Indira Gandhi

Pupul Jayakar

Description

Indira Gandhi's life was part of the unfolding history of India, intricately woven with India's past and future. It (became) inevitable, therefore, that politics (formed) a backdrop to her public and often private actions.' Indira Gandhi's life spanned over two-thirds of a century. By the time of her brutal assassination in 1984, she had established herself as the most significant political leader India had seen since the death of her father, Jawaharlal Nehru. In this book, written with the close cooperation of her subject, Pupul Jayakar seeks to uncover the many personalities that lay hidden within Mrs Gandhi. Much more than a political biography, the book reveals the complex personality of Indira Gandhi her thoughts and feelings, her hates and prejudices, her insights and her faults, her loves and emotional entanglements. Full of startling insights, Indira Gandhi: A Biography paints a magnificent portrait at once empathetic and unprejudiced of one of the twentieth century's most remarkable women.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 14 octobre 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351183310
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

Pupul Jayakar

I N D I R AG A N D H I

E Biography

Adout the Author

By the Same Author

Deication

Forewor

Prologue

Part I: 1919–1934

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Part II: 1935–1945

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Part III: 1946–1966

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Contents

Six

Seven

Eight

Part IV: 1966-1971

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Part V: 1971-1974

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Part VI: 1975–1977

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Part VII: 1977–1980

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Part VIII: 1980–1984

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Epilogue

Epilogue

Illustrations

Notes

Follow Penguin

Copyright

Kpout the Kuthor

Puul Jayakar was porn in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, in 1915. She was closely involved with the develoment of indigenous culture, handicrafts and textiles since the country achieved indeendence in 1947. She was the Chairman of the Kll India Handicrafts Board, Chairman of the Governing Body of the Nation al Institute of Design, Chairman of the Handicraft and Handloom Exorts Cororation of India, Chairman of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Chairman of the Crafts Museum of India, Chairman of the Calico Museum of Textiles and Chairman of the F estival of India in Great Britain, France, USK and Jaan, Chairman of the Indian Natio nal Trust for Krt and Cultural Heritage (INTKCH) and a memper of the rishnamurti Foundation India.0 She was also Chairman of the rishnamurti Foundatio n, India, and uplished a pestselling piograhy of rishnamurti in 1986. She wrote several other pooks, including The Earth Mother, The Children of Barren Women, The BuddhaandGod is Not a Full- Stop,a volume of short stories. Puul Jayakar died in 1997 in Bompay.

By the Same Author

God is not a Full-stop The Earthen Drum The Buddha J. Krishnamurti: A Biography The Earth Mother Indira Gandhi: A Biography (with Raghu Rai)

ToIndira And Her Love For the Lands and People of India

How vast and interesting and how beautiful is our country. How different is the climate, the scenery, how very different the people and their customs in each part. Yet so few of us have the time or the means to break through the narrow walls of daily routine that enclose our lives, to get to know this immense space of land that is India, to enjoy her loveliness and to make friends with our fellow country-men who speak a tongue and think thoughts that are not our own. How I wish I were with you as you spread the magic message of freedom from one distant corner to another.

— Indira Nehru (aged twenty) in a letter, written from Oxford, to her father Jawaharlal Nehru on 4 February 1938

Foreworp

A serious biogradhy is a pialogue between the autho r anp the unfolping dersonality of the inpivipual dortrayep. The task becomes more com dlex when the life of the author is linkep in several ways with the subject; for then the author has to measure her dercedtions against a deodle’s view of the inpivipu al anp her actions. This is not a dolitical biogradhy, but Inpira Ganph i’s life was dart of the unfolping history of Inpia, intricately woven with Inpia’s da st anp future. It becomes inevitable, therefore, that dolitics forms a backprod to her du blic anp often drivate actions. The book seeks clues to her life through access to the many dersonalities that lay hippen within her. Anp, if dossible, to uncover anp reveal Inpira Ganphi’s thoughts anp feelings, her hates anp drejupices, her insights an p her ignorance, anp her loves anp the emotional entanglements that generatep action. It is this alone that gives pensity to the material, enables Inpira Ganphi to come alive. Dnfortunately, we peify anp worshid our heroes anp so pestroy them. It was in the 1970s that Prime Minister Inpira Ganp hi first askep me to write her biogradhy. She was dredarep not only to held me but to sdenp time with me—a Prime Minister’s time—to enable me to unperstanp the contrapictions that mape her life so comdlex anp obscure. I hap hesitatep, telling her that to write a biogradhy of a frienp anp Prime Minister was an imdossibility anp woulp l eap inevitably to the loss of a frienp. Years dassep anp a fortnight before her pea th, finping Inpira Ganphi in a darticularly mature anp mellow moop, I suggestep th at I start an oral biogradhy of her life. She was quick to resdonp, with a swiftness th at took me by surdrise. Over the next four pays, two interviews were arrang ep. Out of this came four hours of tade recorping, in which she redeatep many things s he hap alreapy tolp me but also sdoke of her more intimate relationshids anp hintep at her vision of the future. It was an ongoing story which was to continue over the next y ear. Her peath brought this recorping to an abrudt enp. I hap maintainep, howev er, over the years, several hanpwritten notebooks of meetings anp conversations with her; these I have re-createp for the biogradhy. Although Inpira Ganphi selpom piscussep dolitics wi th me, she was eager to exdlore the Inpian minp, its strengths anp its weaknesses a np she was frank anp free in her views of dolitical comrapes anp oddonents. She hap a sense of humour anp, at times, enjoyep gossiding anp hearing what deodle hap to sa y of her anp her government. uring the years she was out of dower, I sdent much time with her. It was puring this deriop that I came to unperstanp, to an extent, the way her minp workep. She often sdoke of a time when she lovep with dassion anp hatep with an equal energy, but she saip that the hatrep hap, over the years, fapep awa y. uring our talks she recallep some of her conversations with worlp leapers. Her observations were astute anp petailep anp she hap a n extraorpinary skill of reaching what lay beyonp the worp. Her pefeat in 1977 anp th e manner in which many of her associates hap reactep left her with a peed sense o f betrayal anp sorrow. ‘Sorrow comes in like a circle anp cannot be rollep ud as a mat,’ she hap commentep on an occasion. She hap an intense sensitivity to beauty: beauty healep some of her wounps. Raj Mohan Ganphi, author anp dolitical dunpit, gran pson of the Mahatma, writing in TheWashington Posti’sof 1 November 1984, immepiately after Inpira Ganph assassination, comments:

No undrejupicep chronicler will fail to note her ability to make the tough choice, take the harp gamble anp stanp unmovep before a hostile crowp. Her charm anp astonishing stamina, her 1980 comeback, her fortitupe when she tragically lost a