Indira Gandhi

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Indira Gandhi
4th Prime Minister of India (1st tenure)
In office 24 January 1966 – 24 March 1977
President	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Zakir Hussain Varahagiri Venkata Giri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
Preceded by	Gulzarilal Nanda
Succeeded by	Morarji Desai
4th Prime Minister of India (2nd tenure)
In office 15 January 1980 – 31 October 1984
President	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy Giani Zail Singh
Preceded by	Choudhary Charan Singh
Succeeded by	Rajiv Gandhi
Minister for External Affairs of India
In office 9 March 1984 – 31 October 1984
Preceded by	P. V. Narasimha Rao
Succeeded by	Rajiv Gandhi
In office 22 August 1967 – 14 March 1969
Preceded by	Mahommedali Currim Chagla
Succeeded by	Dinesh Singh
Finance Minister of India
In office 26 June 1970 – 29 April 1971
Preceded by	Morarji Desai
Succeeded by	Yashwantrao Chavan
President of the Indian National Congress
In office 1959
Preceded by	U N Dhebar
Succeeded by	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
In office 1978 – 1984
Preceded by	Dev Kant Baruah
Succeeded by	Rajiv Gandhi
Born	19 November 1917(1917-11-19) Allahabad, United Provinces, British India
Died	31 October 1984 (aged 66) New Delhi, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Feroze Gandhi
Children	Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi
Religion	Hindu-Adi Dharm
Signature

A young Indira Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi (no relation), during one of his fasts

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindi: इंदिरा प्रियदर्शिनी गांधी Indirā Priyadarśinī Gāndhī; née: Nehru; (19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was the Prime Minister 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.

Born in the politically influential Nehru Family, she grew up in an intensely political atmosphere. Her grandfather, Motilal Nehru, was a prominent Indian nationalist leader. Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, 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 movement. In the 1950s, she served her father unofficially as a personal assistant during his tenure as the first Prime Minister of India. After her father's death in 1964, she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha by the President of India and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.^[1]

The then Congress Party President K. Kamaraj 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. She introduced more left-wing economic policies and promoted agricultural productivity. She led the nation as Prime Minister during the decisive victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan and creation of an independent Bangladesh. A period of instability led her to impose a state of emergency in 1975. Due to the alleged authoritarian excesses during the period of emergency, the Congress Party and Indira Gandhi herself lost the next general election for the first time in 1977. Indira Gandhi led the Congress back to victory in 1980 elections and Gandhi resumed the office of the Prime Minister. In June 1984, under Gandhi's order, the Indian army forcefully entered the Golden Temple, the most sacred Sikh shrine, to remove armed insurgents present inside the temple. She was assassinated on October 31, 1984 in retaliation to this operation.

Early life

Growing up in India

Indira Nehru Gandhi was born on 19 November 1917 to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru and was their only child. The Nehrus were a distinguished Kashmiri Pandit family. At the time of her birth, her grandfather Motilal Nehru 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 Sena movement for young girls and boys which played a small but notable role in the Indian Independence Movement, 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 tuberculosis 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 Oxford, England, during the late 1930s, she became a member of the radical pro-independence London based India League.^[2]

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.^[3]

In her years in continental Europe and the UK, she met a young Parsi man active in politics, Feroze Gandhi.^[4] 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 Gandhi returned to India, they were in love and had decided to get married, despite doctors' advice.^[5] 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.^[6]

Feroze and Indira were both members of the Indian National Congress, and when they took part in the Quit India Movement in 1942, they were both arrested.^[7] After independence, Feroze went on to run for election and became a member of parliament from Raebareli Uttar Pradesh in 1952. After the birth of their two sons, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, 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.

The Nehru family - Motilal Nehru is seated in the center, and standing (L to R) are Jawaharlal Nehru, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Krishna Hutheesing, Indira, and Ranjit Pandit; Seated: Swaroop Rani, Motilal Nehru and Kamala Nehru (circa 1927).

