Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi ( Hindi : इंदिरा प्रियदर्शिनी गांधी Indirā Priyadarśinī Gāndhī ; born November 19, 1917 as Indira Priyadarshini Nehru in Allahabad ; † October 31, 1984 in New Delhi ) was an Indian politician who worked from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 to Served as Prime Minister of India in 1984 . She died in an assassination attempt .
Private life
Childhood and adolescence
Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru , the first Prime Minister of independent India, and his wife Kamala Nehru. The Nehrus are pundit brahmins from Kashmir , one of the highest-ranking jati in the Indian caste system . The family's rise in politics began with Indira's grandfather Motilal Nehru , who was twice President of the Congress Party and, together with his son, played a leading role in the independence movement against British colonial power.
The strong political commitment of her father and grandfather also influenced Indira Gandhi. Motilal and Jawaharlal were among the leaders of the independence movement along with Mahatma Gandhi (who is not related to the Nehru Gandhi family ). Indira's mother, Kamala, was also politically active despite the progressive TB disease. Jawaharlal Nehru was repeatedly imprisoned by the British colonial rulers from 1921 to 1944, as was Kamala in January 1931. Indira is said to have said to visitors to the Anand Bhavan family residence: "I'm sorry, but my grandfather, father and mother are in prison."
Not only the frequent absence of her father and her mother's illness shaped Indira, but also the tense atmosphere in the Nehru family. Kamala and Indira suffered particularly from the humiliating behavior of their widowed aunt Vijaya Nehru . Years later, Indira Gandhi spoke bitterly about her aunt. For a long time Jawaharlal Nehru did not understand the plight of his daughter and wife. Only with the repeated stays of the Nehrus in Europe from 1926 and the associated separation from the other family members did the situation for Indira and Kamala improve. However, multiple changes of location and school as well as the illness of her mother overshadowed Indira's stay in Europe. During this time she lived alternately in Allahabad , Geneva , Paris , the Black Forest and London . After her mother's death in February 1936, Indira's health deteriorated. Because of chronic underweight, depression and tuberculosis, she was in a Swiss sanatorium from spring 1940 to spring 1941.
In addition to the unsteady conditions in her childhood and youth, there was a certain political isolation from early years: both in a boarding school in Switzerland and in a sanatorium, Indira stood alone with her radical, liberal political attitude, both among Indian and European supporters British colonial rule . The experiences she made in Europe also included the Nazis' seizure of power in Germany and the outbreak of the Second World War .
She studied history at Somerville College , Oxford .
Personal life after 1941
In April 1941, Indira Gandhi, now 24 years old, returned to India. At that time she was already in a relationship with the family friend of the Nehrus, the Parsen Feroze Gandhi . However, the wedding did not take place until March 1942. The question of whether a Nehru daughter could marry a Parsi was very controversial in the Nehru household, while the media were unanimously against the marriage. The honeymoon in Kashmir turned out to be one of the happiest times in Indira Gandhi's life. In the course of her life, Indira Gandhi returned to Kashmir again and again in search of private and political peace.
The two sons Rajiv and Sanjay were born in 1944 and 1946. As early as 1947, Feroze asked Jawaharlal Nehru to divorce Indira. Nehru then questioned his daughter, who spoke out vehemently against a divorce, even though she was no longer happy in the marriage and in the following time moved back to her father in Delhi. She became his secretary and hostess. She organized receptions for the then Shah of Iran , King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud , Ho Chi Minh , Khrushchev , Eisenhower , Tito and Nasser, among others . She later said to one of her biographers: "I had to do that because my father did more important work than my husband." ("Obviously I had to do it because my father was doing more important work than my husband.")
Indira and Feroze mostly lived separately from each other. Indira's party leadership from February 1955 was described by Feroze in the media as the final stab in the back of their marriage. Indira Gandhi, on the other hand, complained in a letter to her longtime friend Dorothy Norman about her husband's hostilities. Feroze's first heart attack brought the two closer together again; however, Feroze Gandhi died a year later in September 1960.
