Indira Gandhi – Brief Sketch

Context:

Recently, birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi was celebrated.

Background

Early Life

• Indira Gandhi (Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi Nehru) was born on November 19, 1917, Allahabad, India and died on October 31, 1984, New Delhi. She was a politician who served as prime minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term from 1980 until she was assassinated in 1984.
• She was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Independent India.
• Her grandfather Motilal Nehruwas one of the pioneers of the independence movement and was a close associate of  Mahatma Gandhi. 
• She attended, for one year each, Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan(now in Bolpur, West Bengal state) and then the University of Oxford in England. 
• She joined the Congress Party in 1938.
• In 1942 she married Feroze Gandhi (died 1960), a fellow member of the party. The couple had two children, Sanjay and Rajiv. However, the two parents were estranged from each other for much of their marriage.
• Indira’s mother had died in the mid-1930s, and thereafter she often acted as her father’s hostess for events and accompanied him on his travels.

Political Career

• The Congress Party came to power when her father took office in 1947, and Indira Gandhi became a member of its working committee in 1955.
• In 1959 she was elected to the largely honorary post of party president.
• She was made a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1964, and that year Lal Bahadur Shastri—who had succeeded Nehru as prime minister—named her minister of information and broadcasting in his government.
• On Shastri’s sudden death in January 1966, Indira Gandhi was named leader of the Congress Party—and thus also became prime minister—in a compromise between the party’s right and left wings.
• Her leadership, however, came under continual challenge from the right wing of the party, led by former union minister of finance Morarji Desai.
• She won a seat in the 1967 elections to the Lok Sabhabut the Congress Party managed to win only a slim majority of seats, and Gandhi had to accept Desai as deputy prime minister.
• Tensions grew within the party, however, and in 1969 she was expelled from it by Desai and other members of the old guard.
• Undaunted, Indira Gandhi, joined by a majority of party members, formed a new faction around her called the “New” Congress Party.
• In the 1971 Lok Sabha elections the New Congress group won a sweeping electoral victory over a coalition of conservative
• Indira Gandhi strongly supported East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in its secessionist conflict with Pakistanin late 1971, and India’s armed forces achieved a swift and decisive victory over Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh. She became the first government leader to recognize the new country.
• In March 1972, buoyed by the country’s success against Pakistan, Gandhi again led her New Congress Party group to landslide victories in a large number of elections to state legislative assemblies.
• Shortly afterward, however, her defeated Socialist Party opponent from the 1971 national electioncharged that she had violated the election laws in that contest. In June 1975 the High Court of Allahabad ruled against her, which meant that she would be deprived of her seat in the parliament and would be required to stay out of politics for six years. She appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court but did not receive a satisfactory response. Taking matters into her own hands, she declared a state of emergency throughout India, imprisoned her political opponents, and assumed emergency powers. Many new laws were enacted that limited personal freedoms. During that period she also implemented several unpopular policies, including large-scale sterilization as a form of birth control.
• Public opposition to Gandhi’s two years of emergency rule was vehementand widespread, and after it ended in early 1977, the released political rivals were determined to oust her and the New Congress Party from power. When long-postponed national parliamentary elections were held later in 1977, she and her party were soundly defeated, whereupon she left office. The Janata Party (precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party) took over the reins of government, with newly recruited member Desai as prime minister.
• In early 1978 Gandhi and her supporters completed the split from the Congress Party by forming the Congress (I) Party—the “I” signifying Indira. She was briefly imprisoned (October 1977 and December 1978) on charges of official corruption. Despite those setbacks, she won a new seat in the Lok Sabha in November 1978, and her Congress (I) Party began to gather strength. Dissension within the ruling Janata Party led to the fall of its government in August
• When new elections for the Lok Sabha were held in January 1980, Gandhi and Congress (I) were swept back into power in a landslide victory. Her son Sanjay, who had become her chief political adviser, also won a seat in the Lok Sabha. All legal cases against Indira, as well as against Sanjay, were withdrawn.
• Sanjay Gandhi’s death in an airplane crash in June 1980 eliminated Indira’s chosen successor from the political leadership of India. After Sanjay’s death, Indira groomed her other son, Rajiv, for the leadership of her party. She adhered to the quasi-socialist policies of industrial development that had been begun by her father. She established closer relations with the Soviet Union, depending on that country for support in India’s long-standing conflict with Pakistan.
• During the early 1980s Indira Gandhi was faced with threats to the political integrityof India. Several states sought a larger measure of independence from the central government, and Sikh separatists in Punjab state used violence to assert their demands for an autonomous
• In 1982 a large number of Sikhs, led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, occupied and fortified the Harmandir Sahib(Golden Temple) complex at Amritsar, the Sikhs’ holiest shrine. Tensions between the government and the Sikhs escalated, and in June 1984 Gandhi ordered the Indian army to attack and oust the separatists from the complex.
• Some buildings in the shrine were badly damaged in the fighting, and at least 450 Sikhs were killed (Sikh estimates of the death toll were considerably higher). Five months later Gandhi was killed in her garden in New Delhiin a fusillade of bullets fired by two of her own Sikh bodyguards in revenge for the attack in Amritsar. She was succeeded as prime minister by her son Rajiv, who served until 1989.

