Indira Gandhi had an enigmatic personality, led a glorious yet controversial life and had the second longest run as the prime minister after her father, Jawaharlal Nehru. She immortalized the Nehru-Gandhi family’s legacy.
Birth, Early Life and Family
Born to a Kashmiri Pandit family in Allahabad on November 19, 1917, Indira Priyadarshini was the only daughter of Jawaharlal Motilal Nehru and Kamala Nehru. Her father was a member of the Indian National Congress and a leading figure in India’s struggle for independence. Indira had an unhappy and lonely childhood, away from her father; most of their contact was through letters. She lived with her mother who didn’t keep very well and was mostly bedridden. Her mother passed away at a young age, in 1936, while undergoing treatment for tuberculosis in Switzerland.
Unveiling Stark facts about her Schooling Years
Indira Gandhi was home-tutored during her early years. After that she attended a boarding school in Switzerland for a few years. She also studied at Shantiniketan from where she was allegedly ousted by Rabindranath Tagore for bad conduct. After this, she moved to Europe to tend to her mother who was ill at the time. Then she went on to study history at Somerville College, Oxford. She gave the entrance exam twice, after a failed first attempt. While studying, her performance was good in history, political science and economics but she was poor in Latin. It is alleged that she couldn’t complete her degree as she was thrown out due to poor performance.
However, Oxford University awarded her with an honorary degree later and even included her name in the list of the most illustrious Asian graduates from the esteemed university.
Marriage to Feroze Gandhi
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi were close associates, but it was due to her marriage to Feroze Gandhi that Indira Gandhi got her surname. She became close to him when they were in England, and some say that she converted to Islam, changed her name to Maimuna Begum and married Feroze Khan. This wedding took place against the wishes of her parents.
It is also believed that at this point, Jawaharlal Nehru interfered because he was worried that this change of religion would never let her become the Prime minister. So, Nehru got Feroze to change his last name to Gandhi and then a Hindu marriage took place in India for the public. Since Indira was a Hindu, and Feroze Gandhi, parsi, they had to face a lot of opposition for their marriage, because at that time inter-religion marriages were not accepted. In fact, there was so much conflict that, Mahatma Gandhi had to come out with a statement in public supporting this union.
Soon after, they had two children, Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi. But the marriage could not be a happy one for long, as they started living separately, though they never got divorced. Their marriage ended when Feroze Gandhi died in 1960.
Sanjay Gandhi controversy
There are many conspiracies and speculations surrounding Indira Gandhi’s younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, starting from some theories that claim he wasn’t Feroze Gandhi’s son. Allegedly, he was born due to Indira Gandhi’s affair with a Muslim man, Mohammad Yunus. It is further said that, Sanjay Gandhi had an emotional control over his mother, exploiting that, he often got her to do things his way, by blackmailing her about the real identity of his father.
Not only this, some reports suggest that his name was originally Sanjiv matching his brother’s. But one time when he was held in Europe and his passport was seized, Indira Gandhi got the Indian embassy to issue another passport and got his name changed to Sanjay to get him back to India.
Even when Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash, her first question was regarding the whereabouts of his wrist-watch and wallet. What really happened that day still continues to be an unsolved mystery!
Revolutionary as a child
With her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, playing an important and instrumental role in India’s freedom struggle, it was not unnatural for Indira too, to be a supporter. Ever since she was born, her life was influenced by politics. At a very young age of 5 years, Indira is said to have burned her own beloved doll in a bonfire, because it was made in England. This was because she supported the Swadeshi movement- against all foreign made goods to promote self-sufficiency, an ideology that Mahatma Gandhi supported.
She also followed his advocacy that all Indians should wear khadi, instead of textiles made by British. Aged 12, she led a large number of children in the vanar sena. This group of young revolutionaries addressed envelopes, distributed flags, and put up notices about demonstrations.
Beginning of the Political Career
She always showed potential as a politician, even as a kid. When Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was sworn in as independent India’s first Prime minister, she came to New Delhi and became his unofficial personal assistant. She travelled with her father, throughout India and abroad and became his hostess, welcoming delegates and ministers. Later, in 1955, she was elected as a member of the prestigious 21-member working committee of the Indian National Congress. Then four years later, in 1959, she was named the president of the party.
