The definitive and first non-partisan biography of one of the most formidable political figures of the twentieth century (voted Woman of the Millennium in a BBC poll, 2000)

An objective, detailed portrait of India's third prime minister, Indira Nehru Gandhi, draws on previously unpublished sources and more than one hundred interviews to chronicle the life and times of one of the world's most influential political leaders, from her youth, through her rise to political power, to her assassination and its aftermath.

When Indira Gandhi was brutally assassinated in 1984, she had lived through India's tortured liberation from the British Empire, the bloody era of partition and the monumental difficulties associated with creating and sustaining the world's largest and most troubled democratic nation. This unique, intimate biography of one of the first women heads of state in modern history shows Indira growing from the shy daughter of the great Jawaharlal Nehru to the accomplished politician she eventually became. Very few people knew Indira beyond the facade, and there has been nothing written about her that illumines the conflicting aspects of her character: aloof but charming; lonely but ferocious in defense of her own - particularly her son Sanjay; sensitive and cultivated but capable of cold arrogance; devoted to her nation but blind to some of the cruelties she inflicted; a warm mother and grandmother but a calculating politician. A friend of Indira's for more than thirty years, Pupul Jayakar is uniquely qualified to assess and illuminate this complex woman in depth. Jayakar reveals Indira's thoughts and feelings, her loves and emotional entanglements, her blunders and her great courage. She is also able to situate the Nehru family in the context of modern Indian history in a way that is vivid to the Western reader. In Indira Gandhi, Pupul Jayakar gives us a penetrating but balanced account of one of the twentieth century's most remarkable women, a towering figure whose virtues and vices will be debated for a long time to come.

The first major biography of Indira Gandhi covers the breadth and scope of 20th-century India and the woman who left her indelible mark on that troubled country. Both widely supported and bitterly opposed, she was eventually removed from office, only to make a stunning comeback.

Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India for over sixteen years, was a brave freedom fighter and a passionate patriot, deeply committed to the honour and integrity of India. She was also a devoted mother and grandmother, who was great fun to be with—she loved books, nature, art, sports and puzzles. Born into the illustrious Nehru family in Allahabad, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was educated at Santiniketan, Geneva and Oxford, and was determined since childhood to serve the people of India. This biography, with a foreword by Rajiv Gandhi, and illustrated with rare photographs, portrays very simply but eloquently the life of the ‘Iron Lady of India’ from her birth on 19 November 1917 to her assassination on 31 October 1984.

This book recounts the life of Indira Gandhi, who served as India's prime minister from 1966-1977 and from 1980-1984.

This is the first definitive biography of arguably India’s most influential and powerful civil servant: P.N. Haksar, Indira Gandhi’s alter ego during her period of glory. Educated in the sciences and trained in law, Haksar was a diplomat by profession and a communist-turned-democratic socialist by conviction. He had known Indira Gandhi from their student days in London in the late-1930s, even though family links predated this friendship. They kept in touch, and in May 1967, she plucked him out of his diplomatic career and appointed him secretary in the prime minister’s Secretariat. This is when he emerged as her ideological beacon and moral compass, playing a pivotal role in her much-heralded achievements including the nationalization of banks, abolition of privy purses and princely privileges, the Indo-Soviet Treaty, the creation of Bangladesh, rapprochement with Sheikh Abdullah, the Simla and New Delhi Agreements with Pakistan, the emergence of the country as an agricultural, space and nuclear power and, later, the integration of Sikkim with India. This power and influence notwithstanding, Haksar chose to walk away from Indira Gandhi in January 1973. She, however, persuaded him to soon return, first as her special envoy and later as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission where he left his distinctive imprint. Exiting government once and for all in May 1977, he then continued to be associated with a number of academic institutions and became the patron for various national causes like protecting India’s secular traditions, propagating of a scientific temper, strengthening the public sector and deepening technological self-reliance. Successive prime ministers sought his counsel and in May 1987, he initiated the reconstruction of India’s relations with China. He remained an unrepentant Marxist and one of India’s most respected elder statesman and leading public figures till his death in November 1998. Drawing on Haksar’s extensive archives of official papers, memos, notes and letters, Jairam Ramesh presents a compelling chronicle of the life and times of a truly remarkable personality who decisively shaped the nation’s political and economic history in the 1960s and 1970s that continues to have relevance for today’s India as well. Written in Ramesh’s inimitable style, this work of formidable scholarship brings to life a man who is fast becoming a victim of collective amnesia.