Essays

Indira Gandhi was one of the greatest women of India. Her childhood name was Priyadarshini. She was born at Allahabad on l9th November, 1917. She was the illustrious daughter of an illustrious father', Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.

She was born with patriotic feelings, her grandfather, Motilal Nehru and father Jawaharlal Nehru both being great patriots. She was greatly impressed by Gandhiji when she visited the Sabarmati Ashram.

She got her early education at home. She did her matriculation from Pune and later joined the Shantiniketan started by Rabindra Nath Tagore. Later she studied in Switzerland and England.

Her mother, Kamala Nehru died in 1937. It was a big shock to her. Now, she undertook looking after her father. Later, she married Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi in 1941, in the teeth of opposition from conservative Hindus.

After Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister of India as India gained Independence in 1947, her responsibility regarding taking care of his health and well-being increased. This, however, only added to her experience in politics.

After the death of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964when Lal Bahadur Shastri became the Prime Minister, she joined his Cabinet as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting. After Shastri's death in 1966, she became the first (and so far the last) woman Prime Minister of India.

She was known for her superb leadership and firm determination and became instrumental in inflicting a crushing defeat to Pakistan in 1971 and liberating East Pakistan later renamed as Bangladesh. She, however, became unpopular after she had declared internal Emergency on 26th June, 1975.

As a result of it, she was defeated in the 1977elections. She, however, was reelected in December, 1979 but assumed office in January, 1980. On 3lst October, 1984 she was assassinated by one of her bodyguards. She will always be remembered as one of the greatest leaders of India and one of the greatest women of the world.