Indira Gandhi- the first female prime minister
After Jawaharlal Nehru passed away in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the prime minister of India. During his term, Indira Gandhi served as the Information and broadcasting minister. But, Shastri’s term was short-lived, ending after two years, when he died.
Then Indira Gandhi was appointed by Congress party members as India’s first woman prime minister and the only one till date!
Gandhi gained a lot of praise and popularity for transforming India into a self-sufficient country in terms of food grains (Green Revolution), and for successfully implementing many other policies.
War with Pakistan
In 1971, she waged a war against Pakistan with the aim to separate West and East Pakistan. This was a highly complicated situation for her as, United States was supporting Pakistan and China was providing Pakistan with weapons, while India had signed a peace treaty with the Soviet Union. Millions of refugees kept coming in to neighbouring India, creating tension and stretching the resources. She took a bold stand of helping the refugees in spite of all this.
The war ended, India emerged victorious and Bangladesh was created. Indira Gandhi proved that she was a very strong woman, not one to be pressurised by any one. Forty years later, she was posthumously awarded the highest state honour of Bangladesh. She was elected for three terms back to back and served the country for 14 years.
A state of Emergency in India
After the national elections of 1972, Indira Gandhi was charged with serious accusations of misconduct for which she was later convicted in 1975, by Allahabad High court and debarred from contesting elections for six years.
But instead of resigning, she declared a state of Emergency in India. This marked an authoritarian period of rule, whereby civil liberties of the citizens were taken away and most of her opponents were arrested without trial. This came to be known as a “Reign of Terror”. During this time, the press was also censored acutely. The Emergency lasted for 21 months causing severe damage to India’s political system.
Losing the election and then Re-election
Confident of her re-election, Indira Gandhi ended the Emergency rule and called for elections in March, 1977. But, to her surprise, the people voted overwhelmingly in favour of Bhartiya Janata Party and Morarji Desai became the prime minister. This was because the people were unhappy about their liberties being taken away by her.
Democracy was once again restored in this nation, but the Morarji Desai led government could not do much to resolve the economic crisis and poverty that the people were facing. Following this, in 1980, Indira Gandhi campaigned under a new party named Congress-(I) and once again came to power, marking this as her fourth term as the Prime minister.
Sikh Riots and Blue-star operation leading to her assassination
As a measure to overcome the population growth, Indira Gandhi reportedly, carried out forceful sterilisation of men. This created terror in the minds of people, who started fearing she might become a dictator.
When sikh extremists seeking an autonomous state took over the Golden Temple in Amritsar, in 1984, she sent troops inside to regain control by force. Several innocent Sikhs were killed, sparking an outrage in the sikh community against Indira Gandhi. This caused major riots in parts of Punjab.
This also led to her assassination by two of her own bodyguards who shot her down on October 31, 1984. She is said to have died because of blood loss rather than her injuries to the head and chest. Rajiv Gandhi carried forward her legacy as the prime minister of India after her death.
Startling Facts about Indira Gandhi and her political reign
- Born to the most powerful family in the country, her indulgence in politics was early. However, it was in late 1950’s when elected as the President of Indian National Congress that she got a taste of active politics.
- In 1966 she became nation’s first female prime minister and continued her reign for over 14 years.
- During her first term of election, the Iron Lady nationalised 14 banks, while at her re-election she extended political support to freedom fighters of East Pakistan (Bangladesh). The moves are lauded to date.
- Found guilty of electoral malpractice, Indira was banned from Parliamentary affairs by Allahabad High Court. On facing advocacy of removal by opposition she declared state of Emergency in the country. The phase is often referred as black hole in India’s democracy.
- During emergency while opposition leaders were jailed and press freedom were limited, another drive that shocked everyone was push for sterilization to control population. Almost 7.8 million men were sterilized – some in exchange of rewards while others against their will.
- Indira Gandhi found an ally and confidant in Britain’s Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher.
- She ran multiple programs that successfully transformed India into a country that was self-sufficient in food-grains – this revolution was referred to as the Green Revolution.
- She provided refuge to over 10 million people who fled Pakistan following the war in 1971.
