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Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi

Katherine Frank (Goodreads Author)

4.01 · Rating details · 2,027 ratings · 126 reviews

On the morning of October 31, 1984, as she walked through her garden, smiling, with hands raised and palms pressed together in the traditional Indian namaste greeting, Indira Nehru Gandhi was assassinated by her own bodyguards. She died as she had lived, surrounded by men, yet isolated. It was a violent end to a life of epic drama.
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Hardcover, 592 pages

Published 2002 by Houghton Mifflin (first published 2001)

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May 13, 2013 Rithun Regi rated it it was amazing

My dad once told me that he hated and loved Indira Gandhi to equal measure. Her life was never her choice. Being born in the illustrious Nehru household with both her father and grandfather Congress Presidents ensured that she would be earmarked for greatness. Her own father never wanted dynasty politics for India, but she could be nothing less than the Empress of India or Mother Indira as she was lovingly referred to by the masses. She won the Bangladesh war and imposed the Emergency on the inf ...more

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Dec 29, 2013 Sahil Sood rated it it was amazing

Shelves: altar-book-shelf, non-fiction, biography

In her letter to Dorothy Norman, a female American photographer, writer and social activist, and also Indira's closest friend and confidante, Indira expressed what it meant to grow up in the Nehru household, in the midst of political turmoil and unrest spreading throughout India, a country on the brink of achieving independence from the bicentennial rule of British Empire:
Since earliest childhood I have been surrounded by exceptional people and have participated in exceptional events...The circ In her letter to Dorothy Norman, a female American photographer, writer and social activist, and also Indira's closest friend and confidante, Indira expressed what it meant to grow up in the Nehru household, in the midst of political turmoil and unrest spreading throughout India, a country on the brink of achieving independence from the bicentennial rule of British Empire:
Since earliest childhood I have been surrounded by exceptional people and have participated in exceptional events...The circumstances in which I passed my girlhood- both domestic and public spheres- were not easy. The world is a cruel place for the best of us and specially so for the sensitive.
Indira Gandhi, or as people fondly called her 'The Empress of India', was India's second longest serving Prime Minister, and inarguably the most controversial and infamous figure of Indian politics.
Katherine Frank's biography is the closest and the most endearing account of her remarkably eventful life. Instead of plainly and chronologically charting events that shaped her life, she tries to bring out Indira as a person- as a sum of both political and personal events.
Diagnosed at an early age, with rare pulmonary tuberculosis in the lungs, Indira, along with her mother, Kamala Nehru, who also suffered from severe ailments, spent most of her time on medical treatments that required her to travel back and forth between India and Europe. Not only she received disrupted formal education, but the political turbulence in the country further kept her from leading a normal, regulated life. This tense, emotional, and often revelatory phase is investigated through her correspondence with her father, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, India's first and longest serving Prime Minister, and also Indira's guiding figure during her childhood. Given the limited (almost no) poetic license, Frank sustains Indira, and keeps her voice alive page after page, so much so that the entire narration reads and sounds like Indira's intimate self.
As a highly observant and perceptive writer, Frank discovers many vantage points to look at Indira's several life and political decisions. Long periods of inactivity, illness, and a relentless urge to be of worth in Indian freedom struggle, in early childhood; frequent bouts of depression and melancholia, triggered by solitude and loss of dear ones; estranged relationship with her philandering husband, Feroze Gandhi; perpetual emotional harassment by her younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, on whom she doted blindly; petty domestic squabbles and frequent clashes with her daughter-in-law, Maneka Gandhi; and above all, increasing insecurity of being stripped of power in the political scene inherently dominated by men, all contributed to her taking some erroneous decisions.
Frank's book is by no means a conventional biography, for she richly portrays the complexities and struggles of various other characters who aid Indira's struggle into politics: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, through his correspondence serves as the perfect father and supreme companion, who with his towering intellect and vast experience guides Indira's every step; Kamala Nehru, keeping her head high in the times of adversary, shows Indira the power of courage and persistence; Mahatama Gandhi, Feroze Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Indira's sons and others, whose life stories are intelligently woven into the narrative framework; and Kashmir, the heaven's abode, a place whose beauty and healing powers become the fuel of sustenance for Indira's spiritual and physical recovery, in times of repair and need.
I have felt like a bird in a very small cage, my wings hitting against the bars whichever way I move. The time has come for me to live my own life. What will it be? I don't know at all. For the moment, I just want to be free...and find my own direction. The experience of being President of the Congress has been exhilarating at times, depressing at times, but certainly worthwhile. But.....I can only be warped & unhappy if I have to continue.
In her late-night heartfelt confession to Dorothy Norman, Indira, shortly before assuming power, predicts how increasingly lonely and depressing she would become if forced to continue. And it proved true. Born into the Nehru family, her life was never her choice, and thus, she was slated for a life of public service.
Indira's tenure was dotted with some remarkable achievements that brought out her assertive, domineering, forthright and often ruthless persona: India's extended support and huge involvement in the creation of Bangladesh (East Pakistan); launching of India's first successful nuclear test; the annexation of Sikkim with India; the successful culmination of The Green Revolution Movement transforming India from a nation heavily reliant on imported grains and prone to famine to being largely able to feed itself, and become successful in achieving its goal of food security; drawing up of Line of Control along the Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan border, to settle the territorial dispute; and improved foreign relations with USSR and other countries. Thus, she transformed a crippled economy into a thriving, full blooded nation. But several of her decisions like centralizing power, imposing the state of emergency, raiding the Golden Temple (the holy place of Sikhs) etc. met with severe criticism, and the latter cost her life.
With each phase Indira became more insecure and reclusive; the loneliness haunted her, increasingly so after the death of her son, Sanjay. Frank's writing achieves in making the reader empathetic with her condition. In her final moments, shortly before her assassination, Indira recounted many efforts that had been made to assassinate her, and asserted that each drop of her blood spilled shall continue to strengthen India. Thus, "India is Indira; Indira is India", became the slogan of the millions. Indira acknowledged that India was much larger than a single family or a single person, and insisted that it would always endure.
Today, Indira Gandhi is no more; debates rage on whether the emergent actions taken were necessary; but her story is one great story of a highly flawed individual; a story born out of great solitude and courage. Frank's book is a compelling character study, and a stunning account of one of the most equally beloved and reviled persons to have lived. ...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Arun Divakar rated it really liked it

