Indira Gandhi was the only child of Kamla and Jawaharlal Nehru. She spent part of her childhood in Allahabad and part in Switzerland, and was educated at Somerville College, Oxford. After India's attainment of independence, and the ascendancy of Jawaharlal Nehru to the office of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi managed the official residence of her father, and accompanied him on numerous foreign trips. She had been married in 1942 to Feroze Gandhi, who died in 1960.
In 1964 Indira Gandhi was elected to Parliament. She became Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the government of Lal Bahadur Shastri, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack two years later. The contenders for the position of the Prime Ministership picked Indira Gandhi as a compromise candidate and she held the office from 1966 to 1977. She enjoyed popularity after India's triumph in the war of 1971 against Pakistan, and the explosion of a nuclear device in 1974 helped to enhance her reputation among middle-class Indians as a tough and shrewd political leader. However, by 1973, Delhi and north India were experiencing demonstrations against high inflation, the poor state of the economy, corruption, and the poor standards of living. In June 1975, the High Court of Allahabad found Ganhdi guilty of using illegal practices during the last election campaign, and ordered her to vacate her seat. There were demands for her resignation.
Mrs. Gandhi declared a state of emergency, under which her political foes were imprisoned, constitutional rights abrogated, and the press placed under strict censorship. Her eldest son, Sanjay Gandhi, started to run the country as though it were his personal fiefdom. In early 1977 Mrs. Gandhi called for fresh elections, and was beaten by a newly formed coalition of several political parties. Three years later, she returned as Prime Minister of India.
In the second period of her Prime Ministership, Indira Gandhi worked to resolve the political problems in the state of Punjab. In 1984 she ordered an assault upon the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar, called the "Golden Temple," from which a secessionist movement of Sikh militants had waged terrorism on the government and moderate Sikhs and Hindus. Mrs. Gandhi earned the hatred of Sikhs who resented the desacralization of their sacred space. In November of the same year, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated at her residence by two of her own Sikh bodyguards.
