Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress.
Third prime minister of India in 1966 and was also the first and, to date, only female prime minister of India. Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru.
She served as prime minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984,
.She was elected president of the Indian National Congress in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964, she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. In the Congress Party's parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966 (upon the death of Shastri).
Defeated her rival Morarji Desai to become leader, and thus succeeded Shastri, after his death, as Prime Minister of India.
As prime minister, Gandhi was known for her political intransigency and unprecedented centralisation of power.
She supported war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh.
Gandhi instituted a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 where basic civil liberties were suspended and the press was censored.
Widespread atrocities were carried out during the emergency. Majorly in Gujarat
In 1980, she returned to power after free and fair elections. After Gandhi ordered military action in the Golden Temple in Operation Blue Star, her own bodyguards and Sikh nationalists assassinated her on 31 October 1984.
She enjoyed good relations with Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. In 1974, India ceded the tiny islet of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka to save Bandaranaike's socialist government from a political disaster.
However, relations soured over J. R. Jayewardene, whom Gandhi despised as a "western puppet".
India under Gandhi was alleged to have supported the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militants in the 1980s to put pressure on Jayewardene to abide by Indian interests.
Gandhi rejected demands to invade Sri Lanka in the aftermath of Black July 1983, an anti-Tamil progrom carried out by Sinhalese mobs
Gandhi made a statement emphasizing that she stood for the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, although she also stated that India cannot "remain a silent spectator to any injustice done to the Tamil community.
In 1999, Indira Gandhi was named "Woman of the Millennium" in an online poll organized by the BBC. In 2020, Gandhi was named by Time magazine among the world's 100 powerful women who defined the last century.
Comments