Author: Inder Malhotra
Publisher: National Book Trust
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 198
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8123746555
Description
Biographies of Indira Gandhi, written and published soon after her assassination in 1984, are outdated now because of the radical change in the public’s estimation of her. Even then there was a chasm between the hostile sentiment of the large sections of the educated middle class and the adoration of the masses for her. This book throws entirely fresh light at the life and times of one of the greatest Prime Minister India has had.
Author also explain his frequent use of only the first name of Indira Gandhi. This is done for purely practical reasons, not to claim familiarity with her. To use Gandhi or Mrs Gandhi, as would have been the case normally, is bound to create endless confusion. Gandhi could be mistaken even for the Mahatma, to say nothing of her two sons. Mrs Gandhi also would not help because her two daughters-in-law Sonia Gandhi whom Indira liked immensely and who is now the inheritor of her and her husband’s legacy, and the estranged Maneka Gandhi-also figure in the narrative.
With this brief preamble this book plunges straight into the unique life-story of a great Indian of our times, who was controversial, complex, contradictory and, above all, compelling.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
INDER MALHOTRA, one of the highly respected Indian journalists, has been in the profession since 1949 after graduating from the Punjab University. Essentially a print journalist, he is also a radio broadcaster and a regular participant in TV talk shows in India and abroad. In his long career, he has been Chief Political Commentator of The Statesman and Delhi Editor of the times of India. From 1965 to 1995 he also wrote for The Guardian, London and Manchester, Malhotra is a Nehru Fellow (1986-87) as well as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow (1992-93). His publications include an earlier biography of Indira Gandhi (Hodder & Stoughton, 1989) and Dynasties of India and Beyond (Harper Collins India, 2003).
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD
Beginning
At Her Father’s Side
The Shastri Interlude
Ascent to the Top
Slow March to Supremacy
Her Finest Hour
Downward Slide
Emergency: the Hammer-blow
Exit Indira, Enter Janata
Return of Indira Amma
A Summing Up
INDEX