Indira

Indira Gandhi was born into the Brahmin community of India. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the 1st prime minister of India and a leading figure in the movement for independence from British rule. She grew up with her mother, Kamala Nehru on a large family estate in Allahabad. She was taught mostly by tutors and attended school sporadically. She would continue her education at the University of Oxford where she studied history, political science, and economics.

 

Upon her father's death in 1964, she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became Minister of Information. At the time, India was reliant on the US for food aid and Gandhi resented the fact that food aid was being used as a tool to force India to adopt policies favored by the US. Also, relations with the US were strained under President Richard Nixon’s favoring of Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War. At the end of 1977, she dominated Indian politics that party president D. K. Barooah coined the phrase "India is Indira and Indira is India." Unfortunately, her opponent Raj Narain, alleged several instances where she used government resources for campaigning. After four years of drama, the court found her guilty. She was stripped of her parliamentary seat and banned from running for any office for six years. 

 

However, she rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court and insisted that the conviction did not undermine her position. She decided to use the emergency provisions to change party members and replace them with ministers personally loyal to her. Within a few months, President's rule was imposed bringing the entire country under direct Central rule. Police were granted powers to impose curfews and detain citizens indefinitely.

 

During this time, there was a movement advocating for greater political rights for the Sikh community in the state of Punjab. In 1973, Sikh activists presented the government with the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, but it was rejected. The president of the Sikh political party Shiromani Akali Dal invited Bhindranwale, who was wanted by authorities to take up residence in the Golden Temple. After negotiations failed, Indira Gandhi ordered the army to launch Operation Blue Star attacking the Golden Temples. The operation badly damaged the Temple, including the Akal Takht shrine and the Sikh library. It also led to the deaths of many Sikh fighters and innocent civilians. Gandhi was accused of using the attack for political ends. Harjinder Singh Dilgeer stated that “she attacked the temple complex to present herself as a great hero in order to win the general elections.” 

 

After ordering military action in the Golden Temple, two of her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh shot her with their service weapons. The men dropped their weapons and surrendered. Afterwards, they were taken away into a closed room where Beant was shot dead and Satwant hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail. To this date, she is the only female prime minister ever to serve in India. In 1999, she was named "Woman of the Millennium" by the BBC and named by Time Magazine as the world's 100 powerful women who defined the last century.

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