Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (1917–84) was an Indian political leader. She was the prime minister of India 1966–77 and 1980–84.
Born in Allahabad, Gandhi was the only child of Indian nationalist, political leader, and prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Her mother had died when Gandhi was a teenager. She often acted as her father’s hostess for events and accompanied him on his travels. As India’s foremost political leader after Nehru’s death, Gandhi sought to institute a secular state and lead India out of poverty as prime minister. She also defended East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in its conflict with Pakistan in 1971.
In 1975, Gandhi declared a state of emergency throughout India. She assumed emergency powers, curbed personal freedoms, imprisoned her political opponents, and implemented such detested policies as the large-scale sterilization as a form of birth control. Public opposition to Gandhi’s two years of emergency rule was intense and pervasive.
Gandhi was elected prime minister again in 1980. Faced with threats to the political integrity of India, Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to attack and drive out Sikh separatists who were hiding in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the Sikh people’s holiest place of worship. Five months later, her Sikh bodyguards assassinated her in retribution for the attack. She was succeeded as prime minister by her son Rajiv Gandhi.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Indira Gandhi
I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.
—Indira Gandhi
Topics: Leaders, Leadership
Think twice before pointing a finger to any one as other three fingers are always pointing towards you.
—Indira Gandhi
You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.
—Indira Gandhi
Advanced countries of today have reached their present affluence through domination of other races and countries…Their sheer ruthlessness, undisturbed by feelings of compassion or by abstract theories of freedom, equality or justice, gave them a head start.
—Indira Gandhi
The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
—Indira Gandhi
Topics: Questions, Progress
As for Western women, it seems to me that they have often had to struggle to obtain their own rights. That did not leave them much time to prove their abilities. The time will come.
—Indira Gandhi
To be liberated, woman must feel free to be herself, not in rivalry to man but in the context of her own capacity and her personality.
—Indira Gandhi
Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.
—Indira Gandhi
Topics: Forgiveness
Even if I died in the service of the nation, I would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood… will contribute to the growth of this nation and to make it strong and dynamic.
—Indira Gandhi
Topics: Patriotism
There are moments in history when brooding tragedy and its dark shadows can be lightened by recalling great moments of the past.
—Indira Gandhi
You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.
—Indira Gandhi
Topics: Kindness, Anger, Friendship, Peace, Prejudice
My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there.
—Indira Gandhi
Topics: Work, Future, Foresight
A nation’s strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others.
—Indira Gandhi
We would rather starve than sell our national honor.
—Indira Gandhi
Have a bias toward action—let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away
—Indira Gandhi
Topics: Action
Whenever you take a step forward, you are bound to disturb something. You disturb the air as you go forward, you disturb the dust, the ground. You trample upon things. When a whole society moves forward, this trampling is on a much bigger scale; and each thing that you disturb, each vested interest which you want to remove, stands as an obstacle.
—Indira Gandhi
Topics: Society, Change
We should not mourn for men of high ideals. Rather we should rejoice that we had the privilege of having had them with us, to inspire us by their radiant personalities.
—Indira Gandhi
People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights.
—Indira Gandhi
Topics: Responsibility
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