Indira Gandhi

by Nayantara Sahgal

  She worried about her sons being brought up in the protected atmosphere of the prime minister’s (her father’s) house and often wished they had more experience of ordinary life. She would have liked them to travel third class by train as she had done all her childhood. She did not want to send them to the Doon School and would have preferred Rishi Valley. Doon was Feroze Gandhi’s choice because he felt it would be better for job opportunities later. Her own education had not been continuous. She had attended schools in Allahabad, Switzerland, Poona, Shantiniketan and England, depending on the political situation and family considerations at the time, and she never completed her course at university. Yet her father’s books, two of them written for her, and his letters to her, apart from the circumstances of her life, had given her a richer and more varied education than most young people have access to. Her formal schooling showed careful selection. The small, private Pupils’ Own School in Poona was chosen for its Indian (as opposed to Anglo-Indian) and nationalist environment. It was run by a Parsi couple, the Vakils, who had strong ties with Shantiniketan. Then there was Shantiniketan itself. And in England, the pioneering Quaker educationist, Miss Baker, who ran the Badminton School, was a socialist and a feminist. Indira was well read, spoke fluent French and had been fed as much on European and Asian as on Indian politics. Her sons, by contrast, had no comparable training nor special gifts. It is again a paradox that, in view of her earnest desire for ordinary living for them, her own house as prime minister continued to be home for both her married sons and she eventually planned—on the privileged basis of family entitlement—to pass on her job first to one and then the other.

  Rare is the marriage that has no marital problems. Hers in its unusual circumstance of separate living had more than its fair share. It was painful, particularly for her father, to watch the loneliness and heartbreak to which her troubles with Feroze consigned her. It is a commonplace today that marriage partners, both professionals, do live and work apart without damage to their relationship. Living apart was hardly known then, and it became the subject of comment, yet it was Feroze’s implacable attitude rather than the unconventional social situation that made the breach almost beyond repair. Always welcome at Teen Murti, he chose to treat himself as an outsider and behaved with scant courtesy when he came to a meal or to spend time with his sons. The mark he made in Parliament in an often oppositional role towards his own government had a tone of personal bitterness and attack at times. Fortunately the breach healed and the couple were able to spend a summer together before Feroze’s untimely death in 1960. Nehru was much moved by Feroze’s large following of supporters who streamed into Teen Murti to pay their last respects and by Indira’s passionate mourning of her husband’s death.

  I have heard it said that Indira had no political philosophy, that she had, in fact, no ideology.While it is true that realpolitik describes important turns she took, she was as much a socialist and a product of socialist thought as large numbers of her own and her parents’ generation. Apart from those who were convinced socialists, to many unpolitical people it would have seemed plain common sense to be left wing at a time when dictators—Hitler, Mussolini Franco, Salazar—held the fort in Europe and the imperial West raised no voice against them. In our present market-obsessed climate it may be hard to imagine another outlook occupying centre stage when many of the best-known and most brilliant minds—in politics, literature, experimental theatre and the arts—were leftist, and socialism for them was the creed that represented the most civilized human instincts. I never heard socialism talked about in our family home. It did not need to be. It was taken for granted as the atmosphere and culture of our lives.

  Mid-morning on October 31, 1984, at her house in Dehradun, my mother, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, was preparing to receive Princess Anne of Britain who was fulfilling an engagement in Mussoorie. The princess and her entourage were to stop for a cup of coffee on their return from Mussoorie before going on to Delhi but the coffee break did not take place. Word had come that Indira Gandhi had been assassinated and Princess Anne took my mother, my sister and myself to Delhi in her plane. On reaching Delhi we parted ways. My mother was taken to her host’s residence, while my sister and I got into a taxi to go to our younger sister’s apartment in Jangpura. Numbed by the horror of the assassination, we were shaken when our taxi was surrounded by raucous men brandishing iron rods and swinging bicycle chains, and the door was wrenched open by one of them. On conferring they must have decided our short hair showed we were not Sikhs and we were allowed to go. The next two days and nights, locked in the safety of the Jangpura apartment, we heard the terrified screams of less lucky victims and saw and smelled thick smoke rising from what fires we could not tell.

