Demystifying a Demagogue
A new biography of Indira Gandhi
paints a compelling portrait of power, paranoia and passion
By
MICHAEL FATHERS
There are
politicians and the usual rent-a-mob in India who want Katherine
Frank's Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi (HarperCollins;
567 pages) banned. It doesn't matter that most haven't read
it. They were told it was a scurrilous and offensive biography
written by a foreigner. Now they want to keep it off the shelves
because they fear its revelations challenge the reputation
and status of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India for 15
years until she was assassinated by her bodyguards in 1984.
At stake is the perpetual myth of Indira Gandhi, goddess and
mother of India.
Indians
tend to put their leaders on a pedestal, especially if they
come from a political dynasty and die in office. Mrs. Gandhi,
moreover, was a living monument to her own formidable political
reputation. And even today, nearly 17 years after her death,
her faults and the tyranny of the 1975-77 Emergency she imposed
are glossed over. She was a great nationalist, almost a demagogue.
But she is remembered most of all as an almost mythical heroine
who launched a war against Pakistan and won it. In so doing
she created the new state of Bangladesh. If you are a foreigner,
you don't malign saints in India.
This book
does humanize Mrs. Gandhi, shedding light on her joys and
tragedies, her achievements and defeats. And for the first
time this profoundly complicated person is discussed as a
woman, set free from the political hagiography that surrounded
her in life and still defines her in death. It is an unusual
story and a compulsively readable book-the rise of this weak,
unhealthy girl to leadership of the world's largest democracy,
a virtual dictator who put order first and democracy second.
Brought
up in austerity, Indira Gandhi was a moody adolescent, highly
sensitive to criticism, especially from her family. The Nehru
household was divided along linguistic and religious lines.
Her grandfather and father (and his sisters) spoke and wrote
in English, while her mother and grandmother ate separately
in their private quarters and spoke Hindi. The men were agnostic,
the women superstitious and devout. Separated for much of
her youth from her jailed father, Jawaharlal Nehru, and from
her perpetually ill mother, Indira Gandhi was dispatched to
a variety of schools across India. As a teenager, she went
to Europe, where she moved between university and sanatorium.
She was lonely and infected with tuberculosis, a disease no
one was brave enough to mention at the time because it usually
meant an early death. Back in India, her father constantly
lectured her and, when it suited him, used her as a cipher.
His famous Letters from a Father to His Daughter, penned in
prison, were never sent to her. Instead, he kept them in his
cell waiting for a publisher. She was 20 when they were published
in 1938. She didn't bother to read them until years later.
What has
upset the censorious mob are those passages that show the
lonely Indira Gandhi to be a woman of deep passion who, as
a teenager, fell in love with her future husband Feroze Gandhi.
Free from her family, she had an affair with him in Europe
that lasted several years before they married, against her
family's wishes, back in India. She was further plagued by
rumors and gossip about other affairs when her marriage to
the womanizing Gandhi fell apart, including an alleged fling
with Nehru's private secretary O.M. Mathai. Frank does not
give a definitive yes or no as to whether these relationships
actually took place, relying instead on the statements of
contemporaries. But what comes through clearly is Indira Gandhi's
preference for thuggish, rude and forceful men -an obvious
contrast to her father. Her husband Feroze, her father's secretary
Mathai and her yoga teacher and personal holy man Bramachari
all fit this description. She doted on her younger son Sanjay
who was of the same mold. He was a selfish, untalented and
unprincipled man who rode roughshod over his mother. His death
in a 1980 plane crash broke her, personally and politically.
Behind her
Western education and fluency in European languages was a
deep sense of India. She was superstitious, spiritual and
saw conspiracies everywhere. She adored the crowds that flocked
to her rallies and gave her the affection she craved. But
it is hard to discern from this book whether she was strongly
principled or just enjoyed power. "History," according to
Frank, "is not going to remember Indira Gandhi for any one
thing-for a coherent strategy, ideology, policy or vision."
This is
not a political biography. And anyone who turns to it thinking
they will see a picture of how Indian politics works will
find it lacking. But as a picture of one woman, driven by
her perception of duty, a woman courageous, ruthless and paranoiac,
it is a compelling read.
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June 25, 2001 | No. 25
COVER
STORY
How
It All Ends
If you are still trying to wrap your mind around how the universe began-with
that Big Bang that created everything out of nothing-wait until you find
out what is coming at the other end of the space-time continuum
TRAVELERS
ADVISORY...
PACIFIC
BEAT: Aboriginal leader accused; coral corralled...
PACIFIC
OSERVED: Fraser vs. Wake...
THE
ARTS
TELEVISION: Stealthy product placements are
making ads the stars of the show...
CINEMA: Shrek's adventures in animation
MUSIC: Another hot album by Air
BOOKS: Un-endearing Indira Gandhi
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