had several different aspects to it. It was located in a relatively Europeanized area and was one of the most modern of Indian homes, including all the amenities. It also included a traditional Hindu core, however, as Pandey (1976) noted. The outer precincts of the house, where guests were received and business conducted, was very similar to other European, and specifically English, homes. Internally, however, the core was Hindu, with Nehru's wife ruling the family from that hearth or center in a relatively orthodox fashion. There were teachers from the Hindu, Muslim, and British traditions, as well as food prepared in the kitchen for Hindu, Muslim, and British tastes. Truly, it was a multicultural environment, and a relatively peaceful one, during the early years of Nehru's life.
One factor seemed to mar this and be a source of contention for the Nehru family. This was the British racialism, as it was then termed, in which British seemed to feel themselves racially superior to India's and o
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