Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindustani: [ˈɪnːdɪrə ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] née Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was the fourth Prime Minister of India and a central figure of the Indian National Congress party. Gandhi, who served from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, is the second-longest-serving Prime Minister of India and the only woman to hold the office.
Indira Gandhi was the only child of the first Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. She served as the Chief of Staff of her father's highly centralised administration between 1947 and 1964 and came to wield considerable unofficial influence in government.[citation needed] She was elected Congress President in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964, Gandhi refused to enter Congress party leadership contest and instead chose to become a cabinet minister in the government led by Lal Bahadur Shastri. In Congress' party parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966 upon the death of Shastri, she defeated her rival, Morarji Desai, to become leader and thus succeed Shastri as the prime minister of India.
As the Prime Minister of India, Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralisation of power. She went to war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India's influence to the point where it became the regional hegemon of South Asia. Gandhi also presided over a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 during which she ruled by decree and made lasting changes to the constitution of India. She was assassinated in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards a few months after she ordered the storming of the Sikh holy Temple in Amritsar.
In 2001, Gandhi was voted the greatest Indian Prime Minister in a poll organised by India Today.[citation needed] She was also named "Woman of the Millennium" in a poll organised by the BBC in 1999.[1]
Indira Gandhi was born Indira Nehru in a Kashmiri Pandit family on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad.[2] Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a leading figure in India's political struggle for independence from British rule, and became the first Prime Minister of the Union (and later Republic) of India.[3] She was an only child (a younger brother was born, but died young),[4] and grew up with her mother, Kamala Nehru, at the Anand Bhavan; a large family estate in Allahabad.[5] She had a lonely and unhappy childhood.[6] Her father was often away, directing political activities or being incarcerated in prison, while her mother was frequently bed-ridden with illness, and later suffered an early death from tuberculosis.[7] She had limited contact with her father, mostly through letters. [8]
Gandhi was mostly taught at home by tutors, and intermittently attended school until matriculation in 1934. She was a student at the Modern School in Delhi, St Cecilia's and St Mary's Christian convent schools in Allahabad, the Ecole Internationale in Geneva, the Ecole Nouvelle in Bex, and the Pupils' Own School in Poona and Bombay.[9] She went on to study at the Viswa Bharati University in Shantiniketan. It was during her interview that Rabindranath Tagore named her Priyadarshini, and she came to be known as Indira Priyadarshini Nehru.[10] A year later, however, she had to leave university to attend to her ailing mother in Europe.[11] While there, it was decided that Gandhi would continue her education at the University of Oxford.[12] After her mother died, she briefly attended the Badminton School before enrolling at Somerville College in 1937 to study history.[13] Gandhi had to take the entrance examination twice, having failed at her first attempt with a poor performance in Latin.[13] At Oxford, she did well in history, political science and economics, but her grades in Latin—a compulsory subject—remained poor.[14][15]
During her time in Europe, Gandhi was plagued with ill-health and was
constantly attended by doctors. She had to make repeated trips to
Switzerland to recover, disrupting her studies. She was being treated
there in 1940, when the Nazi armies rapidly conquered Europe. Gandhi
tried to return to England through Portugal but was left stranded for
nearly two months. She managed to enter England in early 1941, and from
there returned to India without completing her studies at Oxford. The
university later awarded her an honorary degree. In 2010, Oxford further
honoured her by selecting her as one of the ten Oxasians, illustrious
Asian graduates from the University of Oxford.[16]
During her stay in Great Britain, young Gandhi frequently met her future husband Feroze Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), whom she knew from Allahabad, and who was studying at the London School of Economics. The marriage took place in Allahabad according to Adi Dharm rituals though Feroze belonged to a Zorastrian Parsi family of Gujarat.[17]
In the 1950s, Indira, now Mrs. Indira Gandhi after her marriage, served her father unofficially as a personal assistant during his tenure as the first Prime Minister of India. Towards the end of the 1950s, Indira Gandhi served as the President of the Congress. In that capacity, she was instrumental in getting the Communist led Kerala State Government dismissed in 1959. That government had the distinction of being India's first ever elected Communist Government.[18] After her father's death in 1964 she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.[19] In 1966, after Shastri's death, the Congress legislative party elected Indira Gandhi over Morarji Desai as their leader. Congress party veteran, Kamaraj was instrumental in achieving Indira's victory.[citation needed]
