Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (
Indirā Priyadarśinī Gāndhī; néeNEE, Nee, Née may refer to:* Née or Nee, French for "born", indicates a person's birth surname* Nee , a band in Kannada* NEE, a political party in Flanders, Belgium* "Ne~e?", a 2003 single by Aya Matsuura- People with the family name :...
: Nehru; (19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was the
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
of the Republic of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977
and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, a total of fifteen years. She was India's first and, to date, only female Prime Minister. She is not related to Mohandas Gandhi.
Born in the politically influential
Nehru FamilyThe Nehru-Gandhi family or Nehru - Feroze Gandhi family is an Indian political family which has been dominant in the Indian National Congress for most of India's history since independence....
, she grew up in an intensely political atmosphere. Her grandfather,
Motilal NehruMotilal Nehru was an early Indian independence activist and leader of the Indian National Congress. He was the founder patriarch of India's most powerful political family, the Nehru-Gandhi family.-Early life:...
, was a prominent Indian nationalist leader. Her father,
Jawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru was an Indian statesman who was the first, and has been the longest-serving prime minister of India to date, having served from 1947 until 1964...
, was a pivotal figure in the Indian independence movement and the first Prime Minister of Independent India. Returning to India from Oxford in 1941, she became involved in the
Indian Independence movementThe term Indian independence movement incorporates various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts of both nonviolent and militant philosophy. The term encompasses a wide spectrum of political organizations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending the British...
. In the 1950s, she served her father unofficially as a personal assistant during his tenure as the first
Prime Minister of IndiaThe Prime Minister of India is the head of government of the Republic of India, and head of the Council of Ministers, appointed by the President to assist the latter in the administration of the affairs of the executive in India...
. After her father's death in 1964, she was appointed as a member of the
Rajya SabhaThe Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature, science, and social services. These members are known as nominated members...
by the
President of IndiaThe President of India or Rashtrapati is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. In theory, the President possesses considerable power...
and became a member of
Lal Bahadur ShastriLal Bahadur Shastri was the third Prime Minister of the Republic of India and a significant figure in the Indian independence movement.-Early life:...
's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
The then Congress Party President
K. KamarajKamaraj Kumarasami, better known as K. Kamaraj was an Indian politician widely known to be the kingmaker in Indian politics, and known for his honesty, integrity and simplicity....
was instrumental in making Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister after the sudden demise of Shastri. Gandhi soon showed an ability to win elections and outmaneuver opponents through
populismPopulism is a political discourse that juxtaposes "the people" with "the elites." Populism may comprise an ideology urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style deployed by members of political or social movements...
. She introduced more left-wing economic policies and promoted agricultural productivity. She was the Prime Minister during the decisive victory in the 1971 war with
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
. A period of instability led her to impose a state of emergency in 1975. Due to the authoritarian excesses for a period of excesses, the Congress Party lost the next general election for the first time in
1977India held general elections to the 6th Lok Sabha. The state of Emergency declared by the Congress government was the core issue in the 1977 elections. Civil liberties were suspended during the national emergency from 25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977 and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assumed vast...
. Congress again won the
1980 electionsIndia held general elections to the 7th Lok Sabha. The Janata Party came into power riding the public anger against the Congress and the Emergency but its position was weak...
and Gandhi resumed the office of the Prime Minister. In June 1984, under Gandhi's order, the Indian army forcefully entered the
Golden TempleGolden Temple or Harmandir Sahib , informally referred to as The Golden Temple or Temple of God, is culturally the most significant place of worship of the Sikhs and one of the oldest Sikh gurdwaras...
, the most sacred
SikhSikh is the title and name given to an adherent of Sikhism. The term has its origin in the Sanskrit term , meaning "disciple, learner" or , meaning "instruction"....
shrine, to arrest insurgents. She was assassinated on October 31, 1984 in retaliation to this
operationOperation Blue Star 3–6 June 1984 was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, to remove Sikh separatists who were amassing weapons in the Golden Temple in Amritsar...
.
Growing up in India
Indira Nehru Gandhi was born on 19 November 1917 to Pandit
Jawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru was an Indian statesman who was the first, and has been the longest-serving prime minister of India to date, having served from 1947 until 1964...
and
Kamala NehruKamala Kaul Nehru was the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru, leader of the Indian National Congress and first Prime Minister of India. Kamala married Nehru on 8 February, 1916. Their marriage was arranged by his parents....
and was their only child. The Nehrus were a distinguish
Kashmiri PanditKashmiri Pandit refers to a person who belongs to a sect of Hindu Pandits who originate from the Kashmir region in the Indian subcontinent.-History:...
family. At the time of her birth, her grandfather
Motilal NehruMotilal Nehru was an early Indian independence activist and leader of the Indian National Congress. He was the founder patriarch of India's most powerful political family, the Nehru-Gandhi family.-Early life:...
and father Jawaharlal were influential political leaders. Gandhi was brought up in an intense political atmosphere at the Nehru family residence, Anand Bhawan, where she spent her childhood years.
Growing up in the sole care of her mother, who was sick and alienated from the Nehru household, Indira developed strong protective instincts and a loner personality. The flurry of political activity in the Nehru household made mixing with her peers difficult. She had personal conflicts with her father's sisters, including Vijayalakshmi Pandit, and these extended into her relationship with them in the political world.