The feelings of guilt over Feroze's death gave the younger son Sanjay in particular fatal power over his mother; he repeatedly accused her of letting her father die of loneliness. After the death of her husband, Indira Gandhi became depressed again. However, she only confided in her pen friend Dorothy Norman, who was physically far away. In the summer of 1961 she wrote: “I have always considered myself a positive person. But now I feel terribly negative. I am not sick, but I am not well. I just don't feel alive. No one seems to notice the difference. ”With the end of her father's term in office, Indira planned to turn her back on India and politics for good.
However, the death of her father in 1964 brought about a radical change in Indira Gandhi's attitude towards political engagement. Katherine Frank explained this change on the one hand with the feelings of guilt that Indira might have had because she was secretly planning to leave her father and India, on the other hand it may be that she became aware that she was not meeting her father's expectations had fulfilled his lifetime. Nehru intended his daughter to play a crucial role in the development of India. To become more politically active again could be the way to relieve yourself of feelings of guilt and at least posthumously contradict the unspoken judgment of your father.
Political life
Nehrus Secretary and Congress President
Indira Gandhi's active political life began with the formation of the Interim Government on September 2, 1946, led by Nehru as Prime Minister.
In early 1955 she was elected President of the Congress Party. Her influence on her father Jawaharlal Nehru is undisputed. For example, on Indira Gandhi's advice, Nehru granted asylum to the 14th Dalai Lama in March 1959. Over 100,000 Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama into exile in India. The Tibetan refugee issue had a lasting impact on diplomatic relations with China. The preliminary low point was the border war in October 1962 . Chinese troops crossed the border with India and occupied 50,000 km² of Indian territory. When the local government fled, Indira Gandhi flew to the Sino-India border, reassured civilians, organized emergency rations, and called officers back to work. Clarifying problems personally on site later remained Indira Gandhi's political style in official offices.
In July 1959, Nehru dismissed the democratically elected communist government of Kerala state . The election of the communists sparked riot in Kerala as militant supporters of the Congress Party, funded by the CIA , began street battles. Although Nehru initially believed that nothing could be done against a properly elected government, he did take action under pressure from his daughter. Indira herself toured Kerala and organized an opposition to the communist government made up of supporters of the Congress Party and the Muslim League . In February 1960, the coalition won the new elections in Kerala with a large majority.
Indira Gandhi's critics later refer to 'Operation Overthrow' as groundbreaking for their authoritarian leadership style and their disregard for democratic norms. Katherine Frank interprets the Kerala incident in the light that fear of chaos and loss of control is Indira's major weak point. In contrast to her father Nehru, she had little confidence that democratic institutions could survive unstable times.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting
In May 1964, a few weeks after her father's death, Indira Gandhi became Minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, with responsibility for information and broadcasting. Shastri believed a Nehru in the cabinet would provide stability. In this position she was fourth in the cabinet behind the Prime Minister. Your actual office was not very eventful. It promoted broadcasting broadcasts in Urdu . Controversial discussions and opinions in the media were also encouraged. What is remarkable, however, is how she dealt with the so-called language crisis and the outbreak of the second Indo-Pakistani war .
In March 1965, after the government decided to replace English with Hindi as the official language , riots broke out in areas of India where Hindi was not the native language of the population. Indira Gandhi flew to Madras to speak to local politicians and protesting people. The unrest then subsided, and English remained the official language alongside Hindi. Shastri, who actually wanted to sit out the crisis, was anything but happy about Indira Gandhi's intervention. He complained that Indira Gandhi acted over his head. In this situation, Indira Gandhi's instinct for timing and an implicit awareness of power became apparent for the first time. According to her own statements, she saw herself not only as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, but also as “one of the leaders of this country”. Verbatim she said, “Do you think this government could continue if I resign today? I'm telling you she wouldn't. Yes, I acted over the Prime Minister's head and I would do it again anytime if I had to. ”A short time later, war broke out between India and Pakistan . Indira Gandhi was in Srinagar , Kashmir at the time . Instead of following the advice to fly back to Delhi, she flew to the front line and, as the only member of the government, spoke to local people and journalists. In the press she was then hailed as "the only man in a cabinet of old women" ("the only man in a cabinet of old women").
