Indira Gandhi


Indira Gandhi
(November 22, 1917 -
October 31, 1984) was
the only child of      First Term:      January 19, 1966 - March 24, 1977
Jawaharlal Nehru, the  Second Term:     January 14, 1980 - October 31, 1984
first Prime Minister
of India. She was not  Predecessor:     Lal Bahadur Shastri
related to Mahatma     Successors:      Morarji Desai, Rajiv Gandhi
Gandhi; she took her   Date of Birth:   November 19, 1917
last name from her
husband Feroze Gandhi. Place of Birth:  Allahabad, India
                       Political Party: Indian National Congress
She served as Prime
Minister of India from January 19, 1966 to March 24, 1977, and from January
14, 1980 until her assasination in 1985.

A brilliant political strategist and thinker, Indira also possessed an
extraordinary desire for political power. As a woman occupying the highest
position of government in a still very patriarchal society, Indira was
expected to be a passive leader, but her actions would prove her otherwise.

As Prime Minister, Indira carefully used every tool available at her
disposal to consolidate her power and authority. By using her powers of
appointment she created "notoriously weak" cabinets, creating her own
governing Congress (R) party following the November 1969 split within the
governing Indian National Congress.

Re-elected in 1971, she proceeded to boost her government's fortunes through
a successful war that December against neighbouring Pakistan in East Bengal,
where India's intervention enabled local separatists to crown their
nine-month war of independence with the creation of the independent republic
of Bangladesh.

To avoid being jailed for corrupt election practices, in June 1975 she
declared a state of emergency, and in her own words brought democracy "to a
grinding halt." Invoking article 352 of the Indian Constitution, she granted
herself extraordinary powers and proceeded to launch a massive crackdown on
civil liberties and political opposition.

Rival party leaders were jailed, and electricity was cut off to opposition
newspapers. Opposition-controlled state legislatures were dissolved and
suspended indefinitely. The Prime Minister pushed a series of increasingly
harsh bills and constitutional amendments through parliament, all which were
approved with little discussion or debate.

The weak nature of India's constitution made it extremely easy for Indira to
re-write the nation's laws, and thus protect herself from legal prosecution
once emergency rule was revoked. As massive as these reforms were, Indira
did not feel her powers were amassing quickly enough. It was at this point
that she utilized President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to issue "extraordinary
laws" that bypassed parliament altogether, allowing her to rule by decree.

Indira's emergency rule lasted nineteen months. In 1977, greatly misjudging
her own popularity, she called elections and was badly defeated. Somewhat
surprisingly, she agreed to step down without much of fuss. Three years
later she would be re-elected, although her second term would on the whole
be much less authoritarian.

But Indira's later reign saw a serious breakdown in Hindu-Sikh relations
that would eventually lead to her own assasination. Alarmed at the rise in
popularity of the highly political Sikh missionary and leader Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale, India's leaders were disturbed by his proclamation that Sikhs
were a sovereign and self-ruling community.

Fearing Pakistani support for the movement, in June 1984 Gandhi ordered
Operation Blue Star, a military assault on Amritsar's holy Harimandir Sahib
or Golden Temple, the central Sikh place of prayer, which had been occupied
by Jarnail Singh and his militant supporters. Many thousands died in the
attack, while thousands more were raped and tortured by Police, and several
Sikh reference libraries were destroyed across Punjab, in addition to other
gurdwaras (places of prayer).

Sikh alienation was deep and had dramatic consequences: on October 31, 1984,
Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, one of whom was
fatally shot and the other subsequently (1988) sentenced to death by
hanging. She died shortly after arriving at the airport in New Delhi. Hence,
the airport was renamed Indira Gandhi International Airport after her.
Anti-Sikh riots broke out after her death in New Delhi and nearly 2,000
innocent Sikhs were killed.

To this day, Indira's legacy as Prime Minister remains mixed. Though she had
a strong personality, and her reign was popular with many segments of
India's population, especially the youth and the poor, her decision to
declare a state of emergency solely to escape prosecution remains
controversial, and many Sikhs resent what Amnesty International and many
other human rights agencies around the world see as the country's bloodiest
genocide ever.

Her two sons, Sanjay and Rajiv, were both involved in politics. Sanjay
Gandhi died in a plane crash in June 1980. Rajiv Gandhi entered politics in
February 1981 and became prime minister on his mother's death, later (May
1991) himself meeting a similar fate, this time at the hands of Tamil militants.