Early leadership

President of the Indian National Congress

Indira and Mahatma Gandhi circa the 1930s

During 1959 and 1960, Gandhi ran for and was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress. Her term of office was uneventful. She also acted as her father's chief of staff. Nehru was known as a vocal opponent of nepotism, 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 Shastri, contested elections and joined the Government. She was appointed Minister for Information and Broadcasting.^[8] She went to Madras, the capital of the non-Hindi speaking state of Tamil Nadu, during the riots resulting from declaring Hindi 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...^[9]

While the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was ongoing, Gandhi was vacationing in the border region of Srinagar. Although warned by the Army that Pakistani insurgents had penetrated very close to the city, she refused to relocate to Jammu or Delhi 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 Khan, mediated by the Soviets in Tashkent. A few hours later, Shastri died of a heart attack.^[10]

The Indian National Congress President K. Kamaraj was then instrumental in making Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister, despite opposition from Morarji Desai. 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

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the second President of India, administering the oath of office to Indira Gandhi on 24 January 1966.

First term

Domestic policy

When Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966 the Congress was split in two factions, the socialists led by Gandhi, and the conservatives led by Morarji Desai. Rammanohar Lohia called her Gungi Gudiya which means 'Dumb Doll'^[11]. The internal problems showed in the 1967 election where the Congress lost nearly 60 seats winning 297 seats in the 545 seat Lok Sabha. She had to accommodate Desai as Deputy Prime Minister of India and Finance Minister of India. In 1969 after many disagreements with Desai, the Indian National Congress 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.^[12][13] An estimated 10 million refugees fled to India, causing financial hardship and instability in the country. The United States under Richard Nixon 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 Kissinger (now released by the State Department).^[14]. Indira signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, resulting in political support and a Soviet veto at the UN. India was victorious in the 1971 war, and Bangladesh was born.

Foreign policy

She invited the new Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Shimla 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 Kashmir dispute by negotiations and peaceful means. Due to her antipathy for Nixon, relations with the United States grew distant, while relations with the Soviet Union 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 Kashmir should have been extracted from Pakistan, whose 93, 000 prisoners of war were under Indian control. But the agreement did remove immediate United Nations and third party interference, and greatly reduced the likelihood of Pakistan 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 Buddha", near the desert village of Pokhran in Rajasthan. Describing the test as for peaceful purposes, India became the world's youngest nuclear power.

Green Revolution

Richard Nixon and Indira Gandhi in 1971. They had a deep personal antipathy that coloured bilateral relations.

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"^[15]), 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.^[16]

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.^[17] 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.^[18] 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 millet, gram 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 Hatao (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 Hatao, though carried out locally, were funded, developed, supervised, and staffed by New Delhi and the Indian National Congress party. "These programs also provided the central political leadership with new and vast patronage resources to be disbursed... throughout the country."^[19]. 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 Allahabad declared Indira Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha void on grounds of electoral malpractice. In an election petition filed by Raj Narain (who later on defeated her in 1977 parliamentary election from Rae Bareily), he had alleged several major as well as minor instances of using government resources for campaigning.^[20] 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 Sabha (lower house in the Parliament of India) or the Rajya Sabha (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",^[21] 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.

A still from Anand Patwardhan's first documentary Waves of Revolution, about the unrest in Bihar, distributed clandestinely within India and smuggled out in sections to create awareness abroad.

Indira had already been accused of authoritarianism. 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 Rule" 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 Gandhi, who had become Gandhi's close political adviser at the expense of men like P. N. Haksar, 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 Sinha 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 Ahmed declare a state of emergency, 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 Rule was imposed on the two opposition party ruled states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu thereby bringing the entire country under direct Central rule.^[22] 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 Broadcasting. Inder Kumar Gujral, 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..."^[23]

It is alleged that she further moved President Ahmed to issue ordinances that did not need to be debated in Parliament, allowing her to rule by decree.

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 Masjid 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 vasectomy 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 Party. 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

Mrs. Gandhi with M.G. Ramachandran, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. In the post-emergency elections in 1977, only the Southern states returned Congress majorities.

