Since
India declared their independence, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty ruled the biggest
democracy in the world. Jawaharlal Nehru served as the first Prime Minister of
the independent India. Following in Nehru’s footsteps, her daughter Indira,
succeeded in becoming Prime Minister and became one of the most powerful woman
in the modern world.
Name: Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi
Country: India
Position: Prime Minister of India
Tenure: 1966-1977/ 1980-1984
Contributions:
- Launched the Green Revolution
- Defeated Pakistan and supported the independence of Bangladesh
- Promoted nationalism, industrialization, and socialism
Early Life
Indira
Gandhi served as India’s Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and again in 1980
till 1984, until her tragic assassination. Born in November 19, 1917 in Allahabad,
India, she was Jawaharlal Nehru’s only child. Being Nehru’s only child, she
received excellent education, finishing early schooling in India before
studying in Switzerland, attending the Ecole Nouvelle Bex and Ecole
Internationale in Geneva. She also studied in England, becoming a student in
Somerville College in Oxford.
She
also helped in his father’s advocacy for Indian independence. For example, she
helped to form the Bal Charkha Sangh that promoted for the youth to support the
Charkha Sangh campaign of Gandhi to produce their own textile. She also formed
the Vanar Sena or Army of Monkeys, gathering children to demonstrate and call
for India’s independence. She officially joined the Congress Party in 1938.
Personally,
she coped with the usual absence of his father, who suffered numerous counts of
incarceration by the British. She lose her mother to tuberculosis in 1936.
During
the 1930’s, while studying and joining her father’s activities, she sought
comfort to a Parsi friend, Feroze Gandhi. The two fell decided to marry on
March 1942, but faced opposition from Jawaharlal Nehru. Nonetheless, his father
finally agreed when Mahatma Gandhi himself refused to dissuade the couple. The
marriage resulted to 2 sons: Sanjay and Rajiv. Sanjay passed away in 1980 in a
plane crush, while Rajiv served as Prime Minister as well. Few months after
their wedding, however, the Gandhi couple were imprisoned during the Quit India
Campaign.
Early Political Life
In
1947, her father assumed the position of Prime Minister of India, and she
served as the hostess - somewhat India’s first lady. She helped her father to
welcome foreign dignitaries, and attended summits, meetings, and other
political events. Through this experience, she observed and furthered her
knowledge of diplomacy and politics that helped her future political career.
 |
| Indira with his father in the United Nations |
Her
career in politics, meanwhile, officially started in 1955 when she joined the Working
Committee as well as Central Election of his father’s Indian Congress Party.
She experienced a meteoric rise, taking several positions such as Chair of the
National Integration Council of the All India Congress Committee and President
of the All India Youth Group as well as the Women’s Department of the Party. After
4 years, she took the position of Party President, a largely ceremonial
position.
When
her father Jawaharlal Nehru succumbed to a heart attack in 1964, she took a
seat in the upper house of India’s parliament, the Rajya Sabha. She also
received the position of Minister of Information and Broadcasting under the
government of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Luckily for her, Prime
Minister Shastri passed away in 1966, paving the way for Indira to succeed as
Prime Minister. Many in party sought to influence and control her, believing
her to be easily manipulated. They only needed her name. But soon, Indira
proved them wrong.
Prime Minister Gandhi
As
Prime Minister, she also took into her hands the position of Minister of Atomic
Energy (September 1967 – March 1977), Minister of External Affairs (September
5, 1967 – February 14, 1969), Minister of Home Affairs (June 1970 – November
1973), and Minister for Space (June 1972 to March 1977).
Indira
constantly defended her position. She faced constant opposition from the
faction of elder party members led by Morarji Desai. In elections, she secured
a slim electoral victory in 1967 and sought to gain the support of the people
by enacting socialist and nationalist policies that her father began. In 1967,
she nationalized India’s financial sector. She also initiated the so called
Green Revolution to expand India’s agricultural production and cement India’s
food security. It also meant to reduce India’s reliance on food aid, in
particular, from the United States. She used the slogan Garibi Hatao or
Eradicate Poverty to sum up her economic policies. She used populism as her way
to keep opposition within her party silent. But Desai and other conservatives
continued to oppose Gandhi and in 1969, she found herself expelled. Her
expulsion led her to establish her own party – the “New” Congress Party.
In
1971, her party won a landslide victory in the elections and continued to serve
as India’s Prime Minister.
Foreign Affairs
Indira
showed incredible determination and sheer will in foreign affairs. She proved
herself as a tough leader as she never feared conflict. Especially in 1971,
when she dragged India into the conflict of Bangladesh war for independence.
Just after her election, she began to support East Pakistani struggle for
independence from Pakistan, India’s arch nemesis. For starters, she granted
refuge to millions of East Pakistanis fleeing their country due to the rising
violence. When Pakistan launched a military campaign to crush the independence
movement, she did not hesitate to send the Indian army in support, starting
another Indo-Pakistani War. By the end of the year, Indira’s decision to
intervene proved to correct as the coalition of Indian and East Pakistani armies
won a decisive victory when the last stronghold of Pakistan in Dhaka
surrendered.
Indira’s
intervention and East Pakistani victory resulted to the collapse of the
government of Pakistan’s President Yahya Khan, resulting to the rise of
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as President. Indira and Bhutto then met in a summit in
Simla where they negotiated for an end in the conflict. The Simla Agreement in
1972 resulted to an agreement where both countries committed in resolving
territorial issue through peaceful means. Furthermore, it secured the
independence of East Pakistan and gave birth to Bangladesh. Indira then earned
the respect of the Bangladeshi for her support.