In her father's autobiography,
Toward Freedom, he writes that the police frequently came to the family home while he was in prison and took away pieces of furniture as payment toward the fines the Government imposed on him. He says, "Indira, my four-year-old daughter, was greatly annoyed at this continuous process of despoliation and protested to the police and expressed her strong displeasure. I am afraid those early impressions are likely to colour her future views about the police force generally."
Indira created the
Vanara SenaAccording to Hindu beliefs the Army of Monkeys or vanaras, helped Lord Rama fight the armies of Ravana of Lanka in the epic Ramayana.It also was the name of an organization of young Indian boys and girls created by the young Indira Gandhi in the late 1920s and early 1930s, as the children's wing of...
movement for young girls and boys which played a small but notable role in the
Indian Independence MovementThe term Indian independence movement incorporates various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts of both nonviolent and militant philosophy. The term encompasses a wide spectrum of political organizations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending the British...
, conducting protests and flag marches, as well as helping members of the Indian National Congress circulate sensitive publications and banned materials. In an often-told story, she smuggled out in her schoolbag an important document from her father's house under police observation, that outlined plans for a major revolutionary initiative in the early 1930s.
Studying in Europe
In 1936, her mother, Kamala Nehru, finally succumbed to
tuberculosisTuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria...
after a long struggle. Indira was 18 at the time and thus never experienced a stable family life during her childhood. While studying at Somerville College,
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
, England, during the late 1930s, she became a member of the radical pro-independence London based India League.
In early 1940, Indira spent time in a rest home in Switzerland to recover from chronic lung disease. She maintained her long-distance relationship with her father in the form of long letters as she was used to doing through her childhood. They argued about politics.
In her years in continental Europe and the UK, she met a young Parsi man active in politics,
Feroze GandhiFeroze Gandhi was an Indian politician and journalist. He was a member of the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of India's parliament. In 1942 he married Indira Nehru and they had two sons Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi.Feroze Gandhi was born in Mumbai into a Parsi family...
. After returning to India, Feroze Gandhi grew close to the Nehru family, especially to Indira's mother Kamala Nehru and Indira herself.
Marriage to Feroze Gandhi
When Indira and
Feroze GandhiFeroze Gandhi was an Indian politician and journalist. He was a member of the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of India's parliament. In 1942 he married Indira Nehru and they had two sons Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi.Feroze Gandhi was born in Mumbai into a Parsi family...
returned to India, they were in love and had decided to get married, despite doctors' advice. Indira liked Feroze's openness, sense of humor and self-confidence. Nehru did not like the idea of his daughter marrying and sought Mahatma Gandhi's help to dissuade their love relationship. Indira was adamant and the marriage took place in March 1942 according to Hindu rituals.
Feroze and Indira were both members of the Indian National Congress, and when they took part in the
Quit India MovementThe Quit India Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...
in 1942, they were both arrested. After independence, Feroze went on to run for election and became a member of parliament from Uttar Pradesh. After the birth of their two sons,
Rajiv GandhiRajiv Ratna Gandhi , the elder son of Indira Nehru and Feroze Gandhi, was the 7th Prime Minister of India from his mother's death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on 2 December 1989 following a general election defeat...
and
Sanjay GandhiSanjay Gandhi was an Indian politician, the younger son of former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi and politician Feroze Gandhi.-Early life:...
, their relationship was strained leading to a separation. Shortly after his re-election, Feroze suffered a heart attack, which lead to a reconciliation. Their relationship endured for the few years before the death of Feroze Gandhi in September 1960.
President of the Indian National Congress
During 1959 and 1960, Gandhi ran for and was elected the President of the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
. Her term of office was uneventful. She also acted as her father's chief of staff. Nehru was known as a vocal opponent of
nepotismNepotism is favouritism granted to relatives or friends, without regard to their merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos .- Papal :...
, and she did not contest a seat in the 1962 elections.
Minister of Information and Broadcasting
Nehru died on 27 May 1964, and Indira, at the urging of the new Prime Minister
Lal Bahadur ShastriLal Bahadur Shastri was the third Prime Minister of the Republic of India and a significant figure in the Indian independence movement.-Early life:...
, contested elections and joined the Government. She was appointed Minister for Information and Broadcasting. She went to Madras, the capital of the non-Hindi speaking state of Tamil Nadu, during the riots resulting from declaring
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
the national language. There she spoke to government officials, soothed the anger of community leaders and supervised reconstruction efforts for the affected areas. Shastri and senior Ministers were embarrassed, owing to their lack of such initiative. Minister Gandhi's actions were probably not directly aimed at Shastri or her own political elevation. She reportedly lacked interest in the day-to-day functioning of her Ministry, but was media-savvy and adept at the art of politics and image-making.
"During the succession struggles after 1965 between Mrs. Gandhi and her rivals, the central Congress [party] leadership in several states moved to displace upper caste leaders from state Congress [party] organizations and replace them with backward caste persons and to mobilize the votes of the latter castes to defeat its rivals in the state Congress [party] and in the opposition. The consequences of these interventions, some of which may justly be perceived as socially progressive, have nevertheless often had the consequences of intensifying inter-ethnic regional conflicts...
While the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between India and Pakistan. This conflict became known as the Second Kashmir War fought by India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir, the first having been fought in 1947...
was ongoing, Gandhi was vacationing in the border region of
SrinagarSrinagar , is the capital of the northernmost state of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir that is situated in India-administered Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. The city is famous for its lakes and houseboats...
