indira gandhi biography pdf

• History & Society
• Science & Tech
• Biographies
• Animals & Nature
• Geography & Travel
• Arts & Culture
• Games & Quizzes
• On This Day
• One Good Fact
• New Articles
• Lifestyles & Social Issues
• Philosophy & Religion
• Politics, Law & Government
• World History
• Health & Medicine
• Browse Biographies
• Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates
• Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates
• Environment
• Fossils & Geologic Time
• Entertainment & Pop Culture
• Sports & Recreation
• Visual Arts
• Demystified
• Image Galleries
• Infographics
• Top Questions
• Britannica Kids
• Saving Earth
• Space Next 50
• Student Center
• Introduction

Early life and rise to prominence

First period as prime minister, fall from power and return to office.

• What role did the Indian National Congress play in the Indian independence movement?
• What policies have historically been supported by the Indian National Congress?
• Is the Indian National Congress’s Gandhi family related to Mahatma Gandhi?
• What is Jawaharlal Nehru known for?
• What were Jawaharlal Nehru’s accomplishments?

Indira Gandhi

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

• PMIndia - Smt. Indira Gandhi
• Cultural India - Leaders - Biography of Indira Gandhi
• IndiaNetzone - Biography of Indira Gandhi
• GlobalSecurity.org - Indira Gandhi
• Indira Gandhi - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Indira Gandhi - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

Recent News

• Who was Indira Gandhi and what was her family background?
• What were Indira Gandhi's major achievements during her tenure as Prime Minister of India?
• How did Indira Gandhi's leadership style impact Indian politics?
• What were the controversies and challenges faced by Indira Gandhi during her time in office?
• How did Indira Gandhi's foreign policy shape India's international relations?
• What economic policies did Indira Gandhi implement during her time as Prime Minister?
• How did Indira Gandhi's relationship with her son Sanjay Gandhi influence her political decisions?
• How did Indira Gandhi handle the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971?
• How is Indira Gandhi's legacy perceived in modern India?

Indira Gandhi (born November 19, 1917, Allahabad, India—died October 31, 1984, New Delhi) was an Indian politician who was the first female prime minister of India , serving for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term from 1980 until she was assassinated in 1984.

(Read Indira Gandhi’s 1975 Britannica essay on global underprivilege.)

Indira Nehru was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru , who was one of the chief figures in India’s struggle to achieve independence from Britain, was a top leader of the powerful and long-dominant Indian National Congress (Congress Party), and was the first prime minister (1947–64) of independent India. Her grandfather Motilal Nehru was one of the pioneers of the independence movement and was a close associate of Mohandas (“Mahatma”) Gandhi . She attended , for one year each, Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan (now in Bolpur, West Bengal state) and then the University of Oxford in England . She joined the Congress Party in 1938.

In 1942 she married Feroze Gandhi (died 1960), a fellow member of the party. The couple had two children, Sanjay and Rajiv . However, the two parents were estranged from each other for much of their marriage. Indira’s mother had died in the mid-1930s, and thereafter she often acted as her father’s hostess for events and accompanied him on his travels.

The Congress Party came to power when her father took office in 1947, and Gandhi became a member of its working committee in 1955. In 1959 she was elected to the largely honorary post of party president. She was made a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper chamber of the Indian parliament) in 1964, and that year Lal Bahadur Shastri —who had succeeded Nehru as prime minister—named her minister of information and broadcasting in his government.

On Shastri’s sudden death in January 1966, Gandhi was named leader of the Congress Party—and thus also became prime minister—in a compromise between the party’s right and left wings. Her leadership, however, came under continual challenge from the right wing of the party, led by former minister of finance Morarji Desai . She won a seat in the 1967 elections to the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament), but the Congress Party managed to win only a slim majority of seats, and Gandhi had to accept Desai as deputy prime minister.