Over stale, machine made coffee in office a colleague asked me Do you think India is a democracy ? Biting back the Yes that close to three decades of being an Indian have instilled in me, I asked Why ? He grins and then replies I am just wondering why in the so-called largest democracy in the world, only one family has the right to rule !! This made perfect sense to me for ever since independence, one member or the other from the Nehru family has been on the center stage of Indian politi Over stale, machine made coffee in office a colleague asked me Do you think India is a democracy ? Biting back the Yes that close to three decades of being an Indian have instilled in me, I asked Why ? He grins and then replies I am just wondering why in the so-called largest democracy in the world, only one family has the right to rule !! This made perfect sense to me for ever since independence, one member or the other from the Nehru family has been on the center stage of Indian politics. All these sum up why I thought of giving the biography of one of the most influential of this dynasty to hold India at sway a shot : Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi.

First off I must say that I was impressed by the candor and research that would have gone into the creation of this book. The sketch of Gandhi as a shrewd,manipulative old man who knew how to achieve his ends will always be a revelation in a country which always made a god out of him. But the spotlight in the book falls on the Nehrus which I can say in a cliched way : was, is and probably will be India's first family for a long time to come. The author tells of the colossus of man named Jawaharlal Nehru and his larger than life public image and a not-so-cozy private life. What gets laid bare in the pages is about a dysfunctional family of a great man who did not honestly get time for himself, his wife who was slipping away mentally from him and of the daughter who suffered through it all. Indira grows up through all the tumults of the Indian freedom struggle and also through the storms and gales that engulf her personal life. She becomes an adolscent, a teenager and has a stormy marriage. She becomes a wife and a mother. In short she wears all the masks that life gives a woman to wear. It was probably after all these were completed that the metamorphosis began.

Moving out from the shadow of her god-like father, through fits and starts she carves her own niche. Inevitably the reins of this mass of humanity was passed on to her more as a birthright than anything else. It is true that Indira Gandhi was one of the people who moulded India into what it is today. Her tremendous popular appeal made her 'Mother India' to the masses and even had people believing that she was the Goddess incarnate. From then on, if I were to borrow the author's words : From that pinnacle of power,fame and popularity she had nowhere to go but down. Her undoings were many but most notable were the state of emergency imposed on India, her apparent clinging to power believing herself to be a sort of messianic figure who could save India and the sycophancy and nepotism that was the proverbial last straw that broke the camel's back.Like many a tragic figure she gets caught in a storm of violence of her own making.

I enjoyed the writing style in most of the passages and being closely linked to the history of India, it unurprisingly reminded me of pages from my History textbooks of old. Frank does give way to rumors and allegations at places which the book could have done without.

There was one observation I had of the principal characters : The Nehrus. While preaching austerity, high moral standards and a refinement that bordered on nobility the Nehrus chose to holiday in Europe's finest locations while a subcontinent was in tumult in its clamor for independence ! While Nehru & Indira skied on the mountainslopes of Switzerland, countless thousands lay rotting in British Jails. Something I found bizzare & more or less sinful ! I do not discount the selfless dedications that this family made for India but this at first glance was a tad too much for me. ...more

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Sep 02, 2018 S.Ach rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-memoir

Indira is India and India Indira.

What better way to understand the history of post independent India to the modern age than reading the biography of arguably the most controversial yet one of a prominent maker of modern India - Indira Nehru Gandhi!
What a life she led! Great upbringing, romantic affairs, family feuds, political maneuvers, wars, nepotism, corruption, assassinations - her story had every possible ingredient of a riveting life. Surrounded by who's-who of architects of Indian indepe ...more

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Dec 04, 2017 Srikar Vantaku rated it it was ok

Shelves: indian-politics

IG was close to her mother. Kamala Nehru (Wife of Nehru) was always unwell. Her relation with Nehru was primarily through letters, yet there was a strange personal distance between the two . Indira kept unwell most of the time till she became the PM. She was diffident yet strong willed, missed her mother after her death and generally depressed (Beware, she could pass on a little to the reader as well).
There, I had summarised two-thirds of this book.

