Why is Indira Gandhi called the Iron Lady of India?

The next General Elections, held in 1980, saw Congress (I) winning 351 of the 525 contested Lok Sabha seats, as against 31 for Janata. Gandhi was back to the Prime Minister’s chair and the continued to occupy it till her assassination in 1984 by two of her trusted Sikh body-guards, due to her decision to counter the Punjabi insurgency.

Indira Gandhi’s reign saw its share of highs and lows. But her bold spirit and the strength she exhibited in executing necessary, if sometimes unpopular, measures make her worthy of being called the Iron Lady of India.

New Delhi, Nov 19: An inspiration to millions, an aura of real freedom, a leader, a reformer, and a lady with exceptional political skills. She was called, "The Iron lady of India"

The nation remembers the former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary every year on 31st October. She was India's first woman prime minister and served the country from 1966 to 1976 and from 1980 to 1984.

She was an eminent figure of Indian National Congress. A slew of reforms were introduced in India under her leadership.

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician, stateswoman and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime Minister of India.

Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. Despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of Mahatma Gandhi; Gandhi is a common surname in Gujarat.

She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian Prime Minister after her father.

Operation Blue Star was an Indian Military Operation ordered by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to establish peace and order over Harmandir Sahib Complex in Amritsar, Punjab and remove militants and his followers from the building.

Indira Gandhi found this hard to remove the militants hiding in the basement of the temple. Hence she ordered to bombard the water tank with Vijayanta Tank to cease the water supply in the building. She later ordered to hit the temple with heavy gunfire which led to devastating destruction of the Temple thus later led to an end of Operation Blue Star.

The decision making quality, fearlessness, discipline and determination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi were the reasons she was called ‘The Iron Lady’.

Women world over in politics have two roles : the submissive token female representative and the assertive leader. The latter are usually referred to as Iron Ladies, other examples being Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton. There is subtle undertone of sexism and resentment in the expression.

her term of prime minister office she took some bold decisions without fear to anybody or any country 1.in 1971 promugalated war against pakistan and to help creation of east pakistan named bangaladesh

Indira Gandhi made it harder to stereotype women as unable to handle military affairs. In various ways, Gandhi served as a model for executive women in India and elsewhere. She was a leader in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at the height of the Cold War and a strong leader domestically. This made Gandhi a pioneer on the global and the Indian political scenes; one example of a woman whom she inspired was Margaret Thatcher—the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Gandhi smashed the myth that females lacked fitness to give commands in war. She launched a war against Pakistan in 1971 to liberate Bangladesh—then a Pakistani province known as “East Pakistan”— from West Pakistani control. Gandhi's war was risky

so when India won decisively, the world noticed. Journalists referred to her the midwife to the new nation of Bangladesh. The military intervention achieved both strategic and humanitarian objectives. It divided India’s primary enemy into two sovereign parts—Pakistan and Bangladesh—and stopped the flood of Bengali refugees into India. Until Gandhi presided over this 1971 war, not many women politicians had taken major decisions about modern warfare.

Indira Gandhi’s legacy for women as a female war leader was also not confined to this episode. She improved the defense profile of India by testing the first Indian nuclear bomb.

Mrs. Gandhi is also credited for Criminalisation of Indian Politics, Gross Nepotism and most importantly, for deterioration of Indian Economy. It is an urban myth that Nehru’s policy led Hindu Rate of Growth. It was actually Mrs. Gandhi, with her Financial Indiscipline and ridiculous decisions like Nationalisation of Banks etc.

Mrs. Gandhi was also very Authoritarian in her political conduct and in fact, wanted to bring her now deceased son, Sanjay Gandhi, who was even more dictatorial.

At a time when women hadn’t officially strayed into the arena of active politics, Indira Gandhi managed to battle her way to the very top. The first and only female Prime Minister of our diverse and largely patriarchal society, Gandhi was on the receiving end of some of the most derogatory, misogynist comments from the old-schoolers and even the public at large. On her 99th birthday, we would like to remember her unflinching legacy.

As the only daughter to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi watched her father declare India independent on 15 August, 1947 and then work his way into fulfilling his dream of realising a ‘modern India’.

With an ancestry that lived, breathed, and spoke politics, Gandhi’s interest in the same was sparked from an extremely early age. However, keeping to the dominant male atmosphere in the Parliament at the time, she played more hostess than activist in all of her father’s diplomatic meetings and travels abroad. After receiving a stellar education in Swiss Schools and Somerville College, Oxford, Gandhi returned to her father’s side as his trusted right hand in all matters.

In the short period following her homecoming, she met Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi lawyer. The couple married, and a few years later, Indira Gandhi gave birth to two sons – Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi.

Even in the midst of adjusting to married life, she was sure to never fail her father whenever he requested her presence or assistance in matters of Parliament. However, her first notable active contribution to the realm of Indian politics occurred with her nomination into a prominent 21-member working committee of the Congress Party, in 1955.

From here, she worked her way up, securing connections with the right people. Four years later, she’d made an impression enough to be appointed the Congress President. Meanwhile, Lal Bahadur Shastri had been appointed Prime Minister of the nation following Jawaharlal Nehru’s death in 1964.