Indira Gandhi
November 19, 1917 – October 31, 1984
Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and 1980 to 1984. She led India in the 1971 war that created Bangladesh, declared the Emergency (1975-1977), and was assassinated in 1984.
Biography
Indira Gandhi was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru and took part in the independence movement as a young woman. She became president of the Congress party in 1959 and a minister under Lal Bahadur Shastri, whom she succeeded as Prime Minister in 1966.
She split the Congress party in 1969, nationalised the main banks and won a large majority in 1971. Later that year India defeated Pakistan in the war that created Bangladesh. In 1974 India tested its first nuclear device.
In 1975, after a court found her guilty of electoral malpractice, she declared a state of emergency, suspended civil liberties and jailed opponents. She lost the 1977 election but returned to power in 1980. In June 1984 she ordered the army to clear Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and in October that year she was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards.
Offices held
Gulzarilal Nanda Succeeded by
Rajiv Gandhi
2 terms
- Jan 24, 1966 – Mar 24, 1977 Preceded by Gulzarilal Nanda Succeeded by Morarji Desai
- Jan 14, 1980 – Oct 31, 1984 Preceded by Charan Singh Succeeded by Rajiv Gandhi