. Although warned by the Army that Pakistani
insurgentsAn insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognised as belligerents.[Oxford English Dictionary second edition 1989 "insurgent B. n...]
had penetrated very close to the city, she refused to relocate to
JammuJammu is one of the three administrative divisions within Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India.Jammu city is the largest city in Jammu and the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir...
or
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
and instead rallied local government and welcomed the media attention. The Pakistan attack was successfully repelled, and Prime Minister Shastri in January 1966 signed a peace agreement with Pakistan's
Ayub KhanMuhammad Ayub Khan , N.Pk., H.Pk., HJ, psc, was the first military ruler of Pakistan, serving as the President of Pakistan...
, mediated by the Soviets in
TashkentTashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million.- History :...
. A few hours later, Shastri died of a heart attack.
The
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
President
K. KamarajKamaraj Kumarasami, better known as K. Kamaraj was an Indian politician widely known to be the kingmaker in Indian politics, and known for his honesty, integrity and simplicity....
was then instrumental in making Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister, despite opposition from
Morarji DesaiMorarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and the Prime Minister of India from 1977-79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress...
. Her nomination was later confirmed when in a ballot by the Congress Parliamentary Party she soundly defeated Morarji Desai by getting 355 votes to his 169 to become the fifth Prime Minister of India and the first woman to hold that position.
Prime Minister
Domestic policy
When Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966 the Congress was split in two factions, the socialists led by Gandhi, and the
conservativesConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
led by
Morarji DesaiMorarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and the Prime Minister of India from 1977-79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress...
. Rammanohar Lohia called her
Gungi Gudiya which means 'Dumb Doll'. The internal problems showed in the 1967 election where the Congress lost nearly 60 seats winning 297 seats in the 545 seat
Lok SabhaThe Lok Sabha is the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of India. As of 2009 there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
. She had to accommodate Desai as
Deputy Prime Minister of IndiaThe Deputy Prime Minister of India is a member of the Indian cabinet in the Indian government. The post is not a constitutional post and seldom carries any specific powers. Generally a Deputy PM also holds other key portfolios like Home minister or Finance Minister...
and
Finance Minister of IndiaThe Finance Minister of India is a cabinet position in the Government of India. He drafts the general budget of the country, and is in charge of the national economy. Currently, Pranab Mukherjee holds the charge of finance ministry....
. In 1969 after many disagreements with Desai, the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
split. She ruled with support from Socialist and Communist Parties for the next two years. In the same year, in July 1969 she nationalized banks.
War with Pakistan in 1971
The Pakistan army conducted widespread atrocities against the civilian populations of East Pakistan.
An estimated 10 million refugees fled to India, causing financial hardship and instability in the country. The United States under
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
supported Pakistan, and mooted a UN resolution warning India against going to war. Nixon apparently disliked Indira personally, referring to her as a "witch" and "clever fox" in his private communication with Secretary of State
Henry KissingerHenry Alfred Kissinger , is a German-born American political scientist, diplomat, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the Nixon Administration....
(now released by the
State DepartmentThe United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, similar to foreign ministries, foreign offices, ministries of external relations, etc. in other countries...
).. Indira signed the
Treaty of Friendship and CooperationThe Indo–Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation was a treaty signed between India the Soviet Union in August 1971 that specified mutual strategic cooperation...
, resulting in political support and a Soviet veto at the UN. India was victorious in the 1971 war, and
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
was born.
Foreign policy
She invited the new Pakistani President
Zulfikar Ali BhuttoZulfikar Ali Bhutto was a Pakistani politician who served as the President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and as Prime Minister from 1973 to 1977. He was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party , the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan...
to
ShimlaShimla , originally called Simla, is the capital city of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of the British Raj in India. A popular tourist destination, Shimla is often referred to as the "Queen of Hills"...
for a week-long summit. After the near-failure of the talks, the two heads of state eventually signed the Shimla Agreement, which bound the two countries to resolve the
KashmirKashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent...
dispute by negotiations and peaceful means. Due to her antipathy for Nixon, relations with the United States grew distant, while relations with the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
grew closer.
Indira Gandhi was criticized by some for not making the Line of Control a permanent border while a few critics even believed that
Pakistan-administered KashmirPakistan administered Kashmir refers to a disputed region between India and Pakistan in South Asia that is under the de facto administration of Pakistan...
should have been extracted from
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, whose 93, 000 prisoners of war were under Indian control. But the agreement did remove immediate
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
and third party interference, and greatly reduced the likelihood of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
launching a major attack in the near future. By not demanding total capitulation on a sensitive issue from Bhutto, she had allowed Pakistan to stabilize and normalize. Trade relations were also normalized, though much contact remained frozen(sealed) for years.
Devaluation of the Rupee
During the late 1960s, Indira's administration decreed a 40% devaluation in the value of the Indian Rupee from 4 to 7 to the US Dollar to boost trade.
Nuclear weapons program
A national nuclear program was started by Gandhi in 1967, in response to the nuclear threat from the People's Republic of China and to establish India's stability and security interests as independent from those of the nuclear superpowers. In 1974, India successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, unofficially code named as "
Smiling BuddhaThe Smiling Buddha was the first nuclear test explosion by India on 18 May 1974 at Pokhran. It was also the first confirmed nuclear test by a nation outside the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council having been developed and executed with the help of Canadian nuclear...
", near the desert village of
PokhranPokhran is a city and a municipality located in Jaisalmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the test site for India's first underground nuclear weapon detonation.-Geography:Pokhran is located at...
in
RajasthanRājasthān is the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan...