The war for Kashmir was initially ended with a ceasefire and the then Prime Minister Shastri became a folk hero overnight. Indira Gandhi was upset. At this point at the latest, according to Katherine Frank, Indira Gandhi's will to power became apparent. Jed Adams and Phillip Whitehead write: “Indira, however, was bigger than her office [as Secretary of State for Information and Broadcasting]. She needed new challenges. "
Shastri was just as angry about the freedoms Indira Gandhi took in her political actions as Indira Gandhi was irritated by Shastri's slow and conservative governance. While Shastri realized that Indira Gandhi was more than just a figurehead of the Congress Party, Indira Gandhi publicly questioned him. Before Lal Bahadur Shastri could realize his idea of sending Indira Gandhi to London as ambassador to get rid of her, he died on a trip abroad in Tashkent , Uzbekistan . According to the constitution, the President of India S. Radhakrishnan was temporarily sworn in as Prime Minister. On the night of his swearing-in, Indira Gandhi called confidants together to test the possibility of their candidacy to succeed Shastri. "Reach for power" ("Make a bid for power") was the advice of Romesh Thapar.
Indira's only serious opponent in the struggle for the office of prime minister was Morarji Desai , an Orthodox Hindu. Indira Gandhi was everything Desai was not for the Congress Party: she spoke fluent Hindi and English, she was not only popular among Hindus, but also among Muslims, Harijans and other minorities. She was urbane and not anchored in any particular region of India. She was a national politician. Above all, the old leadership guards of the Congress Party thought they could be manipulated, which turned out to be a fundamental misjudgment. The decision to have Indira Gandhi as the prime minister's candidate was largely based on the lack of other sustainable candidates within the Congress party.
Prime minister
Difficult start
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On January 18, 1966, Indira Gandhi was elected as the first woman group leader of the Congress Party. Gandhi was elected by the Lok Sabha on January 19 to succeed Shastri and sworn in as Prime Minister on January 24. In the first year of her tenure, her appearance at speeches, especially in the Lok Sabha, was uncertain. She stuttered and gave speeches without liveliness, which was the cause of ridicule by the mostly male Lok Sabha members. After the first failed appearances, Indira said to her confidante Pulpul Jayakar that her lack of self-confidence was due to her childhood. “Since I was a child, she [Vijaya Nehru] did everything to destroy my confidence: she called me ugly, stupid. She broke something in me. In the face of hostility, no matter how well prepared I am, I am speechless and I shy away from it. "
For the time being, Indira Gandhi solved the Sikhs' problem quickly and efficiently by dividing the previous state of Punjab into two new states, Punjab and Haryana , which together shared Chandigarh as the capital. However, unrest broke out among the now Hindu minority in Punjab. In Delhi, an angry crowd threatened to burn down the main Sikh temple. Regardless of her uncertain speeches in the Lok Sabha, Indira Gandhi stood up to the crowd with passion. “... there are no tears in my eyes, there is anger in my heart. Have so many freedom fighters and martyrs lost their lives for this? "
The problem of food shortages, on the other hand, triggered by the drought in 1965, could be solved less quickly and more sustainably. First, Indira Gandhi dissolved the Food Zones within which food trading was allowed, but not beyond. On a trip to the United States , she asked for food deliveries despite the tense diplomatic relations between the two states. Aid did not start as quickly as planned, but the deliveries helped to bridge the second drought of 1966. In addition, Indira Gandhi visited each state personally with a small group of advisors. On the flight, she asked experts to explain the local situation to her, and on the spot she spoke to state governments, helped make decisions and promoted the use of high-performance crops and fertilizers in agriculture. Three years later, the Indian population was largely provided for by basic needs ( Green Revolution ).
