Legacy

Indira Gandhi was in power for a long time. As a result of economic programmes and spread of education, the middle social castes/classes as well as the lower castes/classes were asserting themselves and there was a growth in the middle classes in urban India. One consequence of the changing social situation was widespread social unrest; there were caste clashes as well as communal violence.

Though Indira Gandhi was liberal minded and not discriminatory as a political leader, there was a deterioration in values of democracy in her time. Indira Gandhi’s style of functioning began with a reliance on the prime minister’s secretariat formed of persons she could trust, but who were also of indubitable integrity and intellect, but went on to depend more and more on her son and a small coterie. It was the same at party level: fearing competitive power centres, she weakened the Congress party structure. Sycophancy grew, and a party that had developed a well- organised structure with grassroots presence and a range of regional leaders across the country gradually lost strong leadership at state level and gave up the democratic style of choosing its leader and officials. A member of the Gandhi family had now become indispensable for holding the party together. Ideology was no longer the basis of politics. And this was true of other political parties as well. Corruption spread, and the state apparatus was more and more manipulated by the powerful for personal gain.

Indira Gandhi’s grit and decisiveness in the face of external aggression, however, was exemplary. She showed that India was not to be bullied and brought the country to prominence in the world map.