Thursday, May 27, 2010

Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi (November 19, 1917 - October 31, 1984).

Early life
She was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. She was born on November 19, 1917 in Allahabad. She was born in family that was at the centre of Indian freedom struggle. Indira had a lonely childhood. Her father was often absent from being jailed so their communications are mostly through letters, and her mother was bed-ridden from tuberculosis, a terrible disease affecting the lungs and bones. Shortly after her mother's death in 1936, Indira enrolled at Santiniketan University and Somerville College, Oxford University, in England.
Indira Gandhi married a Parsi named Feroze Gandhi in 1942. Shortly after their marriage both Indira and Feroze Gnadhi, were arrested and jailed for nationalist activities. During her imprisonment Indira taught reading and writing to prisoners. Indira Gandhi was released after eight mounts and Feroze Gandhi after an year. After the release Feroze became editor of The National Herald, a newspaper founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, and Indira became the principal confidant and assistant of father during the period of Nehru`s prime ministership (1947-1965). Feroze Gandhi died in 1960. They had two sons, Rajiv and Sanjay.
When her father died in 1964 She was elected as a member of Parliament in her father's Indian National Congress Party, and was appointed a minister of Information and Broadcasting in the cabinet of Lal Bahadur Shastri who became Prime Minister after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru. This position was the fourth highest ranking position in the Cabinet. Many Indians were illiterate. Therefore, radio and television played a major part in informing them. As minister, she most importantly encouraged the making of inexpensive radios and started a family planning program.

As Prime Minister
After Shastri's death in 1966, Indira Gandhi was elected leader of the Congress Party in Parliament (the governing body of India) and became the prime minister until India held the next election. She was selected by party bosses in a thought that she was a compromise candidate that they could easily manipulate. In her initial days as a Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi encountered numerous problems such as famine, labour unrest, and misery among the poor in the wake of rupee devaluation; and agitation in Punjab for linguistic and religious separatism. In the forth elections held in 1967, She won and became one of the first women ever elected to lead a democracy of India.
Meanwhile, after twenty years of political dominance, the Congress Party was experiencing serious difficulty. Gandhi immediately set about reorganizing the party to make it a more effective instrument of administration and national development. Her goal was to achieve a wider measure of social and economic justice for all Indians. Her left-of-center policies (slightly liberal, or supporting civil liberties and social progress) became clear when Indira Gandhi became assertive and opt for a series of choices that pitted her against the Congress Party high command. She pursued a vigorous policy in 1969 of land reform and placed a ceiling on personal income, private property, and corporate profit to eradicate poverty. She also nationalized (brought under the control of government) the country's fourteen leading banks in a highly popular move meant to make credit more available to agriculture and to small industry.5.The congress expelled her for “indisciplines” on November 12, 1969 an action that split the party into two fraction; the Congress for organization (O)-led by Morarji Desai, and the Congress for Indira (I)-led by Indira Gandhi.
Indira Gandhi campaigned fiercely on the slogan of “Garibi Hatao” (eliminate poverty) during the general elections in March 1971 and won an unprecedented two-third majority. Her leadership qualities came to the fore during India-Pakistan war in 1971, where India's intervention enabled local separatists to crown their nine-month war of independence with the creation of the independent republic of Bangladesh. India achieved decisive victory over Pakistan in the face of diplomatic opposition from both China and the United States and lack of International support from almost every oher nation except the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries. Indian victory over Pakistan led to great surge in Indira Gandhi`s popularity and she was compared to Goddess Durga by ordinary Indians, conquering Empress of India.
Expectation raised by the garibi hatao campaign and India victory over Pakistan in 1971 let to great dissapoinment in the mid-1970s. Enormous economic cost of 1971 war, increase in world oil prices and drop in industrial output added to the economic hardships. During this time a civil disobedience movement against Indira Gandhi was Iniated. In June 1975, Gandhi was found guilty of violating election laws and High Court invalidated her 1971 election. Instead of resigning, to secure her power and because of escalating riots, on June 26, 1975, Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency which limited the personal freedom of Indians. Also, she ordered the arrests of the main opposition leaders. In her opinion, her dictatorship was for the good of India but people seen this action as Indira`s brand of ruthless politic. The daughter of Indian original democrate Jawahaharlal Nehru became India`s great dictator.
In early 1977 she suddenly decided to leave the emergency. Some says she did it because she was assailed by her own conscience other says because she was convinced she would win the next election. But in 10.free elections 1977 Indian people voted her out of office.

End of Career
The following year Gandhi headed the Congress Party as she returned to Parliament. In 1979 she again became prime minister. Indira's later reign was most marked by a serious breakdown in Hindu-Sikh relations that would eventually lead to her own assassination. Alarmed at the rise in popularity of the highly political Sikh missionary and leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, India's leaders were disturbed by his proclamation that Sikhs were a sovereign and self-ruling community. Fearing Pakistani support for the movement, in June 1984 Gandhi ordered Operation Blue Star, a military assault on Amritsar's holy Harimandir Sahib or Golden Temple, the central Sikh place of prayer, which had been occupied by Jarnail Singh and his militant supporters with a heavy cache of arms. The occupiers refused to depart peacefully and a firefight ensued - with 83 soldiers and 493 occupiers killed, and many more injured.
Sikh alienation was deep and had dramatic consequences: on October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, one of whom was fatally shot and the other subsequently (1988) sentenced to death by hanging. She died shortly after arriving at the All India Institute for Medical Sciences, AIIMS, in New Delhi.

Sources
Ali, Tariq. An Indian Dynasty: The Story of the Nehru-Gandhi Family. New York: Putnam, 1985.
Indira Gandhi Biography http://www.notablebiographies.com/Fi-Gi/Gandhi-Indira.html
Jayakar, Pupu. Indira Gandhi: An Intimate Biography. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993. http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/igandhi.html
http://clevergames.wordpress.com/learning-the-spirt-from-indira-gandhi

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