A Forgotten Haveli in Ruins
When Pandit Nehru was at Harrow, his parents had started searching for a suitable match for their son. After much effort, they found Kamala, a girl from a middle-class Kashmiri Brahmin family in 1912. She was 13 years old at the time.
Brought up in a traditional Kashmiri Brahmin family of old Delhi, Kamala was a simple and reserved girl. Kamala Nehru was born on 1 August 1899. Rajpati and Jawaharmal Kaul were Kamala’s parents. Kamala had two brothers, Chand Bahadur Kaul and the botanist, Kailas Nath Kaul, and a sister, Swaroop Kathju. Except for a few years in Indraprastha Hindu girls’ school, which is right opposite Jama Masjid, all of her schooling was done at home, under the guidance of a Pandit and a Maulvi. It is said that she did not know English. And the Nehrus waited till 1916 for Kamala to attain the age of seventeen.
Cut to the present. You can see only the ruins of Haksar Haveli.
It is said that a very large number of Kashmiri Pandits shifted to Delhi and other places like Agra and Allahabad between 1850 to 1900 from their homeland.
Among them were the Kunzrus, Haksars, Rehus, Dars, Takrus, Kauls, Zutshis, Katjus and Rainas. Kamala's kin too migrated to Delhi during those years. They built their haveli in the capital's Sitaram Bazaar. Some of the havelis are still there in Sita Ram Bazar and Gali Kashmiriyan area of Delhi-6.