Third Indo-Pakistani War
The autonomy movement in the province of East Pakistan (later Bangladesh ), which is spatially separated from the main part of Pakistan, was suppressed by the Pakistani government. The situation escalated when, on March 25, 1971, the Pakistani military and government head Yahya Khan broke off all negotiations with the Awami League and ordered the Pakistani units stationed in East Pakistan to take action against the separatists. Before the turmoil of the civil war that broke out in East Pakistan , many people fled to India, including many party leaders of the Awami League, which proclaimed the independence of East Pakistan under the name of Bangladesh from exile in India. At the height of the refugee movement there were 150,000 refugees a day crossing the border. The 9 million refugees created a humanitarian and financial emergency for the Indian government. Through their descriptions, the East Pakistani refugees triggered a wave of horror and anger against the Pakistani military regime in the Indian population. Indira Gandhi had also visited the refugee camps and said she was speechless.
After consulting her private secretary and confidants PN Haksar, PN Dhar and the Chief of Staff of the Indian Army , General Sam Manekshwar, it seemed the best solution to hold back militarily for the time being and to look for other possible solutions. Manekshwar strongly advised against starting armed conflicts before the end of the monsoons . Haksar wanted to wait for the following winter and the impassable passes of the Himalayas to make sure that no Chinese troops would intervene overland to support Pakistan.
Indira Gandhi brought the Pakistani conflict into international politics. She traveled to the Soviet Union, Belgium, France, Austria, Germany, Great Britain and finally also to the USA to present the case and to get international approval for her policy on Pakistan. President Richard Nixon made it clear that under no circumstances would the US support India in the dispute with Pakistan.
In early December, the Indian army brought troops into defensive positions on the border with Pakistan in preparation for the liberation of Dhaka and a counter-attack by Pakistani forces . One day before the planned attack, Pakistan itself opened war with the bombing of Indian air bases near Amritsar, Agra, Srinagar and in Kashmir.
The timing was perfect for Indira Gandhi and India as the Pakistani military regime was the aggressor. Nevertheless, US President Nixon condemned India as an aggressor. Indira Gandhi then drafted an open letter to Nixon with Haksar, which was not only India's justification for the military action, but also pointed out provocatively that the war could have been prevented if the international community, above all the USA, had done more than just paying lip service to the aid of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and contributing to a political solution.
The long-awaited and planned war between the two states lasted only two weeks, as the Pakistani troops were far inferior to the Indian troops in numbers and equipment. The war ended with Pakistan's surrender in Bangladesh and a ceasefire agreement. On the day of the surrender, Indira Gandhi ordered a ceasefire, as it was clear to her and her advisors that a continuation of the war could mean the danger of interference by China and the USA to their disadvantage. The armistice was proclaimed against the advice of the Defense Minister, which it had ignored in the course of the conflict.
With the victory and liberation of Bangladesh, Indira Gandhi had achieved what her father Jawaharlal Nehru and Shastri did not. Indira Gandhi was at the temporary height of her power and popularity. In the elections in March 1972, the Congress Party won 70 percent of the seats in the Lok Sabha.
In June 1972 Indira Gandhi crowned the military success with a diplomatic one. At the Simla Summit, the demarcation line through Kashmir , known as the Line of Control , was established and thus in fact a border recognized by India and Pakistan, with India and Pakistan continuing to claim full sovereignty over Kashmir.
National state of emergency and consequences
In mid-June 1975, Indira Gandhi was convicted of campaigning against a civil servant. Indeed, one of their campaign workers had started working for them earlier this month, while his contract with the state ran through the middle of that month. As unimportant as the matter was, it was also illegal. The court ruled that she could remain in office for the time being as long as the judgment is not confirmed in the appeal process. For Indira Gandhi's political opponents, particularly Morarji Desai, the verdict was an opportunity to oust her from office. Desai publicly announced that Indira Gandhi would be placed under house arrest and the Delhi police would be ordered to mutiny. The worsening situation was the temporary culmination of a series of political failures that Indira Gandhi had to accept since the war against Pakistan, in particular the deterioration of the agricultural situation due to droughts and thus the food supply for large parts of the population as well as the outbreak of unrest due to the uprisings initiated by the Naxalites in Assam , Kerala, Bihar and Punjab.