Tensions grew within the party, however, and in 1969 she was expelled from it by Desai and other members of the old guard. Undaunted, Gandhi, joined by a majority of party members, formed a new faction around her called the “New” Congress Party. In the 1971 Lok Sabha elections the New Congress group won a sweeping electoral victory over a coalition of conservative parties. Gandhi strongly supported East Pakistan (now Bangladesh ) in its secessionist conflict with Pakistan in late 1971, and India’s armed forces achieved a swift and decisive victory over Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh. She became the first government leader to recognize the new country .

In March 1972, buoyed by the country’s success against Pakistan, Gandhi again led her New Congress Party group to landslide victories in a large number of elections to state legislative assemblies. Shortly afterward, however, her defeated Socialist Party opponent from the 1971 national election charged that she had violated the election laws in that contest. In June 1975 the High Court of Allahabad ruled against her, which meant that she would be deprived of her seat in the parliament and would be required to stay out of politics for six years. She appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court but did not receive a satisfactory response. Taking matters into her own hands, she declared a state of emergency throughout India, imprisoned her political opponents, and assumed emergency powers . Many new laws were enacted that limited personal freedoms. During that period she also implemented several unpopular policies, including large-scale sterilization as a form of birth control .

Public opposition to Gandhi’s two years of emergency rule was vehement and widespread, and after it ended in early 1977, the released political rivals were determined to oust her and the New Congress Party from power. When long-postponed national parliamentary elections were held later in 1977, she and her party were soundly defeated, whereupon she left office. The Janata Party (precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party ) took over the reins of government, with newly recruited member Desai as prime minister.

In early 1978 Gandhi and her supporters completed the split from the Congress Party by forming the Congress (I) Party—the “I” signifying Indira. She was briefly imprisoned (October 1977 and December 1978) on charges of official corruption. Despite those setbacks , she won a new seat in the Lok Sabha in November 1978, and her Congress (I) Party began to gather strength. Dissension within the ruling Janata Party led to the fall of its government in August 1979. When new elections for the Lok Sabha were held in January 1980, Gandhi and Congress (I) were swept back into power in a landslide victory. Her son Sanjay, who had become her chief political adviser, also won a seat in the Lok Sabha. All legal cases against Indira, as well as against Sanjay, were withdrawn.

Sanjay Gandhi’s death in an airplane crash in June 1980 eliminated Indira’s chosen successor from the political leadership of India. After Sanjay’s death, Indira groomed her other son, Rajiv, for the leadership of her party. She adhered to the quasi-socialist policies of industrial development that had been begun by her father. She established closer relations with the Soviet Union , depending on that country for support in India’s long-standing conflict with Pakistan.

During the early 1980s Indira Gandhi was faced with threats to the political integrity of India. Several states sought a larger measure of independence from the central government, and Sikh separatists in Punjab state used violence to assert their demands for an autonomous state. In 1982 a large number of Sikhs, led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale , occupied and fortified the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex at Amritsar , the Sikhs’ holiest shrine. Tensions between the government and the Sikhs escalated, and in June 1984 Gandhi ordered the Indian army to attack and oust the separatists from the complex. Some buildings in the shrine were badly damaged in the fighting, and at least 450 Sikhs were killed (Sikh estimates of the death toll were considerably higher). Five months later Gandhi was killed in her garden in New Delhi in a fusillade of bullets fired by two of her own Sikh bodyguards in revenge for the attack in Amritsar. She was succeeded as prime minister by her son Rajiv , who served until 1989.

• History Classics
• Your Profile
• Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
• This Day In History
• History Podcasts
• History Vault

Indira Gandhi

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 10, 2019 | Original: November 9, 2009

The only daughter of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi was destined for politics. First appointed prime minister in 1966, she garnered widespread public support for agricultural improvements that led to India’s self-sufficiency in food grain production as well as for her success in the Pakistan war, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. After serving three terms, Gandhi was voted out of office for her increasingly authoritarian policies, including a 21-month state of emergency in which Indians’ constitutional rights were restricted. In 1980, however, she was reelected to a fourth term. Following a deadly confrontation at the Sikh’s holiest temple in Punjab four years later, Gandhi was assassinated by two of her bodyguards on October 31, 1984, ushering her son Rajiv into power and igniting extensive anti-Sikh riots.

