Indira Gandhi: The Iron Lady of India

Intro

‘Today I’m going to tell you about one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in Indian political history. Indira Gandhi was India’s third prime minister and the first woman to hold the office, and only the second woman in the world to be elected as a prime minister (the first being Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike). Gandhi served as prime minister in two stints, the first from 1966 until 1977 and the second from 1980 until her assassination in 1984.

‘She is known as the Iron Lady of India, drawing direct comparisons with the United Kingdom’s first female prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and she was known for her tough and decisive leadership style, much like Mrs Thatcher. However, her tenure was marred by accusations of corruption and a centralisation and abuse of power that had an impact on Indian democracy, civil liberties and political governance.’

Early life

‘Indira Gandhi was born Indira Nehru on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad, British India as the only child of Kamala and Jawaharlal Nehru. Jawaharlal was one of the leading figures in India’s fight for independence from Britain and a leader of the dominant Indian National Congress Party. It’s important to stress that Indira was not related to Indian independence campaigner Mahatma Gandhi, certainly not by blood anyway. She was however connected to him through her father who often had Mahatma Gandhi over to their house, which was used as a meeting place for independence activists.

‘Indira had a lonely and unhappy childhood, with her father often away coordinating political activities or imprisoned, and her sickly mother often bedridden. After attending schools in India and Switzerland, Indira then attended university in India and then at Oxford in the UK. Her mother died after a long battle with tuberculosis in 1936, shortly before Indira began her studies in history at Oxford University. Whilst in Britain, she met her future husband and fellow Congress Party member Feroze Gandhi, who was studying at the London School of Economics. In 1938, Indira dropped out of Oxford and went back to India to help her father with his political work.

‘Indira married Feroze Gandhi in 1942 and settled in Allahabad, her hometown, and they had two children: Sanjay and Rajiv. However, Indira then moved to Delhi to act as her father’s unofficial personal assistant, acting as hostess at political events and accompanying him on his travels as he brought India closer and closer to independence from Britain. Indira and Feroze became estranged from one another due to Indira’s dedication to her father and it wasn’t until Feroze suffered a heart attack in 1958 that their relationship grew dramatically closer again. Feroze then died in 1960 after a second heart attack and Indira never remarried.

‘In 1947, India’s long struggle for independence from Britain became a reality and Indira’s father Jawaharlal Nehru became India’s first prime minister. In the chaotic partition of India that ensued, Indira helped organise refugee camps and medical supplies for the Hindu and Sikh refugees that came to India from Pakistan. This was her first foray into public service and was valuable experience for the tumult of the coming years.’

Early political career

‘Indira Gandhi was an active member of the Congress Party, which was a centre-left party that had been the main force behind the securing of Indian independence. Indira started in politics in the 1950s and held various positions within the party. By 1959 she was elected to the honorary position of party president. In this role however, she was instrumental in helping the central Indian government to dismiss the democratically-elected communist government in Kerala in 1959 after strong objections to their communist policies from the central government.
‘In 1962, her father’s health began to decline rapidly after fifteen years as prime minister and he died two years later of a suspected heart attack whilst still in office. His Home Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, was then elected as leader of the Congress Party and became India’s second prime minister. Gandhi was elected to the upper house of Indian parliament, the Rajya Sabha, in the same year and was named as the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, the fourth highest rank in the Indian government.

‘In 1965, Prime Minister Shastri brought the Official Languages Act before parliament, which aimed to make Hindi the sole official language of India, with precedence over English and regional languages. This caused riots in the non-Hindi speaking southern states such as Tamil Nadu, who saw the bill as a threat to their identity. Whilst the central government dithered with its response, Minister Gandhi seized the initiative and went down to these southern states to speak with the authorities and ended up managing to calm the situation and bring the riots to an end. She was a slick media operator and was known to have a very carefully-curated public image. The other senior ministers in the central government in Delhi, mostly old men, were found to be wanting in their response and were annoyed at how she had shown them up. The next year in January 1966, Shastri died suddenly after less than two years in power, also from a suspected heart attack.

