Indira Gandhi was a prominent Indian politician. She was a member of the Indian National Congress and also served as the party president. She was the first and only female Prime Minister of India. Her father, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India. After his death his son Rajiv Gandhi also served as the Prime Minister of India. In 1999, she was named “Woman of the Millennium” in a poll conducted by the BBC.
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Indira Priyadarshini Nehru was born on 19 November 1917 (age: 66 years at death) in Allahabad, United Province of Agra and Awadh, British India (now, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India) into a Kashmiri Pandit family. His grandfather Motilal Nehru was an activist of the Indian independence movement. His father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was one of the leading figures in the political struggle for independence. His father was often away and he was brought up by his mother who was mostly bedridden due to her illness. She supported Gandhian philosophy since childhood.
Indira Gandhi sitting near Mahatma Gandhi
He studied at home till his matriculation in 1934. He studied intermittently in several schools in India and Europe; Modern School in Delhi, St. Cecilia and St. Mary’s Christian Convent School in Allahabad (now, Prayagraj), International School of Geneva, Switzerland, École Nouvelle in Beaux, Switzerland, students’ own school in Poona and Bombay.
Childhood photo of Indira Gandhi
She moved with her mother Kamala Nehru to the Belur Math headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission where Swami Ranganathananda was her mentor. Later, she went to Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal where Rabindranath Tagore named her Priyadarshini in an interview. Meanwhile, he had to abandon his studies to visit his ailing mother in Europe, where he decided to continue his studies in Oxford, England. After his mother died of tuberculosis, he attended Badminton College before being admitted to Somerville College in 1937 to study history. At the Oxford University entrance examination, Indira failed in her first attempt with poor marks in Latin, however, she passed the examination in her second attempt. While at Oxford, he did well in history, political science, economics etc. However, he performed poorly in Latin. While studying in England, her health deteriorated and she had to go to Switzerland in 1940, at that time the German army had occupied Europe and she was going to go to England again but it was very difficult to reach England at that time. Somehow she managed to reach England and from there she came to India.
Physical Appearance
- Height (Approx): 5′ 4″
- Hair Color: Salt and Pepper
Family
Indira Gandhi was born to Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru. She had a brother but he died in childhood.
Indira Gandhi with her father Jawaharlal Nehru
She used to visit her future husband, Feroze Gandhi, when she was studying in England. She knew him from Allahabad. He belonged to the Parsi community of Gujarat. At that time Firoz Gandhi was studying at the London School of Economics. Gradually both of them fell in love and decided to get married. The marriage took place in Allahabad in 1942.
Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi at their wedding in 1942
Their first son, Rajiv Gandhi, was born in 1944 and their second son, Sanjay Gandhi, was born in 1946. Rajiv Gandhi later became Prime Minister of India and was assassinated in 1991. Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash in 1980. Sonia Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi are his daughters-in-law.
Indira Gandhi with her sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren
Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi are his grandchildren.
Indira Gandhi with her grandchildren Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi
Robert Vadra is his grandson.
Nehru Gandhi family tree
livelihood
In the 1950s, Indira informally served as an assistant to the Prime Minister of India (then her father—Jawaharlal Nehru).
Indira Gandhi with Jawaharlal Nehru
In the late 1950s, she became the President of the Indian National Congress (INC). He played a key role in dismissing the communist-led Kerala government in 1959. After his father’s demise in 1964, he was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha and made the Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the government of Lal Bahadur Shastri. After the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966, members of the Congress Party elected Indira Gandhi as their leader in place of Morarji Desai. Of. Kamaraj played an important role in making Indira Gandhi the leader of the Indian National Congress.
Indira Gandhi and K. Kamaraj
In the 1967 general election, the Indian National Congress won the election and Indira Gandhi was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Rae Bareli constituency. Her first term as Prime Minister was highly criticized as she was called ‘Goongi Gudiya’ (Hindi word for ‘dumb doll’) because she was under the control of the party bosses. His first term faced major problems like devaluation of the rupee and decline in wheat imports from the United States due to political disputes.
Indira Gandhi and US President Richard Nixon 1971
In the 1971 general elections, the Indian National Congress won the election again and Indira Gandhi won from the same constituency on the basis of ‘Garibi Hatao’ (poverty eradication) theme. The greatest achievement of Indira Gandhi’s government came in December 1971 when India defeated Pakistan in the Indo-Pak War of 1971, paving the way for Bangladesh, a new independent state in South Asia. Opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee had called Indira Gandhi Goddess Durga.