Indira Gandhi: Early Life and Family

Born on November 19, 1917, in Allahabad, India, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was the sole child of Kamala and Jawaharlal Nehru . As a member of the Indian National Congress, Nehru had been influenced by party leader Mahatma Gandhi, and dedicated himself to India’s fight for independence. The struggle resulted in years of imprisonment for Jawaharlal and a lonely childhood for Indira, who attended a Swiss boarding school for a few years, and later studied history at Somerville College, Oxford. Her mother passed away in 1936 of tuberculosis.

Did you know? One of Indira Gandhi’s most unpopular policies during her time in office was government-enforced sterilization as a form of population control.

In March 1942, despite the disapproval of her family, Indira married Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi lawyer (unrelated to Mahatma Gandhi), and the couple soon had two sons: Rajiv and Sanjay.

Indira Gandhi: Political Career and Accomplishments

In 1947, Nehru became the newly independent nation’s first prime minister, and Gandhi agreed to go to New Delhi to serve as his hostess, welcoming diplomats and world leaders at home and traveling with her father throughout India and abroad. She was elected to the prominent 21-member working committee of the Congress Party in 1955 and, four years later, was named its president. Upon Nehru’s death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the new prime minister, and Indira took on the role of Minister of Information and Broadcasting. But Shastri’s leadership was short-lived; just two years later he abruptly died and Indira was appointed by Congress Party leaders to be prime minister.

Within a few years Gandhi gained enormous popularity for introducing successful programs that transformed India into a country self-sufficient in food grains—an achievement known as the Green Revolution.

In 1971, she threw her support behind the Bengali movement to separate East from West Pakistan, providing refuge for the ten million Pakistani civilians who fled to India in order to escape the marauding Pakistan army and eventually offering troops and arms. India’s decisive victory over Pakistan in December led to the creation of Bangladesh, for which Gandhi was posthumously awarded Bangladesh’s highest state honor 40 years later.

Indira Gandhi: Autocratic Leadership

Following the 1972 national elections, Gandhi was accused of misconduct by her political opponent and, in 1975, was convicted of electoral corruption by the High Court of Allahabad and prohibited from running in another election for six years. Instead of resigning as expected, she responded by declaring a state of emergency on June 25, whereby citizens’ civil liberties were suspended, the press was acutely censored and the majority of her opposition was detained without trial. Throughout what became referred to as the “Reign of Terror,” thousands of dissidents were imprisoned without due process.

Anticipating that her former popularity would assure her reelection, Gandhi finally eased the emergency restrictions and called for the next general election in March 1977. Riled by their limited liberties, however, the people overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Janata Party and Morarji Desai assumed the role of prime minister.

Within the next few years, democracy was restored, but the Janata Party had little success in resolving the nation’s severe poverty crisis. In 1980, Gandhi campaigned under a new party—Congress (I)—and was elected into her fourth term as prime minister.

Indira Gandhi: Assassination

In 1984, the holy Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, was taken over by Sikh extremists seeking an autonomous state. In response, Gandhi sent Indian troops to regain the temple by force. In the barrage of gunfire that ensued, hundreds of Sikhs were killed, igniting an uprising within the Sikh community.

On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated outside her home by two of her trusted bodyguards, seeking retribution for the events at the temple.

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

Indira Gandhi

Date of Birth : 19 November 1917 

Place of Birth : Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh

Parents : Jawaharlal Nehru (father) and Kamala Nehru (mother)

Spouse : Feroze Gandhi

Children : Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi

Education : International School of Geneva, Vishwabharati University, Shantiniketan; Somerville College, Oxford

Association : Indian National Congress

Movement : Indian Independence Movement

Political Ideology : Right winged, Liberal

Religious views : Hinduism

Publications : My Truth (1980), Eternal India (1981)

Passed Away : 31 October 1984

Memorial : Shakti Sthal, New Delhi

Indira Gandhi was an Indian politician and the only female Prime Minister of the country. Born in the famous Nehru family, she was perhaps destined for an illustrious political career. She served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. As Prime Minister, Indira was known for centralisation of power and political ruthlessness. Her political career was littered with controversies as well as allegations of highhandedness, corruption and nepotism. She clamped a state of emergency in India from 1975 to 1977. She was also criticized for carrying out the Operation Blue-Star in Punjab that eventually scripted her assassination on 31 October 1984. Indira Gandhi left behind her a lasting political legacy and her family became one of the most prominent political names in India.