  There are different views about what imperatives of policy influenced Indira Gandhi to order Operation Blue Star and send an army into the Golden Temple in June 1984, but it seems certain she could not have anticipated the extent or fallout of the operation. It is believed that the army itself did not foresee the bloodbath or the scale of destruction it would involve, and did not prepare the prime minister for it.

  Why, against advice, and in spite of being warned of the danger, did she insist on retaining her two Sikh bodyguards? Why didn’t they refuse to serve instead of killing her in cold blood? I remembered what Sarojini Naidu had said to someone crying after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination,‘Stop snivelling. Would you have wanted him to die of old age and decay? This was the death for him.’ If assassination can ever be called a fitting end to a dramatic life, Indira’s murder lit up an act of great personal courage when, in retaining her Sikh bodyguards, she chose to hold fast, against overwhelming odds, to her secular faith.

  Notes

  Notes on Indian Personalities

  Sheikh Abdullah Chief minister of Kashmir.

  Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Minister in the Union cabinet, fifth President of India, 1974–77 (died in office).

  Maulana Azad Leading figure of the national movement for independence. Minister for education in the Union cabinet.

  H.N. Bahuguna Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, minister in the Union cabinet, broke with Mrs Gandhi’s party, along with Jagjivan Ram, to form Congress for Democracy, minister in Janata government.

  D.K. Barooah President of Mrs Gandhi’s Congress before and during the Emergency.

  Y.B. Chavan Minister in the Union cabinet. After the Emergency, Chavan remained with the Congress, while Mrs Gandhi and her supporters left it to form the Congress-Indira (Congress-I) party.

  Morarji Desai Fourth prime minister of India, 1977–79. Earlier minister in the Union cabinet and chief minister of Bombay state before its division into Maharashtra and Gujarat.

  V.V. Giri Fourth President of India, 1969–74.

  Zakir Husain Third President of India, 1967–69 (died in office).

  Kamaraj A leading politician of Tamil Nadu, influential in getting Mrs Gandhi accepted by the Congress party as prime minister in 1966. Author of the Kamaraj Plan.

  Mohan Kumaramangalam Communist party (CPI) theoretician, minister in Mrs Gandhi’s cabinet.

  Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi Heroine of the first Indian war of independence, 1857–58.

  Sardar Patel Leading figure of the national movement for independence, first home minister of India.

  Rajendra Prasad President of India for two terms, 1952–57, 1957–62.

  Mujibur Rahman First President of Bangladesh. Assassinated in August 1975.

  C. Rajagopalachari Congress leader, governor general of India, 1948–50, founder of Swatantra Party, 1959.

  Jagjivan Ram Minister in the Union cabinet from 1947 to 1979. Broke with Mrs Gandhi’s party in 1977 to form Congress for Democracy, which merged with the Janata Party. Defence minister in the Janata government.

  Sanjiva Reddy Sixth President of India, 1977–82.

  Lal Bahadur Shastri Second prime minister of India, 1964–66. Earlier, minister in the Union cabinet.

  Charan Singh Uttar Pradesh Congress lead
er, founder of Bharatiya Lok Dal (composed of seven national and regional parties), 1974, which merged into the Janata Party, 1977. Home minister and later finance minister in the Janata government. Broke away in July 1979 to form the Lok Dal party and become caretaker prime minister until general election of January 1980.

  Kamalapati Tripathi Minister in the Union cabinet. After the Emergency joined the Congress-I.

  Atal Bihari Vajpayee Jan Sangh leader till its merger with Janata Party, 1977. Minister for foreign affairs in Janata government. Leader of Bharatiya Janata Party.