. Describing the test as for peaceful purposes, India became the world's youngest nuclear power.
Green Revolution
Special agricultural innovation programs and extra government support launched in the 1960s finally transformed India's chronic food shortages into surplus production of wheat, rice, cotton and milk. Rather than relying on food aid from the United States - headed by a President whom Gandhi disliked considerably (the feeling was mutual: to Nixon, Indira was "the old witch"), the country became a food exporter. That achievement, along with the diversification of its commercial crop production, has become known as the "Green Revolution". At the same time, the White Revolution was an expansion in milk production which helped to combat malnutrition, especially amidst young children. 'Food security', as the program was called, was another source of support for Gandhi in the years leading up to 1975.
Established in the early 1960s, the Green Revolution was the unofficial name given to the Intense Agricultural District Program (IADP) which sought to insure abundant, inexpensive grain for urban dwellers upon whose support Gandhi—as indeed all Indian politicians—heavily depended. The program was based on four premises: 1) New varieties of seed(s), 2) Acceptance of the necessity of the chemicalization of Indian agriculture, i.e. fertilizers, pesticides, weed killers, etc., 3) A commitment to national and international cooperative research to develop new and improved existing seed varieties, 4) The concept of developing a scientific, agricultural institutions in the form of land grant colleges. Lasting about ten years, the program was ultimately to bring about a tripling of wheat production, a lower but still impressive increase of rice; while there was little to no increase (depending on area, and adjusted for population growth) of such cereals as
milletThe millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
,
gramThe gram , ; symbol g, is a unit of mass.Originally defined as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre, and at the temperature of melting ice" , a gram is now defined as one one-thousandth of the SI base unit, the kilogram, or...
and coarse grain, though these did, in fact, retain a relatively stable yield.
1971 election victory, and second term (1971-1975)
Indira's government faced major problems after her tremendous mandate of 1971. The internal structure of the Congress Party had withered following its numerous splits, leaving it entirely dependent on her leadership for its election fortunes.
Garibi HataoGaribi Hatao was the theme and slogan of Indira Gandhi's 1971 election bid and later also used by her son Rajiv Gandhi. The slogan and the proposed anti-poverty programs that came with it were designed to give Gandhi an independent national support, based on rural and urban poor...
(Stop Poverty) was the theme for Gandhi's 1971 bid. The slogan and the proposed anti-poverty programs that came with it were designed to give Gandhi an independent national support, based on rural and urban poor. This would allow her to bypass the dominant rural castes both in and of state and local government; likewise the urban commercial class. And, for their part, the previously voiceless poor would at last gain both political worth and political weight.
The programs created through
Garibi HataoGaribi Hatao was the theme and slogan of Indira Gandhi's 1971 election bid and later also used by her son Rajiv Gandhi. The slogan and the proposed anti-poverty programs that came with it were designed to give Gandhi an independent national support, based on rural and urban poor...
, though carried out locally, were funded, developed, supervised, and staffed by New Delhi and the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
party. "These programs also provided the central political leadership with new and vast patronage resources to be disbursed... throughout the country.". Scholars and historians now agree as to the extent of the failure of Garibi Hatao in alleviating poverty - only about 4% of all funds allocated for economic development went to the three main anti-poverty programs, and precious few of these ever reached the 'poorest of the poor' - and the empty sloganeering of the program was mainly used instead to engender populist support for Gandhi's re-election.
Corruption charges and verdict of electoral malpractice
On 12 June 1975 the
High Court of AllahabadIndia's judicial system is made up of the Supreme Court of India at the apex of the hierarchy for the entire country and 21 High Courts at the top of the hierarchy in each State. These courts have jurisdiction over a state, a union territory or a group of states and union territories...
declared Indira Gandhi's election to the
Lok SabhaThe Lok Sabha is the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of India. As of 2009 there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
void on grounds of electoral malpractice. In an election petition filed by Raj Narain (who later on defeated her again in 1977 parliamentary election from Rae Bareily, after she was convicted of using corrupt electoral practices in 1971 against him), he had alleged several major as well as minor instances of using government resources for campaigning. The court thus ordered her to be removed from her seat in Parliament and banned from running in elections for six years. The Prime Minister must be a member of either the
Lok SabhaThe Lok Sabha is the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of India. As of 2009 there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
(lower house in the
Parliament of IndiaThe Parliament of India is the federal and supreme legislative body of India. It consists of the office of President of India and two houses, the lower house, known as the Lok Sabha and the upper house, known as the Rajya Sabha.. It is located in New Delhi at Sansad Bhavan on Sansad Marg...
) or the
Rajya SabhaThe Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature, science, and social services. These members are known as nominated members...
(the upper house of the Parliament). Thus, this decision effectively removed her from office.
But Gandhi rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. The verdict was delivered by Mr Justice Sinha at Allahabad High Court. It came almost four years after the case was brought by Raj Narain, the premier's defeated opponent in the 1971 parliamentary election. Gandhi, who gave evidence in her defence during the trial, was found guilty of dishonest election practices, excessive election expenditure, and of using government machinery and officials for party purposes. The judge rejected more serious charges of bribery against her.
