Indira Gandhi: A Personal and Political Biography

In India there are few neutral opinions about Indira Gandhi. A crowd estimated to be nearly a million people attended a rally to honour her on the first anniversary of her assassination, but a large section of Indian intelligentsia remains implacably hostile towards her. Inder Malhotra's biography explores this complex and private person who lived under constant public gaze and learned to adjust her demeanour to the occasion, concealing her true self and real feelings. The book examines her unusual and unhappy marriage, the influence of her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, on her career, and her relationship with her sons - Sanjay, her chosen heir, and his elder brother, Rajiv, who actually succeeded her. It traces Mrs Gandhi's rise to power and her downfall, the seeds of which were sown in the summer of emergency in 1975. The later revival in her fortunes led eventually to the siege of the Sikh Golden Temple, and so to her assassination in November 1984.