Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, statesman, secular humanist, social democrat, and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. B.N. Uniyal describes the day Nehru passed away..
At this hour on that day that year, Santosh Sharma, my friend from Chawri Bazar, and I were standing at the Red Fort bus stop when suddenly shopkeepers at the nearby Lajpat Rai Market started downing shutters and everybody started running towards Daryaganj whispering, murmuring, shouting from choked throats “Nehruji!.. …Pandit ji!” Many were crying. Some sobbing. A bus coming from Daryaganj stopped before us. All passengers rushed out shouting and running this way and that like mad: “Pandit ji nahi’n rahe…” Santosh and I took time to sense what had happened and we too started running towards Teen Murti. We ran like mad. Everybody was… At the chowk on the southeastern corner of Edward Park, now Netaji Subhash Park, a stream of mourners was rushing down from the Jama Masjid and the Jagat Cinema side. All the way from there through Delhi Gate, Harding Bridge, now Tilak Bridge, and along the Supreme Court to India Gate and farther through all the crisscrossing roads of New Delhi streams of men and women, and college and school boys, some as young as 12 or 14 years, were walking, hopping, running towards the house where Nehru lived. Many people were coming from the Lodhi Garden side–Khan Market, Lodhi Road, Kotla Mubarakpur, Lajpat Nagar. The crowd swelled near Teen Murti. Santosh and I ran down South Avenue, but the crowd was thick. We couldn’t make our way any further and could reach near the Teen Murti roundabout only after much struggle. The police came and urged the people to make way for some cars. Suddenly, word came from somewhere ahead that the Teen Murti house gates had been closed. That, however, did not deter people from pushing forward. So many had come running from long distances for the last Darshan of their beloved leader. A beloved of every Indian householder.
No one ever, before or after him, had ruled the hearts and moved the minds of men and women of this country as had Nehru. Gandhi was reverred, but Nehru was loved!
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