Even the annexation of Sikkim as the 22nd federal state of India, which was intended as an appeal to Indian national sentiment, did not improve the mood among the population. On June 26, 1975, Indira Gandhi declared the "National Emergency" , which was valid from June 25. On the night of the 25th to the 26th, 600 political opponents were put under security and house arrest, including Desai. The electricity was switched off for the newspapers in Delhi so that nothing could reach the public prematurely. When Indira Gandhi announced the national state of emergency over the radio, there was hardly anyone left who could have opposed it.
Indira Gandhi's pen pal Dorothy Norman asked for a plausible explanation for the state of emergency. The answer she received was brief, but not devoid of self-irony. "Dorothy, my dear, if you can bring yourself to accept a present from the 'great dictator', here is something I saved for you a few years ago - it is from Bhutan." ("Dorothy dear, if you can bear to accept a gift from the 'Great Dictator', here is something which I had kept for you some years ago - it is from Bhutan. “) Dorothy Norman then stopped correspondence for four years. Indira Gandhi's confidante in Delhi, Pulpul Jayakar, also asked her to comment. During the conversation it became clear that Indira Gandhi's growing suspicion had taken on paranoid traits and that she could not logically justify the national emergency.
Both Katherine Frank and Adams and Whiteman see the state of emergency as an answer to Indira Gandhi's mental state rather than as a real political necessity.
Despite Indira Gandhi's dubious motives for a state of emergency, he was initially welcomed by the population. Life in India was put in order almost overnight. There were no more strikes and protest marches. Trains and buses ran according to plan and authorities and public institutions were actually open during opening times. Significant successes have been achieved against smuggling, tax evasion and crime. Large landowners were partially expropriated; Serfs were released and got work in government infrastructure projects, which could be financed by the significant increase in tax revenue.
The other side of the national state of emergency was a severe restriction on freedom of the press, expression and assembly. Citizens could be detained for up to two years without charge. Most of the political opposition was in prison. According to Amnesty International , 110,000 people were detained without trial during the state of emergency. 22 prisoners died.
In February 1976 Indira Gandhi postponed the regular elections, among other things on the advice of her son Sanjay, who was increasingly influencing his mother. The state of emergency was extended on the grounds that the positive results had to be consolidated. Her confidante PN Dhar spoke out against an extension of the state of emergency. In November of the same year, Indira Gandhi postponed the elections again, this time for 12 months. Again, it was Dhar who opposed extending the state of emergency, while Sanjay voted in favor. However, Indira Gandhi changed her mind and announced in January 1977 that there would be elections within two months.
Indira Gandhi toured all 22 states in the short election campaign. Nevertheless, the Congress Party clearly lost the election in March 1977 . The winner of the election was the Janata Party . Morarji Desai became Prime Minister. If Indira Gandhi had held the elections in February 1976 as planned, she might even have won. In the following year, however, the restrictions imposed by the state of emergency became more apparent in the public consciousness and the mood within the population turned to their disadvantage. The national state of emergency ended on March 21, 1977.
The return
The Janata Party was divided by ideological and personal dissonances. Only one thing was agreed: Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay had to be brought to justice. As popular as Indira Gandhi was in the early 1970s, she was now fervently hated. The Janata Party set up a commission of inquiry led by Attorney General JC Shah (the Shah Commission) to investigate the violations of law by Indira and Sanjay Gandhi and others during the national emergency . There was talk of Indiragate in the press and various anti-Indira books were published, including Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children .
Even before the Shah Commission began, Indira Gandhi made her political return. She reconciled herself with old political enemies who were no longer in political life and admitted some misconduct during the national state of emergency. An arrest of Indira Gandhi, which was supposed to prevent her from further soliciting sympathy among the population, achieved the opposite, as journalists were present when she was taken from her bungalow. The picture was drawn of a woman who was made a victim by the judiciary.
