Indira Gandhi was born Indira Nehru on 19 November, 1917, in Allahabad to Kamala and Jawaharlal Nehru. Indira’s father, Jawaharlal was a well-educated lawyer and an active member of the Indian Independence Movement. She passed her Metric from Pune University and went to Shantiniketan in West Bengal. She later went on to study in Switzerland and Oxford University in London.
Indira Gandhi was an Indian politician and the only female Prime Minister of the country. Born in the famous Nehru family, she was perhaps destined for an illustrious political career. As Prime Minister, Indira was known for centralisation of power and political ruthlessness.
In 1941, despite his father’s objections, she married Feroze Gandhi. In 1944, Indira gave birth to Rajiv Gandhi followed two years later by Sanjay Gandhi.
She was appointed the President of Congress party in 1959 and also served as her father’s personal assistant from 1947 till 1964. After Nehru’s death in 1964, she served as a Cabinet minister under Lal Bahadur Shastri’s leadership but later became Prime Minister of the country in 1966 after Shastri’s sudden death. From 1966 to 1977, she was able to retain the position but lost after an emergency was imposed by her in 1975 leading to a national discontent and countrywide protests.
Ms Gandhi was widely criticised for declaring the historic moment of Emergency in India in 1975 for a period of 21 months. This period was often referred to as the ‘dark age of independent India.’
On 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi’s bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh fired a total of 31 bullets on Indira Gandhi from their service weapons as a revenge of the Golden Temple assault at her residence – 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi and she succumbed to her injuries. Indira Gandhi was named ‘Woman of the Millennium’ by a BBC poll.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Several Congress leaders tweeted paying homage to her.
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