Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.

image

Indira Gandhi

About Indira Gandhi

Facebook IconLinkedIN Icon

Who was Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi was India’s third prime minister and the only women prime minister of India till date. She is considered by many to be the strongest Prime Minister India has ever seen. Gandhi belonged to the Indian National Congress and was elected as the PM for the first time in 1966 after Lal Bahadur Shastri died in office.
 
Indira Gandhi was the second longest-serving prime minister after India’s first prime minister and her father Jawaharlal Nehru. She served from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination by her bodyguards in 1984.
 
Indira Gandhi’s early years
 
Indira Gandhi was the daughter of one of India’s tallest leaders, freedom fighter, and independent India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Her mother, Kamala Nehru, was also a freedom fighter and the leader of the Indian National Congress. She was born on November 19, 1917 in Allahabad.
 
She did her early schooling from Modern School in Delhi, St Cecilia’s and St Mary’s Convent in Allahabad. She also studied in International School of Geneva, the Ecole Nouvelle in Bex, and the Pupil’s Own School in Poona and Bombay. She later moved with her mother to Belur Math, which is the headquarter of the Ramakrishna Mission. She also studied at Santiniketan where Rabindranath Tagore named her Priyadarshini after, which she came to be known as Indira Priyadarshhini Tagore.
 
She attended Oxford University in England but could not complete her course and returned to India.
 
She later married Feroze Gandhi in 1942 and had two sons, Rajiv and Sanjay.
 
Political career
 
In the early 1950s, she unofficially served as the personal assistant to her father. In 1955, she became a member of the Congress Working Committee and in 1959 and then the president of the party.
 
In 1964, after her father’s death, she was made the information and Broadcasting minister in Lal Bahadur Shastri’s cabinet.
 
After Shastri's death in 1966, the Congress legislative party elected Gandhi as the leader over Moraji Desai.
 
Indira as the Prime Minister
 
Many Congressmen believed, because she was a woman, she would be weak and could be used as a puppet. But her leadership and policy decisions made her one of the most popular prime ministers ever in the history of Indian politics.
 
Her anti-poverty measures, Green revolution, and the war with Pakistan, which helped liberate Bangladesh made her immensely popular.
 
Emergency
 
After her election to the Lok Sabha in 1971, Gandhi was accused of misconduct by Raj Narain who contested against her. The Allahabad High Court declared her election void on the grounds of electoral malpractice, which meant she could no longer hold her position as the prime minister. But she refused to step down. This led to protests and unrest.
 
Gandhi arrested most of the Opposition leaders who participated in the protests. Gandhi and her cabinet recommended to the President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a state of emergency, which the president did in 1975.
 
After the declaration of emergency, the entire country was under direct rule of Gandhi and the Congress party. Police were granted special powers, which enabled them to curb liberty indefinitely. The press was also censored. Most of the Opposition leaders were detained and states governed by the Opposition parties were dismissed.
 
Finally, in 1977, Gandhi decided to call elections. She grossly misjudged her popularity and lost the elections.
 
She won it back in 1980, helped by her charismatic leadership and the infighting within the Janata Party-led government.
 
Assassination
 
In 1984, the Golden Temple in Amritsar was overtaken by extremists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who sought an independent state for Sikhs.
 
To control the situation, Gandhi sent the army. But this resulted in bloodshed, and offended the Sikh community.
 
On October 31, 1984, Gandhi was assassinated by her two bodyguards outside her home, who had sought revenge for what happened at the Golden Temple.
 

Latest Updates on Indira Gandhi

A number of top political leaders have been disqualified from Parliament or Assembly upon conviction. Here are a few of them

Updated On: 27 Mar 2023 | 5:34 PM IST

If Mrs Gandhi were here today, there is much about current Indian attitudes that she would find familiar

Updated On: 23 Feb 2023 | 9:46 PM IST

More recently, in 2008, BBC came into controversy for fake footage of child labour in cloth workshop in Bengaluru

Updated On: 16 Feb 2023 | 5:26 PM IST

Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had allowed militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to grow into a sort of Frankenstein monster and decided to finish him off when he reached the pinnacle

Updated On: 31 Jan 2023 | 10:36 AM IST

Every debate is recast in left vs right terms in the urban mindscape, but it is hard to tell one from the other

Updated On: 26 Jan 2023 | 9:57 PM IST

The real problem is not that govts behave badly. It's that they can behave badly. There are virtually no constitutional restrictions on their conduct

Updated On: 21 Jan 2023 | 11:28 AM IST

Unemployment, a general decline in incomes, and high food, health and medical bills are not good auguries for the party

Updated On: 18 Jan 2023 | 10:57 AM IST

He visited Veer Bhumi, Shakti Sthal and Shanti Van, the memorials of former prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru

Updated On: 26 Dec 2022 | 10:14 AM IST

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Sunday paid his tributes to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi

Updated On: 25 Dec 2022 | 9:23 PM IST

There was an unchanging core to Indira Gandhi's personality including fierce commitment to an all-inclusive patriotism, staunch secularism; indomitable courage and fortitude and empathy for the poor

Updated On: 20 Nov 2022 | 7:06 AM IST

Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, paid tributes to his grandmother Indira Gandhi during his ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in Maharashtra.

Updated On: 19 Nov 2022 | 11:53 AM IST

The Congress on Monday paid tributes to former prime minister Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary, with Rahul Gandhi saying he is carrying her love and values in his heart

Updated On: 31 Oct 2022 | 12:24 PM IST

Candidates who are to appear for the term-end examination can check the full schedule at the official IGNOU website - ignou.ac.in

Updated On: 07 Oct 2022 | 10:25 PM IST

The 214-km long Satluj Yamuna Link is meant to share the Ravi and Beas rivers: an arrangement eluding solution for decades

Updated On: 14 Sep 2022 | 9:32 AM IST

What is striking is how discreet Dr Mathur has been in regard to Mrs Gandhi's health. He could easily have written a completely different book 30 years after her death. But he didn't

Updated On: 01 Aug 2022 | 10:56 PM IST

If Shastri had not passed away in Tashkent he may well have been Prime Minister for two terms

Updated On: 23 May 2022 | 7:29 PM IST

Having launched Arias three years ago, 'after two years of R&D', she is determined to make a dent as the go-to, affordable, quality Indian brand in a very competitive segment

Updated On: 02 Apr 2022 | 6:05 AM IST

In her biography of Rahul Bajaj, Gita Piramal writes how Indira Gandhi proved to be a game changer in India's two-wheeler story and why Bajaj chose to go it alone

Updated On: 21 Mar 2022 | 2:20 AM IST

He also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that demonetisation and the GST were the "tools of capitalists"

Updated On: 16 Dec 2021 | 7:42 PM IST

The concept is relevant in an India where hate speech flourishes, where legislated and street violence can be unleashed against a chosen community, or those too weak to resist, writes T N Ninan

Updated On: 19 Nov 2021 | 7:07 PM IST