Indira Gandhi Nehru, served as prime minister of the Republic of India for a total of fifteen years, serving three terms in a row from 1966 to 1977 and a fourth from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. The first female prime minister of India, she was.
In a BBC News poll conducted in 1999, she came out on top, beating out other renowned female figures like Mother Teresa, Marie Curie, and Queen Elizabeth I of England.
She was raised in a highly political environment because she is a member of the politically significant Nehru dynasty. She had no family ties to statesman Mohandas Gandhi despite sharing the same last name. Motilal Nehru, her grandpa, was a well-known figure in the Indian independence movement. The first Prime Minister of Independent India and a key player in the Indian independence struggle was Jawaharlal Nehru.
She was raised in a setting where she was exposed to a lot of the political leaders of the day, and her father had a big influence on her.
She can be seen sitting on Mohandas Gandhi's bed in an early shot (above) as he recovers from one of his fasts. She adopted Joan of Arc as her political role model at a young age and expressed the hope that she would one day lead her people to freedom in the manner of the French saint.
She aced the admission exam for Oxford in 1937 and enrolled in Somerville College. She experienced frequent health issues while in school and left without finishing her degree, though Oxford University later awarded her an honorary degree.
In 1941, after visiting Oxford, Indira returned to India and joined the campaign for Indian independence. She worked in her father's (J. Nehru) administration between 1947 and 1965. She was unofficially working as a personal assistant, but she had a lot of influence in the government. She was nominated to the position of Minister of Information and Broadcasting in Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet following the passing of her father in 1964. Shastri unexpectedly passed away shortly after, and Indira Gandhi was appointed as the new prime minister of India with the assistance of K. Kamaraj, the president of the Congress Party.
Gandhi's personality and populist economic policies contributed to her strong electoral popularity. She enacted stronger left-leaning economic regulations and worked to increase agricultural output. She led India to a resounding victory in a conflict with Pakistan in East Pakistan in 1971. Bangladesh was subsequently established as a result. India finished building its own nuclear weapon in 1974.
However, in the early 1970s, the Indian economy suffered from high inflation, and declining living conditions, and paired with protests against corruption, there was significant instability, which prompted her to impose a state of emergency in 1975. This was partial because of rising oil prices. Political opponents were jailed during the crisis, constitutional protections were taken away, and the media was heavily censored. Her reputation as an authoritarian who was willing to disregard democratic principles resulted from this.
Sanjay Gandhi, her son, also fell out of favor as he used his considerable power to deal with India's expanding population by ordering forced sterilization and clearing out slums. In 1977, Indira Gandhi lost the election and temporarily left office amid mounting economic woes and rising disenchantment.
But in 1980, she was reinstated to her position. But around this time, she grew increasingly embroiled in a conflict in Punjab between Sikh separatists. Later, in 1984, she was murdered by her own Sikh bodyguards for her part in assaulting the revered Golden Temple Family.
In 1942, Indira Gandhi wed Feroze Gandhi. Rajiv and Sanjay, the couple's two sons, were born in 1944. (b. 1946). Sanjay, who was to be her political heir, died in an airplane crash in 1980. Her husband passed away from a heart attack in 1960. Rajiv was reluctant to leave his career and enter politics, but Indira encouraged him to do so after learning of Sanjay's passing. He held the position of Indian Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989 following the murder of his mother in 1984. (The Tamil Tigers murdered Rajiv in 1991.
Indira Gandhi was an exceptional case of a woman achieving the highest level of influence in Indian society. Although she did not identify as a feminist, she cared about issues affecting women and considered her own achievement as evidence that intelligent women could succeed. Equal pay for men and women was codified into the constitution during her reign.