Indira insisted the conviction did not undermine her position, despite having been unseated from the lower house of parliament, Lok Sabha, by order of the High Court. She said: "There is a lot of talk about our government not being clean, but from our experience the situation was very much worse when [opposition] parties were forming governments". And she dismissed criticism of the way her Congress Party raised election campaign money, saying all parties used the same methods. The prime minister retained the support of her party, which issued a statement backing her. After news of the verdict spread, hundreds of supporters demonstrated outside her house, pledging their loyalty.Indian High Commissioner BK Nehru said Gandhi's conviction would not harm her political career. "Mrs Gandhi has still today overwhelming support in the country," he said. "I believe the prime minister of India will continue in office until the electorate of India decides otherwise".
Indira began an appeal against her conviction for corrupt electoral practices. She controversially declared a state of emergency, claiming there was a plot to disrupt democracy. Thousands were arrested, including about 22 MPs, and the Indian media was censored. In August 1975 the Lok Sabha passed legislation to clear Gandhi of her corruption convictions retroactively, as she had strong-armed her opponents out of Parliament, and had arrested many of them.
Protests and civil disobedience
When Indira appealed the decision and declared she would continue to serve the people "till her last breath", the opposition parties and their supporters, eager to gain political capital from the situation, rallied en masse calling for her resignation. The sheer number of strikes by unions and protesters paralyzed life in many states. To strengthen this movement, J. P. Narayan called upon the police to disobey orders if asked to fire on unarmed crowds. Public disenchantment with her government combined with hard economic times, and huge crowds of protesters surrounded the Parliament building and her residence in Delhi, demanding her resignation.
Indira had already been accused of
authoritarianismAuthoritarianism describes a form of government characterized by an emphasis on the authority of state in a republic or union. It is a political system controlled by typically non-elected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom....
. By using her strong parliamentary majority, her ruling Congress Party had amended the Constitution and altered the balance of power between the Centre and the States in favour of the Central Government. She had twice imposed "
President's RulePresident's rule is the term used in India when a state government is dissolved or suspended and is placed under direct federal rule. President's rule is enabled by article 356 of the Constitution of India, which gives the central government the authority to dismiss any state government if there...
" under Article 356 of the Constitution by declaring states ruled by opposition parties as "lawless and chaotic", and thus seizing control. In addition, elected officials and the administrative services resented the growing influence of
Sanjay GandhiSanjay Gandhi was an Indian politician, the younger son of former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi and politician Feroze Gandhi.-Early life:...
, who had become Gandhi's close political adviser at the expense of men like
P. N. HaksarPurshottam Narayan Haksar was one of the earliest and most important political strategists in the political democracy of independent India. His most important role was in the political ascent of Indira Gandhi, as the Prime Minister in her own right and personal political strength, and the...
, Gandhi's previous adviser during her rise to power. In response to her new tendency for authoritarian use of power, public figures and former freedom-fighters like Jaya Prakash Narayan,
Satyendra Narayan SinhaSatyendra Narayan Sinha was an Indian politician, participant in the Indian independence movement, and a former Chief Minister of Bihar...
and Acharya Jivatram Kripalani toured India, speaking actively against her and her government.
State of Emergency (1975-1977)
Gandhi moved to restore order by ordering the arrest of most of the opposition participating in the unrest. Her Cabinet and government then recommended that President
Fakhruddin Ali AhmedFakhruddin Ali Ahmed was President of India from 1974 to 1977.Ahmed was born on 13 May 1905, in Delhi, India, to Col. Zalnur Ali Ahmed and Ruqqaiya Sultan, the daughter of the Nawab of Loharu, Aizz-uddin Ahmad Khan .He was educated at St...
declare a
state of emergencyA state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend certain normal functions of government, alert citizens to alter their normal behaviors, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale for suspending civil liberties...
, because of the disorder and lawlessness following the Allahabad High Court decision. Accordingly, Ahmed declared a State of Emergency caused by internal disorder, based on the provisions of Article 352 of the Constitution, on 26 June 1975.
Rule by decree
Within a few months,
President's RulePresident's rule is the term used in India when a state government is dissolved or suspended and is placed under direct federal rule. President's rule is enabled by article 356 of the Constitution of India, which gives the central government the authority to dismiss any state government if there...
was imposed on the two opposition party ruled states of
GujaratGujarat is the westernmost state in India. It is home to the Gujarati speaking people of India. The state encompasses major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization such as Lothal and Dholavira. Gujarat played an important role in the economic history of India throughout the history of India...
and
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by Puducherry , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh...
thereby bringing the entire country under direct Central rule. Police were granted powers to impose curfews and indefinitely detain citizens and all publications were subjected to substantial censorship by the
Ministry of Information and BroadcastingThe Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is a branch of the Government of India is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to information, broadcasting, the press and films in India. as of May 2008, the head of the ministry is Cabinet...
.
Inder Kumar GujralInder Kumar Gujral served as the 13th Prime Minister of the Republic of India.- Early life :Born in the town of Jhelum in Western Punjab, now in Pakistan, he actively took part in India's freedom struggle, and was jailed in 1942 during the 'Quit India Movement'...
, a future prime minister himself, resigned as Minister for Information and Broadcasting to protest Sanjay Gandhi's interference in his work. Finally, impending legislative assembly elections were indefinitely postponed, with all opposition-controlled state governments being removed by virtue of the constitutional provision allowing for a dismissal of a state government on recommendation of the state's governor.
Indira used the emergency provisions to grant herself extraordinary powers.