1984 USSR commemorative stamp

Desai became Prime Minister and Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, the establishment choice of 1969, became President of the Republic. Gandhi found herself without work, income or residence until winning a by-election in 1978. The Congress Party split during the election campaign of 1977. Veteran Gandhi supporters like Jagjivan Ram 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 Singh, 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, despite considerable opposition within the Parliament, the Indira Gandhi Government provided money, weapons and military training to LTTE and other Tamil millitant groups in Sri Lanka.^[24]

Third term

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.^{[citation needed]}

Operation Blue Star and assassination

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Indira Gandhi's blood-stained saree and her belongings at the time of her assassination, preserved at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi.

Gandhi's later years were bedeviled with problems in the Punjab. In June 1984, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's Sikh separatist group were camping and amassing weapons within the walls of the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine.^[25] 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.^[26] 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, 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 Ustinov, 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,^[27] 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 Sciences 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. Her funeral was internationally televised live for 8-12 hours on all domestic and international stations including ABC.

After her death, sectarian unrest in the form of anti-Sikh riots, created by congress politicians^{[citation needed]} loyal to Indira Gandhi engulfed New 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 Jayakar would later reveal Indira's tension, and her premonition about what might happen in the wake of Operation Blue Star. Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards Beant Singh and Satwant Singh acted in response to the attack on the holy shrine the Golden Temple.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Nehru-Gandhi family

Indira Gandhi's personal library.

Portrait of Feroze and Indira Gandhi.

Initially Sanjay had been her chosen heir; but after his death in a flying accident, his mother persuaded a reluctant Rajiv Gandhi 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 Eelam. Rajiv's widow, Sonia Gandhi, led the United Progressive Alliance to a surprise electoral victory in the 2004 Lok Sabha 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 Singh, formerly finance minister, now heads the nation. Rajiv's children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have also entered politics. Sanjay Gandhi's widow, Maneka Gandhi - who fell out with Indira after Sanjay's death and was famously thrown out of the Prime Minister's house^[28] - as well as Sanjay's son, Varun Gandhi, are active in politics as members of the main opposition BJP 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.^[29].

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 India.

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 Family. 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 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 Delhi is named as the Indira Gandhi International Airport in her honour.

See also

• List of Prime Ministers of India
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Rajiv Gandhi
• Sanjay Gandhi
• Nehru-Gandhi Family
• List of assassinated Indian politicians
• Operation Blue Star
• The State of Emergency in India 1975-77

References

Further reading

• Ved Mehta, A Family Affair: India Under Three Prime Ministers (1982) ISBN 0-19-503118-0
• Pupul Jayakar, Indira Gandhi: An Intimate Biography (1992) ISBN 9780679424796
• Katherine Frank, Indira: the life of Indira Nehru Gandhi (2002) ISBN 0-395-73097-X
• Ramachandra Guha, India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (2007) ISBN 978-0-06-019881-7

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Indira Gandhi

• Indira Gandhi Biography
• Feature on Indira Gandhi by the International Museum of Women.
• Obituary, NY Times, November 1, 1984 Assassination in India: A Leader of Will and Force; Indira Gandhi, Born to Politics, Left Her Own Imprint on India
• 1975: Gandhi found guilty of corruption

v • d • e Prime Ministers of India Jawaharlal Nehru · Gulzarilal Nanda · Lal Bahadur Shastri · Indira Gandhi · Morarji Desai · Choudhary Charan Singh · Rajiv Gandhi · Vishwanath Pratap Singh · Chandra Shekhar · P.V. Narasimha Rao · Atal Bihari Vajpayee · H.D. Deve Gowda · Inder Kumar Gujral · Manmohan Singh

