Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was a prominent member of the Indian National Congress and a politician in India. In 1966, she was elected as India's third prime minister, becoming India's first and only woman to do so. Gandhi was the daughter of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Indira Gandhi, or Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi, née Nehru, was an Indian politician who was the first woman to serve as prime minister of India. She was born on November 19, 1917, in Allahabad, India, and passed away on October 31, 1984, in New Delhi. She served for three terms, from 1966 to 1977, before being assassinated in 1984.
Born: On November 19, 1917, India's Prayagraj died: October 31, 1984 (matured 66) Delhi India
Title/Office: India's prime minister from 1966 to 1977, as well as its political affiliations: Famous Members of the Indian National Congress Family: Indira Nehru was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the first prime minister of independent India from 1947 to 1964 and was a key figure in India's struggle for independence from Britain. He was also a top leader of the powerful and long-dominant Indian National Congress (Congress Party). One of the founders of the independence movement, her grandfather Motilal Nehru, was a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi.
She began her education at the University of Oxford in England after spending a year at Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan, which is now in Bolpur, which is in the state of West Bengal. In 1938, she joined the Congress Party.
She tied the knot with Feroze Gandhi, a fellow party member who passed away in 1960, in 1942. Sanjay and Rajiv, the couple's two children, were born. However, during the majority of their marriage, the parents remained estranged from one another. After Indira's mother passed away in the middle of the 1930s, she continued to host events for her father and accompany him on his travels.
Indira Gandhi and Jacqueline Kennedy Indira Gandhi and Jacqueline Kennedy Gandhi joined the Congress Party's working committee in 1955 after her father took office in 1947. She was elected to the mostly ceremonial position of party president in 1959. In 1964, she was elected to the Rajya Sabha, India's upper chamber, and that same year, Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had succeeded Nehru as prime minister, appointed her minister of information and broadcasting in his administration.
In a compromise between the right and left wings of the Congress Party, Gandhi was appointed leader of the party upon Shastri's sudden death in January 1966 and became prime minister as a result. However, the right wing of the party, led by former finance minister Morarji Desai, continually challenged her leadership. In 1967, she won a seat in the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of parliament. However, the Congress Party only got a small majority of seats, so Gandhi had to accept Desai as deputy prime minister.
Pressures developed inside the party, notwithstanding, and in 1969 she was removed from it by Desai and different individuals from the privileged few. Gandhi persevered and, with the support of the majority of party members, established the "New" Congress Party around her. The New Congress party came out on top of a coalition of conservative parties in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections. In its secessionist conflict with Pakistan at the end of 1971, East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, was strongly supported by Gandhi. India's armed forces won quickly and decisively over Pakistan, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh. She was the first leader of a government to acknowledge the new nation.
Gandhi once more led her New Congress Party group to landslide victories in numerous elections to state legislative assemblies in March 1972, buoyed by the nation's victory against Pakistan. However, shortly thereafter, her defeated Socialist Party opponent from the 1971 national election accused her of violating election laws. In June 1975, the High Court of Allahabad ruled against her, requiring her to abstain from politics for six years and the loss of her seat in parliament. She went to the Supreme Court to appeal the decision, but she didn't get a good answer. She took matters into her own hands by declaring a state of emergency all over India, putting political opponents behind bars, and assuming emergency powers. Personal liberties were restricted by numerous new laws. She also implemented a number of unpopular policies during that time, including widespread sterilization as a method of contraception.
After Gandhi's two years of emergency rule ended in early 1977, the released political rivals were determined to remove her and the New Congress Party from power. Public opposition to Gandhi's emergency rule was strong and widespread. She resigned from office after her party and she were decisively defeated in the long-awaited national parliamentary elections that were held later in 1977. The Janata Party (forerunner to the Bharatiya Janata Party) assumed control over the reins of government, with recently enrolled part Desai as state head.
The Congress (I) Party—the "I" denoting Indira Gandhi—was formed by Gandhi and her supporters at the beginning of 1978 to complete the split from the Congress Party. She was charged with official corruption and held for a short time between October 1977 and December 1978. She won a new Lok Sabha seat in November 1978 despite these setbacks, and her Congress (I) Party began to gain strength. In August 1979, the Janata Party's government was overthrown due to internal divisions. Gandhi and Congress (I) won a landslide victory in new Lok Sabha elections in January 1980, putting them back in power. She also got a seat in the Lok Sabha for her son Sanjay, who had become her most important political advisor. Sanjay's and Indira's respective legal actions were dropped.
In June 1980, Sanjay Gandhi passed away in an airplane crash, displacing Indira's preferred successor from India's political leadership. Indira trained Rajiv, her other son, to lead her party after Sanjay's death. She followed the quasi-socialist industrial development policies that her father had started. She developed closer ties with the Soviet Union because she needed support from that nation in India's ongoing conflict with Pakistan.
Indira Gandhi was confronted with threats to India's political integrity at the beginning of the 1980s. Sikh separatists in Punjab state used violence to assert their demands for an autonomous state, and several states sought greater independence from the central government. The Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex at Amritsar, the Sikhs' holiest shrine, was occupied and fortified by a large number of Sikhs in 1982, led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. In June 1984, Gandhi gave an order to the Indian army to attack the Sikh complex and drive the separatists out due to the growing tensions between the government and the Sikhs. The fighting severely damaged some of the shrine's buildings and killed at least 450 Sikhs (Sikh estimates were significantly higher). After five months Gandhi was killed in her nursery in New Delhi in a fusillade of slugs terminated by two of her own Sikh guardians in retribution for the assault in Amritsar. Rajiv, her son, took over as prime minister and served until 1989.
Was Indira Gandhi the prime minister with the most power?
Indira: Sagarika Ghose wrote India's Most Powerful Prime Minister in 2017 as a biography of Indian politician and former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Is Mahatma Gandhi related to Indira Gandhi?
Indira Gandhi was one of India's most remarkable political leaders after independence. She was the daughter of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the mother of another, Rajiv Gandhi. She was not related to Mahatma Gandhi, despite her well-known surname.
Who is India's most powerful prime minister?
On August 15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, took the oath. Nehru went on to win four general elections while serving as prime minister for a total of 17 years. On his death in May 1964, his tenure came to an end.
Who is the world's most powerful prime minister?
With a 77% approval rating, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to be the most popular leader in the world. This was uncovered in a Worldwide Pioneer Endorsement Evaluations delivered by a US based counseling firm Morning Counsel.
Who is the main Iron Woman of India?
Indira Gandhi Who is Indira Gandhi's closest friend?
Three prime ministers had close relationships with Jayakar: Jawaharlal Nehru, his girl Indira Gandhi and her child Rajiv Gandhi, and she was a dear companion of Indira Gandhi. Her role as the latter two's cultural advisor demonstrated her superiority in cultural matters.
Who held the first female Indian title?
Smt. Indira Gandhi was the first Indian woman to receive the Bharat Ratna. Smt. Sarojini Naidu was an Indian state's first female governor. Smt. Sucheta Kripalani was the first woman to serve as Chief Minister of State. Smt. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur served as the country's first female central minister.
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