==1971 election victory and second term==Gandhi called snap parliamentary elections for March 1971. In this election, her Congress (R) Party scored a landslide victory on a platform of progressive policies such as poverty elimination (Garibi Hatao) against the United opposition aliance's "Indira Hatao" ( Remove Indira) Manifesto.,[23][24]
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 (Eradicate 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 and developed by the Central Government in New Delhi. The program was supervised, and staffed by 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."[25]
The biggest achievement of Indira Gandhi after the 1971 election was the victory against Pakistan that led to the formation independent Bangladesh. At that time she was hailed as Goddess Durga by opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.[26]
In elections held for State assemblies across India in March 1972, the Congress(R) swept to power in most states riding on the post-war "Indira wave".[27]
Despite the victory against Pakistan, the Congress government faced numerous problems during this term. Some of these were due to high inflation which was in turn caused by war time expenses, drought in some parts of the country and more importantly, the 1973 oil crisis. The opposition to Gandhi in 1973-75 period after the Indira wave had receded was strongest in Bihar and Gujarat. In Bihar, Jayaprakash Narayan, the veteran leader came out of retirement to lead the protest movement there.[27]
But Gandhi rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. The verdict was delivered by Mr Justice Jagmohanlal 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.[28] The judge rejected more serious charges of bribery against her.
Gandhi 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 Gandhi used the emergency provisions to change conflicting party members.
Indira Gandhi was the only child of the first Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. She served as the Chief of Staff of her father's highly centralised administration between 1947 and 1964 and came to wield considerable unofficial influence in government.[citation needed] She was elected Congress President in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964, Gandhi refused to enter Congress party leadership contest and instead chose to become a cabinet minister in the government led by Lal Bahadur Shastri. In Congress' party parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966 upon the death of Shastri, she defeated her rival, Morarji Desai, to become leader and thus succeed Shastri as the prime minister of India.
As the Prime Minister of India, Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralisation of power. She went to war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India's influence to the point where it became the regional hegemon of South Asia. Gandhi also presided over a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 during which she ruled by decree and made lasting changes to the constitution of India. She was assassinated in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards a few months after she ordered the storming of the Sikh holy Temple in Amritsar.
In 2001, Gandhi was voted the greatest Indian Prime Minister in a poll organised by India Today.[citation needed] She was also named "Woman of the Millennium" in a poll organised by the BBC in 1999.[1]
Contents
Indira Gandhi was born Indira Nehru in a Kashmiri Pandit family on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad.[2] Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a leading figure in India's political struggle for independence from British rule, and became the first Prime Minister of the Union (and later Republic) of India.[3] She was an only child (a younger brother was born, but died young),[4] and grew up with her mother, Kamala Nehru, at the Anand Bhavan; a large family estate in Allahabad.[5] She had a lonely and unhappy childhood.[6] Her father was often away, directing political activities or being incarcerated in prison, while her mother was frequently bed-ridden with illness, and later suffered an early death from tuberculosis.[7] She had limited contact with her father, mostly through letters. [8]
Gandhi was mostly taught at home by tutors, and intermittently attended school until matriculation in 1934. She was a student at the Modern School in Delhi, St Cecilia's and St Mary's Christian convent schools in Allahabad, the Ecole Internationale in Geneva, the Ecole Nouvelle in Bex, and the Pupils' Own School in Poona and Bombay.[9] She went on to study at the Viswa Bharati University in Shantiniketan. It was during her interview that Rabindranath Tagore named her Priyadarshini, and she came to be known as Indira Priyadarshini Nehru.[10] A year later, however, she had to leave university to attend to her ailing mother in Europe.[11] While there, it was decided that Gandhi would continue her education at the University of Oxford.[12] After her mother died, she briefly attended the Badminton School before enrolling at Somerville College in 1937 to study history.[13] Gandhi had to take the entrance examination twice, having failed at her first attempt with a poor performance in Latin.[13] At Oxford, she did well in history, political science and economics, but her grades in Latin—a compulsory subject—remained poor.[14][15]