‘In the ensuing leadership contest, the Congress Parliamentary Party voted overwhelmingly for Indira Gandhi to become their leader and she therefore became prime minister on 24 January 1966. However, the party only congregated around Gandhi because she was a compromise candidate between the left and right wings of the party. Her main challenger was a man called Moraji Desai, who represented the right wing of the party, whilst Indira represented the left. They also elected her because they thought they would be able to control her, rather than thinking she would be a good leader.’

First term as prime minister

‘Far from being a puppet of her party, Prime Minister Gandhi turned out to be a dynamic, strong-willed and decisive leader with somewhat of an authoritarian streak. In a very telling similarity with Margaret Thatcher, Gandhi worked tirelessly and was known to have few, if any, personal friends outside of her political associates. In the 1967 general election, Gandhi won a seat in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament, where it is customary but not constitutionally necessary for the prime minister to have a seat. However, the Congress Party overall only won a small majority of seats, and Gandhi, therefore weakened, and had to formalise her right-wing former challenger Desai as her deputy prime minister.

‘During her first term, Gandhi introduced several economic policies aimed at achieving social justice and reducing poverty. She nationalised banks, abolished the privy purses of the princely states and introduced land reforms to address inequalities. Despite actually being launched by her predecessor, Gandhi brought momentum to the Green Revolution policy, which aimed to increase India’s agricultural productivity through the use of high-yielding crop varieties and the modernisation of farming techniques. In 1969, internal disagreements within the Congress Party over Gandhi’s increasingly authoritarian leadership and centralisation of power within the party led to its split into two rival factions. Gandhi headed the so-called “New Congress” or Congress (R), whilst other senior party colleagues led the Congress (O), or “Syndicate”.

‘After this split, Gandhi headed a minority government which limped on until December 1970, relying on the support of various smaller parties. Knowing that her government would eventually fall, Gandhi visited President V. V. Giri on 27 December 1970 and asked him to dissolve parliament and call a general election. Gandhi fought a campaign on abolishing poverty and when the election was held in March 1971, her New Congress Party won a landslide victory.’

Second term as prime minister

‘One of the first and most defining things Indira Gandhi was confronted with in her second term as prime minister was the Bangladesh Liberation War that took place in 1971. Gandhi had strongly supported East Bengal’s struggle for independence from Pakistan, and when war broke out between the two regions in 1971, Gandhi came to East Bengal’s aid against Pakistan, providing military support, as well as opening its borders to Bengali refugees. The war concluded on 16 December 1971 with an East Bengal and Indian victory, with East Bengal gaining independence from Pakistan and becoming the newly sovereign state of Bangladesh.

‘During her second term, Gandhi also oversaw an unprecedented centralisation of power to the central government in Delhi as she focused on consolidating her political power. Her Congress Party dominated the political landscape and she took steps to curb opposition voices. This came to a head in June 1975 when the High Court in Gandhi’s hometown of Allahabad invalidated the result of the 1971 general election in Gandhi’s constituency on the grounds of electoral malpractice. Instead of resigning, Gandhi declared a state of emergency, suspending civil rights and arresting political opponents. The National Emergency lasted until March 1977 and Gandhi became extremely unpopular during this time. It also led to another split in the Congress Party, with another breakaway party forming the Congress for Democracy in reaction to Gandhi’s authoritarianism. When Gandhi rescinded the state of emergency in March 1977, she called an immediate general election thinking Indians would vote to vindicate her rule. She was perhaps misled by what the heavily censored press wrote about her and she was severely punished by Indians at the ballot box for her actions. Her New Congress Party lost almost 200 seats, with Gandhi also losing her own. She was suddenly without a job, an income or a residence. But luckily for Indians, democracy had triumphed in the end.’