Contributions

• Creation of Bangladesh:
  • Her role in saving East Pakistan from atrocities of Jinnah's West Pakistan is still applauded. West Pakistanis were mostly Pathans and core Muslim of Afghan breed, whereas East Pakistan (today's Bangladesh) was rich in Bengali population. So, W. Pakistan through administration brought a lot of inequalities b/w 2 breeds by their favoritism to west, and in 1970s Bangla population started migrating in Assam and Bengal which burdened Indian govt. with their shelter and food arrangement. This bothered Indira Gandhi, the then PM and she retorted back to Pak seeking help of the then Army chief Late Field Marshal Sham Manekshaw. We won battle against Pakistan, creating new free nation, Bangladesh. This move was opposed by many world leaders and countries by then, but still Indira was adamant over her decision to teach lesson to Pakistanis.

• Elimination of Khalistan supporting terrorists in Punjab
  • Her role in killing of Bhinderwala, most dangerous street gunda in 1980s who along with huge Punjabi population was demanding for Khalistan. It's was great move, although still today there are many in Chandigarh who demand for new state Khalistan. Although it later on resulted in huge number of riots in India and later became reason for Indira Gandhi's death.
• Carry forward Green Revolution
  • She carries forward former PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri's core initiative of making India self-sufficient in food crops and vegetables. Indira plyed a crucial role in the success of the two new programmes of Green Revolution and White revolution, which made India self-sufficient in food and milk and also started exporting same to other countries.
• Nationalization of Banks
  • Indira Gandhi created 14 nationalized banks in 1980 to solve the then problems that plagued the public sector banks.

Criticism

• 21 months National Emergency :
  • Emergency was the darkest period of Independent India ever since 1947. Except Article 20 and 21 all other fundamental rights were taken away. No media allowed to report without PMO's approval. It was real dictatorship which made Indira to lose in next elections too.
• Signing of Shimla Agreement
  • Shimla Agreement was biggest fault of Indira Gandhi where she was back stabbed by Pakistan and again made foolish arrogant decision which India later paid off. Many tried to stop her from signing it, but she didn't listened.
• Totalitarianism
• It is often said about Indira that she took most of the decisions herself without taking consideration of the cabinet.

Conclusion

Indira Gandhi was one of the most powerful leader of India who changed the history and even the geography of the world by creating a new nation Bangladesh even with the limited resources and intelligence. However, in her arrogance she subverted the institutions and imposed emergency in the country on unreasonable grounds. In total, she was a forceful mass and global leader.