First Female Prime Minister of India.
Indira Gandhi was an Indian politician and the first and, so far, only woman to serve as Prime Minister of India.
She was born on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad (now Prayagraj), India. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister. Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966 and served until 1977, then returned to office in 1980 and remained Prime Minister until her assassination in 1984.
Her leadership included major events such as the 1971 India–Pakistan War and the creation of Bangladesh, the Green Revolution, and India’s 1974 nuclear test. Her period in office was also highly controversial, particularly the Emergency (1975–1977), when civil liberties were restricted and political opponents were arrested.
In 1984, she ordered Operation Blue Star, a military operation at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. On 31 October 1984, she was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, subsequently became Prime Minister.
Indira Gandhi remains one of the most significant and debated figures in modern Indian political history.