The book gives a vivid picture of Indira in h IG was close to her mother. Kamala Nehru (Wife of Nehru) was always unwell. Her relation with Nehru was primarily through letters, yet there was a strange personal distance between the two . Indira kept unwell most of the time till she became the PM. She was diffident yet strong willed, missed her mother after her death and generally depressed (Beware, she could pass on a little to the reader as well).
There, I had summarised two-thirds of this book.

The book gives a vivid picture of Indira in her childhood and youth, thanks primarily to the numerous letters exchanged between the father and daughter. Yet, it profoundly falters in the last part, and the most important one for an Indian reader - Indira Gandhi as the PM. I have read better works on this. One primarily being India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha. Heck, even Durbar by Tavleen Singh, although written in a tone of disdain towards Emergency and later part of IG's Prime Ministership gave a better account of IG and her politics. The content here seemed repetitive atleast for someone who has reads India After Gandhi.

A biography is far from being an amalgamation of diary entries of the said person. It is the making and the unmaking of the personality, their influences, their internal conflicts which make a biography gripping. I have read Half Lion by Vinay Sitapati and is probably the best work on an Indian PM. I am terribly disappointed with this work in that respect. The author chose to highlight meaningless details of young Indira's bad health, her recuperation abroad, hell, even her menopause (!?) But, when it came to dissect the part of IG as PM, she floundered. Although, admittedly due to the lack of a paper trail, it still cannot explain the apparent 'sanitizing' of the work (especially in matters related to Rajiv and Sonia) so as not to hurt the Congress leadership. May be, we will have to wait it out for 3 more generations when IG's politics would be irrelevant to make way for an honest account of her Prime Ministership.

One of the last few lines of this biography reads "India is larger than a single person or a single family". Alas, the family has now passed on to the 5th generation now and yet, this realization has not dawned on them.

PS - If you have decided to read the book anyway, read wikipedia for the early part of IG's life and head straight to the third part. You'll save a lot of time.
...more

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Nov 19, 2018 Nita Kohli rated it it was amazing

This is a massive book of about 700 pages but I just flew through it. I never felt tired or burdened with the facts and the in depth information laid by this book. I was turning page after page and it is one of those rarest books I have read that I felt depressed when it ended.
Why did I decide to read this? Because I have a keen interest in reading about Indian politics and lives of some of our prominent leaders. Indira Gandhi is one of such leaders, daughter of Nehru and the only Indian woman P This is a massive book of about 700 pages but I just flew through it. I never felt tired or burdened with the facts and the in depth information laid by this book. I was turning page after page and it is one of those rarest books I have read that I felt depressed when it ended.
Why did I decide to read this? Because I have a keen interest in reading about Indian politics and lives of some of our prominent leaders. Indira Gandhi is one of such leaders, daughter of Nehru and the only Indian woman Prime Minister.
My source of reading materials on Indian politics and leaders for years have been the ones found on the internet. But in today’s time when the credibility of such online materials is threatened by the fake news and information being widely shared on social media and whatsapp messages I decided to trust books.
In my search to find what book should I read, I found this book in my local library.
This book gives a detailed account of Indira’s life - her family, her political and her personal life.
It is divided into three parts with each part taking the reader into the different phases of Indira Gandhi’s life.
What I liked most about this book is that it provides an unbiased account of Indira Gandhi’s life. The author does not try to create a hero or a martyr out of Indira but instead she lays down the facts and true events of her life leaving the readers to decide if they want to rever Indira or abhor her. The author doesn’t shy away in pointing out when people including Indira could not be considered a reliable source of information and when they changed their narration of events. The author not only talks about Indira Gandhi’s strengths but also her weakness and her wrong doings.

I am not a supporter of any leader or any party but I do believe that if one wants to read about Indian politics then some leaders cannot be missed and Indira Gandhi is one of such leaders.

This book gives the readers a look into the life of Indira Gandhi not only as a leader but also as a daughter, a wife, a mother and a grandmother. An incredible book that must be read.

This book is now one of the best books I have ever read. ...more

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Oct 31, 2016 Himanshu Khurana rated it really liked it

A brilliantly researched book by Katherine Frank on the life of one of the most controversial and powerful Prime Ministers of India- Indira Gandhi. It systematically begins by tracing the origins of the Nehru clan right from their migration from the valley of Kashmir to the great plains of north India. In the initial chapters, the author investigates the politically surcharged and exposed atmosphere in which Indira was brought up. Her father was continually absent from their household due to his A brilliantly researched book by Katherine Frank on the life of one of the most controversial and powerful Prime Ministers of India- Indira Gandhi. It systematically begins by tracing the origins of the Nehru clan right from their migration from the valley of Kashmir to the great plains of north India. In the initial chapters, the author investigates the politically surcharged and exposed atmosphere in which Indira was brought up. Her father was continually absent from their household due to his active political involvement and his sense of duty to the nation. In the event, she developed a much closer relationship with her father over letters and in fact, she always was more forthright and true to her words in the written word than the spoken. Further, the book also shows the troubled relationship with her husband Feroze and how it affected her political position before she became a national leader in her own right.

