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Mr.Indira Gandhi was the 3rd (1966-1977) and the prime minister before Rajiv Gandhi(1980-1984)

Kawshik
Jul 24, 2017
4 min read

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (19 November 1917 -31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and central figure of the Indian National Congress party.She had 16 years of experience as a prime minister.She was the first and to date the only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of Mahatma Gandhi. She served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, making her the second-longest-serving Prime Minister of India after her father.

As the Prime Minister of India, Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralisation of power. She went to 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, as well as increasing India's influence to the point where it became the regional hegemon of South Asia.

she was assassinated by Sikh nationalists in 1984,The assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, were both shot by other security guards. Satwant Singh recovered from his injuries and was executed after being found guilty of murder.In 1999, Indira was named "Woman of the Millennium" in a poll organised by the BBC.

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

Indira Gandhi was born as Indira Nehru in a Kashmiri Pandit family on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad.Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a leading figure in India's political struggle for independence from British rule, and became the first Prime Minister of the Dominion (and later Republic) of India.She was the only child (a younger brother was born, but died young),and grew up with her mother, Kamala Nehru, at the Anand Bhavan; a large family estate in Allahabad.She had a lonely and unhappy childhood.Her father was often away, directing political activities or incarcerated, while her mother was frequently bed-ridden with illness, and later suffered an early death from tuberculosis.She had limited contact with her father, mostly through letters.

Indira was mostly taught at home by tutors, and intermittently attended school until matriculation in 1934. She was a student at the Modern School in Delhi, St Cecilia's and St Mary's Christian convent schools in Allahabad,the International School of Geneva, the Ecole Nouvelle in Bex, and the Pupils' Own School in Poona and Bombay, which is affiliated to University of Mumbai.

She and her mother Kamala Nehru moved to Belur Math headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission where Swami Ranganathananda was her guardian later she went on to study at the Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan. It was during her interview that Rabindranath Tagore named her Priyadarshini, and she came to be known as Indira Priyadarshini Nehru.A year later, however, she had to leave university to attend to her ailing mother in Europe.While there, it was decided that Indira would continue her education at the University of Oxford.After her mother died, she briefly attended the Badminton School before enrolling at Somerville College in 1937 to study history.Indira had to take the entrance examination twice, having failed at her first attempt with a poor performance in Latin.

At Oxford, she did well in history, political science and economics, but her grades in Latin—a compulsory subject—remained poor.She did, however, have an active part within the student life of the university, such as the Oxford Majlis Asian Society

FAMILY BACKGROUND

She was the only daughter of Freedom fighter jawaharlal nehru she had a brother who died in a very young age.Her mother also expired due to tuberculosis at an early age.

Father -Jawahar lal nehru

Mother-Kamala Nehru

spouse-Feroze Gandhi

Son-Sanjay Gandhi,Rajiv Gandhi

Indira Gandhi views on women -

Indira Gandhi was a rare example of a woman rising to the most powerful position in Indian society. She did not consider herself a feminist but was concerned with issues relating to women and she saw her own success as proof that talented women could rise to the top. During her administration, equal pay for men and women was enshrined in the constitution. In a speech on “True Liberation Of Women”, March 26, 1980,

POLITICAL CAREER

Gandhi served as her father's personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as prime minister between 1947 and 1964.
She was elected Congress President 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,
she defeated her rival, Morarji Desai, to become leader, and thus succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister of India.

Awards

After leading India to victory against Pakistan in the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971, President V. V. Giri awarded Mrs. Gandhi India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.In 2011, the Bangladesh Freedom Honour (Bangladesh Swadhinata Sammanona), Bangladesh's highest civilian award, was posthumously conferred on Indira Gandhi for her outstanding contributions to Bangladesh's Liberation War.