(January 1966 to March 1977)

After the sudden and unexpected death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in January 1966, once again, Gulzarilal Nanda was appointed the interim prime minister pending elections. Morarji Desai was a contender for the post of the Congress party parliamentary leader and, as a corollary, the prime minister. The Syndicate supported Indira Gandhi, Nehru’s daughter, and most party members also were in favour of her. She won the election; it is said most of the senior Congressmen supported her as they thought she was weak enough to be manipulated as they wanted. Time was to prove them wrong.

Early Life

Indira Priyadarshini was born on November 19, 1917 in Allahabad to Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru. India was in the midst of a struggle for freedom from the British and the Nehru family was fully involved in the struggle. So,

almost from childhood, Indira was closely in touch with the events of those days of turmoil.

It is reported that when bonfires of foreign goods were made during the freedom movement, Indira, then a child, gave up a doll made in England to be thrown into the fire. At the age of twelve, she brought together and led a group of children – calling it the Vanar Sena – to do their bit for the freedom struggle. These youngsters addressed envelopes, made flags, helped put up nptices and carried messages to the freedom fighters.

Indira attended several schools and colleges, sometimes just for brief periods: these included the Ecole de Bex in Switzerland, Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva-Bharati university at Santiniketan, Bengal, and Somerville College, Oxford, U.K., among others.

In 1936 Indira joined the Indian National Congress, and in 1938 she became a member of the India League. It was during her stay in England that she met Feroze Jehangir Ghandy (later changed to Gandhi), who was also a member of the India League and studying in London. Feroze was a Parsi. Indira returned to India in 1941 with Feroze Gandhi, and she married him in 1942. Feroze too was a member of the Indian National Congress and took part in the freedom struggle. Indira was an active participant in the Quit India movement and was imprisoned in Naini Central Jail for some time. Feroze and Indira had two sons – Rajiv and Sanjay – both of whom were later to be part of India’s political scene in their different ways.