Though the book is largely sympathetic to Indira, it brings out some crucial and important facts. The first one is that Nehru was not the one who started the so-called dynasty. In fact, on the question of Indira becoming the Congress President, he categorically stated that he ‘would not like to appear to encourage some sort of dynastic arrangement. That would be totally undemocratic and an undesirable thing’ and he insisted that he was ‘not grooming her for anything.’ Instead, the birth of dynasty began from Indira Gandhi with the rise of her son Sanjay Gandhi as the anointed heir to the throne. Initially she didn’t want her sons to take part in active politics however later she did not attempt to block Sanjay Gandhi’s attempts to hold power either. But she was astute enough to realize that India was still a democratic country and she could not continue Emergency indefinitely and become a dictator. ‘She was guilty of hubris but not megalomania.’

There are several issues with the book as well. First of all, I think there should have been a chapter on her legacy as well because the book seems a bit low on analysis about how deeply the kind of politics she engendered has affected Indian democracy, say in the primacy of the ‘party high command’ and lack of internal party democracy. Also, one thing the book lacks is a better analysis of the transformation of Indira from a reluctant political worker and Nehru’s hostess into a national leader who was not just loved and admired but worshipped by the large masses. Was it because of the legacy of Nehru or something intrinsic in her way of politics which made her the object of all popular adulation and helped undermined the party?

Finally, what could be defined as the legacy of Indira Gandhi? There are many particular things which can be taken account for such as breaking up of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh, first nuclear tests in Pokhran; Green Revolution and so on. However others point out that there are things which are a permanent blot on Indian democracy, such as imposition of the Emergency being one of the darkest periods of Indian democracy, giving fuel to the fire of Khalistan separatism, undermining free democratic expression, developing the constitutionally abhorrent ideas of a ‘committed judiciary’ and a ‘committed bureaucracy’. When asked by an interviewer ‘what one thing’ Indira wanted most wanted to be remembered for? She retorted that she did not want to be remembered for anything. As Frank remarks, ‘’It was a prophetically accurate retort. For history was not going to remember Indira Gandhi for any one thing- for a coherent strategy, ideology, policy or vision….she had for a long time- from the beginning of her political career in fact- reacted rather than acted.” ...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Sreelekha Menon rated it it was amazing

A brilliant biography.A must read for all Indians.Katherine Frank portrays an era when India was Indira and Indira was India.Through tumultous times of Indian independence struggle and the ensuing partition to the reign of Indira and to her untimely death,the biography not only tells us the life of Indira Nehru Gandhi ,it chronicles the events and people in that era.

One more thing about the book.She has not portrayed Mrs Gandhi as a messiah or a villain.She speaks facts as presented to her.Nothi ...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Jack Fontane rated it really liked it

definitely one good book..... after the initial warmup of 50 pages... found it tough to put it down..... so many events, people, incidents which i have just heard as rumours as a kid .....all coming back substantiated w/ evidence.... afterall she was the Greatest Leader India ever had..... her outisde & inside.... especially the 200-last page were just flying......

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May 18, 2018 Garima Siwach rated it it was amazing

This is an outstanding book, well researched and beautifully written. Attempting to understand Indira Nehru Gandhi is a challenging pursuit, but with each page, I felt that I was uncovering a new layer into her life and her mind. Rightly stated as a life of epic drama, there were moments when I fell in complete awe immediately followed by moments of extreme repulsion. Frank's narration is objective, with pieces of history woven together to form a story that will keep you hooked. I highly recomme ...more

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May 23, 2020 Gunjan rated it it was amazing

Indira is someone who got fascinated with politics, she was someone who was forced into politics. Right from her birth, she was actively or passively active in politics whereabouts of her parents. Her whole family was indulged in the fight for freedom. She was destined to be the one she became. Even when she had the choice to leave all that behind and start anew she chose to serve the country. With this cane power, and popularity, and love and support by citizens of India. But this also made her ...more

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Dec 03, 2020 Jackie rated it really liked it

Wonderful biography on someone I didn't know very well at all. The author struck a good balance of explaining the context that the West might not understand (especially since much of the story is from 40-80 years ago) while also probably being detailed enough for people who lived through it and followed the story of Indira to be reminded of information long forgotten. Indira is quite a character, better than something most fiction could come up with (Rushdie was inspired by her to write Midnight ...more

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Jan 11, 2019 Suyash Singh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aaaa

Very good book

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Apr 27, 2019 Aditi rated it really liked it

Well-written and (from the looks of it,) well-researched.