  Notes on Indian Political Parties

  Communist Party of India (CPI) Formed in 1924, follows the Moscow line. Split in 1964 as a consequence of the worldwide split in the communist movement. Became an ally of Mrs Gandhi during her break with the Congress in 1969, and thereafter its members entered the Congress to become ministers and advisers in Mrs Gandhi’s government. Cooperation lasted until the Emergency was lifted, when one section of the CPI opposed support to Mrs Gandhi.

  Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Formed in 1964 after the split in the CPI. Opposed Mrs Gandhi’s policies and, along with the Jan Sangh, became a special target for punishment during the Emergency.

  Congress for Democracy Formed in 1977, as a breakaway from the Congress, under Jagjivan Ram. Became a constituent of the Janata Party in 1977.

  Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Founded approx. 1949, in Tamil Nadu, represents the rise of non-Brahmin interests in the south.

  Forward Bloc A doctrinaire group of the Left. Includes Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Marxist Coordination Committee.

  Hindu Mahasabha founded in 1916, represented a militant Hinduism.

  Indian National Congress Popularly known as the Congress, was founded in 1885, led the national movement for freedom under Mahatma Gandhi and took power at Independence in 1947. It split in 1969, and the portion backing Mrs Gandhi was briefly known as the New Congress. After the midterm general election of 1971, when Mrs Gandhi’s party won a two-thirds majority, it came to be known once again as the Congress. The Old Congress, relegated to the sidelines by Mrs Gandhi’s victory, became a constituent of the Janata Party in 1977. The Congress was split once again in 1978, when Mrs Gandhi formed the Congress-Indira (Congress-I) party.

  Jan Sangh Conservative nationalist party, founded in 1951, espousing Hinduism and Hindi as the dominant culture and language of India. Became a constituent of the Janata Party in 1977. After the break-up of the Janata Party, the Jan Sangh became the backbone of the new national party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, formed in 1980.

  Janata Party Formed in 1977, consisting of five constituents: the Jan Sangh, the Old Congress, the Socialist Party, the BLD and the Congress for Democracy.

  Muslim League Founded 1906, later led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah to become spearhead of demand for a separate Muslim nation, Pakistan. The remnant forms a Muslim lobby.

  National Conference A regional party of Jammu and Kashmir state, headed by Sheikh Abdullah.

  Socialist Party First known as the Congress Socialist Party, founded in 1934 as a radical group within the Congress. Became a separate entity in 1948, to splinter and regroup under different names. Praja Socialist Party (PSP)—United factions of the Socialist Party after the general election of 1952.

  Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP)—Broke with the PSP to become a separate party under Ram Manohar Lohia in 1956.

  Swatantra Party Conservative party, formed in 1959. Merged with six national and regional parties to form the Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD) in 1974. The BLD became a constituent of the Janata Party in 1977.

  Note on the Constitutional Structure of India

  The Indian Union is a federation of state and union territories with an independent judiciary. In matters of legislation there are three divisions: (1) the Union List; (2) the States List and (3) the Concurrent List. Residual power is vested in the Centre.

  The aims of the Constitution are listed as follows:

  To secure to all its citizens:

  JUSTICE, Social, Economic and Political;

  LIBERTY of Thought, Expression, Belief, Faith and Worship;

  EQUALITY of Status and of Opportunity.

  And to promote among them all:

  FRATERNITY, assuring the Dignity of the Individual and the Unity of the Nation.

  The Fundamental Rights of Citizens are as follows:

  (1) Equality before Law;

  (2) Equality of Opportunity;

  (3) Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or birth;

  (4) Right to Freedom, including Freedom of Speech, Assembly, Profession, etc.;

  (5) Protection of Life and Personal Liberty;

  (6) Right against Exploitation;

  (7) Freedom to Profess, Practise and Propagate any Religion;

  (8) Cultural and Educational Rights of minorities;

  (9) Right to Property (this is not now recognized as a fundamental right);

  (10) Right to Constitutional Remedies for the enforcement of the fundamental rights.

