Why did the Nehru family use the name ‘Gandhi’? What is the background of criticism of Narendra Modi?

• Muralitharan Kasiviswanathan
• BBC Tamil

An hour ago

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Indira – Nehru

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has questioned in the Indian Parliament whether the Nehru family is ashamed to put ‘Nehru’ after their names. Why did the Nehru family use the name Gandhi instead of Nehru after their name?

Speaking in the Indian Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, the Prime Minister said, “If you forget to mention Nehru’s name in any project, they (Congress) get furious. If he is such a great man, why doesn’t anyone in his family use Nehru’s name after their name? What is the shame in using Nehru’s name?” He questioned.

Responding to this, Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala said, “God must save this country. Someone sitting in a very responsible position does not know or understand the culture of India. They are the only ones who talk like this. Ask anyone in this country who uses the name of their maternal grandfather.”

Discussions are going on on social media about Prime Minister Modi’s speech.

Actually, why don’t the Nehru family use the suffix ‘Nehru’ after their name? No, this statement is incorrect. Male heirs of the Nehru family continue to use the suffix ‘Nehru’ after their names. Female heirs of the Nehru family use their husband’s surname after their own. That is what happened in the case of Indira Gandhi.

The recent history of the Nehru family begins with Jawaharlal Nehru’s grandfather, Gangadhar Nehru (1827-1861). He had three sons Pansidhar Nehru, Nandalal Nehru and Motilal Nehru. All three used their father’s surname, Nehru.

Motilal Nehru had three children: Jawaharlal Nehru, Vijayalakshmi and Krishna. Among them, Jawaharlal used the surname ‘Nehru’ as the male heir. Vijayalakshmi married Ranjith Sitaram Pandit, a lawyer from Gujarat, and became Vijayalakshmi Pandit. Krishna used the suffix Nehru until his marriage. She became ‘Krishna Hadeesingh’ after marrying Gunottam Raja Hadeesingh. His children, Harsha and Ajith, kept the surname Hadeesingh as a suffix. Nehru’s name was not used. Vijayalakshmi Pandit’s children were also girls so they used their husbands’ surnames as suffixes.

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Nehru-Gandhi

As for Jawaharlal Nehru, his only daughter, Indira, was born in November 1917. Motilal Nehru shortened his mother’s name Indrani and named the child ‘Indira’. Jawaharlal added the name ‘Priyadarshini’, a Buddhist name meaning ‘pleasant to the sight’.

Indira Priyadarshini used the surname ‘Nehru’ till her marriage. Feroze Gandhi was the last child born to Jehangir Fareedun Gandhi and his wife Ratimai. He belongs to Parsi religion. Indira and Feroze Gandhi fell in love and got married.

Although Feroze had repeatedly expressed his love for Indira, Indira accepted the love only after a long time. While that pleased Feroz, it also brought some other concerns. In particular, there was a fear of the family name.

Catherine, author of Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi, told Indira’s friend Shanta Gandhi about this that she worried, “Though she was determined to marry Indira, the Nehru family would diminish Feroze’s personality and make her a member of the Nehru family instead of becoming Indira-Indira Gandhi.” Frank mentions.

But, that didn’t happen. Indira and Feroze Gandhi got married in 1942. After a few days of marriage, Indira took the surname ‘Gandhi’. Their first child was born on 20th August 1944. Jawaharlal Nehru was in jail at this time.

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Marriage of Indira – Feroz.

Jawaharlal Nehru suggested many names for his grandson while in prison. But days passed without any name being given. In conclusion, “Let’s keep the name Rajeeva Ratna (as Indira wanted). If we want, we can add the name Birjis. How about adding Nehru to it? I don’t think there should be a double suffix Nehru-Gandhi. That wouldn’t be good. Just ‘Nehru’.” Said Jawaharlal Nehru in one of his letters.

As he had no sons, Nehru may have wanted to use his grandson’s name to carry his name down to the next generation, says Catherine Frank. But, while writing the child’s name first, Indira Gandhi wrote Rajiva Ratna Birjees Nehru Gandhi. Here ‘Rajiva’ means lotus. Named after his mother’s name ‘Kamala’. ‘Jawahar’ means ornament. The word ‘Ratna’ was added to denote it. Birjis and Gandhi are names belonging to the Feroze Gandhi family. But as days went by, the name Rajiv Gandhi stuck. The second son was named Sanjay. He also took the suffix ‘Gandhi’.

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Later, Rajiv’s children Rahul and Priyanka adopted the suffix ‘Gandhi’. His wife Sonia also used the same suffix. Sanjay’s wife Maneka and their child Varun also shared the paternal surname ‘Gandhi’. Now Priyanka Gandhi also uses her husband’s surname ‘Vatra’. His children use the surname ‘Vatra’. Varun Gandhi’s daughter uses the surname ‘Gandhi’.

So no one uses the surname ‘Nehru’? Some male descendants of the Nehru family continue to use the name ‘Nehru’. The male descendants of Motilal Nehru’s brother, Nandalal Nehru, still use the surname ‘Nehru’. Nandalal Nehru’s great-grandson and former Union Minister Arun was also known as Arun Nehru. Nandalal Nehru’s son was Brijlal Nehru and his sons were Sunil Nehru, Nikhil Nehru and Braj Kumar Nehru.

As for the Nehru family, it was because of the use of paternal surnames and husband’s surnames that her descendants, starting with Indira, started using the surname ‘Gandhi’. Had Nehru had a son his successors might have used the name Nehru.