Indira Gandhi: A Personal & Political Biography

by Inder Malhotra

A biography of Indira Gandhi, this deals with her unhappy "love-marriage" to Feroze, the ambivalent influence of her father and her relationship with her sons. It traces the evolution from "Dumb Doll" to "Empress of India", her downfall, the roots of which were sown in the Summer of Emergency in 1975, and ultimate assassination following the raid on the Sikh Golden Temple in 1984. As well as being a study of a mysterious personality, once the world's most powerful woman about whom there is hardly a neutral opinion in India, it is also a study of the country after independence. The author was Indian correspondent for "The Guardian" from the mid-1960s to 1978 and until 1986 Resident Editor of "The Times of India" in Delhi.

Genres: Biography, India

363 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Jarkko]

Democratic India's the most infamous and undemocratic leader's biography was quite the read. While I knew about the appalling Emergency, I knew nothing about other nearly as ill-advised decisions Indira took during her reign (yes, I use that word on purpose). While she certainly did some good deeds in her 20-or-so years at the frontline of politics, the author's bias towards his lifetime friend is strikingly obvious in that all her transgressions of democracy are played down as petty misdemeanours. The book elates Indira Gandhi even if just a few lines earlier it has shown her completely indifferent reaction to a genocide of civilians (in Assam) within the borders of the country she was the Prime Minister of. I think I now only have more reasons to dislike this nepotistic, unforgiving and dictatorial leader.

[Marko]

I have the german edition.

[KRISHNAN SUBRAMANIAN]

The book is a very in-depth analysis of Indira’s personal and political life .

Great work

[Gopal Krishan]

Good writer,biography of Prime Minister of India personal & political life.