Indira Gandhi

1. Indira Gandhi (1917 1984) was the only child of Kamla and Jawaharlal Nehru. She spent part of her childhood in Allahabad, where the Nehrus had their family residence, and part in Switzerland, where her mother Kamla convalesced from her periodic illnesses. She received her college education at Somerville College, Oxford. A famous photograph from her childhood shows her sitting by the bedside of Mahatma Gandhi, as he recovered from one of his fasts .....

Early Life

2. Indira Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917 in Allahabad (in modern day Uttar Pradesh), British India. Her father was Jawaharlal Nehru, who would go on to become the first prime minister of India following its independence from Britain, her mother, Kamala Nehru, was just 18 years old when the baby arrived. The child was named Indira Priyadarshini Nehru.Indira grew up as an only child. A baby brother born in November of 1924 died after just two da .....

Sojourn in Europe

3. In March 1930, Kamala and Indira were marching in protest outside of the Ewing Christian College. Indiras mother suffered from heat stroke, so a young student named Feroz Gandhi rushed to her aid. He would become a close friend of Kamalas, escorting and attending her during her treatment for tuberculosis, first in India and later in Switzerland. Indira also spent time in Switzerland, where her mother died of TB in February of 1936.Indira went to .....

Early Political Career

4. During the early 1950s, Indira served as an unofficial personal assistant to her father, then the prime minister. In 1955, she became a member of the Congress Partys working committee, within four years, she would be president of that body.Feroz Gandhi had a heart attack in 1958, while Indira and Nehru were in Bhutan on an official state visit. Indira returned home to take care of him. Feroz died in Delhi in 1960 after suffering a second heart at .....

Prime Minister Gandhi

5. By 1966, the Congress Party was in trouble. It was dividing into two separate factions, Indira Gandhi led the left wing socialist faction. The 1967 election cycle was grim for the party it lost almost 60 seats in the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha. Indira was able to keep the Prime Minister seat through a coalition with the Indian Communist and Socialist parties. In 1969, the Indian National Congress Party split in half for good.As pr .....

Re election Trial and State of Emergency

6. In 1972, Indira Gandhis party swept to victory in national parliamentary elections based on the defeat of Pakistan and the slogan of Garibi Hatao, or Eradicate Poverty. Her opponent, Raj Narain of the Socialist Party, charged her with corruption and electoral malpractice. In June of 1975, the High Court in Allahabad ruled for Narain, Indira should have been stripped of her seat in Parliament and barred from elected office for six years.However, I .....

Downfall and Arrests

7. In a key miscalculation, Indira Gandhi called new elections in March, 1977. She may have begun to believe her own propaganda, convincing herself that the people of India loved her and approved of her actions during the years long state of emergency. Her party was trounced at the polls by the Janata Party, which cast the election as a choice between democracy or dictatorship, and Indira left office.In October of 1977, Indira Gandhi was jailed brie .....

Indira Emerges Once More

8. By 1980, the people of India had had enough of the ineffectual Janata Party. They reelected Indira Gandhis Congress Party under the slogan of stability. Indira took power again for her fourth term as prime minister. However, her triumph was dampened by the death of her son Sanjay, the heir apparent, in a plane crash in June of that year.By 1982, rumblings of discontent and even outright secessionism were breaking out all over India. In Andhra Pra .....

Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple

9. During this period, Sikh extremists were waging a campaign of terror against Hindus and moderate Sikhs in the Punjab. Bhindranwale and his following of heavily armed militants holed up in the Akhal Takt, the second most holy building after the Golden Temple itself. The leader himself was not necessarily calling for the creation of Khalistan, rather he demanded the implementation of the Anandpur Resolution, which called for the unification and pur .....

Aftermath and Assassination

10. In the aftermath of Operation Bluestar, a number of Sikh soldiers resigned from the Indian Army. In some areas, there were actual battles between those resigning and those still loyal to the army.On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi walked out to the garden behind her official residence for an interview with a British journalist. As she passed two of her Sikh bodyguards, they drew their service weapons and opened fire. Beant Singh shot her three ti .....

Indira Gandhis Legacy

11. 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 h .....

Indian independence

12. 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 wi .....

A government divided

13. 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 co .....

Second Term as Prime Minister

14. 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 .....

Trivia

15. 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 .....

Elections

16. 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 ch .....

Family and personal life

17. 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 maki .....

Diplomatic Success

18. 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 a .....

Authoritarian Leanings and Imprisonment

19. 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 different .....

Assassination

20. 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 .....

Accomplishments

21. In 1947, Nehru became the newly independent nations first prime minister, and Gandhi agreed to go to New Delhi to serve as his hostess, welcoming diplomats and world leaders at home and traveling with her father throughout India and abroad. She was elected to the prominent 21 member working committee of the Congress Party in 1955 and, four years later, was named its president. Upon Nehrus death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the new prime mi .....

Autocratic Leadership

22. Following the 1972 national elections, Gandhi was accused of misconduct by her political opponent and, in 1975, was convicted of electoral corruption by the High Court of Allahabad and prohibited from running in another election for six years. Instead of resigning as expected, she responded by declaring a state of emergency on June 25, whereby citizens civil liberties were suspended, the press was acutely censored and the majority of her oppositi .....

End of her career

23. Gandhi faced major problems in the areas of food production, population control, land reform, regulation of prices, unemployment, and industrial production. The problems were increased by the arrival in India of almost ten million refugees, who were uprooted as a result of the civil unrest in East Pakistan. In November 1971 Indian troops crossed into East Pakistan to fight Pakistani forces. A month later Gandhi announced recognition of the Bangl .....