"Unlike her father [Nehru], who preferred to deal with strong chief ministers in control of their legislative parties and state party organizations, Mrs. Gandhi set out to remove every Congress chief minister who had an independent base and to replace each of them with ministers personally loyal to her...Even so, stability could not be maintained in the states..."
It is alleged that she further moved President Ahmed to issue
ordinancesA decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
that did not need to be debated in
ParliamentThe Parliament of India is the federal and supreme legislative body of India. It consists of the office of President of India and two houses, the lower house, known as the Lok Sabha and the upper house, known as the Rajya Sabha.. It is located in New Delhi at Sansad Bhavan on Sansad Marg...
, allowing her to
rule by decreeRule by decree is a style of governance allowing quick, unchallenged creation of law by a single person or group, and is used primarily by dictators and absolute monarchs, although philosophers such as Giorgio Agamben have argued that it has been generalized since World War I in all modern states,...
.
Simultaneously, Gandhi's government undertook a campaign to stamp out dissent including the arrest and detention of thousands of political activists; Sanjay was instrumental in initiating the clearing of slums around Delhi's
Jama MasjidThe Masjid-i Jahān-Numā , commonly known as the Jama Masjid of Delhi, is the principal mosque of Old Delhi in India. Commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, and completed in the year 1656 AD, it is the largest and best-known mosque in India...
under the supervision of Jag Mohan, later Lt. Governor of Delhi, which allegedly left thousands of people homeless and hundreds killed, and led to communal embitterment in those parts of the nation's capital; and the family planning program which forcibly imposed
vasectomyVasectomy is a minor surgical procedure wherein the vasa deferentia of a man are severed, and then tied or sealed in a manner such to prevent sperm from entering the seminal stream .-Types:...
on thousands of fathers and was often poorly administered.
Elections
After extending the state of emergency twice, in 1977 Indira Gandhi called for elections, to give the electorate a chance to vindicate her rule. Gandhi may have grossly misjudged her popularity by reading what the heavily censored press wrote about her. In any case, she was opposed by the
Janata PartyThe Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the state of emergency imposed by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Indian National Congress...
. Janata, led by her long-time rival, Desai and with Jai Prakash Narayan as its spiritual guide, claimed the elections were the last chance for India to choose between "democracy and dictatorship." Indira's Congress party was beaten soundly. Indira and Sanjay Gandhi both lost their seats, and Congress was cut down to 153 seats (compared with 350 in the previous Lok Sabha), 92 of which were in the south.
Removal, arrest, and return
Desai became Prime Minister and
Neelam Sanjiva ReddyNeelam Sanjiva Reddy was an Indian statesman. He was the sixth President of India, serving from 1977 to 1982 and was the only person to be elected President of India unopposed.He was born in Andhra Pradesh....
, the establishment choice of 1969, became President of the Republic. Gandhi found herself without work, income or residence until winning a
by-electionA by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections...
in 1978. The Congress Party split during the election campaign of 1977. Veteran Gandhi supporters like
Jagjivan RamBabu Jagjivan Ram , known popularly as Babuji was a freedom fighter and a social reformer hailing from the backward classes of Bihar in India...
and her most loyal Bahuguna & Nandini Satpathy parted ways. All three of them were very close to Indira but were compelled due to politicking and circumstances created by Sanjay Gandhi. The rumour then was that Sanjay had intentions of dislodging Indira's power . The Congress Party was now a much smaller group in Parliament, although the official opposition.
Unable to govern owing to fractious coalition warfare, the Janata government's Home Minister,
Choudhary Charan SinghChaudhary Charan Singh was the sixth Prime Minister of the Republic of India, serving from 28 July 1979 until 14 January 1980...
, ordered the arrest of Indira and Sanjay Gandhi on several charges, none of which would be easy to prove in an Indian court. The arrest meant that Indira was automatically expelled from Parliament. However, this strategy backfired disastrously. Her arrest and long-running trial, however, gained her great sympathy from many people who had feared her as a tyrant just two years earlier.
The Janata coalition was only united by its hatred of Indira (or "that woman" as some called her). With so little in common, the government was bogged down by infighting and Gandhi was able to use the situation to her advantage. She began giving speeches again, tacitly apologizing for "mistakes" made during the Emergency. Desai resigned in June 1979, and Charan Singh was appointed Prime Minister by Reddy after Gandhi promised that Congress would support his government from outside.
After a short interval, she withdrew her initial support and President Reddy dissolved Parliament in the winter of 1979. In elections held the following January, Congress was returned to power with a landslide majority.
In the 1980s, the Indira Gandhi Government provided money, weapons and military training to LTTE and other
TamilTamil nationalism in India is an aspiration by some Tamils to establish, at minimum, self determination. The ideology of Tamil Nationalism seeks to preserve and modernize Tamil language and culture, unite Tamils across boundaries, eradicate caste discrimination within Tamils, emancipate and empower...
millitant groups in
Sri LankaSri Lanka , officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka , is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India...
.
Currency crisis
During the early 1980s, Indira's administration failed to arrest the 40 percent fall in the value of the Indian Rupee from 7 to 12 to the US Dollar.
Operation Blue Star and assassination
Gandhi's later years were bedeviled with problems in the
PunjabPunjab is a state in northwest India. The Indian state borders the Pakistani province of Punjab to the west, Jammu and Kashmir to the north, Himachal Pradesh to the northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest. The total area of the state is 50,362 square kilometres...
. In June 1984,
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was the controversial leader of the Damdami Taksal, a Sikh religious group based in India, who supported implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. He tried to spread his perceived values of Sikhism...