Although
Indira sought peaceful relations with Pakistan, it did not deter her from
supporting India’s development of its own nuclear weapons. She refused to
commit India to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty in 1968, viewing it as
detrimental to the development of India’s defense capability. By 1974, India
launched the Smiling Buddha, the detonation of India’s first nuclear weapon.
The program resulted to an arms race in the region, with Pakistan determined to
follow India to prevent its domination of the region through its nuclear
weapons.
 |
| 1984 Commemorative Soviet Stamp |
Meanwhile,
Indira continued his father’s non alignment policy, nonetheless it did stop her
from nurturing relations with the Soviet Union. The Soviets gave Indira
numerous amounts of aids, aimed in developing industries. Moreover, both
countries shared ideas of socialism and cynicism on the west.
As
the relation with the Soviets strengthened, especially in August 1971 when two
countries signed a Friendship Treaty, India’s relation with the United States
declined. Indira herself detested American attempts to interfere with India’s
affairs, especially in economics. She loathed the United States using their
food aids to India as a bargaining chip for implementing reforms towards a free
market economy. As a result, she determined to launch the Green Revolution as a
means to avoid the need of American food aids. She earned the enmity of US
President Nixon, who called for neutrality of India in the affairs of
Bangladesh, and the relation worsened especially in the aftermath of the
Smiling Buddha incident.
Authoritarianism
Although
a woman, Indira showed a ruthlessness of a male leader. Although a democracy,
during Indira’s tenure in the 1970’s, India plunged into authoritarianism. She
stifled opposition within her party. Opposition, on the other hand, accused her
of corruption and election fraud. The allegations smeared Indira’s image, and
furthered in 1975, when the Allahabad Supreme Court decided her as guilty of
cheating in the elections and stealing public funds.
Indira
reacted with might, she sought the support from her ally India’s President
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. The President issued a declaration placing India under
state of emergency in June 25, 1975. In effect, Indira remained in her pose and
ruled by decree. With such powers, she purged her opponents, filling up prisons
by the thousands. She suspended civil rights and imposed censorship. She
continued to govern the country like before but began to lose popularity when
her government launched a massive sterilization program aimed in reducing
India’s population growth.
 |
| Prime Minister Moraji Desai |
Nonetheless,
Indira believed that even with the state of emergency along with unpopular policies,
she hoped for an electoral victory in 1977. But, she lose the election to
Morarji Desai and the Janata Party. She was force to resign from her position
for the meantime. The opposition took power and she was imprisoned for the
following year for the charges she was found guilty.
In
1978, the New Congress Party reformed itself, changing the name to Congress (I)
Party (the “I” meaning Indira). During the elections in November of the same
year, Indira won a seat in the lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha.
The
magic of the Nehru-Gandhi name continued to be strong, and in 1980, she won yet
again another election, with the Congress (I) winning a sweeping victory that
brought her back as Prime Minister. After then, all cases against her
disappeared.
Second Premiership
One
event hallmarked Indira’s second term as Prime Minister was the issue of Sikh autonomy
and separatism. Sikhs of Punjab felt discontented over Hindu rule of India and
desired greater powers, if not total independence. In 1984 a group of extreme
separatist led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale took control of the sacred
Golden Temple in Amritsar. Indira took the challenge head on but handle it with
too much strength. In June 1984, she allowed the Indian Army under the code
name Operation Blue Star to storm the temple, even bringing in tanks inside, to
quell Bhindranwale’s resistance. The temple suffered tremendously from bullet holes
and shots from the tanks. The effort resulted to hundreds killed including Bhindranwale.
Following
the crisis, Indira ordered a clamped down on Sikh separatist of Punjab, causing
allegations of wrongful arrest, torture, and even killings. Sikhs saw the
destruction of the temple as sacrilege, and the aftermath as persecution. Two
of Indira’s two Sikh bodyguards plotted against her.
On
October 31, 1984, as Indira walked from her residence to her office, the two Skih
bodyguards fired shots on her. Indira Gandhi succumbed to the shot and died. Her
son Rajiv placed the fire over her funeral pyre. But as he held the torch in
her funeral, he did not just held the fire that cremated his mother’s body but
also took the torch of the Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty by succeeding her mother as
Prime Minister.
Bibliography:
Biography.com
Editors. “Indira Gandhi Biography.” In The Biography.com website. Accessed on
March 12, 2017. URL: http://www.biography.com/people/indira-gandhi-9305913
History.com
Staff. “Indira Gandhi.” In History.com. Accessed on March 12, 2017. URL: http://www.history.com/topics/indira-gandhi
“Smt.
Indira Gandhi.” In PMINdia. Accessed on March 12, 2017. URL: http://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/former_pm/smt-indira-gandhi/
The
Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Indira Gandhi.” In Encyclopædia
Britannica. Accessed on March 12, 2017. URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Indira-Gandhi
Prabhu,
Jaideep. “Gandhi, Indira.” In Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Edited by Ruud van
Dijk et. al. New York, New York: Routledge, 2008.
Sonnad,
Subhash. “Gandhi, Indira.” In Encyclopedia of the Developing World. Edited by
Thomas M. Leonard. New York, New York: Routledge, 2008.
No comments:
Post a Comment