New Delhi: The Nehru–Gandhi family is a political dynasty which has occupied a prominent place in the politics of India.
The involvement of the family has traditionally revolved around the Congress party, as various members have traditionally led the party.
Rahul Gandhi was the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi, who later became Prime Minister (PM) of India, and Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, who later became President of Congress party.
He is the grandson of former PM Indira Gandhi and great-grandson of India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru. Priyanka Vadra is his younger sister and businessman Robert Vadra is his brother-in-law.
The ‘Gandhi’ surname came from Feroze Jehangir Ghandy, who changed the spelling of his surname after joining the freedom struggle. He was not related to Father of Indian Nation Mahatma Gandhi.
The daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Nehru, married Feroze Gandhi in 1942 and took his surname.
Raj Kaul (late 1600s to early 1700s), a Kashmiri Pandit, is the earliest recorded ancestor of Nehru–Gandhi family. He is believed to have migrated from Kashmir to Delhi in 1716. A house situated on the banks of a canal was granted to Raj Kaul and from the fact of this residence, ‘Nehru’ (from ‘nahar’, meaning a canal) came to be attached to his name.
Kaul was the original family name. This changed to Kaul-Nehru and, in later years, Kaul was dropped and the family name became only “Nehru”.
Gangadhar Nehru (1827–1861) was a direct descendant of Kaul. He was the last Kotwal of Delhi (equivalent to chief of police), prior to the Indian war of independence of 1857. He was the father of freedom fighter Motilal Nehru and grandfather of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Motilal (1861–1931), patriarch of Nehru–Gandhi family, was a lawyer and a prominent leader of Indian independence movement. He served as Congress president twice, 1919–1920 and 1928–1929.
