Nehru’s belongings still intact in Almora jail

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, November 13

The utensils, furniture and other things at the Nehru ward of the Almora jail that were used by Jawaharlal Nehru while he was lodged there have been preserved. The jail has again come into focus after the state government decided to convert the jail into a national museum. It has been decided to shift the present jail to a new campus.

The Almora jail was set up by the British in 1872 after they felt the need of having jails in every district after the empire was rocked by the mutiny of 1857. “The jail, which was set up to lodge suspected troublemakers, came to limelight after popular freedom fighters were lodged there,” said Navin Bisht, a journalist based in Almora.

Jawaharlal Nehru was lodged in the Almora jail twice. He was first shifted from the Bareilly jail to Almora after his health started deteriorating there. Nehru reached the Almora jail on October 28, 1934, and remained there till September 3, 1935. While being imprisoned for the 9th time, he was shifted to the Almora jail on June 10, 1945, and he remained there till January 15, 1946. “The rooms in the Almora jail where Nehru lived and performed his daily chores have been named the Nehru ward and his belongings have been kept intact there after Independence,” says a jail official.

He says today the Nehru ward in the jail consists of a sleeping room and a kitchen as he used to have meal separately. “Besides the sleeping room and the kitchen, the Nehru ward in the Almora jail also has a library though there are no books,” he adds.

The jail official says the utensils and spinning wheel used by Nehru and and the furniture he used for study are intact in the ward. The jail has a mug (lota), a glass, a thali and deepakdan used by Nehru, besides his spinning wheel and furniture. “Besides Nehru, the jail also housed top freedom fighters such as Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Acharya Narendra Dev, Sayyed Ali Jauhar and freedom fighters from the Kumaon region Hargovind Pant, Victor Mohan Joshi, Devi Dutt Pant, Badri Dutt Pandey and Durga Singh Rawat. This justifies the government decision to convert it to a national museum to inspire today’s youth,” said the jail official.