Nehru Gandhi family

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The Nehru Gandhi family is an influential family of politicians in India that included several prime ministers. Despite the name "Gandhi" she is not related to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (the "Mahatma"). The name equality comes from Feroze Gandhi , who changed his maiden name "Ghandy" when he joined the independence movement around the similarly named Mahatma.

Family history

The Nehru Gandhi family has dominated the Congress Party for most of its history since India's independence . Three family members held the office of Prime Minister, and a fourth family member resigned from this office in May 2004.

The Nehrus are originally Brahmins from Kashmir , so-called Kashmiri Pandits . The foundations of her influence were laid by Motilal Nehru (1861-1931), who was an eminent advocate and early activist of the Indian independence movement. Motilal was president of the Congress Party, his son Jawaharlal Nehru succeeded him in this office in 1929. Jawaharlal then became the most prominent political leader of the Indian independence movement. He was in close contact with the figurehead of this movement, Mahatma Gandhi , who is not related to the Nehru Gandhi family. This name equality, based on a deliberate name change, with the leader of the Indian independence movement, who is highly respected in all Indian social classes, has been of great political benefit to the Nehru-Gandhi family. The positive sound of the name Gandhi has influenced millions of voters.

When India gained independence in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister and remained so until his death in 1964. Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900–1990) was also a prominent politician of the Congress Party and, as the leading diplomat, headed the United Nations General Assembly in 1953 Nations as President.

Nehru supported his only child, Indira Gandhi , wherever he could and brought her into his cabinet. Indira had by marrying Feroze Gandhi (1912-1960), a Parsees , received his surname. In 1966, two years after her father's death and after a brief interlude under Lal Bahadur Shastri as prime minister, Indira took over her father's post, which she held until her electoral defeat in 1977 . During this first term of office as Prime Minister, she brought her son Sanjay Gandhi into leading positions, which, however, contributed to her electoral defeat in 1977 because of accusations of abuse of power by her son as well. Sanjay, who married Maneka Gandhi , a Sikh , died in a plane crash in 1980.

Indira Gandhi came back to power after the 1980 elections and remained in office until she was assassinated in 1984. After Sanjay's death, she built her eldest son, Rajiv Gandhi , who had previously shown little interest in politics and who was an airline pilot, to be her successor. This followed her after her murder without any problems in the office of Prime Minister. Rajiv Gandhi lost the 1989 elections and with them his office, but before his assassination in 1991 he had prospects of regaining the office of prime minister. He left behind his wife Sonia Gandhi and his two children Rahul and Priyanka .

Arun Nehru , Rajiv Gandhi's cousin, held two ministerial posts in succession in the Rajiv cabinet, but later moved to the competing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

After Rajiv's death, the Congress party was led by PV Narasimha Rao , a longtime confidante of the Nehru Gandhi family, but many loyalists in the party wanted a member of the Nehru Gandhi family to lead the party. Sonia Gandhi entered politics cautiously and quickly became the gray eminence of the party until she officially entered the political stage in 1998 and took over the chairmanship of the party.

The Congress party lost the 1999 elections , but Sonia Gandhi had given the party new impetus. In 2004 the Congress party surprisingly won the election , in which Rahul Gandhi , the son of Rajiv and Sonia, also won a seat in parliament. Sonia unexpectedly resigned the office of Prime Minister after she was attacked from various quarters because of her Italian ancestry.

Sanjay Gandhi's widow Maneka Gandhi fell out with her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi after his death and left the Congress party. She joined Janata Dal in 1989 , was expelled there in 1996, and in 2004 she and her now adult son from their marriage to Sanjay, Varun Gandhi , joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

family tree

 
 
 
 Jawaharlal Nehru
1889-1964
 
 
 
 Kamala Nehru
1899-1936
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Feroze Gandhi
1912-1960
 
 Indira Gandhi
1917-1984
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rajiv Gandhi
1944-1991
 
 
 
 Sonia Gandhi
* 1946
 
 
 Sanjay Gandhi
1946-1980
 
 
 
 Maneka Gandhi
* 1956
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rahul Gandhi
* 1970
 
 
 
 
 
 Priyanka Vadra
* 1972
 
 
 
 Varun Gandhi
* 1980
 
 
 
Indian National Congress (names of former Prime Ministers are in bold )
Bharatiya Janata Party

literature

Web links

Commons : Nehru – Gandhi family  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ramachandra Guh: India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy . Pan Macmillan, 2011, ISBN 0-330-54020-3 , Chapter 14 (footnote 2), pp. 33 ( google.co.in ): “Feroze Gandhi was also from the Nehrus' home town, Allahabad. A Parsi by faith, he at first spelt his surname 'Ghandy'. However, after he joined the national movement as a young man, he changed the spelling to bring it in line with that of Mahatma Gandhi. "
  2. ↑ Maneka, Varun join BJP. The Hindu, February 17, 2004, accessed November 25, 2016 .