Indira Gandhi : The Woman and Lessons for our times

One Hundred and one years ago, a girl was born on 19th November 1917 to Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India and Kamala Nehru, who went on to become the first woman Prime Minister of India, she was imperious, she was enigmatic,  a woman of contradictions, she evoked hate and love, she alienated and charmed, she was a revolution's child driven by robust pursuit for National welfare. As Sagarika Ghose writes that there is voluminous Biographical Literature on Indira Gandhi's life and she is regarded as sluice gate from which has flowed flood of writings. My fascination with Mrs Gandhi started when I saw one of her interviews on Youtube, her communication skills, the way she maintained her equanimity and the way she carried herself was impeccable. And thus began my quest to discover more about the making of the Iron lady. To my mind, India and Indira are intertwined, popularly known for imposing an emergency, there is more to Indira and in all my research, I try to seek my own answers to understand the Indira the woman, her childhood, her choices and here are my learnings from Indira Gandhi Literature, my attempt to understand Indira - the woman and the lessons from her story that are relevant for our times.

Early Years - Importance of Self-Awareness leading to Self Education

Indira Gandhi certainly had an unusual upbringing. She was born in an aristocratic family who valued education and the conversations in the household were highly intellectual. Born to Nehru, she was surrounded by towering personalities such an upbringing helped her to be updated and aware about the world around her but at the same time her childhood was quite eventful she received the best education followed by her mother suffering from tuberculosis. She was always a loner and that helped her in being aware of who she was and who she was becoming. She had started reasoning things and when she was 14 years old she already participated in various nationalist activities and the mentorship she received from Jawaharlal Nehru added a lot to her learning. She lost her mother at an early age and her father was always busy travelling and she would be away from home at Shantiniketan that made her a compulsive letter writer. Even during her tenure as the Prime Minister, she would continue to write letters to her friends. Because she was aloof she was self-aware and she made use of her solitude to read incessantly and explore different avenues that led her to be more practical and action-oriented.

Open-Mindedness, Intellectual Curiosity and a Voracious Reader 

I adore this trait of Mrs Gandhi. She had a wide range of intellectual curiosity. She was a voracious reader and loved intellectual conversations. She loved meeting interesting people. She would make a list of people she would like to meet during her foreign visits. She loved new and innovative ideas she always loved feeding her intellectual curiosity by reading and meeting people with diverse interests. I read an interesting story in one of her biographies that once on a flight to Lusaka in 1970, information that there was a bomb on the plane. The plane had to return to Bombay airport, where they had to wait for three hours while the plane was searched. While waiting, Indira headed straight for the bookshop, where the shop attendant was shocked to find the Prime Minister nonchalantly browsing through books and the book she bought was Arthur Hailey's Airport. Surprisingly, she cultivated intellectuals yet was impatient with too many theories such was she the woman of contradictions. When asked about which books and authors had most affected her, she listed Oscar Wilde, Victor Hugo, Tagore, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Fabre's Book of Insects. She was inspired by Ramayana and Mahabharata only in the later stage of her life.

Unvarying Disciplined Routine, Love for Aesthetics, Nature and Animals 

Mrs Gandhi had incredible Time Management skills. She would be handling the national matters and come home in the evening and spend time with her grandchildren Rahul and Priyanka. She would never compartmentalize her professional and personal life but go with the flow and try to strike a balance and fulfil all her commitments. She woke up at 6 am and perform yoga and be ready by 8 am simple breakfast of slightly burnt toast, one half boiled egg, fruit and milky coffee. She prefered Indian Thali in lunch and ate in the company of her family. She was very conscious of her health and she made sure she exercises and leads a disciplined life. Sonia Gandhi once said that Indira Gandhi was a deeply religious woman at least in the later stages of her life but was embarrassed about it. She had her Puja Room with varied divinities. She performed Pujas regularly but never admitted. She realised that India's wisdom and religiosity sprang from a common sacred source and was encapsulated in the arts and crafts she patronized and showcased internationally. 'What can one seek from art?' she would ask." A few hours of pleasure or an experience which has the seed of timelessness that touches one's innermost self? For her, religion was an extension of culture, expressed through art and decoration. At a time when houses would be decorated with velvet and chandeliers, her home would be decorated with handicrafts.
She was passionate about the environment and wildlife and was ahead of her times in ecological issues. Environment Legislations, setting up sanctuaries are the remarkable achievement of her prime ministership. She often visited forests. She would never throw any flowers presented to her, making sure they were put into vases or given to others. She would write on Kulu Valley: " Let the Kulu Valley attract those who can appreciate the beauty of nature and draw from it spiritual, mental and physical vigour.. humanity is losing itself in the unnatural because it no longer takes its strength directly from nature."

