Indira Gandhi Influence

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Indira Gandhi was a prominent stateswoman, a key player in the Indian National Congress Party, and the first and only female Prime Minister of India. She was Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru’s only child, born on November 19, 1917 (Wolpert). At twelve, she became involved in politics by protesting the British Raj. It was during this time that Indira met future husband, Feroze Gandhi (Dommermuth-Costa 33). Later, as her father grew older, Indira Gandhi stepped in as his personal assistant. (Dommermuth-Costa 68). Due to her father 's influence, Indira grew increasingly politically powerful, becoming President of the National Congress Party (NCP) (Dommermuth-Costa 73). Due to her wise economic and political decisions in this position (Dommermuth-Costa …show more content…
Shastri, died in 1966, the Indian Parliament chose Indira Gandhi to become the Emergency Prime Minister because she was young, well known in other nations, and former Prime Minister Nehru’s daughter (Guha 405). Despite the Parliament’s opinion that Mrs. Gandhi was pliable and compromising, she became very assertive after ascending to the role of Prime Minister. In fact, she was so influential at first that the Congress Party changed their name to Congress Party-Indira (Encyclopedia of Asian History). During her first year as Prime Minister, the Sikh population in Punjab demanded a separate Sikh religious nation. Indira Gandhi negotiated a compromise so that the official language in Punjab became Punjabi, but Punjab remained a part of India. This appeased the Sikhs because they felt more connected to their religion and culture, and the government was pleased because India remained a unified nation. (Dommermuth-Costa 91). Because of such skilled political maneuvers, Mrs. Gandhi became so universally popular that after her year as Emergency Prime Minister, she was elected in 1967 by the Indian people as the official Prime Minister of India (Dommermuth-Costa 95). At the next elections in 1971, Indira Gandhi was re-elected as Prime Minister for her second term (Dommermuth-Costa 97). Mrs. Gandhi also garnered substantial support in her second term because she defeated Pakistan in the War of Bangladesh, and was consequently deified by many Indians. …show more content…
He was so moved and shocked by the damage he saw that he became angry and withdrawn. The events of Operation Bluestar outraged him so much that he began to plot Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The chief members of Mrs. Gandhi’s security team were reluctant to allow any Sikh, even a trusted bodyguard, near her. They were removed from her personal protection unit. But, Indira Gandhi strongly opposed this change and insisted that her Sikh guards remain on duty. It could be argued that Operation Bluestar showed that Mrs. Gandhi held very little regard for the Sikh faith, and yet she retained her Sikh bodyguards despite everyone’s advice. This shows that Mrs. Gandhi wanted to prove that she was not the enemy of the Sikh faith (Mayo). On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was walking to her office through her garden in New Delhi for a television interview (Dommermuth-Costa 113). As she walked, Beant Singh used his revolver to fire five shots into her chest at close range. Beant’s accomplice, Satwant Singh, opened fire on her with a machine gun, despite the fact that she was already dead

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