  The head of state is the President. He is not the chief executive but the constitutional and ceremonial head of the country. He is elected for a term of five years and is eligible for re-election. His election is through an electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies.

  The vice-president is elected by members of both Houses of Parliament for a period of five years. He discharges functions of the President if the latter is unable to do so because of illness or absence from the country. He does not automatically become President in case of death in office of the President. He is chairman of the Upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha.

  The prime minister is the leader of the majority party elected to the Lok Sabha (House of the People). He chooses his Council of Ministers (officially appointed by the President) and is the chief executive of government. The cabinet functions under the principle of collective responsibility to Parliament.

  The Central legislature (Parliament) consists of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha numbers half the membership of the Lok Sabha. Of these, twelve are nominated by the President, on the advice of the prime minister, from well-known national personalities. Others represent the states and union territories. Representatives are elected by members of Legislative Assemblies of the states. The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body with one-third of its members retiring every second year.

  The Lok Sabha is elected once every five years (unless dissolved earlier) by national adult franchise. The seats allotted to each state are in ratio to its population. The prime minister and his Council of Ministers, which form the cabinet, must be members of one of the two Houses of Parliament.

  Every state has a Governor appointed for five years by the President on the advice of the prime minister. The Governor is the ceremonial head of the state. The state legislature also consists of two houses—the Legislative Assembly, elected by adult franchise once every five years, and the Legislative Council, elected by members of the Legislative Assembly, members of municipalities, district boards, and other local authorities, and graduates of state educational institutions. Like the Rajya Sabha, the Legislative Council is a permanent body with one-third of its members retiring every second year.

  Union territories are administered by the Centre.

  Notes on Chapters

  1. India’s Third Prime Minister Is Chosen

  The Times of India, February 8, 1959.

  Indira Gandhi, My Truth (New Delhi: Vision Books Pvt. Ltd, 1981) pp. 107–08.

  Interviewed by Kuldip Nayar of the United News of India (UNI).

  Gandhi, My Truth, pp. 107–08.

  2. The Person

  Speech to Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), New Delhi, March 12, 1966.

  Speech to Planning Commission, New Delhi, July 12, 1966.

  Speech to Planning Commission, New Delhi, July 12, 1966.<
br />
  Speech to Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad, June 24, 1966.

  Speech in the Lok Sabha, August 1969.

  In an article commemorating Motilal Nehru’s birth centenary.

  August 12, 1967.

  April 13, 1969.

  Rajinder Puri, India: The Wasted Years (New Delhi: Chetana Publications, 1975).

  Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Prison days (Calcutta: Signet Press, third edition, May 1946).

  Promilla Kalhan, Kamala Nehru: An Intimate Biography (New Delhi: Vikas, 1973.)

  Letter to the author, June 7, 1979, from Dehradun.

  Letter to Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, September 12, 1934, from Naini Central Prison, Allahabad.

  From ‘Farewell to Anand Bhawan’, the Hindustan Times, November 8, 1970. For an account of the author’s childhood at Anand Bhawan, read Prison and Chocolate Cake (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1954).

  3. Emergence—1967–69

  Indira Gandhi, My Truth (New Delhi: Vision Books Pvt. Ltd, 1981), pp. 107–08.

  Kuldip Nayar, Between the Lines (New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1969).

  Kuldip Nayar, India After Nehru (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1975).

  March 19, 1968.

  Gandhi, My Truth, pp. 107–08.

  Trevor Drieberg, Indira Gandhi: A Profile in Courage (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1972).

  Rajinder Puri, India: The Wasted Years (New Delhi: Chetana Publications, 1975).

  4. The Congress Breaks—1969

  Press Information Bureau release, Government of India.

  Trevor Drieberg, Indira Gandhi; A Profile in Courage (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1972).