Technically unrelated, but I now want to know the rest of the Maruti story; how the Suzuki shares kept on increasing and how it went on to become this giant, successful thing it is today.
And I would like to read through some reliable, worth-reading works on Sanjay Gandhi as well. So feel free to recommend, thanks!

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Nov 04, 2020 Paridhi Gupta rated it it was amazing

Brilliant Book! The story of Indira in itself is captivating and nothing short of historical fiction. However, the layer of objectivity and bias-free writing, gives the text more weight. Worth every minute, hour and day.

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Aug 11, 2019 Dinakar rated it really liked it

Extremely long and detailed account of Indira's life. Starting with pre independence to her assassination, the events and sources quoted to produce this book are appreciated. ...more

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Jan 15, 2021 Shruti Jain rated it it was amazing

Katherine Frank beautifully captures India’s modern history from the vantage point of the Nehru household and Indira Gandhi’s tryst with Indian politics.

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Aug 20, 2017 Sajith Kumar rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, biography-memoirs

Title: Indira – The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi
Author: Katherine Frank
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001 (First)
ISBN: 9780002556460
Pages: 567

Indira Gandhi’s tenure as prime minister of India is remarkable for many firsts. It was the first time that a woman could achieve the country’s topmost political spot. It was then that the country had won a major war in more than a millennium of history. It was also the first time that a democratically elected politician imposed an autocratic regime on the peop Title: Indira – The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi
Author: Katherine Frank
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001 (First)
ISBN: 9780002556460
Pages: 567

Indira Gandhi’s tenure as prime minister of India is remarkable for many firsts. It was the first time that a woman could achieve the country’s topmost political spot. It was then that the country had won a major war in more than a millennium of history. It was also the first time that a democratically elected politician imposed an autocratic regime on the people in the form of Emergency, which the people endured with surprisingly little demur. Katherine Frank was born and educated in the US, is the author of three acclaimed biographies and has taught at universities in West Africa and the Middle East as well as Britain. During six years of researching and writing this book, she spent extended periods in India. Frank presents a comprehensive, but slightly adulatory account of Indira Gandhi, first as the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru and then as the undisputed leader of India for a decade.

Nehru’s family had the stature of a dynasty. Frank notes that the ancestors themselves were very particular in associating with the powers that be. Raj Kaul who migrated from Kashmir to Delhi was a member of the court of Mughal king Farrukhsiyar in 1716. His great grandson Lakshmi Narayan was a lawyer of the English East India Company. Another forefather Gangadhar was a police officer in Delhi when the mutiny broke out in 1857. However, the family’s takeoff to the stratosphere of power took place with Jawaharlal Nehru, based on the wealth generated by Motilal Nehru’s legal practice at Allahabad. The family’s knack of managing finance was lost with Jawaharlal while that of managing politics was missing two generations later in the time of Rajiv Gandhi. Nehru maintained good personal rapport with the British even while opposing them on principles. The Cripps Mission of 1942 which examined constitutional reforms of India was opposed by Congress, but its leader Sir Stafford Cripps was a friend of Nehru. The book mentions a nice anecdote when Cripps visited Nehru’s private residence at Anand Bhawan. He stayed for a few days there and was a strict vegetarian. Not many in Anand Bhawan were vegetarian and very little fruits and vegetables were available in the Allahabad market. Nehru ordered melons from Kabul and grapes from Quetta for the visitor!

Nehru is thought to be a great statesman who moulded India with his ideological principles. Ever since Congress was expelled from power for the first time in 1977, more and more memoirs had started coming out, detailing the political acumen of him. Needless to say, most of the tales are disappointing for patriotic Indians. Some shocking observations can be seen in the book, One Life is not Enough by K Natwar Singh, reviewed earlier. This book presents a few episodes where the great leader’s true colours can be discerned. And no, I don’t mean to point out anything personal. We may grant him some reprieve on that front on account of the dictum that no man is perfect. But his fumbling on the Kashmir policy has caused great loss of lives and material for the country. Nehru’s Kashmir policy was solely founded on the person of Sheikh Abdulla. When he started showing overbearing and partisan tendencies, Nehru was at a loss to what to do. In the end, he was arrested and put behind bars for nearly a decade that tarnished the country’s credibility in the eyes of the world. In another instance, Frank narrates Nehru’s impulsive reaction to an international incident. When he heard that Chou En Lai’s plane had crashed at Hong Kong, he immediately wanted to send a telegram to the British prime minister, suspecting the incident to be orchestrated by British Intelligence. This message was very rashly worded and it required all the persuasive powers of Indira to detain him from dispatching the message. How much equanimity can we expect from such a person who handled the foreign affairs portfolio till his death? When the pro-American Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sir John L Kotalawala moved a resolution in the 1955 Non-Aligned Summit at Bandung condemning the neo-imperialism of the Communist Bloc, Nehru was so incensed that he wanted to walk out. So much for non-alignment!