Indira Gandhi refused to testify before the Shah Commission, arguing that she was not legally or constitutionally obliged to do so. Instead, she brought the judge before him by reminding him of an investigation that she had prevented as prime minister to protect him and other judges. The Shah Commission was closed with the Shah Report, but there was little evidence against Indira Gandhi. However, rumors circulating about Sanjay were substantiated in it.
Under the Janata government, those detained under the national state of emergency have been released. The crime rate soared. India seemed to revert to lawlessness. After the murder of most of an entire village of former serfs by landowners, Indira Gandhi visited the crime scene to give courage and comfort to the bereaved.
In June 1979, Morarji Desai resigned as prime minister and handed the post over to his internal party rival Chaudhary Charan Singh , who had been supported by Indira Gandhi since the rifts within the Janata Party had become visible. But even he could not stabilize the government. The president dissolved the Janata government in August 1979. After Indira Gandhi was not elected again as party leader of the Congress party, she founded a new party; the "Indian National Congress I". With this new party, it won the 1980 elections with 351 out of 525 seats.
Operation Blue Star and Assassination
One of the most pressing problems after Indira Gandhi took office in January 1980 was the growing separatist movement of extremist Sikhs , the Akali Dal , in the state of Punjab, which they wanted to become the independent state of Khalistan . An important figure was Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale , who had been supported by Gandhi's son Sanjay, among others, to strengthen the Congress base in Punjab.
In 1982 the situation came to a head and there were also riots in Assam and Kashmir. Bhindranwale and his followers holed up in the Golden Temple , the largest sanctuary of the Sikhs. Four attempts at talks failed. In January 1984, Indira Gandhi ordered the temple to be retaken militarily. Operation Blue Star was carried out in June 1984 , in which more than 400 soldiers and eyewitness reports, according to reports, killed more than 2,000 Sikhs. The part of the temple in which the Akali Dal had holed up was completely destroyed. The military operation was received not uncritically by the population, but was largely positive. Pointing out that India was a secular state, Indira Gandhi refused to dismiss her Sikh bodyguards even after Operation Blue Star .
The British broadcaster BBC planned an interview with Indira Gandhi by Peter Ustinov on the morning of October 31, 1984 as part of his documentary series Ustinov's People . While Ustinov was waiting for the agreed conversation, he spoke freely into the camera: “So here I am in Indira Gandhi's garden. There are birds in the trees. Guardians stand in the corners. It's quiet. ”Suddenly there was noise, a great deal of excitement. Without being able to correctly interpret the situation, Ustinov tried to calm the television viewers. Shortly afterwards he spoke into the live camera: “I have to admit: When I said that nothing serious had happened, I didn't believe myself. Indira Gandhi has just been shot. The guards are no longer in the corners. But the birds are still in the trees. ”In fact, on the way to the interview, Indira Gandhi was shot in the front garden of her bungalow by her Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh . Despite intensive medical efforts, she succumbed to numerous gunshot wounds shortly afterwards in the New Delhi hospital. In the days following Indira Gandhi's murder, an estimated 3,000 Sikhs were murdered and around 100,000 fled Delhi to Punjab and camps.
See also
literature
- Indira Gandhi speaks. Schulz, Percha 1975. ISBN 3-7962-0071-0
- Indira Gandhi: speeches, writings, interviews. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1988. ISBN 3-7609-1189-7
- Abbas, KA (1973): That Woman. Indira Gandhi's Seven Years in Power. New Delhi.
- Jad Adams , Philip Whitehead (1997): The Dynasty. The Nehru-Gandhi Story. London.
- Basn, Nirmal Kumar (1981): Indira Invincible. Calcutta.
- Darbari Raj; Darbari Janis (1983): Indira Gandhi's 1028 Days. New Delhi.
- Frank, Kathrine (2005): Indira. The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. London.
- Jacobson, Doranne; Wadley, Susan S. (1977): Women in India. Two perspectives. Reprinted, enlarged 1999. New Delhi.
- Karanjia, RK ; Abbas, KA (1974): Face To Face With Indira Gandhi. New Delhi.