v • d • e Bharat Ratna laureates Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1954) · C. Rajagopalachari (1954) · C. V. Raman (1954) · Bhagwan Das (1955) · Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (1955) · Jawaharlal Nehru (1955) · Govind Ballabh Pant (1957) · Dhondo Keshav Karve (1958) · Bidhan Chandra Roy (1961) · Purushottam Das Tandon (1961) · Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1962) · Dr. Zakir Hussain (1963) · Pandurang Vaman Kane (1963) · Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966) · Indira Gandhi (1971) · V. V. Giri (1975) · K. Kamaraj (1976) · Mother Teresa (1980) · Acharya Vinoba Bhave (1983) · Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) · M. G. Ramachandran (1988) · B. R. Ambedkar (1990) · Nelson Mandela (1990) · Rajiv Gandhi (1991) · Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1991) · Morarji Desai (1991) · Abul Kalam Azad (1992) · J. R. D. Tata (1992) · Satyajit Ray (1992) · A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1997) · Gulzarilal Nanda (1997) · Aruna Asaf Ali (1997) · M. S. Subbulakshmi (1998) · Chidambaram Subramaniam (1998) · Jayaprakash Narayan (1998) · Ravi Shankar (1999) · Amartya Sen (1999) · Gopinath Bordoloi (1999) · Lata Mangeshkar (2001) · Bismillah Khan (2001) · Bhimsen Joshi (2008)

v • d • e Indian National Congress Presidents Bonnerjee · Naoroji · Tyabji · Yule · Wedderburn · Mehta · Charlappa · Bonnerjee · Dadabhai Naoroji · Webb · Banerjea · Sayani · Nair · A. M. Bose · Dutt · Chandavarkar · Wacha · Banerjea · L. Ghosh · H. Cotton · Gokhale · Naoroji · R. Ghosh · (1907-1908) Malaviya · Wedderburn · Dar · Mudholkar · Bahadur · B. N. Bose · Sinha · Mazumdar · Besant · Malaviya · Imam · M. Nehru · Rai · C. Vijayaraghavachariar · Khan · Das · M. Ali · A. K. Azad · M. Gandhi · Naidu · Iyengar · Ansari · M. Nehru · J. Nehru · S. V. Patel · Malaviya (1932-1933) · Nellie Sengupta · Rajendra Prasad (1934-1935) · J. Nehru (1936-1937) · S. C. Bose · (1938-1939) · A. K. Azad (1940-1946) · Kripalani · Sitaramayya (1948-1949) · Tandon · J. Nehru (1951-1954) · Dhebar (1955-1959) · I. Gandhi · Reddy (1960-1963) · K. Kamaraj (1964-1967) · S. Nijalingappa (1968-1969) · J. Ram (1970-1971) · D. Sharma (1972-1974) · Baruah (1975-1977) · I. Gandhi (1978-1984) · R. Gandhi (1985-1991) · Narasimha Rao (1992-1996) · Kesri (1996-1998) · S. Gandhi (1998-present) Frontal Organizations Seva Dal · Mahila Congress · Indian Youth Congress · National Students Union of India · Indian National Trade Union Congress Internal Organizations Congress President · Working President · Congress Working Committee · Central Election Committee · All India Congress Committee · Pradesh Congress Committee Pradesh committees Andhra Pradesh PCC · Assam PCC · Bihar PCC · Chhatisgarh PCC · Delhi PCC · Gujarat PCC · Haryana PCC · Himachal Pradesh PCC · Jammu & Kashmir PCC · Jharkhand PCC · Karnataka PCC · Kerala PCC · Maharashtra PCC · Madhya Pradesh PCC · Meghalaya PCC · Mizoram PCC · Mumbai PCC · Nagaland PCC · Orissa PCC · Pondicherry PCC · Punjab PCC · Rajasthan PCC · Tamil Nadu PCC · Tripura PCC · Uttarakhand PCC · Uttar Pradesh PCC · West Bengal PCC History Statewise Election history of Congress Party · Nehru-Gandhi family · Congress Radio · 10 Janpath · The Emergency · Bofors scandal · INA Defence Committee · Indian National Congress (Organisation) · Breakaway parties