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Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917. She

was assassinated on October 31, 1984

She was the Prime Minister of India from January 19, 1966 toMarch 24, 1977, and from January 14, 1980 until her assassination

on October 31, 1984

Her father Jawaharlal Nehru was a well-educated lawyer and was a

popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement.

Indira created the Vanara Sena movement for young girls and boys

which played a small but notable role in the Indian Independence

Movement

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In 1959 and 1960, Indira was elected the President of the

Indian National Congress.

She was elected Minister of Information and Broadcastingafter the death of her father, by Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Indira was hailed as the "only man in a cabinet full ofwomen when the Indo-Pakistani war broke out in 1965.

Among Indira's many supporters was Congress PresidentKumaraswami Kamaraj.

In a vote of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Indira wonagainst Morarji Desai, 355 to 169, the first woman to holdthe position of Prime Minister in the world's most populousdemocracy.

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Domestic Policy: When Mrs. Gandhi became

Prime Minister in 1966 the Congress was split

in two factions, the socialists led by Mrs.

Gandhi, and the conservatives led by Morarji

Desai.

Devaluation of the Rupee: During the late1960s, Indira's administration decreed a 40%

devaluation in the value of the Indian Rupee

from 4 to 7 to the US Dollar to boost trade.

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Foreign policy: She was invited by the new Pakistani

President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Shimla for a week-long

summit and signed the Shimla Agreement, which bound the

two countries to resolve the Kashmir dispute by

negotiations and peaceful means.

Indira Gandhi with Pakistani

President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

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War with Pakistan in 1971: Indira Gandhi

declared war on Pakistan, helping the East

Pakistanis gain their independence.

a) The United States under Richard Nixon

supported Pakistan, and mooted a UNresolution warning India against going to

war.

b) Indira signed the Treaty of Friendship

and Cooperation, resulting in political

support and a Soviet veto at the UN.c) India was victorious in the 1971 war, and

Bangladesh was born.

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Another one of her reforms was the Nationalization of all the

country's banks. The move reflected the anger of ordinary

people at the time as several private banks had collapsed,

bankrupting depositors.

Green Revolution

in India.

India's poor always believed she

empathised with them.

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Nuclear weapons program:

Started in 1967, in response to the nuclear threat fromthe People's Republic of China.

To establish India's stability and security interests asindependent from those of the nuclear superpowers.

In 1974, India successfully conducted an undergroundnuclear test, unofficially code named Smiling Buddha,near the desert village of Pokhran in Rajasthan.

Describing the test as for peaceful purposes, India

became the world's youngest nuclear power.

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Gandhi moved to restore order by

ordering the arrest of most of the

opposition participating in the

unrest. Her Cabinet and

government then recommended

that President Fakhruddin Ali

Ahmed declare a state of

emergency.

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Rule by decree :Within a few months, President's Rule was imposedon the two opposition party ruled states of Gujarat and Tamil Naduthereby bringing the entire country under direct Central rule.

1) Police were granted powers to impose curfews and indefinitely

detain citizens .

2) Inder Kumar Gujral, a future prime minister himself, resigned asMinister for Information and Broadcasting to protest SanjayGandhi's interference in his work.

3) Impending legislative assembly elections were indefinitelypostponed.

4) Indira used the emergency provisions to grant herself extraordinarypowers.

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Controversies: Indira Gandhi, late Prime

Minister of India, implemented a forced

sterilization programme in the 1970s.

This program is still remembered and criticizedin India, and is blamed for creating a wrong

public aversion to family planning, which

hampered Government programmes for decades.

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Re-election: President Reddy dissolved Parliament in the

winter of 1979. In elections held the following January,

Congress was returned to power with a landslide majority.

In the 1980s, the Indira Gandhi Government providedmoney, weapons and military training to LTTE and other

Tamil millitant groups in Sri Lanka.

Currency crisis: During the early 1980s, Indira's

administration failed to arrest the 40 percent fall in thevalue of the Indian Rupee from 7 to 12 to the US Dollar.

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In September 1984, Sant Jarnail SinghBhindranwale 's separatist Sikh militant group tookup positions within the precincts of the GoldenTemple, Sikhism's holiest shrine.

Gandhi ordered the Army into the shrine in anattempt to clear it of the militants.

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After her death,

sectarian unrest created

by congress politicians

loyal to Indira Gandhi

engulfed New Delhi andseveral other cities in

India, including Kanpur,

Asansol and Indore,

leading to the death of

thousands of Sikhs.

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