Woman of Style, Remarkable Orator and Mass Leader 

Mrs Gandhi was strikingly looking lady. The style was a significant part of Indira Persona and her personal statement of identity both at India and abroad was the handloom sari. Every Sunday she wore the costumes of a different Indian Stae, helping in this fashion to illustrate the story about the immense diversity of India and its culture. She once said, " I like to see men and women well dressed, I feel they should look their best. Always wear things that are suitable- not anything that is the whim of fashion. As for me, I dislike ostentation. I usually wear sari until I simply cannot do so any more - much to do with the despair of my family."
She was referred as from Gungi Gudiya to a Remarkable Orator. Was it a transformation or an evolution of her real nature? perhaps it was an evolution of characteristics she truly possessed. One of her childhood incidents suggests that she always wielded power. To overcome her loneliness, Indira often gathered the Nehru servants around heer, jumped atop the dining table and delivered speeches, in her words, repeating disjointed phrases that she had picked up from grown-up talks.
A french interviewer once asked her this question:

If you had to choose one quality for leadership, what would it be?

Mrs Gandhi replied: " Liking people os, I think the most necessary quality: only if you truly like them can you have the patience to deal with people of all types.

She went on in a rare flash of self-revelation:

"What you get is what you give, and everybody knows that. They say that if you can see no gods, you have no gods within you. The conflict is, always, whether one wants to better just oneself, or to work for others as well, i.e. the welfare of the individual against the welfare of society. There has to be a balance between the two but obviously, if you are a better person yourself, you can do better work, so the two are linked."

Summing Up: My learnings from Indira Gandhi Literature

Indira Gandhi Literature has been a major source of inspiration for me and her biographies by Sagarika Ghose, Pupul Jaykar, Katherine Frank are all time favourite for seeking inspiration and motivation. The Indira Persona resonate with me because I find her as my teacher. Reading a wide range of books about her has been overwhelming and has definitely influenced my choices in life. She is relatable because she was a voracious reader but what I admire about her is her intellectual curiosity. All that I read in the vast literature on her. I have always tried to implement it.
I think one thing that is very important and relevant is the importance of self-education. After reading books on her. I realised that she was never academically inclined but she was observant, she was remarkably intelligent and knowledgeable because she took efforts in educating herself. There are a lot of anecdotes in the books on how she was constantly in the quest of knowledge as a child and subsequently the various positions she held. Her intellectual curiosity enabled her to have a holistic approach and that reflects in the books in terms of striking a balance and maintaining her equanimity. Mrs Gandhi definitely helped me in my self-education by reading about her and I cherish these books. Therefore, I conclude with Mrs Gandji's one of the favourite lines by Rabindranath Tagore'.Ekla Chalo Re which she translated in English for herself. The same lines do reflect the larger non-conformist, multi-faceted, layered and complex Indira Persona.

If no one listens to your call,
Walk Alone.

If in fear they cower, mutely facing the wall,
O hapless one,

Open your mind and speak out alone.
If, as you cross the wilderness, they turn away and desert you,
O hapless one,

Tread firmly on the thorns along the blood-lined track and travel alone.

If, in the storm-troubled night, they dare not hold aloft the light,
O hapless one,

Ignite your heart with the lightning and pain, and yourself become the guiding light.