In June 1975, the Allahabad High Court declared Indira Gandhi’s 1971 Lok Sabha election invalid on the grounds of electoral malpractices, sparking political unrest in the country. That same year, Indira Gandhi ordered the arrest of opposition leaders who took part in the unrest and halted general elections by imposing President’s rule (also known as emergency) on the country. General elections were held in 1977 and the Indian National Congress lost the elections for the first time. Morarji Desai of Janata Party became Prime Minister. However, his government only lasted for no more than 3 years as he resigned from office. In the general elections of 1980, the Indian National Congress again won a majority and Indira Gandhi was elected Prime Minister.
Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai
Death
When she was the Prime Minister of India, Operation Blue Star was launched by the Indian Army to kill Sikh terrorists hiding in Harmandir Sahib (aka Golden Temple), Amritsar. On 31 October 1984, in a spirit of vengeance, she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, while she was giving her last speech in Orissa. She was 66 years old at the time of her death.
controversies
- When the Indian National Congress won the 1971 general elections, the Allahabad High Court found him guilty of electoral corruption on 12 June 1975. He was banned from contesting elections for the next six years. However, he ignored the court order and appealed to the Supreme Court.
- The biggest controversy of his tenure was the state of emergency. There was unrest in the country after he was found guilty of electoral malpractices and he faced severe criticism in the country. The opposition leaders involved in the disturbance were taken into custody by the police. President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declared a state of emergency on 25 June 1975 and this allowed Indira Gandhi to rule by decree.
- During the Emergency, Indira Gandhi and her son, Sanjay Gandhi, launched a gruesome campaign to sterilize poor people due to the impending population explosion.
- A major controversy of his tenure was Operation Blue Star in which he suppressed the Sikh separatist movement through military aid.
Awards/Honors
- Honorary Doctorate from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji (1981)
- Bangladesh Independence Award (posthumously, 2011)
Places/schemes named in his honor
- India’s southernmost point, Indira Point (6.74678°N 93.84260°E)
- Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi
- Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
- Indira Gandhi Award for National Unity
- Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, Assam
- Indira Gandhi Stadium, Alwar, Alwar, Vijayawada, Solapur, Una
- Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
- Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Maldives
- Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Ghats
- Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, Andhra Pradesh
- Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, Chhattisgarh
- Indira Gandhi Atomic Research Centre, Tamil Nadu
- Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy
fact
- She was the second longest serving Prime Minister of India after her father. She served as the Prime Minister of India for more than 14 years.
- According to sources, Indira Gandhi had a sexual relationship with MO Mathai, Jawaharlal Nehru’s secretary.
- During his first term as Prime Minister, he nationalized 14 banks.
- His bodyguards fired about 30 bullets at him; 23 apparently passed through his body and 7 got stuck inside him.
- One of his assassins, Beant Singh, was injured by a bullet when he was firing at Indira Gandhi. He later died as the wound did not heal. Another murderer, Satwant Singh, was hanged in Tihar Jail, New Delhi.
- India joined the nuclear weapons club in 1974, when she was Prime Minister.
- His yoga guru, Dhirendra Brahmachari, helped him take tough decisions. He carried out some political work on their behalf, especially during the Emergency.
- She was named Indira Priyadarshini Nehru By Rabindranath Tagore. She adopted her husband’s surname Gandhi after marriage. However, her husband’s real name was Firoz Jahangir Gandhi But he was greatly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and changed his surname from Gandhi to Gandhi. Thus the name of Indira Priyadarshini Nehru was changed to Indira Gandhi.
- Her husband, Feroze Gandhi, died of a heart attack in 1960.
- When the Janata Party came to power in 1977, the then Home Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh ordered the arrest of Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi on several charges. He was accused of planning to kill all the opposition leaders in jail during the Emergency.
- In 2012, Gandhi was ranked 7th in Outlook India’s survey of the greatest Indians.
- In 2017, a woman named Priya Singh Paul, Gandhi’s granddaughter, claimed to be Sanjay Gandhi’s biological daughter. According to him, he was given up for adoption and Indira Gandhi hid him and his mother for political reasons.
- His blood group was O-negative.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn