Mother India: A Political Biography of Indira Gandhi

by Pranay Gupte

Mother India is the fascinating story of independent India's most complex GUPTE political figure: Indira Gandhi, the enigmatic and solitary daughter of the country's first prime minister, who rose to become prime minister herself.

Genres: Biography

660 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1992

Reviews

[Ryan]

Mother India is a bit disjointed in parts and not nearly as good as Katherine Frank's biography on Indira but the book is nevertheless a decent political biography. The chapter on the Emergency, the controversial two-period period during which Mrs. Gandhi suspended India's democratic institutions, was particularly good.

[Oli Mukherji]

Brilliant book,authoritative and meticulous.Brings into sharp focus who Indira Gandhi was and why she was the most beloved and most reviled prime minister of India. Gupte does not mince two words where he correctly points fingers at Indira for dismantling the bureaucracy and letting corruption and nepotism become its very fabric.However he is equally thoughtful when he weighs Indira's options being pushed against the wall politically, too many times and spares genuine admiration for her tenacity to fight and her infatigable journeys across the length and breadth of India to the people for whom she was an intonation of the Goddess Durga.Book is worth a read if anybody is interested in a balanced history of interesting times in the development of our "Secularist Democracy"

[Dhaval Pandya]

This books casts a clear light on the political life of Indira Gandhi. Starting from her upbringing in a politically tilted family to her becoming only the second Lady Prime Minister of her time, this books gives a detailed perspective of the time of Indira Gandhi's India.