Feroze: The Unnoticed Gandhi ②

Feroze first proposed Indira in 1933 when she was only 16. Indira and her mother rejected the proposal pointing out that she is too young. Feroze Gandhi grew close to the Nehru family. He accompanied Indira’s mother Kamla Nehru when she was in TB sanatorium at Bhowali Nainital in 1934. Feroze helped Kamla arranging her Europe trip when her condition worsened in April 1935. He also visited sanatorium in Badenweiler, Germany and met Kamla. And finally at Lausanne, Switzerland he was at her bedside when she died on 28 February 1936. Kamala Nehru is believed to have given her consent to the marriage of her daughter Indira to Feroze who had proposed to her three years earlier. In the following years, Indira and Feroze came close to each other in England. They married according to Hindu rituals at Anand Bhavan on March 26, 1942 the day of Ram Navami festival.

Feroze and Indira Wedding Ceremony

The Quit India Movement led to the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi and all senior leaders of the CWC in Bombay on August 9, 1942. Jawaharlal Nehru was taken to Ahmednagar jail along with Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and others. Feroze and Indira Gandhi returned to Allahabad and carried out underground activities for nearly a month. Couple was arrested in mid-September and sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment in Naini jail where once again Feroze found the company of Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Feroze: The Unnoticed Gandhi ①

Feroze Gandhi was an Indian Freedom Fighter, Politician, Journalist and Staunch Anti-Corruption Activist. He was the publisher of the dailies National Herald in Delhi and Navjeevan in Lucknow. He was a member of the Lok Sabha and constantly opposed Nehru’s politics and governance in the House.

Feroze and Indira

Feroze was born on 12 September 1912 in a Parsi family at the Tehmulji Nariman Hospital in the Fort district of Bombay. His father’s name was Jehangir Faredoon Gandhy and mothers name was Ratimai (née Commissariat). They lived in Nauroji Natakwala Bhawan in Khetwadi Mohalla in Bombay. His father Jehangir was a Marine Engineer working for Killick Nixon and was later promoted as a Warrant Engineer. Feroze was the youngest of the five children with two brothers Dorab and Faridun Jehangir and two sisters Tehmina Kershasp and Aloo Dastur. The family had migrated to Bombay from Bharuch in South Gujarat where their ancestral home which belonged to his grandfather still exists in Kotpariwad.