A post is doing rounds on social media with a claim that Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Sheikh Omar Abdullah were stepbrothers. According to the post, this information was taken from a book written by M.O Mathai, who was a private secretary to Jawahar Lal Nehru. 

This post was shared by a Facebook user named Suneel Dubey, which also has a lot of other claims like Moti Lal Nehru had five wives. 

We also found out that this claim is going viral on the internet in different languages since 2013. 

A similar claim was also shared by a user in the Marathi language, which has now been removed. 

The truth behind this claim

M.O. Mathai had written two books about Jawahar Lal Nehru named Reminiscences of the Nehru Age in 1978 and My Days with Nehru in 1979. 

Mr Mathai in his book revealed several cases about Feroze Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah, one in particular that the Nehru family was opposed to the Indira-Feroze marriage. But both the books never claimed that Motilal Nehru had five wives and Nehru, Jinnah and Abdullah were stepbrothers. Also, there is no mention about Tushu Rehman Bai nor Mubarak Ali in the book, unlike claimed in the post. Mr Mathai did not write anything objectionable about Motilal Nehru. 

Mr Mathai in his book 'On my day with Nehru' writes that 'the National Conference was held. After the establishment, Sheikh Abdullah came in conflict with Nehru for the first time. Abdullah did not believe in Jinnah. He was fascinated by Nehru’s secular policies,' nowhere mentioning that Nehru had a family relationship with Jinnah or Abdullah. This piece could be found on Page 234.

A book named 'Nehrus- Motilal and Nehru', by B R Nanda talks about the Nehru family. In his book, Mr Nanda writes "Motilal Nehru’s father was Gangadhar. He was a Kashmiri Brahmin. He was the Kotwal of Delhi in the court of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II. However, after the revolt of 1858 Gangadhar lost his job and he settled in Agra. He died in 1861. Motilal was born on 9^th May, three months after his father’s death."

Motilal got married for the first time at a very young age, but after the birth of the child, both, the child and his first wife died. Later, Motilal later married Swaroop Rani Thuru and gave birth to Jawahar Lal Nehru on 14^th November 1889, and Vijyalakshmi in 1900 and Krishna in 1906.

You can understand the five generations of the Nehru family by this chart. 

By the above information, we can clearly say that the viral post has no substantial information and is making unverified claims to mislead people.