(Nov 19 is Indira Gandhi's 100th birth anniversary)
By Suman Dubey IANS | November 18 No past Prime Minister of India evokes as much passion as Indira Gandhi. Her admirers believe she could do no wrong and was the messianic leader India needed in her time; her detractors hold her responsible for creating a personality cult, encouraging dynastic politics and weakening the institutions of democracy. As in the case of any leader with a long tenure and an enduring impact, her legacy is one that will be debated long into the future, when today's politicians and journalists, who tend to make snap judgments, have given way to historians and analysts with a longer and more discerning perspective. The conventional way of looking back at the Indira Gandhi era is to do an accounting of her policies and programmes, their successes and failures. Such an approach yields broad areas of convergence as much as sharp divergences. Few dispute the success of the Green Revolution, but not all agree that the decision to devalue the rupee in 1966 was beneficial or necessary. There is near-unanimity that the 1971 war was the unmatched high of her years in office -- but there are those who see the Simla agreement that followed as having left the whole business with Pakistan unfortunately unfinished. [caption id="attachment_318341" align="aligncenter" width="650"]
A young Indira Gandhi sitting on the train that carried Mahatma Gandhi's ashes[/caption]
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1964: Indira Gandhi with weavers from Apatani community in the North-East. She had always appreciated handloom products, and was a great patron of the industry.(Photo Courtesy: Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Archive)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_318343" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
1959: Indira Gandhi standing in the lawns of Anand Bhavan in Allahabad. A symbolic photograph where her childhood home stands in the background with her ancestral legacy, and she stands as the Prime Minister with a vision to lead the country forward.(Photo Courtesy: Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Archive)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_318344" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
1968: Indira overlooking the Tungabhadra Dam on the day of its inauguration. She took keen interest in developmental projects and would always be voluntarily present at the site to understand the practical application of these projects.(Photo Courtesy: Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Archive)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_318345" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
1967: Indira Gandhi looking at the statue of Krishnadevaraya at Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati.(Photo Courtesy: Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Archive)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_318346" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
1982: Indira Gandhi with her spiritual guru Anandamayi Ma in Haridwar. She openly acknowledged that she was deeply influenced by her guru and found solace in her teachings.(Photo Courtesy: Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Archive)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_318347" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
1971: Indira Gandhi addressing a public gathering in Srinagar. Her father Jawaharlal Nehru was a Kashmiri Pandit and Kashmir has always been home to Indira Gandhi. She would frequently visit Kashmir and was much loved there.(Photo Courtesy: Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Archive)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_318348" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
1975: Indira Gandhi with her grandchildren Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi at the lotus pond in her official residence. Her entire family lived with her. She ensured she spent quality time with her family whenever got the opportunity.(Photo Courtesy: Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Archive)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_318349" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
1966: As the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi surveys the flood-devastated areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from an airplane.(Photo Courtesy: Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Archive)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_318350" align="aligncenter" width="650"]
Indira Gandhi and husband Feroze Gandhi were both jailed the same day in 1942[/caption]
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Indira Gandhi spent time with her to-be husband Feroze Gandhi in Britain in 1937[/caption]
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Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi on their wedding day at Anand Bhavan, 1942. Interestingly, in 1984, another photograph from the wedding was produced in court to show that the ceremony followed Hindu, and not Parsi, rituals. (Courtesy Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust Archive)[/caption]
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January 1967: Indian premier Indira Gandhi (born Indira Priyardarshini Nehru, 1917 - 1984), is surrounded by women folk dancers from the province of Rajasthan while sitting on a swing erected for a Teej Festival celebration at her residence in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images)[/caption]
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Mrs Indira Gandhi (born Indira Priyardarshini Nehru, 1917 - 1984), prime minister of India. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images)[/caption]
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23rd June 1980: Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) with her younger son Sanjay (1946 - 1980), just before his death in a plane crash in Delhi. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)[/caption]
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Indira Gandhi with Mother Teresa[/caption]
Her economic policies -- the nationalisation of banks and the grain trade, the high taxes, the emphasis on the public sector against the private sector -- all have their supporters and denigrators. Yet there is near-unanimous admiration for her space and nuclear programmes, and gathering respect for her championship of nature and the environment, manifested in ways that no other leader in this country has remotely approached.
The imposing of the Emergency (1975-77) and the rise to political prominence of her younger son, Sanjay, have few defenders; but her restoration of the democratic process in lifting the Emergency and calling for elections is grudgingly acknowledged. There is widespread admiration for the way she battled her way back to office in just three years and restored the Congress party to pre-eminence. Her handling of the Punjab and some other domestic issues is criticised, in contrast with her sweeping success on the global stage which she strode with confidence, whether dealing with the two superpowers and the Western world or leading the Non-Aligned Movement and the developing world.
But in the end, the best way to assess the impact of Indira Gandhi is to witness the thousands who visit her memorial at 1 Safdarjung Road every day, ordinary people from all over the country, for whom the journey is almost a pilgrimage to the sanctum of one with whom they still connect, 33 years after her assassination. The Indira Gandhi they see and take away is more than the embodiment of programmes and policies which -- if they weren't necessitated by emerging circumstances -- sprang from her deeply held beliefs and values. The image of Indira Gandhi they experience and cherish in memory is shaped by the character and qualities that dictated her actions.
Foremost among them must surely be her fierce pride in her country. "I cannot understand," she wrote, "how anyone can be Indian and not be proud." Whether dealing with the likes of US President Richard Nixon, or cementing friendships that would give India an advantage, or handling probing questions during interviews, the strength of her conviction and confidence shines through the years leading up to the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Her staunch independence, her determination to act in what she saw to be the national interest, was the rock on which she stood through all her dealings with the outside world.
Indira Gandhi's compassion and concern for the people whom she governed manifested itself in diverse ways. She was at her best in the midst of India's ordinary women, men and children -- talking to them, listening to them, sharing their happiness and their woes, in what was an almost familial relationship.
Most important, perhaps, was her fearlessness that brought out the best in her when she faced a challenge. It was this quality that prompted her to act resolutely, time and again, defying the odds, taking on the might of the Syndicate in her own party, just as she did the might of the United States during the Bangladesh war. It was this bravery that came to the fore years later, when she fought her way back from a humiliating electoral defeat, and eventually confronted the final battle of her life, against the threat to India's unity posed by the militancy in Punjab. It is this quality that is enshrined in the website dedicated to her life, appropriately named "I Am Courage", and in the exhibition being inaugurated in New Delhi on her birth centenary on November 19, called "A Life of Courage."
(Suman Dubey, a veteran journalist, is the Secretary of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at indiragandhimemorialtrust@gmail.com)