's Sikh
separatistThe goal of the Khalistan movement is to create a Sikh homeland, often called Khālistān , in the Punjab region. Harking back to the 18th century Sikh Empire, the envisioned Sikh state would include all Punjabi-speaking areas, viz...
group were camping and amassing weapons within the walls of the
Golden TempleGolden Temple or Harmandir Sahib , informally referred to as The Golden Temple or Temple of God, is culturally the most significant place of worship of the Sikhs and one of the oldest Sikh gurdwaras...
, Sikhism's holiest shrine. Despite the presence of thousands of civilians in the Golden Temple complex at the time the army opened fire resulting in civilian casualties. Gandhi's order to approve Operation Blue Star was highly condemned by international media. Government and independent accounts differ in the number of military and civilian casualties. Government estimates include four officers, 79 soldiers, and 492 sikhs; independent accounts are much higher, perhaps 500 or more troops and 3,000 Sikhs, including many women and children caught in the crossfire. While the exact figures related to civilian casualties are disputed, the lack of decent records and the timing and method of the attack were widely criticized. Most of the criticism was directed against Indira Gandhi, claiming that she used the operation as a personal attack on Sikhs. Ms Gandhi justified the attack by stating that the aim was to flush out the terrorist Bhindaranwale who was creating animosity by preaching anti-government ideas such as the independence for sikhs, and idea of forming a separate state called Khalistan.
On 31 October 1984, two of Gandhi's bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, both Sikhs, assassinated her with their service weapons in the garden of the Prime Minister's Residence at No. 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi. As she was walking to be interviewed by the British actor
Peter UstinovSir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE , was a British actor, writer and dramatist.He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, director, stage designer, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter.A noted wit and...
, who was filming a documentary for Irish television, she passed a wicket gate guarded by Satwant and Beant. According to information available immediately following the incident, Beant Singh shot her three times using his side-arm and Satwant Singh fired 30 rounds, using a Sten submachine gun. Beant Singh was shot dead and Satwant Singh was shot and arrested by her other bodyguards.
Gandhi died on her way to the hospital in her official car but she was not declared dead until many hours later. She was taken to the
All India Institute of Medical SciencesAll India Institute of Medical Sciences is a medical college and hospital in Delhi, India.AIIMS is considered one of the most prestigious medical colleges in India and is globally recognized for providing low-cost medical care to a large number of patients...
where doctors operated on her. Official accounts at the time stated as many as 29 entry and exit wounds and some reports stated 31 bullets were extracted from her body. She was cremated on 3 November near Raj Ghat.
After her death, sectarian unrest in the form of
anti-Sikh riotsThe 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also called the pogroms and massacre, were triggered by the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards. The assassination itself was in retaliation for her order of Operation Bluestar, in which the Indian Army attacked Sikh militants...
, created by congress politicians loyal to Indira Gandhi engulfed
New DelhiNew Delhi is the capital of India. It is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and serves as the seat of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi....
and several other cities in India. The violent crowds killed thousands of innocent Sikhs, looted and burned their homes and property. Gandhi's friend and biographer
Pupul JayakarPupul Jayakar was an Indian cultural activist and writer , who was a close friend and biographer to both the Nehru-Gandhi family and philosopher J Krishnamurti.-Background:...
would later reveal Indira's tension, and her premonition about what might happen in the wake of
Operation Blue StarOperation Blue Star 3–6 June 1984 was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, to remove Sikh separatists who were amassing weapons in the Golden Temple in Amritsar...
. Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards Beant Singh and Satwant Singh acted in response to the attack on the holy shrine the Golden Temple.
Nehru-Gandhi family
Initially
SanjaySanjay Gandhi was an Indian politician, the younger son of former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi and politician Feroze Gandhi.-Early life:...
had been her chosen heir; but after his death in a flying accident, his mother persuaded a reluctant
Rajiv GandhiRajiv Ratna Gandhi , the elder son of Indira Nehru and Feroze Gandhi, was the 7th Prime Minister of India from his mother's death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on 2 December 1989 following a general election defeat...
to quit his job as a pilot and enter politics in February 1981.
After Indira Gandhi's death, Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister. In May 1991, he too was assassinated, this time at the hands of
Liberation Tigers of Tamil EelamThe Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is a separatist organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976, it waged a violent secessionist campaign that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka...
terrorists. Rajiv's widow,
Sonia GandhiSonia Gandhi is the Italian-born President of the Indian National Congress and the widow of former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi...
, led the
United Progressive AllianceUnited Progressive Alliance is a ruling coalition of political parties heading the government of India. The coalition is led by the Indian National Congress , which is currently the single largest political party in the Lok Sabha...
to a surprise electoral victory in the 2004
Lok SabhaThe Lok Sabha is the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of India. As of 2009 there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
elections.
Sonia Gandhi declined the opportunity to assume the office of Prime Minister but remains in control of the Congress' political apparatus; Prime Minister Dr.
Manmohan SinghManmohan Singh is the 14th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the first person of Sikh faith to hold the office...
, formerly finance minister, now heads the nation. Rajiv's children,
Rahul GandhiRahul Gandhi is an Indian politician and member of the Parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency. His political party is the Indian National Congress. He belongs to the Nehru-Gandhi family, the most prominent political family in India...
and
Priyanka Gandhi VadraPriyanka Vadra , is an Indian politician. She is the granddaughter of Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, and belongs tothe Nehru-Gandhi family.-Early life:...