Childhood & Early Life

Indira Gandhi was born Indira Nehru on 19 November, 1917, in Allahabad to Kamala and Jawaharlal Nehru. Indira's father, Jawaharlal was a well-educated lawyer and an active member of the Indian Independence Movement. She passed her Metric from Pune University and went to Shantiniketan in West Bengal. She later went on to study in Switzerland and Oxford University in London. Indira then stayed for a few months in Switzerland with her ailing mother. In 1936, after her mother, Kamala Nehru succumbed to tuberculosis, she returned to India. At the time of Kamala's death, Jawaharlal Nehru, was languishing in Indian jails.

Marriage & Family Life

In 1941, despite his father's objections, she married Feroze Gandhi. In 1944, Indira gave birth to Rajiv Gandhi followed two years later by Sanjay Gandhi. During the 1951-52 Parliamentary Elections, Indira Gandhi handled the campaigns of her husband, Feroze, who was contesting from Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. After being elected an MP, Feroze opted to live in a separate house in Delhi.

Feroze soon became a prominent force against the corruption in the Nehru led government. He exposed a major scandal involving prominent insurance companies and the Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari. The Finance Minister was considered to be a close aide of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Feroze had emerged as a noted figure in the country's political circle. He, with a small coterie of supporters and advisors continued to challenge the Central government. On 8 September 1960, Feroze died after a major cardiac arrest.

Political Career

Early Entry into Politics

Since the Nehru family was the centre of national political activity, Indira Gandhi was exposed to politics from a young age. A leader like Mahatma Gandhi was among the frequent visitors to the Nehru house in Allahabad. After his return to the country, Indira showed keen interest in the national movement. She also became a member of the Indian National Congress. Here, she met Feroze Gandhi, a journalist and key member of the Youth Congress - the youth wing of the Congress Party. After independence, Indira Gandhi's father Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi decided to shift to Delhi to assist his father. Her two sons remained with her but Feroze decided to stay back in Allahabad. He was working as an editor of ‘The National Herald’ newspaper founded by Motilal Nehru.

Indira as Congress President

In 1959, Indira Gandhi was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress Party. She was one of the political advisors of Jawaharlal Nehru. After the death of Jawaharlal Nehru on 27 May 1964, Indira Gandhi decided to contest elections and eventually got elected. She was appointed as in-charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry under Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri

It was believed that Indira Gandhi was adept at the art of politics and image-making. This is corroborated by an event that took place during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. While the war was on, Indira Gandhi went on a holiday trip to Srinagar. Despite repeated warnings by the security forces that Pakistani insurgents had entered very close to the hotel she was staying, Gandhi refused to move. The incident fetched her huge national and international media attention.

First Term as Prime Minister of India

Following the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri on 11 January 1966, in Tashkent, the race to the coveted throne of the Prime Minister began. After much deliberation, Indira was chosen as the Prime Ministerial candidate by the Congress high command solely because they presumed that she could be easily manipulated. She contested and emerged victorious during the interim elections of 1966. Post-election, Mrs. Gandhi showed extraordinary political prowess and elbowed the Congress stalwarts out of power. Some of the most notable achievements of her stint as PM were 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 along with four premium oil companies. She took constructive steps towards food shortage of the country and led the country into the nuclear age with its first underground detonation in 1974.

