Kashmiri Pandit families that settled in Allahabad—Saprus, Katjus and Kauls to name a few, besides the Nehrus, had uncanny similarities—luminaries of law, well off and English speaking and made substantial contribution to India's struggle for freedom. Mall shows a picture of Nehru hand in hand with Kailash Nath Katju and Tej Bhadur Sapru in Mumbai, where they were part of a team of defence lawyers representing prisoners of war of Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army or INA who fought against the British in the World War II. Later, in 1945, the British colonial government tried them for waging war against the state and on charges of murder.
But while Allahabad was at the forefront of the freedom struggle and the intellectual churning taking place a hundred years ago, the city today is a shadow of its former self. It boasted then of Prem Chand who provided graphic descriptions of colonial subjugation in his famous tales around rural India. Writer-poet, Harivansh Rai Bachchan close to the Nehru family, was the first Indian scholar to obtain a Phd in English literature from Cambridge. He along with Firaq Gorakhpuri or Raghupati Sahay, noted Urdu poet, taught English in the Allahabad University. Mahadevi Verma, Hindi poet and woman's activist, was Vice-Chancellor of Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth, and was part of popular intellectual discourse of the city for five decades.
But their houses have either been destroyed to allow construction of multi-storey residential buildings or are poorly maintained by cash starved trusts formed in their name. In some cases, their descendants lead a quiet life.
A nostalgic Shanti Bhushan remembers the passage of the old order. "We left the doors of our house open at night; there was no fear of theft or burglary…" A lot has changed since then. The city is losing its old laid back charm and with it the vote garnering capabilities of the Nehru-Gandhi clan. The bungalows like the one of Kailash Nath Katju, with extended green compounds, are now being replaced by residential complexes or shopping Malls. The city, dusty, noisy and crowded, is fast becoming a victim of haphazard development. Identity politics of caste and religion have overtaken the university campus. "It is not even a patch of what it used to be," as Shanti Bhushan puts it.
Allahabad will be one of the three cities that the US will help develop into 'smart' cities, the plan announced during Narendra Modi's recent visit to USA and after his meeting with Barack Obama. The local administration welcomed the move, as the district magistrate P Guru Prasad said, "The city has the potential to feature among foremost cities of the world".
Many don't agree. A senior bureaucrat close to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav adds, "Modi wants to tell the world that Allahabad, the city of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, is not smart enough; and that Americans will make Allahabad a smart city. He, obviously, doesn't know history."