Opposition

‘In her 3 years out of power, Gandhi took steps to revitalise her party by strengthening the party structures and mobilising the grassroots support. She travelled extensively and held rallies across India and used the time in opposition to connect to her voter base, including farmers and workers. She was briefly imprisoned in 1978 for electoral malpractice, but the court case served to galvanise her supporters even further. Gandhi returned to parliament in 1978 after winning a by-election and she quickly became a key voice in opposition against the shaky ruling Janata Party, which was an uneasy alliance of socialists and nationalists. Despite being in opposition, Gandhi’s influence remained significant and she continued to enjoy a broad base of support. In 1979, the Janata government fell after being unable to hold its constituent parties together and a general election was scheduled for January 1980. In that election, Indira Gandhi and her Congress Party once more won a landslide victory and she was swept back to power as prime minister.’

Third term as prime minister

‘During her third term, Gandhi focused on economic development and pursued policies to address poverty, unemployment and inequalities. She introduced measures such as the Eradicate Poverty programme, which aimed to uplift marginalised sections of society and promote social welfare. The Green Revolution had also by this time increased India’s agricultural output, reduced food shortages and improved food security for many Indians. She also launched an environmental campaign called “Greening of India”, which aimed to address environmental issues and promote afforestation.

‘Gandhi’s most significant and controversial moment of her third term came in June 1984, which was Operation Blue Star, which would lead eventually to her death four months later. After many years of rising tensions between the Indian government and the Sikh community, which sought greater autonomy and recognition of their religious and political rights, Sikh militants finally took matters into their own hands. After negotiations between the government and the Sikh militants failed to stop the deterioration of law and order in Punjab, a majority Sikh region of India, the Indian military was called out to help the Punjabi authorities deal with escalating violence in the region. Sikh militants fortified themselves inside the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar in Punjab, which is considered the holiest shrine of Sikhism. The Sikh militants had stockpiled weapons inside the temple and used it as a base for their activities. Gandhi decided to send in the army to remove the militants. Violent and destructive fighting ensued over a number of days and much of the Golden Temple was damaged or destroyed. Many civilians, including Sikh pilgrims, were caught in the crossfire and killed. The exact number of deaths is a topic of debate, with the official government numbers being around 500 but some independent assessments have suggested that the actual number was far higher – in the thousands. The main militant leaders were killed and the fighting was brought to an end. However, Operation Blue Star caused widespread outrage and sparked protests among the Sikh community in India and abroad, who saw it as an attack on their religion and cultural identity. It served to further deepen the divide between the Indian government and the Sikh community. The operation had far-reaching consequences, including for the prime minister’s life.

‘On the morning of 31 October, four months after Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi was on her way to be interviewed for a documentary for Irish television. As she walked through the garden of her official residence at No. 1 Safdarjung Road in New Delhi, she passed a gate that was guarded by two Sikh bodyguards – Satwant and Beant Singh. Most Sikh’s in her bodyguard detail had been removed due to fears of assassination after Operation Blue Star, but Gandhi had ordered the Delhi Police to reinstate her Sikh bodyguards, including Beant Singh, who was reportedly her personal favourite. As she passed her bodyguards at the gate, the two men opened fire and Gandhi was struck by around thirty bullets from a revolver and a machine gun. Beant surrendered immediately to the police, saying he had “done what he was meant to do. You do what you want to do.” He was executed almost immediately whilst Satwant was arrested whilst trying to escape and eventually executed 5 years later in 1989. Gandhi was taken to hospital but died that afternoon. 11 days of national mourning were ordered by the government and Gandhi was cremated with full state honours. Her assassination triggered widespread violence against Sikhs in various parts of India and thousands were killed in retaliation.’

Outro

‘Indira Gandhi left a lasting impact on India’s political landscape. She is remembered for her strong leadership style, social welfare initiatives and her role in helping to shape the country’s economic policies which positively affected the country’s development. However, her stints in power were also marked by controversy, including allegations of authoritarianism, suppression of dissent and of course authorising a violent operation in a place of worship which resulted in the deaths of many people. Gandhi is to this day a polarising figure in India and opinions on her legacy are divided. But she is a fascinating figure and I recommend you watch interviews with her or read up on her. She was India’s first female prime minister and only the world’s second, and that is quite something to have achieved. That’s all for this episode.

‘Thanks for listening, goodbye.’