Gandhi, Indira
(1917–1964), prime minister of India. Indira Gandhi, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), the first prime minister of independent India, married Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi (not related to Mohandas [Mahatma] Gandhi); their sons were Rajiv (who also served as India's prime minister, 1984–1989) and Sanjay. She joined the IndianNational Congress (INC) in 1938 and was its president from 1959 to 1960. She was a minister in Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet from 1964 to 1966 and succeeded him in 1966. As prime minister, she concluded a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union and backed the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan. In 1974 she ordered the test of a nuclear device. When she nearly lost her mandate due to petition for early elections, she proclaimed a national emergency in 1975 and postponed the elections of 1976. In the elections of 1977 she was defeated, but she returned to power in 1980. When Sikh separatists occupied the Golden Temple of Amritsar, a site sacred to Sikhs, she ordered the army to capture the temple, resulting in 450 Sikh deaths. She was shot fatally by her Sikh bodyguards in October 1984.
Indira Gandhi with her sons Rajiv and Sanjay in New Delhi in 1967. (HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS)Further Reading
Sahgal, Nayantara. (1982) Indira Gandhi: Her Road to Power. New York: Ungar.
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