanied by his daughter, Indira. The last four days of his life were spent with his daughter, Indira, visiting old friends and taking leisure walks in the tranquil gardens of the picturesque ‘Circuit House’.
Nehru had suffered a minor stroke in January 1964 but soon got back to work. In April 1964, Sheikh Abdullah was released from jail .On May 22, Nehru addressed a press conference and announced that the Sheikh would proceed to Pakistan to talk with President Ayub Khan. Reporters at the press conference noted that Nehru looked tired and weak.
On May 24, Abdullah took an airplane to Rawalpindi, on a political mission. The same morning, Nehru flew to Dehradun for a short holiday . On May 25, Nehru visited his old friend Sri Prakasa, former Minister and Governor, at Kothalgaon, eight miles uphill on the Doon-Mussoorie route,and returned to Circuit House. It was on the same day that Nehru and Indira visited Sahastradhara(sulphur springs)late in the afternoon and enjoyed the views of the mountains from the newly constructed PWD guesthouse verandah.
It was on May 26 that Nehru and Indira were seen off at the cantonment helipad near the Circuit House by a farewell group of 30 people. Commissioner B.D.Semwal, District Magistrate A.P.Dikshit, police chief R.S.Sharma and civil surgeon G.P.Srivastava and Doon’s veteran journalist Raj Kanwar were among those who came to see him off.
The Nehru family, right from the early years, had a very close connection with the Doon valley and Mussoorie and anyone who has read the autobiography of the late Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, will be familiar with this fact.Mussoorie reminded the family of Kashmir, their home State.
Nehru Ji recalls, in his autobiography, his visit to Mussoorie in October 1930 when his father, Motilal Nehru, was recouping in this hill station. “On October 13th, Kamala and I went off to Mussoorie to spend three days with father. He was looking just a little better, and I was happy to think that he had turned the corner and was getting well; it was good to be back in the family. I remember those quiet and delightful three days well .Indira, my daughter ,was there; and my three little nieces, my sister’s daughters …And these three days were the last I was to have with my father before his fatal illness came to snatch him away from me”, he writes.
He was expecting his re-arrest soon. “Kamala and I were going down from Mussoorie on the 17th October to be in time for the Peasant Conference at Allahabad on the 19th. At Dehradun an order under Section 144 Criminal Procedure Code was served on me almost as I was leaving.”
By the evening of 19th October, Nehruji was arrested again and taken away from Allahabad to Naini Prison.The last days he spent with his father were left behind in Mussoorie.
The relationship between the Nehru family and Mussoorie began with Motilal Nehru’s visits to the hill station, mainly for recuperating from illness .His wife, Swaroop Rani and their daughter Vijay lakshmi Pandit, all had a great attachment to this hill station and visited it all through their lives.