indira gandhi

Indias Iron Lady left behind a complicated legacy. She was succeeded in the office of Prime Minister by her surviving son, Rajiv Gandhi. This dynastic succession is one of the negative aspects of her legacy to this day, the Congress Party is so thoroughly identified with the Nehru Gandhi family that it cannot avoid charges of nepotism. Indira Gandhi also instilled authoritarianism into Indias political processes, warping the democracy to suit her need for power.

On the other hand, Indira clearly loved her country, and did leave it in a stronger position relative to neighboring countries. She sought to improve the lives of Indias poorest, and supported industrialization and technological development. On balance, however, Indira Gandhi seems to have done more harm than good during her two stints as the prime minister of India.

On August 15, 1947, Great Britain released their control over India and the Indian Empire was quickly divided into two countries, today known as India and Pakistan. No longer under British control, India erupted into violence. Thousands of members of rival religious groups, the Hindus and the Moslems, were killed during riots. During this time Indira served as her fathers hostess and housekeeper. Since her father had never remarried after his wifes death in 1936, Indira took charge of her fathers large mansion and began helping him in political matters. Together they worked towards peace, arranging a meeting of Hindu and Moslem religious leaders in New Dehli, India.Throughout the period of Indira Gandhis political association with her father, she focused on social welfare work, particularly childrens welfare. The Indian National Congress had led the country to freedom and had then become its major political party. She had joined the Congress in 1938, and later served as a member of its Youth Advisory Board and chairman of its Womans Department.

Gandhi immediately set about reorganizing the party to make it a more effective instrument of administration and national development. Her goal was to achieve a wider measure of social and economic justice for all Indians. As her left of center policies (slightly liberal, or supporting civil liberties and social progress) became clear, the Congress Party split, with the younger, more liberal elements rallying around Gandhi and the older, more conservative party leaders opposing her. This division came to a head in July 1969 when she nationalized (brought under the control of government) the countrys fourteen leading banks in a highly popular move meant to make credit more available to agriculture and to small industry.The split was formalized when Gandhis candidate for the presidency of India, V. V. Giri, won over the partys official nominee. Although Gandhi took 228 members of Parliament with her into the New Congress, this was not a majority in the 521 member house, and she held power only with support from more liberal parties. In December 1970, when Gandhi failed to get the necessary support to abolish, or end, the privileges of the former Indian princes, she called on the president to dissolve Parliament. Midterm elections were set for March 1971, one full year ahead of schedule.A coalition, or alliance, of three parties of the right and an anti Congress socialist party opposed Gandhi, who made alliances with liberal parties as well as some regional parties. Her platform was essentially one of achieving social and economic change more rapidly in an effort to improve the quality of life of Indias people. Her party won a massive victory with over a two thirds majority in Parliament.

Most of the second term of the premiership of Indira Gandhi was spent resolving the political problems of Punjab. A secessionist movement had been initiated by Jarnail Singh Bindranwale, who along with his troops had found base at the Golden Temple, the sacred place of worship for the Sikhs.Bindrawale, along with his supporters, had started a campaign against the government, moderate Sikhs and Hindus.To curb his growth to power, Gandhi commenced Operation Blue Star. The main aim of the Operation was to strip clean the Golden Temple from the terrorists and subdue Bindrawale and his men. Operation Bluestar successfully subdued Bhindarwale and his team but several civilians lost their lives and the shrine was ruefully damaged. Due to this, Gandhi earned the hatred of Sikhs who declared Bindrawale a martyr of the 21st century.

She is the first woman Prime Minister of India, who ruled the country from 1966 to 1977 and 1980 to 1984.She imposed a State of Emergency in India in June 1975, which lasted for 21 months until March 1975. She ruled by decree during Emergency and brought the entire country under the rule of the Central government.She initiated the Operation Blue Star to strip clean the Golden Temple from the terrorists supporting Bindranwale. It eventually led to her assassination.

In 1977, after extending the state of emergency twice, Indira Gandhi called elections, to give the electorate a chance to vindicate her rule. Gandhi may have grossly misjudged her popularity[citation needed] 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. Gandhis Congress party was crushed soundly in the elections which followed. The public realized the statement and motto of the Janata Party. 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. Although in the next election congress won with more than 400 seats.

A member of the Nehru Gandhi family, she was married to Feroze Gandhi at the age of 25, in the year 1942. Firstly, her younger son Sanjay had been her chosen heir, but after his death in a flying accident in June 1980, his mother persuaded a reluctant elder son Rajiv Gandhi to quit his job as a pilot and enter politics in February 1981. Over a decade later, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.Gandhis yoga guru, Dhirendra Brahmachari, helped her in making certain decisions and also executed certain top level political tasks on her behalf, especially from 1975 to 1977 when Gandhi dissolved Parliament, declared a state of emergency and suspended civil liberties. The nature of his relationship with Indira Gandhi was the subject of speculation and he was known in some circles as the Indian Rasputin.

In 1971, the Pakistan army conducted violent acts against the people of East Pakistan. Nearly 10 million people fled to India. Gandhi invited the Pakistani president to Shimla for a weeklong summit.The two leaders eventually signed the Shimla Agreement, agreeing to resolve the dispute of Kashmir by peaceful means. Her work eventually led to the creation of the new and independent nation of Bangladesh.Gandhi also led a movement that became known as the Green Revolution. In an effort to address the chronic food shortages that mainly affected the extremely poor Sikh farmers of the Punjab region, Gandhi decided to increase crop diversification and food exports as a way out of the problem, creating new jobs as well as food for her countrymen.

Despite these advancements, Gandhi ruled with an authoritarian hand, and corruption boiled within her congress and her national and state governments. In 1977, the high courts found her guilty of a minor infraction during the years elections and called for her resignation. Gandhi responded by requesting that the president call for a state of emergency.Gandhi lost the next election and was later imprisoned. In 1980, the country responded differently and she won by a landslide majority. That same year, her son Sanjay Gandhi (b. 1946), who had been serving as her chief political adviser, died in a plane crash in New Delhi. After Sanjays death, Indira prepared her other son, Rajiv (b. 1944), for leadership.

During the 1980s, a Sikh separatist movement developed in India, which Gandhi attempted to repress. Sikh extremists held a campaign inside the Golden Temple, and Gandhi ordered some 70,000 soldiers to purge the sacred space. More than 450 people died.On October 31, 1984, a trusted bodyguard, who was a Sikh, pulled out a .38 revolver and shot her point blank. Another bodyguard, also a Sikh, then took out an automatic weapon and shot 30 rounds into her body. Gandhi died on the way to the hospital.