- Khanna, VN (1985): Dusk Before Dawn. New Delhi.
- Norman, Dorothy (1985): Indira Gandhi. Letters To A Friend 1950-1984. Correspondence With Dorothy Norman. London.
- Sahgal, Nayantara (1983): Indira Gandhi. Her road to power. London.
- Sharma, PL (1972): World's Greatest Woman. New Delhi.
- Hans Strotzka : Power . A psychoanalytic essay, Zsolnay, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-552-03730-6 and Fischer TB, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-596-42303-1 .
- Swarup, Hem Lata, et al. (1994): Women's Political Engagement in India: Some Critical Issues. In: Nelson, Barbara; Chowdhury, Najama (1994): Women and Politics Worldwide. New Haven.
Movie
- The last days of a legend. Indira Gandhi. (OT: Derniers jours d'une icòne. ) Documentation, France, 2005, 52 min., Director: Thomas Johnson, production: Maia, Sunset Presse, France 5 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Indira Gandhi in the catalog of the German National Library
- FemBiography: Indira Gandhi
- whoswho to Indira Gandhi
- Photo gallery Indira Gandhi In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung
- Linda Charlton: Assassination in India: A Leader of Will and Force; Indira Gandhi, Born to Politics, Left Her Own Imprint on India , extensive biographical notes on the occasion of her death in the New York Times , November 1, 1984 (English)
- Operation Blue Star - in SikhiWikhi
- Julia Schäfer: November 19, 1917 - birthday of the politician Indira Gandhi WDR ZeitZeichen from November 19, 2017 (podcast)
Individual evidence
- ^ "I'm sorry, but my grandfather, father and mommy are all in prison." From Jad Adams, Phillip Whitehead: The Dynasty. The Nehru-Gandhi Story. London, 1997, p. 85
- ↑ Kathrine Frank: Indira. The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. London, 2005, p. 51 and p. 153 ff
- ↑ "I've always thought of myself as a positive person. Now I feel terribly negative. I'm not ill. I'm not well. I just don't feel alive. Nobody seems aware of the difference. ”From Dorothy Norman: Indira Gandhi. Letters To A Friend 1950-1984. Correspondence With Dorothy Norman. London, 1985, p. 85
- ^ "Do you think this government can survive if I resign today? I'm telling you it won't. Yes, I jumped over the Prime Minister's head and I would do it again whenever the need arises. "From Kathrine Frank: Indira. The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. London, 2005, p. 281.
- ↑ Who was Indira Gandhi anyway? , LizzyNet, April 4, 2006
- ↑ Chronicle 1966 , Foundation House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany
- ↑ Remembrance days : January 24 , kalenderblatt.de
- ^ "From my childhood she did everything to destroy my confidence; she called me ugly, stupid. She shattered something within me. Faced with hostility, however well prepared I am, I get tongue-tied and withdraw. "From Jad Adams, Phillip Whitehead: The Dynasty. The Nehru-Gandhi Story. London, 1997, p. 204
- ↑ "... there are no tears in my eyes, there is anger in my heart. Is it for that so many freedom-fighters and martyrs have sacrificed their lives? "From Jad Adams, Phillip Whitehead: The Dynasty. The Nehru-Gandhi Story. London, 1997, p. 205
- ↑ Der Findling , Zeit Online, April 1, 2004
Jawaharlal Nehru | Gulzarilal Nanda | Lal Bahadur Shastri | Gulzarilal Nanda | Indira Gandhi | Morarji Desai | Chaudhary Charan Singh | Indira Gandhi | Rajiv Gandhi | Vishwanath Pratap Singh | Chandra Shekhar | P. V. Narasimha Rao | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | H. D. Deve Gowda | Indian Kumar Gujral | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | Manmohan Singh | Narendra Modi
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gandhi, Indira |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gandhi, Indira Priyadarshini |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Indian politician and prime minister |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 19, 1917 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Allahabad , India |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 31, 1984 |
| Place of death | New Delhi , India |