Well, it seems that everything today is somehow, in some way, political. So there can be no better way to start off our new series of “100 Women Who Rocked the World” with a politician, right? And a politician we shall choose. One from Asia, first, because Asia is the largest continent and I’m Asian. It’s always good to acknowledge your bias’s right at the beginning of something, or so I’m told.
Anyway, so we begin with the story of Indira Gandhi, one of the most influential women of all time in India, the Woman of the Year for the Time Magazine in 1976, and the “Empress of India.”
“Remove poverty, rescue the country” was the slogan under which Indira Gandhi campaigned when she was campaigning for the seat of the Prime Minister in India after India’s independence from Britain. Perhaps the name “Gandhi” rings a bell with you. But this Gandhi is not Mahatma Gandhi, perhaps the world’s most famous civil rights activist and advocate for non-violent resistance. This Gandhi is India’s first and only female prime minister, the third prime minister of an Independent India, a woman who believed until her last days on Earth, before her untimely assassination, in her country’s freedom, a woman who made such an impression on politics in one of the most populous countries in the world that, as Congress party president D.K. Barooah said, “India is Indira and Indira is India.” A woman, who rocked the world.
She was actually related in some ways to Mahatma Gandhi. Her husband took inspiration his name from him, changing his name from Gandy to Gandhi, and Mahatma Gandhi had supported their marriage, though their marriage was strange for the time, considering it was both between different religions and not an arranged marriage. Gandhi had written in support of her and her husband, essentially telling all of the haters to go and mind their own business, which just made Gandhi also a lot cooler in my eyes. Gandhi was also a good friend of Indira Gandhi’s father.
But I digress.
Indira Gandhi was born on the 19th of November, 1917, to a family of politicians and freedom fighters. She would later become the first female prime minister of India. Her father was the first prime minister of India, and her son would later on go on to be prime minister as well. She was the second longest serving prime minister of India, after her father, and was a major player in helping Bangladesh achieve independence from Pakistan. She once wrote that: “I am in no sense a feminist, but I believe in women being able to do everything ... Given the opportunity to develop, capable Indian women have come to the top at once.”
She was more than just a formidable force in the government, though that she certainly was. She was also a person with strong nationalistic feelings, and an urge to lead her people to freedom, like the Messiahs in religion. She apparently once told her aunt: “Someday I am going to lead my people to freedom just as Joan of Arc did!” To her, the Indian people was her family, and she loved her family with a ferocity that was demonstrated in her various political endeavors. Even at a young age, she was passionate about freedom: her country was fighting for independence from the British, and one of the ways civilians contributed to this war was by boycotting foreign goods. Little Indira, at the age of five, threw her own doll into a bonfire burning foreign goods because it was a toy made in England.
At age twelve, she joined the Vanar Sena, a group of children who acted as special “spies” for the revolutionaries, delivering letters and important messages, and going undetected because of their youth. At thirteen, she began her political journey, joining the Youth Wing of the Indian National Congress. Her love for her country and passion for freedom never abandoned her, and she was a powerful opponent for any country, She said, in an interview after the war for the independence of Bangladesh had been won, “I am not a person to be pressured — by anybody or any nation.”
As a woman in politics in a time when women were rarely seen in the public sphere, she was active in the organizational wing of the Congress party even before her election as prime minister. In 1956, Gandhi had an active role in setting up the Congress Party's Women's Section. She helped head the Women's section of the Congress Party. She often tried to organize women to involve themselves in politics. She mobilized women, inspiring those in her country to know what their rights were and to step into the limelight and make their voices heard. She was friends with the infamous “Iron Lady” herself, Margaret Thatcher, and as women in the highest spheres of power in their countries, the two of them bonded and considered each other great friends.
Of course, just because a historical figure was influential and in many ways “great“ doesn’t mean they were without their flaws. Indira Gandhi, for instance, was an authoritarian who suspended civil rights for some time during her first term as prime minister. Honestly, the humanitarian and democrat inside of me hates this fact, but no politician is ever truly black and white, and Indira Gandhi was no different. She was a grey character in history, a person who had her flaws and certainly made her fair share of mistakes, but so does every other great or significant politician. Politics is so subjective that I hesitated when I listed her accomplishments, because what some might consider her greatest achievement, others might consider her greatest crime. But Indira Gandhi is not significant only because of what she did as a politician, but also because, like her contemporary Margaret Thatcher, she was a woman who found power at a time when sexism was not something hidden beneath layers of veneer. She was a woman in power at a time when to be blatantly sexist was the norm, and yet, against all that society could potentially have against her, she persevered, and became the titan in history that we know of today.
Gandhi transformed Indian politics and the Indian state itself. India’s victory against Pakistan in 1971made India, once again, the dominant power in South Asia. India became self-sufficient in food production. The Indian economy became more inward-looking with her policies and her governance. She had made good on her campaign promise of “remove poverty, rescue the economy,” and had done even more for India than she had said. She was truly like what D.K. Barooah said. “India is Indira and Indira is India.”
Bibliography
“India Gandhi: Remembering Country's First Female PM on Her 104th Birthday.” Hindustan Times, November 19, 2021. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-gandhi-remembering-country-s-first-female-pm-on-her-104th-birthday-101637284960604.html.
“Indira Gandhi, Amrit Kaur Named by Time among '100 Women of the Year'.” The Economic Times. Accessed February 24, 2022. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/indira-gandhi-amrit-kaur-named-by-time-among-100-women-of-the-year/articleshow/74498165.cms.
“Indira Gandhi.” Great Lives, February 23, 2022. https://www.umw.edu/greatlives/lecture/indira-gandhi/.
“Jawaharlal Nehru.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, April 20, 2021. https://www.biography.com/political-figure/jawaharlal-nehru.
Kettler, Sara. “7 Facts about Indira Gandhi.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, August 17, 2020. https://www.biography.com/news/indira-gandhi-biography-facts.
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