The Legacy Of India's First Female PM : Remembering Indira Gandhi On Her 107th Birth Anniversary

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Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984

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Indira Gandhi was born Indira Nehru, into a Kashmiri Pandit family on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh

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She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, and the mother of Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded her in office as the country's sixth prime minister

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She was India's first and, to date, only female prime minister, and a central figure in Indian politics as the leader of the Indian National Congress (INC)

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Gandhi's cumulative tenure of 15 years and 350 days makes her the second-longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father

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In 1959, she played a part in the dissolution of the communist-led Kerala state government as then-president of the Indian National Congress, otherwise a ceremonial position to which she was elected earlier that year

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Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had succeeded Nehru as prime minister upon his death in 1964, appointed her minister of information and broadcasting in his government; the same year she was elected to the Rajya Sabha

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After Shastri's sudden death in January 1966, Gandhi defeated her rival, Morarji Desai, in the INC's parliamentary leadership election to become leader and also succeeded Shastri as prime minister

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But following the nationwide state of emergency she implemented, she faced massive anti-incumbency sentiment causing the INC to lose the 1977 election, the first time in the history of India to happen so

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In 1967, she headed a military conflict with China in which India repelled Chinese incursions into the Himalayas

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In 1971, she went to war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the independence of Bangladesh

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On 31 October 1984, she was assassinated by two of her bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, fired over 30 bullets at her from point blank range both of whom were Sikh nationalists

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