Ndira Priyadarshini Gandhi
Ndira Priyadarshini Gandhi
Ndira Priyadarshini Gandhi
31 October 1984) was the thirdPrime Minister of India and a central figure of the Indian
National Congress party. Gandhi, who served from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980
until her assassination in 1984, is the second-longest-serving Prime Minister of India and the only
woman to hold the office.
Indira Gandhi was the only child of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. She served as
the Chief of Staff of her father's highly centralised administration between 1947 and 1964 and
came to wield considerable unofficial influence in government. ElectedCongress President in
1959, she was offered the premiership in succession to her father. Gandhi refused and instead
chose to become a cabinet minister in the government. She finally consented to become Prime
Minister in succession to Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966.
As Prime Minister, Gandhi became known for her political ruthlessness and
unprecedented centralisation of power. She went to warwith Pakistan in support of
the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an
Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India's influence to the point
where it became the regional hegemon of South Asia. Gandhi also presided over a state of
emergency from 1975 to 1977 during which she ruled by decree and made lasting changes to
the constitution of India. She was assassinated in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star.
In 2001, Gandhi was voted the greatest Indian Prime Minister in a poll organised by India Today.
She was also named "Woman of the Millennium" in a poll organised by the BBC in 1999.
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