, have also entered politics. Sanjay Gandhi's widow,
Maneka GandhiManeka Gandhi is an Indian politician, animal rights activist, environmentalist, former journalist and the widow of influential Indian politician, Sanjay Gandhi. She has been a minister in four governments, and has authored a number of books in the areas of etymology, law and animal welfare...
- who fell out with Indira after Sanjay's death and was famously thrown out of the Prime Minister's house - as well as Sanjay's son,
Varun GandhiFeroze Varun Gandhi is an Indian politician. He is the grandson of Indira Gandhi and great grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru.-Early life:...
, are active in politics as members of the main opposition
BJPThe Bharatiya Janata Party , translation: Indian People's Party) is a major political party in India, founded in 1980. The party is a strong force in Hindu nationalism and advocates conservative social policies, self-reliance, free market economics, foreign policy driven by a nationalist agenda,...
party.
Controversies
Indira Gandhi, late Prime Minister of India, implemented a forced sterilization programme in the 1970s.Officially, men with two children or more had to submit to sterilization, but many unmarried young men, political opponents and ignorant men were also believed to have been sterilized. This program is still remembered and criticized in India, and is blamed for creating a wrong public aversion to family planning, which hampered Government programmes for decades.. These considerations would strongly imply that Indira Gandhi had strong philosophical and personal convictions to notions of
EugenicsEugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. Widely popular in the early decades of the 20th century, after having become associated with the Holocaust, it has largely fallen into disrepute.- Overview :As a social movement...
, perhaps even being a member of the India
Eugenics SocietyA eugenics society was a society formed to promote the idea of eugenics. In particular, the two best-known were the British Eugenics Society and the American Eugenics Society, though smaller ones were also at universities such as the Cambridge Eugenics Society...
.
Legacy
Being the first woman Prime Minister, and an influential leader, in a prevalently male-dominated society, Indira Gandhi is a symbol of
feminism in IndiaThe history of feminism in India is regarded as mainly a practical effort. Compared to some other countries there has been only sparse theoretical writing in feminism.- Defining feminism in the Indian context :...
.
The goodwill of the rural population earned by Gandhi still has its effects on the success of the Congress Party in rural India, as well as the popular support of the
Nehru-Gandhi FamilyThe Nehru-Gandhi family or Nehru - Feroze Gandhi family is an Indian political family which has been dominant in the Indian National Congress for most of India's history since independence....
. She is reverently remembered in many parts of rural India as Indira-
Amma ("
Amma" means "mother" in many Indian languages). Her
Garibi Hatao slogan is still used by the Congress during political campaigns. The present president of the Indian National Congress,
Sonia GandhiSonia Gandhi is the Italian-born President of the Indian National Congress and the widow of former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi...
, who is also the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, is said to style herself in resemblance to her.
The Indira Awaas Yojana, a programme of the central government to provide low-cost housing to rural poor, is named after her. The international airport at
New DelhiNew Delhi is the capital of India. It is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and serves as the seat of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi....
is named as the
Indira Gandhi International AirportIndira Gandhi International Airport is an airport located in southwest Delhi, India. Named after former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, it is the busiest airport in India and South Asia, handling the largest amount of traffic movements and passengers on the subcontinent. . The airport...
in her honour.
See also
- List of Prime Ministers of India
- Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian statesman who was the first, and has been the longest-serving prime minister of India to date, having served from 1947 until 1964...
- Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi , the elder son of Indira Nehru and Feroze Gandhi, was the 7th Prime Minister of India from his mother's death on 31 October 1984 until his resignation on 2 December 1989 following a general election defeat...
- Sanjay Gandhi
Sanjay Gandhi was an Indian politician, the younger son of former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi and politician Feroze Gandhi.-Early life:...
- Nehru-Gandhi Family
The Nehru-Gandhi family or Nehru - Feroze Gandhi family is an Indian political family which has been dominant in the Indian National Congress for most of India's history since independence....
- List of assassinated Indian politicians
- Operation Blue Star
Operation Blue Star 3–6 June 1984 was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, to remove Sikh separatists who were amassing weapons in the Golden Temple in Amritsar...
- The State of Emergency in India 1975-77
Further reading
- Ved Mehta
Ved Parkash Mehta is a writer who was born in Lahore, British India to a Hindu family. He lost his sight at the age of four as the result of an attack of cerebrospinal meningitis...
, A Family Affair: India Under Three Prime Ministers (1982) ISBN 0-19-503118-0
- Pupul Jayakar
Pupul Jayakar was an Indian cultural activist and writer , who was a close friend and biographer to both the Nehru-Gandhi family and philosopher J Krishnamurti.-Background:...
, Indira Gandhi: An Intimate Biography (1992) ISBN 9780679424796
- Katherine Frank
Katherine Frank is a noted American author and biographer, now living in England. Her works include a highly-acclaimed biography of Lucie Duff Gordon, and the more controversial biography of Indira Gandhi.-External links:...
, Indira: the life of Indira Nehru Gandhi (2002) ISBN 0-395-73097-X
- Ramachandra Guha
Ramachandra Guha is an Indian writer whose research interests have included environment, social, political and cricket history. He is also a columnist for the newspapers The Telegraph, Khaleej Times, and The Hindustan Times.-Life and career:...
, India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (2007) ISBN 978-0-06-019881-7
External links
hjtjg