On May 26, 1964, Nehru left the Doon valley for New Delhi after a brief vacation .The next afternoon, he passed away. May 26 always brings back fond memories of Nehru ji for old Doonites as this was the last time he visited his beloved valley.
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 a great love for this valley and spent many relaxed vacations here in the fifties and the sixties.
The last four days of his life were spent with his daughter, Indira, visiting old friends and taking leisurely walks in the tranquil gardens of the Circuit House (now the Raj Bhavan) where Nehru and Indira Gandhi used to stay when in Doon.
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 the 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 BD Semwal, District Magistrate AP Dikshit, police chief RS Sharma and Civil Surgeon GP Srivastava and Doon’s veteran journalist Raj Kanwar were among those who came to see him off.
Nehru died on May 27, the day after he left the Doon valley.
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 Prime Minister late 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 13, 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 October 17 to be in time for the Peasant Conference at Allahabad on 19th. At Dehra Dun an order under Section 144 Criminal Procedure Code was served on me almost as I was leaving.” By the evening of October 19, Nehruji was arrested again and carried off 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.
In the summer of 1920, Nehruji brought his ailing mother and wife to the famous Hotel Savoy of Mussoorie, along with little Indira. He had not entered active politics till then but an incident in Mussoorie catalysed his entry into the sphere. Staying at the Savoy was an Afghan delegation which was in India for political talks with the British government. Pandit Nehru did not know about the Afghans till after he arrived there. The government, afraid that he might contact them and influence them asked him to sign an undertaking that he would not get in touch with the delegation. Nehru refused to do that. Though he was not interested in meeting the Afghans, he believed that nobody had the right to prevent him from meeting them. He was ordered by the authorities to leave Mussoorie within 24 hours.