Indo-Pakistan War in 1971

The 1971 Indo-Pakistan war was the direct after-effect of the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan, which was brought by the Awami League led by Mujibar Rahman against the military brutality launched by the Pakistan President Yahya Khan. The military specifically targeted the Hindu minority population and committed atrocious acts of torture throughout the country. As a result, about 10 million East Pakistani citizens fled the country and sought refuge in India. The overwhelming refugee situation prompted Indira Gandhi to support Awami League’s struggle for freedom against West Pakistan. India provided logistical support and also sent troops to fight against West Pakistan. The war concluded on 16 December 1971 in Dhaka, after the Eastern Command of the Pakistani Armed Forces signed the Instrument of Surrender and that marked the birth of the new nation of Bangladesh. India's triumph in the war of 1971 against Pakistan enhanced the popularity of Indira Gandhi as a shrewd political leader.

Imposition of Emergency

In 1975, the Opposition parties and social activists staged regular demonstrations against the Indira Gandhi-led Central government over rising inflation, the poor state of economy and unchecked corruption. The same year, Allahabad High Court ruled that Indira Gandhi had used illegal practices during the last election and this added fuel to the existing political fire. The verdict ordered her to vacate her seat, immediately. The agitation and anger of the people intensified. Mrs. Gandhi instead of resigning declared "an emergency, due to the turbulent political situation in the country" on 26 June, 1975.

During the state of emergency, her political foes were imprisoned, constitutional rights of the citizens were abrogated, and the press was placed under strict censorship. The Gandhian socialist, Jaya Prakash Narayan and his supporters sought to unify students, peasants and labor organizations in a 'Total non-violent Revolution' to transform Indian society. Narayan was later arrested and jailed.

Fall from Power and Role as Opposition

During the state of emergency, her younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, began to run the country with full-authority and ordered forceful removal of slum dwellings, and started a highly unpopular forced sterilization program, which was aimed at curbing India's growing population.

In 1977, confident that she has snuffed the opposition, Indira Gandhi called for elections. She was thrashed by the emerging Janata Dal combine, led by Morarji Desai and Jai Prakash Narayan. Congress managed to win only 153 Lok Sabha seats, as compared to 350 seats it had grabbed in the previous Lok Sabha. 

Second Term as Prime Minister of India

With so little in common among the allies of the Janata Party, the members were busy in internal strife. In an effort to expel Indira Gandhi from the Parliament, the Janata government ordered to arrest her. However, the strategy failed disastrously and gained Indira Gandhi sympathy from the people who had considered her as an autocrat just two years back. In the 1980 elections, Congress returned to power with a landslide majority and Indira Gandhi returned as Prime Minister of India once again. Experts viewed the victory of the Congress as a result of inefficient and ineffective "Janata Party".

Operation Blue Star 

In September 1981, a Sikh militant group demanding "Khalistan" entered into the premises of the Golden Temple, Amritsar. Despite the presence of thousands of civilians in the Temple complex, Indira Gandhi ordered the Army to barge into the holy shrine to carry out Operation Blue Star. The army resorted to heavy artillery including tanks and cannons which although led to subduing of the militant threat, also claimed lives of innocent civilians. The act was viewed as an unparalleled tragedy in the Indian political history. The impact of the onslaught increased the communal tensions in the country. Many Sikhs resigned from the armed and civil administrative office and also returned their government awards in protest. Indira Gandhi’s political image was tarnished heavily.

Assassination

On 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi's bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh fired a total of 31 bullets on Indira Gandhi from their service weapons as a revenge of the Golden Temple assault at her residence - 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi and she succumbed to her injuries.

• Find a Library
• Browse Collections
• Indira Gandhi

ebook ∣ A Biography

By pupul jayakar.

Add Book To Favorites

Is this your library?

Sign up to save your library.

With an OverDrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for at-a-glance information about availability. Find out more about OverDrive accounts.

9780140114621

Pupul Jayakar

Penguin Random House India Private Limited

30 September 2017

Find this title in Libby, the library reading app by OverDrive.

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

Bookreader Item Preview

Share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

216 Previews

2 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

No suitable files to display here.

PDF access not available for this item.

IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by station10.cebu on May 24, 2022

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)