“India is Indira and Indira is India”: The Woman Who Defied And Defined Her Times

The third and only female Prime Minister of Independent India, Indira Gandhi’s political career is a landmark in modern Indian history. Highly controversial within and beyond national borders, she embodies the spirit of the Phoenix that rises from its ashes. This year India celebrates the 105th birth anniversary of this fiery woman of politics.

(A Woman in and of Politics, source: The New Indian Express)

In 2020, TIME, a US-based news magazine and website, named Indira Gandhi as one of the world’s 100 powerful women who “defined the last century.” Also honoured with “Woman of the Year” (1976), Gandhi’s arc from the derogatory “goongi gudiya” or dumb puppet of Indian National Congress to becoming the Prime Minister with the most disputed tenure in national history, is an illustrious saga.

Indira was born in 1917, the year of the Bolshevik Revolution, to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India and Kamala Nehru. Owing to the close proximity to politics, it was hardly surprising that Indira would soon walk the same path as her father. She was educated at various institutions, namely Viswa Bharati of Shantiniketan and Oxford University in the United Kingdom. It is believed that Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali polymath, gave her the name ‘Priyadarshini’, meaning ‘one who looks at all with kindness’. She would eventually be known as Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi.

Following the tumultuous years attending her ailing mother, being stranded at Switzerland during the war years of the 1940s, and finally returning to India without finishing her degree at Oxford, she entered politics by first assisting her father and accompanying him on foreign tours. Needless to say, those were the crucial years that shaped her life in the future. She had, meanwhile, married Feroze Gandhi and given birth to Rajiv and Sanjay.

But one cannot overlook the way she brought India into global prominence with her diplomatic relations with other nations. India’s participation in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 and the defeat of Pakistan sent ripples of shock throughout the world. Indo-Soviet relations had also become stronger, though the USA viewed her policies with considerable suspicion. However, it is undoubtedly true that it was she who completely changed India’s position in the global market.

Meanwhile, the Emergency period (1975-1977) completely ruined people’s faith in her. Rae Bareli, the constituency that had become an impregnable fortress for the INC, was soon to fall. In the 1977 elections, she was defeated by the same Raj Narain, now a candidate of the Janata Party - an alliance of Jan Sangh, Lok Dal, and Old Congress. This was an interlude between her losing power and gaining it once again after two years. Indeed, people seemed to sympathize with the “witch-hunt” Gandhi was seemingly subjected to.

During the succeeding Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s term of office, she served as Minister of Information and Broadcasting and also as a member of Rajya Sabha. With Shastri’s untimely death in 1966, Gandhi found herself in the race with the venerable Morarji Desai to become Congress’s candidate for Prime Minister. She was the preferred candidate and went on to win the 1967 Lok Sabha elections from the Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh. What followed was a momentous sight to behold. Backed by politicians who saw her as a meek, submissive and voiceless woman, Indira Gandhi was about to shock the whole world with her grit, resolve and unbending willpower.

The tamed woman had suddenly become a fierce lioness. The infamous contention over the candidature for President’s office was a festering wound fuelled by mutual distrust between Gandhi and the Syndicate - the Congress Party members who made decisions with regard to the party’s future. On one hand, a “woman” was not toeing the line and on the other hand, the ambitious Indira was trying to secure her position. It led to her inevitable expulsion from the Party in 1969, followed by a split in Congress. Her loyalists now formed the Indian National Congress (Requisitionists). It was feared that she was overshadowing the Party.

In 1971, she was re-elected to power after defeating her opponent Raj Narain. One of the most popular slogans by Indira Gandhi - “Garibi Hatao” or “Remove Poverty” was introduced in the Five Year Plan to “alleviate poverty, improve agricultural production, and provide more employment opportunities”. She led her party to a landslide victory once again.

The same year a petition was filed by Narain against Gandhi for “electoral malpractices”. After a four-year legal battle, the Allahabad High Court found the incumbent Prime Minister guilty as charged and declared her seat in Lok Sabha null and void. This caused great confusion in the country, prompting then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a nationwide emergency citing “internal disturbance”. What followed was ruthless state repression, unlawful detention of opposition leaders, crackdown and censorship of the Press and abolition of certain political parties. It was truly the black spot in her career. It caused her to be perceived as a dictator to the world and her tenure, draconian. It was Gandhi’s second term in office when her domineering and uncompromising side began to unravel.

(Formative years, source: livemint.com)

(Allegations of authoritarianism, source: newsroompost.com)

When she won the General Elections in 1981 after the Janata alliance fell through, her position was already precarious. This period also saw the rise of insurgency in Punjab. The orthodox religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale of Damdami Taksal, initially instigated into mainstream politics to split the militant Akali Dal, backfired. His support of the Anandpur Resolution and taking refuge in the sacred Golden Temple of Amritsar to evade arrest forced Indira Gandhi to order a military probe into the temple premises under Operation Blue Star (in June 1984). Considered blasphemy, this proved to be the beginning of the end. She was assassinated on 31st October 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards at her residence at Safdarjung Road, New Delhi.

Very few people have led a life as embroiled in controversy as Indira Gandhi. Much like others, she did good just as she was responsible for bad. What cannot be denied is how unparalleled and far-reaching her influence was. With a tenure of almost 15 years, she etched a permanent mark in Indian politics, inspiring millions with her single-mindedness, toughness, and mettle to survive in a field so long occupied by men. She stands tall as a leading inspiration for women even today.

(They watch as she speaks, source: livemint.com)