Still on Top: the Nehrus

For sheer human drama and historical sweep, few families this century matched India's Nehrus. Theirs is the story of the birth of the world's biggest democracy. The protagonist was Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi's protege during the struggle for Indian independence in the 1930s and '40s. In 1947, the Cambridge-educated Nehru became independent India's first Prime Minister. He espoused democratic socialism at home and cold war neutralism abroad. A captivating politician, he won re-election three times before his death in 1964.

Two years later, his daughter Indira Gandhi was chosen Prime Minister. In 1980 her youngest son Sanjay, who had been groomed as successor, died in a solo plane crash, making his brother Rajiv the heir apparent. In 1984, Indira was assassinated by a bodyguard, and Rajiv became Prime Minister. After the Congress Party's defeat in 1989, Rajiv resigned. In 1991, poised to win election again, he was assassinated by a suicide bomber.

Public clamor has since prodded Rajiv's widow Sonia to take over the helm of the Congress Party. If Congress wins India's general election in September, as expected, the Nehru dynasty, now headed by an Italian-born mother of two, may reign again in the next century. And if Sonia does not ascend, Indians will wait for her daughter Priyanka to come into her own.