EACH ROOM of this house has its own history. Once buzzing with the activities of the great nationalist leaders, Swaraj Bhawan is vacant today but a stroll through its galleries gives an opportunity to stand in proximity with its glorious past.
Swaraj Bhawan Museum keeps intact the memories of those who played an important role in searching for the individual identity of the country which it retains till date.
It has an interesting history of ownership. According to RK Sethi, director of Anand Bhawan, Sheikh Faiyazuddin had helped the Britishers during the period of mutiny. "In return, the Britishers gave 12 acres of land to him and he constructed a building on this property which is now known as Swaraj Bhawan.
Court of Lords took over the management of this property after the death of Faiyazuddin since his sons were minor", he said.
"However, after getting back the ownership on becoming major, the sons of Faiyazuddin sold the property to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who was a great educationist and who is credited for setting up Aligarh Muslim University," he added.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan named the building as Mahmood Manzil after his son's name Syed Mahmood. Again this property was sold to Raja Jaikishan Das of Moradabad and thereafter it was bought by Motilal Nehru in the year 1899.
{{/usCountry}}Sir Syed Ahmed Khan named the building as Mahmood Manzil after his son's name Syed Mahmood. Again this property was sold to Raja Jaikishan Das of Moradabad and thereafter it was bought by Motilal Nehru in the year 1899.
{{/usCountry}}Motilal Nehru paid Rs 20,000 for purchasing both the land and building.
He later purchased some more land in the vicinity making it a total of 16 acres.
Finally he shifted here in 1900 and named this building as Anand Bhawan.
Vijaylakshmi Pandit was the first child to be born here. Motilal Nehru stayed here till 1927 and then he shifted to new building next to it which he again named as Anand Bhawan. In 1930, Motilal Nehru gave the old building to Congress Party to use it as its headquarters during the freedom movement. In 1940, British government confiscated it on the plea of holding anti-government activities here and it remained with them till 1946.
In the wake of partition in 1948, a plea was made to Jawahar Lal Nehru to give this house for those children to stay who had lost their parents and thus Children's National Institute (CNI) was established here. However, in 1975 it was given to Jawahar Bal Bhawan and then again in 1989, Rajeev Gandhi inaugurated the place as a museum.
Jawahar Lal Nehru was married to Kamala Kaul here in 1916. Indira Gandhi was born here in 1917 and Mahatma Gandhi visited the house in 1919 and he was the one to name it as Swaraj Bhawan. He laid the base of non-cooperation movement here in 1920.
The entrance of this house is through a gallery and a bagghi is placed right under the portico.
This building has 42 rooms. One room was kept reserved for Mahatma Gandhi and it still has the charkha and khadau. A huge hall was used for the meetings of Congress Committee. In the gallery is a basement which has three exits to it which was used to escape during raids. A cyclostyling machine was kept here.
Puja room of Swaroop Rani Nehru and the office of Motilal Nehru are also here.
The bedroom of Motilal Nehru has the rare photograph which was taken three days before his death.
There is also an indoor swimming pool and a sauna bath which is not opened for public viewing.
Mutiple photographs adorn the walls of the rooms and galleries. Rare childhood photograph of Motilal Nehru, his father Gangadhar Nehru and his borthers Bansidhar Nehru and Nand Lal Nehru also adorn the place. Besides there are also the large photographs of Jawahar Lal Nehru with Subhash Chandra Bose, Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant, Kamla Nehru, a photo of Pt JL Nehru with Kamla Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Dandi march, a photo of Tagore with Mahatma Gandhi and Bose and others.
In one frame, Motilal Nehru has been shown in his car which was bought in 1906 and it was the first car in Allahabad. "First generator was brought in this house in 1916," said RK Sethi.
Allahabad Congress Hospital was opened here by Motilal Nehru in 1929 which was nurtured by Kamala Nehru. Later in 1941, Mahatma Gandhi established the Kamala Nehru Memortial Hospital in her memory adjacent to Swaraj Bhawan.
The visitors to the museum are related to its glorious past through the light and sound show.