Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was the only child of Kamla and Jawaharlal Nehru. She spent part of her childhood in Allahabad, where the Nehrus had their family residence, and part in Switzerland.
She received her college education at Somerville College, Oxford. After India’s attainment of independence, and the ascendancy of Jawaharlal Nehru, to the office of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi managed the official residence of her father, and accompanied him on his numerous foreign trips.
She had been married in 1942 to Feroze Gandhi, who rose to some eminence as a parliamentarian and politician of integrity. Feroze died in 1960.
In 1959, Indira became the fourth woman elected president of the Indian National Congress. Five years later in 1964, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri appointed her as minister of information and broadcasting. As minister, she most importantly encouraged the making of inexpensive radios and started a family planning programme.
After Shastri’s death in 1966, Indira Gandhi served as prime minister until India held its next elections. She won that election, and in 1967, became the first woman ever elected to lead a democracy. In 1971, she was re-elected by campaigning with the slogan ‘Garibi Hatao.’
THE YEARS LEADING UP TO THE EMERGENCY
During 1972-1974, deep economic recession, unemployment and inflation created a groundswell of discontent, agitation and anger all over India, laying the socio-economic carpet for upheaval. Growing corruption in large areas of public life and belief that higher echelons of the ruling party and administration were responsible for the rot gained ground. Indira Gandhi’s refusal to acknowledge corruption as a serious malady compounded matters and eroded her phenomenal standing and charisma.
Trouble broke out first in Gujarat in early 1974, with large-scale rioting and the burning and looting of shops. From Gujarat, the tensions spread to Bihar, where the city of Patna was under almost complete control of the mobs. A gigantic civil disobedience campaign was unleashed by opposition leaders, calling not only the people but also the armed forces, police and government servants to disobey orders.
Just as unrest and agitation were being directed into the conventional channels of the system, the Allahabad High Court delivered in June 1975 verdict that her 1971 election victory as an MP was invalid due to two minor technical offenses under electoral law.
On June 26, 1975, in a lightning response, internal emergency was proclaimed under article 352 of the Indian constitution. A slew of opposition leaders were arrested, strict press censorship imposed and all fundamental rights suspended.
Defending the emergency as indispensable for state survival, Indira argued, “Some rights have to suffer a little if it is in the cause of strengthening and survival of our country.”
Indira Gandhi was the first woman ever elected to lead a democracy. She was the Prime Minister from 1966-77 and then again between 1980-84 till her death at the hands of her own bodyguards.
A paradox she may seem for during the time that she served India as a Prime Minister, she was known as a dictator as well as one of the most charismatic leaders of India.
