Indira Gandhi was an Indian politician who served as the Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms, from 1966 until 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was born on November 19, 1917, in Allahabad, India.
Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, and she grew up surrounded by politics and activism. She studied at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and later became involved in the Indian independence movement.
After India gained its independence in 1947, Gandhi became a prominent figure in the Indian National Congress party. She was appointed Minister of Information and Broadcasting in 1964 and later served as Minister of Home Affairs. In 1966, she became the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of India, a position she held until 1977.
During her tenure as Prime Minister, Gandhi implemented numerous social and economic reforms, including the nationalization of banks and the abolition of the feudal zamindari system. She also led India through the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.
I n 1975, Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India, suspending civil liberties and imposing strict censorship laws. The move was met with widespread protests, and in 1977, she was defeated in the general election.
Gandhi returned to power in 1980, and during her second term as Prime Minister, she faced a number of challenges, including a separatist insurgency in Punjab and tensions with neighboring Pakistan. On October 31, 1984, she was assassinated by two of her bodyguards in a revenge attack for the military operation she ordered on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a holy site for the Sikhs.
Gandhi remains a revered figure in India and a symbol of women's empowerment in the country.