Readers are more interested in reading about the events after Indira came to power, but a very large portion of the book is devoted to cover life before her ascent as the prime minister. But it then scrutinizes her unsure progress to the peak of glory in 1971, when Bangladesh was carved out after vivisecting Pakistan. Her early years as prime minister were beset with political and economic problems. To score a point over her rivals in the party, she adopted a socialist façade – without any sincere ideological commitment. She nationalized commercial banks, insurance companies, installed a license-quota-permit raj to rein in private enterprise and forfeited the Privy Purse granted to former sovereigns at the time of accession of their states to India. This endeared her to the masses, but caused catastrophic damage to the economy. The author reiterates the ideological bankruptcy of Indira by comparing the earlier and latter parts of her term from 1966 to 1977. After her son Sanjay’s rise to prominence – who was a proponent of free market competition and autocratic ways in dealing with the public – she backtracked on leftist populism. After reaching the summit of popularity in 1971, the author wryly comments that she had nowhere to go but down.

And down she went! Indira’s rule marked India’s unfortunate decline to corruption and muscle power of the rich. Sanjay openly made or marred deals. The book presents some details of corruption at Sanjay’s Maruti factory, which was set up to manufacture small cars. P N Haksar, the principal private secretary of Indira, was a man of integrity but was jettisoned from the post when he opposed some of Sanjay’s intrigues. Not content with that, Sanjay’s cronies in the government raided the business enterprises run by two elderly relatives of Haksar and arrested them. People who argue that Indira was ignorant of the mischief created by Sanjay will be hard-pressed to find a response as to what happened to Haksar. Indira’s politics was more a show than dedication was clear in her response to a question on literacy in India posed by an American journalist in 1978. Her outburst was ‘I don’t know how important literacy is. What has it done for the West? Are people happier or more alive to problems? On the contrary, I think they have become more superficial” (p.433). It has been the bane of India to have politicians like Indira Gandhi who wanted the people to be kept in darkness and feared that they’d be swept out of power when the populace became enlightened.

Indira Gandhi opened an era of terror in the form of Emergency (1975-77) when individual rights were suspended, opposition leaders put in jail and all political activity stopped. She was thrown out of power, but was rehabilitated three years later when the people who ousted her fought bitterly among themselves. If Indira is still remembered with a touch of fondness, the reason for that is her martyrdom, supposedly while trying to safeguard the integrity of the nation. But Katherine Frank describes many events which reveal that Indira dug her own grave. She encouraged and provided support to Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a dreaded Sikh militant, in order to engineer a split in Akali Dal, a party that stood up to and threatened the political supremacy of Congress in Punjab. She provoked unrest in other parts of the country by dismissing the state governments at her will, for protecting the petty political interests of her own party. The basis of all these undemocratic and underhanded deals was her desire to cling on to power at any cost.

The book is written with a good amount of research on Indira. However, the author’s grasp of the political landscape of India and other political parties than Congress appears to be amateurish and derived unchanged from other works. A noted feature of the book is its propensity to be a fountainhead of gossip. The suggestion on the parentage of Feroze Gandhi is shocking, as also that on his personal life and rumours in Allahabad. Allusions to M O Mathai’s (Nehru’s private secretary) relations with Indira are simply outrageous. It is suggested that a chapter titled ‘She’ was removed from Mathai’s biography at the behest of Indira because it contained nasty personal references to her. The book contains a few monochrome plates, a commendable section of Notes and a good Index. A chronology would’ve helped it much better.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

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Oct 13, 2015 Pradeep Nair rated it it was amazing

An 'unputtdownable' biography. It's studded with lots of information, not surprising, considering the in-depth research Katherine Frank has done. The book starts with Motilal Nehru and ends with the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

The books gives a great insight into the person Indira Gandhi was -- as granddaughter of Motilal Nehru, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, husband of Feroze Gandhi, mother of Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi, mother-in-law of Sonia and Maneka Gandhi, grandmother of Rahul, Priyanka an An 'unputtdownable' biography. It's studded with lots of information, not surprising, considering the in-depth research Katherine Frank has done. The book starts with Motilal Nehru and ends with the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

The books gives a great insight into the person Indira Gandhi was -- as granddaughter of Motilal Nehru, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, husband of Feroze Gandhi, mother of Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi, mother-in-law of Sonia and Maneka Gandhi, grandmother of Rahul, Priyanka and Varun; as a freedom fighter, unofficial hostess of many world leaders who came calling on India's first PM, as hardcore nationalist, a hard-to-beat politician, a go-getter Prime Minister and, as a teenager and a woman.

How much ever the members of the Gandhi family try, they are unable to break free of a centripetal force, as it were; and get sucked into the vortex of politics, and that too riding on a family name, ironically seeming to do more harm than good. Indira Gandhi too was a reluctant politician to begin with. She stuttered and was booed during her first time on a stage in England. She wanted to leave India and she had intensely contemplated buying a house in England. Unfortunately, for her, before she could finalize the deal, someone else had bought that house. The way the highly reluctant Rajiv and Sonia were forced to embrace politics is recent history.

