Indira Gandhi

To the Editors:

Most Indians will remember Indira Gandhi [WORLD, Nov. 12] as a woman of great fearlessness, even though her reputation will always be hemmed in by qualifying clauses. Despite her aloofness, she appeared strangely accessible. It would be an injustice to mistake her stoicism for stony heartlessness. As she said in an interview after her younger son's death, 'The wounds are there, but perhaps some scars do not show."

Shormishtha Panja

Providence

Indira Gandhi was a complex personality who, depending on the situation, could be kind, endearing, humble, firm, stern, maybe even ruthless. She never lost sight of her goal: the best for India.

Asha Narang

Marysville, Mich.

After the tragic murder of Indira Gandhi, some Sikhs rejoiced and danced in the streets. There cannot be much happiness left now that death and persecution have come to thousands of them. Why is it that so many people still refuse to see that violence only brings more violence?

Aida Feierbach

La Paz, Bolivia

Indira Gandhi's assassination underscores how important it is to keep religion out of politics. Religious fervor is not born of reason and therefore no objective discussion can take place. A democracy can be destroyed unless religion and politics are kept separate.

Prakash Kotagal

Euclid, Ohio

India comprises many communities with differing religions and life-styles and more than 20 major languages and some 250 dialects. If the Sikhs were granted autonomy, then why not the Assamese, the Tamils and all the others, until India would be reduced to a cluster of tiny independent countries? How naive to imagine that the Soviets and Chinese would respect India's borders. It is a case of united we stand, divided we fall. American as well as Indian interests lie in a unified, strong, democratic India.

Mithoo Sinha

New York City

Rajiv Gandhi has been criticized as too inexperienced to head the world's largest democracy and handle the present situation in India. When Indira Gandhi entered politics, she lacked experience, yet she emerged as a good leader. India is a country in shock and anger, but Rajiv Gandhi can lead India in unity and peace, perhaps better than his mother.

Jayesh Parmar

Teaneck, N.J.

What made the assassination of the proud but vulnerable Mrs. Gandhi particularly pathetic was that it was committed by members of her bodyguard whom she had continued to trust against all warnings. The so-called disciples of India's revered Guru Nanak, contemptuously basking in foreign shelter in Western countries, have no reason for jubilation. I feel sad about the shame brought upon my Sikh countrymen by those traitors. They emptied their guns into someone who, with all her real or imagined power, was a small, frail old woman.

Bharati Banerjee

Heidenheim a.d. Brenz,

West Germany

Your coverage of Indira Gandhi was too flattering. At best, she was a Soviet client who ruthlessly inflicted her dynastic rule and divided the people just as her British masters had done. India is neither democratic nor secular. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights needs to take a close look at Hindu India.

Mahmood Ali Shakir

Oklahoma City

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