Krishna Nehru Hutheesing (2 November 1907 – 9 November 1967) was an Indian writer, the youngest sister of

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

and

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit Vijay Lakshmi Pandit (''née'' Swarup Nehru; 18 August 1900 – 1 December 1990) was an Indian freedom fighter, diplomat and politician. She served as the 8th President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1953 to 1954, the first woman a ...

, and part of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Biography

Hutheesing was born Krishna Nehru, in Mirganj,

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

Motilal Nehru Motilal Nehru (6 May 1861 – 6 February 1931) was an Indian lawyer, activist, and politician affiliated with the Indian National Congress. He served as the Congress President twice, from 1919 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1929. He was a patriarch ...

, an Indian independence activist and leader of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

, and Swarup Rani. She was married to Gunottam (Raja) Hutheesing, who belonged to an

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

Jain family that built the

Hutheesing Jain Temple Hutheesing Temple is a Jain temple in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India. It was constructed in 1848 by the Hutheesing family. The temple blends the old Maru-Gurjara temple architecture style with new architectural elements of ''haveli'' in its des ...

. During the later 1950s, he became critic of Nehru and in 1959, supported former Governor General

C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence ...

, to form a conservative market liberal political party known as the

Swatantra Party The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly so ...

David Ben-Gurion - Krishna Hutheesing 1958

Hutheesing and her husband fought for India's independence and spent a great deal of time in jail. Raja's terms in jail came while they were raising their two young sons, Harsha Hutheesing and Ajit Hutheesing. In 1950, the Hutheesings toured the United States on a lecture tour. In late May 1958 Krishna spent three days in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Her host was Yigal Alon, who a year earlier founded 'The Israel-India Friendship League' as a tool to circumvent the then Indian government policy to avoid direct diplomatic relations between the two states. Hutheesing documented her life as well as the lives of her brother, Jawaharlal and her niece,

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

, in a series of books that intertwine history with personal anecdotes including ''We Nehrus,'' ''With No Regrets- An Autobiography,'' and ''Dear to Behold: An Intimate Portrait of Indira Gandhi''. Hutheesing's husband, Raja, also wrote books: ''The Great Peace: An Asian's Candid Report on Red China'' (1953), ''Window on China'' (1953), and ''Tibet fights for freedom : the story of the March 1959 uprising'' (1960). Hutheesing was associated with the '

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

' and gave several talks. She died in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1967.

Bibliography

* ''Shadows On the Wall'', J. Day Co., 1948. * ''The Story of Gandhiji'', Kutub Pub., 1949. * ''We Nehrus'', by Krishna (Nehru) Hutheesing with Alden Hatch. Holt, Rinehart and Winston; 1967. * ''Dear to Behold: An Intimate Portrait of Indira Gandhi'', Published by Macmillan, 1969. * ''With No Regrets - An Autobiography'', by Krishna Nehru Hutheesing, Published by READ BOOKS, 2007. .
Online text, 1945 edition

References

External links

Krishna Nehru Hutheesing materials in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutheesing, Krishna Nehru 1907 births 1967 deaths Indian women non-fiction writers Indian women biographers Women writers from Uttar Pradesh Nehru–Gandhi family Kashmiri Pandits Indian Hindus Indian autobiographers Indian independence activists from Uttar Pradesh Prisoners and detainees of British India Writers from Prayagraj Women autobiographers 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian biographers Swatantra Party politicians Women Indian independence activists Politicians from Prayagraj Women in Uttar Pradesh politics