Even though Indira Gandhi ruled the country for a long time, ushered in quite a few reformatory changes, and kept India's flag flying high on the global stage, she never had it easy. She wanted India to progress rapidly, and didn't like people putting spokes in her plans, citing one reason or the other. She didn't believe in dragging things over a period of time in search of a consensus. She would rather get things done without wasting much time. That gave the world an impression that she cared little for democracy, didn't consider divergent viewpoints, and didn't carry everyone along. Surrounded by men, it wasn't easy at all, governing the large, diverse, often riotous nation.

There was trouble from the moment she became the Prime Minister in 1966, to her last days in 1984. Even though the opposition parties in those days weren't so strong, many of her decisions were opposed. With the result, she had to adopt strong and often unpopular measures to push her decisions through. She often seemed to exude the oxymoronic image of a "benevolent dictator".

I liked the book for its every interesting narrative style and loads of information. Definitely worth reading, at least to know a person, a woman fighting all odds, who strode over India's political, economic, social and cultural landscape with a telling impact. ...more

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Mar 18, 2018 Pramod rated it it was ok

a boring book about the first lady prime minister of India. there is way too much random information from her life which gets tiring to read after some time. book abandoned.

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Jan 10, 2013 William rated it really liked it

I read this book early last year.

It was extremely interesting and intriguing to get a glimpse at the the birth of the largest democracy in this world. We are able to get a detailed look at Indira's extremely interesting life as the first woman PM in India and an extremely powerful woman leader at a time when the world of politics was dominated by men.

As someone who intends to enter politics later in life, this book was extremely enlightening. We not only investigate Indira but people who influe ...more

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Jul 30, 2017 Rupesh Choudhari rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography

The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi written by Katherine Frank is one of the good book to read.
This is the book which we can read to understand the strength which Indira had, so that many people influence on her thoughts.
This books tells the story of “Indira Gandhi” and author collected good data to maintain integrity of Indira’s life. The way author describes the “Indira’s life is very prominent to engage readers.
Indira is strong girl from her child hood and very close to her “Mamma" Kamal Nehru a ...more

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Dec 28, 2015 K rated it really liked it

Very good read. After reading I got to learn how these famous people come on top. As a child Indira had pathetic childhood. Later on in life she was torn apart between her love for her father and husband. And later due to her son Sanjay Gandhi's wrongs , she suffered the major setback in her life. She knew at times that he was wrong but she was blinded in her son's love and though she wanted to but still couldn't say NO to anything to Sanjay . ...more

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Aug 29, 2017 Uday Saripalli rated it it was ok

Quite frankly would have appreciated a much more un-biased view from a supposedly nuetral foreign writer. Much of the story told is know and in public domain. Wherever the controversial bits appear, mind you they are few and far between, the same get an opinion from the writer that is invariably favourable to the Gandhi family and shows them in the kindest of light.

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Oct 02, 2020 Anamika rated it really liked it

What a fabulous book on a fabulous character.

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Nov 28, 2020 Juhi rated it really liked it

For a woman who never aspired to enter mainstream politics, let alone be a prime minister, Indira Gandhi became the first and so far the only woman prime minister of India and was in power for 11 years and 59 days! Hers was the tenure that brought in a new wave of politics known for its shrewdness and lack of appetite for dissent. Indira and her government swiftly moved away from the principle based politics that was the hallmark of Jawaharlal Nehru’s and set the tone for future governments to f For a woman who never aspired to enter mainstream politics, let alone be a prime minister, Indira Gandhi became the first and so far the only woman prime minister of India and was in power for 11 years and 59 days! Hers was the tenure that brought in a new wave of politics known for its shrewdness and lack of appetite for dissent. Indira and her government swiftly moved away from the principle based politics that was the hallmark of Jawaharlal Nehru’s and set the tone for future governments to follow.
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There is so much to explore about what made Indira Gandhi who she was and Katherine Frank does a superb job of it. Young Indira’s life was heavily influenced by her parents as well as her grandfather, Motilal Nehru. A large part of her childhood and teenage years were spent in Europe where Jawaharlal Nehru had to stay to get Kamala Nehru treated for tuberculosis which ultimately became the cause of her death and also plagued Indira for a significant part of her life. One also gets a glimpse of her closeness to Jawaharlal Nehru in the initial years, the letters they wrote to each other which also became famous books later and then the drifting away after Kamala Nehru’s death and her involvement with Feroze Gandhi. Her strained marriage with Feroze which eventually led her to spend more time in Delhi away from him ensured her semi active involvement in politics and Jawaharlal Nehru’s prime ministerial tenure. But all this while, she vehemently denied aspiring to get into politics, neither did Jawaharlal Nehru ever project her as the heir apparent.
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Indira’s active involvement in politics also was circumstancial with both her father’s and husband’s death and having no roof over her head and nothing much to do. At each juncture of her political career, Indira Gandhi found herself being propelled into politics rather than seeking to be there. Who would have thought she was called “goongi gudiya” or dumb doll by Ram Manohar Lohia at the start of her prime ministerial tenure. From there to “Indira is India and India is Indira” was a journey covered in less than a decade. Frank also covers her lapse in judgment when it came to Sanjay Gandhi in the later years and how Emergency became the defining moment of her career.
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Whether you like Indira Gandhi or not, one thing is for sure that you wouldn’t have been able to ignore her. Indira is a very well documented biography and a highly recommended read for those interested in Indian Politics. ...more

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Apr 07, 2018 Ritika Chhabra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, the-library-books, the-coursebooks

Originally published on Just A Girl High On Books.