Young Indira with Mahatma Gandhi during his fast in 1924. Indira, who is dressed in a khadi garment, is following Gandhi's advocacy that khadi be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles
Indira Nehru c. early 1930s
During her stay in Great Britain, young Gandhi frequently met her future husband Feroze Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), whom she knew from Allahabad, and who was studying at the London School of Economics. The marriage took place in Allahabad according to Adi Dharm rituals though Feroze belonged to a Zorastrian Parsi family of Gujarat.[17]
In the 1950s, Indira, now Mrs. Indira Gandhi after her marriage, served her father unofficially as a personal assistant during his tenure as the first Prime Minister of India. Towards the end of the 1950s, Indira Gandhi served as the President of the Congress. In that capacity, she was instrumental in getting the Communist led Kerala State Government dismissed in 1959. That government had the distinction of being India's first ever elected Communist Government.[18] After her father's death in 1964 she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.[19] In 1966, after Shastri's death, the Congress legislative party elected Indira Gandhi over Morarji Desai as their leader. Congress party veteran, Kamaraj was instrumental in achieving Indira's victory.[citation needed]
First Term as Prime Minister between 1966 and 1971
Following a poor showing in the 1967 general election, Indira Gandhi started progressively moving to the left in the political spectrum. In 1969, after falling out with senior party leaders on a number of issues, the party president S. Nijalingappa expelled her from the party.[20][21][22] Gandhi, in turn floated her own faction of the Congress party and managed to retain most of the Congress MPs on her side with only 65 on the side of Congress (O) faction. The policies of the Congress under Indira Gandhi, prior to the 1971 elections, also included proposals for the abolition of Privy Purse to former rulers of the Princely states and the 1969 nationalization of the fourteen largest banks in India.==1971 election victory and second term==Gandhi called snap parliamentary elections for March 1971. In this election, her Congress (R) Party scored a landslide victory on a platform of progressive policies such as poverty elimination (Garibi Hatao) against the United opposition aliance's "Indira Hatao" ( Remove Indira) Manifesto.,[23][24]
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 (Eradicate 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 and developed by the Central Government in New Delhi. The program was supervised, and staffed by 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."[25]
The biggest achievement of Indira Gandhi after the 1971 election was the victory against Pakistan that led to the formation independent Bangladesh. At that time she was hailed as Goddess Durga by opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.[26]
In elections held for State assemblies across India in March 1972, the Congress(R) swept to power in most states riding on the post-war "Indira wave".[27]
Despite the victory against Pakistan, the Congress government faced numerous problems during this term. Some of these were due to high inflation which was in turn caused by war time expenses, drought in some parts of the country and more importantly, the 1973 oil crisis. The opposition to Gandhi in 1973-75 period after the Indira wave had receded was strongest in Bihar and Gujarat. In Bihar, Jayaprakash Narayan, the veteran leader came out of retirement to lead the protest movement there.[27]
Verdict on 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.[citation needed] The court thus ordered her stripped of her parliamentary seat and banned from running for any office for six years. The Prime Minister must be a member of either the Lok Sabha (the lower house in the Parliament of India) or the Rajya Sabha (the upper house). Thus, this decision effectively removed her from office. Gandhi had asked one of her colleagues in government, Mr Ashoke Kumar Sen to defend her in court.But Gandhi rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. The verdict was delivered by Mr Justice Jagmohanlal 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.[28] The judge rejected more serious charges of bribery against her.
With Richard Nixon, 1971
State of Emergency (1975–1977)
Main article: The Emergency (India)
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(1) of the
Constitution, on 25 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 or by governments led by the ruling Congress party.[29] 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. 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 Gandhi used the emergency provisions to change conflicting party members.
Unlike her father Jawaharlal 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...[30]President Ahmed issued ordinances that did not require debate in the Parliament, allowing Gandhi to rule by decree.
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