Indira Gandhi: A personal and political biography - Hardcover

Malhotra, Inder

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340405406 ISBN 13: 9780340405406

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Malhotra knew Indira Gandhi well from 1956 onward, as a correspondent for Britain's Guardian and as the Times of India' s Delhi editor. In a superb, balanced, riveting portrait, he assesses both strengths and flaws of the dominant, assertive prime minster who from early childhood identified with Joan of Arc, and who, like St. Joan, was betrayed by those she trusted, assassinated in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards. Completely identifying herself with her nation, this indefatigable daughter of Nehru turned the world's largest democracy into a virtual dictatorship by declaring an Emergency in 1975. After her electoral defeat, imprisonment and her triumphant return to power in 1980, she adopted a paranoid leadership style and blandly tolerated corruption as economic disparities widened, according to Malhotra. Yet he credits her with holding India together, making it the preeminent nonaligned power, maintaining democracy and pushing through the Green Revolution which enabled her country to feed itself self-sufficiently. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Biographies of Indira Gandhi have encompassed either wild adulation or bitter opposition. Malhotra's portrait is the most balanced of any currently available. As an Indian journalist, Malhotra interviewed the prime minister numerous times, acquiring a knowledge of and sympathy for Gandhi's familial and political complexities. He describes with sensitivity her childhood in the Nehru family and its ambivalent influence on her maturing process. With discernment he also examines how her career was affected by her father, Jawalharal Nehru, and her marriage. He suggests that some of Gandhi's most controversial acts, such as her declaration of a state of emergency and her violence against the Sikhs, may have been due to her struggle as a woman in Indian politics. Malhotra's work reflects authority and intelligent observation and is highly recommended.
- John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0340405406
• ISBN 13: 9780340405406
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 363