I don't usually begin this way, but I need to pin-point this out before I talk of any other thing about the review. I need to applaud the writer for the ample amount of time given to this book. Not only because of the huge mass of pages it has, but also because of the amount of time she would have probably spent in researching over her issues. The interviews she is said to have taken, the amount of time going over the unpublished sources—all of t Originally published on Just A Girl High On Books.

I don't usually begin this way, but I need to pin-point this out before I talk of any other thing about the review. I need to applaud the writer for the ample amount of time given to this book. Not only because of the huge mass of pages it has, but also because of the amount of time she would have probably spent in researching over her issues. The interviews she is said to have taken, the amount of time going over the unpublished sources—all of this needs to be appreciated.

That said and done, what I realized after reading this book was that this wasn't as much about Indira as it was about her other family members. Her father, Jawarharlal Nehru, for instance, takes up a huge chunk of the book. Not that it is anything disappointing, or something. If anything, it just makes the reader understand how Indira was the way she was. It helps one understand things from a viewer's point-of-view - as if the person was there when any of this happened.

But not only that, the book also makes one look at Nehru in the light of his thoughts and surroundings. A man dependent on his father for money because he is too deep in politics, a man with not enough time for himself or his family, someone who watches his wife's health slowly depleting away, but can do nothing to stop it. All of this, in the end, affecting Indira -his only child - and her actions.

That is also, probably, why I would give the book a 3.5 and not a 4. I understand that Nehru's life and his struggles are an important factor in shaping her childhood and in turn, her future, but reading about Nehru wasn't entirely the reason why I picked up the book. I wanted to know more and more about Indira, not her father only. Or, is that how biographies usually go? I have no idea, this was my first.

On another note though, being the child of one of the prestigious as well as most important political families of the country, Indira grows up through all the ups and downs of the Indian Freedom Struggle. These ups and downs which later become a storm and engulf her life.

I particularly enjoyed reading the book because it showed how a girl, burdened by the responsibilities of her life, overcame all her struggles and became a sort of an empress of India. Of course, she made mistakes. There were a lot of examples of that. And she wasn't the epitome of goodness either, but all those things simply proved how humane she truly was - even though the society taught us otherwise. A woman sent to live far away from her family to study in a boarding school, forced into politics - all thanks to the family, married against her wishes to someone she didn't love, and finally, been mostly alone all her life. Gandhi was an epitome of strength and success.

I also liked the writing style a lot. The simple language not only made it easy for me to read, but also, to some extent reminded me of my childhood - of the time when I had to spend my days with my nose inside a History book to gain marks the next day. What more was that this book did not portray Indira as someone who was a messiah or a villain toward the Indian democracy. No, Indira was a human and this book showcases just that. Something I truly adored.

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Nov 01, 2020 Priya rated it really liked it

My experience below is how I felt the book was and I would try to restrain myself from talking about Indira as a person .

So , as per me , there are two major parts of this biography .One part , which I thoroughly enjoyed was the journey of Indira Nehru from a meek sickly girl to the woman in power and politics. I enjoyed this part, It was well researched , a lot of nuances came from the letters between different parties . The facts were stated without any major judgements and I really enjoyed i ...more

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Dec 29, 2020 Reader Variety rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography, leadership, politics, history-asia, non-fict-2000-2020

The less you know about India and Indira Gandhi (and her father Nehru), the more interesting is this book. There is a lot of personal minute detail about Indira herself, so there are probably better sources for the bigger picture geopolitical view, but worth slogging through to really understand some of the incredibly complex issues that she had to face as the first female Prime Minister of India.

Some interesting points:

- Nehru, and Indira, thought of themselves as from Kashmir as their ancestor ...more

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Oct 16, 2020 Dixit Nagpal rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, biographies

Wow, how naive I was to think that I wont find something really new in this book about Nehru-Ganfhi empire since I have read about them and heard about them while growing up however there is a lot more to this mysterious dynasty. Yea it would be right to call it a Dynasty. I dint like Nehru and Indira both foe their respective decision on India partition and Amritsar Massacre. Nehru had a time and influence to put a foot down and never let the partition happen and then Indira showed the similar ...more

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“Thus, both Mountbatten and Nehru stipulated that the ultimate fate of Kashmir should be settled ‘by reference to the people’, and on 2 November Nehru broadcast on All India Radio that ‘we are prepared when peace and law and order have been established to have a referendum’.” — 0 likes

“Nehru reiterated this pledge in a telegram to the new Pakistani Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, and added ‘we have agreed to an impartial international agency like the United Nations supervising any referendum’.” — 0 likes

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