Who was she?
Gandhi was an Indian politician from 1966 to 1977 as the third Prime Minister
and the only female prime minister. She served again from 1980, but her term was
brief because of her assassination in 1984. Gandhi was succeeded by her son, Rajiv
Gandhi as the country’s sixth prime minister. She was the second longest-serving
prime minister of nearly 16 years and was a significant figure in Indian politics.
Indira Gandhi was the daughter of the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal
Nehru. She’s an only child as her brother died young, raised in a large family estate
with her mother, Kamala Nehru. She didn’t enjoy her childhood as she felt isolated
due to her father's absence from political duties, with her mother often being sick. She
had switched off from homeschooling and convent schools when she was younger.
Then attended Visva-Bharati University in 1951 to study history but left early to take
care of her mother in Europe and switched to a local school. When she returned to
India, she was indicted for being involved in the Quit India Movement and imprisoned
for 7 months. Indira then followed in her father’s footsteps and became his assistant.
She accompanied her father on many foreign trips and helped dispute a
communist-led Kerala state government in 1959 as her role. When her father died in
1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri took his place as prime minister and became minister of
information and broadcasting in his government. Then Shastri died in 1966, after
surpassing rival, Morarji Desai, Gandhi was named leader, successfully succeeding
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Shastri. She was lucky with elections as she won her first in the lower house of the
Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha in 1967 and won her second in 1971, prioritizing
issues regarding poverty. However, she struggled in the third election and then lost
her spot in parliament, though she bounced back quickly and won the next election.
She was known for her stubborn centralization of power and it worked in her
favor as she managed to hold off incursions from the Chinese in the Himalayas. Indira
Gandhi also supported Pakistan in the war and helped them achieve independence,
which created Bangladesh. This improved India’s power in South Asia, making them a
lasting influence, and developed a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union in 1971. The
perks came with financial, military, and diplomatic assistance, and helped each other
in conflicts with the United Nations, they even got to a point where they were their
closest ally in Asia.
A rebellion had taken place, and in retaliation, Gandhi held a state of emergency
for 2 years. That means that civil liberties halted the press was restricted, and then
she ordered Operation Blue Star. Operation Blue Star was a military action that killed
hundreds of Sikhs in the Golden Temple. Unfortunately, many Sikh nationalists were
not happy and sought revenge. Her bodyguards murdered Gandhi in 1984. She left a
permanent mark in India and is considered one of the most powerful women in the
world. Her anti-poverty policies were a huge success for the poor and rural classes.
