Politics & Law
A legendary life
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi
19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984
India's first woman prime minister and a dominant, consequential, and controversial figure in its post-independence politics.
Her story
A life that changed history
Indira Gandhi served as prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She led India during the 1971 war that resulted in Bangladesh's independence and pursued centralized economic and foreign policies. Her legacy is also marked by the 1975–77 Emergency, during which civil liberties were restricted and political opponents were imprisoned.
“Are not poverty and need the greatest polluters?”
Address to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 14 June 1972