Author Srinath Raghavan provides the context of the major political decisions that India’s former prime minister made.
Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has been in the news recurrently since the current government cam to power in 2014. The discourse has largely portrayed the dark shades of her tenure, and those opposing this version have not been able to do justice to her using either facts or political values. Neither side does justice to her persona by foregrounding a holistic narrative of one of the makers of modern India and modern Asia – Indira Nehru Gandhi, fondly known as Indu. In this post-truth era, where intellectual and moral dilemmas have engulfed the country, Srinath Raghavan’s Indira Gandhi and the Years that Transformed India answers several pending questions and fills some much-needed gaps.
The book starts with an apt prologue, highlighting a quote from Italian political thinker Antonio Gramsci underlining the nature of crisis. Raghavan depicts the chaos following the death of the beloved Prime Minister Lal Bhadur Shastri, presenting a view of the critical events that started with the ratification of the Constitution of India till 1966. As a synopsis of the period, and as a foreshadowing of subsequent events that readers will encounter, the prologue provides a base for building the edifice that is this book, which is, among other things, an attempt to understand Indira Gandhi’s modus operandi and modus vivendi.
One of the major changes that Indira brought in the Congress party’s methods about was to build a personality cult centring around herself. The feudal roots of the party also suffered a dent, with Indira’s brand of politics accommodating the assertions of the marginalised sections that challenged societal, feudal and caste lineages. This was reflected in electoral politics. Indira’s charismatic politics centred around the poor, the youth and the middle-class. The 1971 elections are vividly described, offering a sharp view of how her aura demolished the disciplined and dedicated forces of the RSS, and candidates supported by big businesses. The author unveils the subaltern movement in Indian politics, and how class politics triumphed over caste politics, reminding the reader of India’s iconic slogan, “Gareebi hatao.” (Down with poverty.)
Wars were fought on all fronts during Indira’s tenure, and were not limited to the 1971 crisis. Internally, the East Pakistan crisis led to an influx of migrants, which the Hindu right turned into a communal issue. But India was against being a mere spectator when a genocide was being conducted in a protracted, planned manner next door. The diplomatic steps taken by the government accommodated political opponents, including formidable names such as Jayaprakash Narayan. This section on the events, which also includes the signing of the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation in 1971 between India and the USSR, is scintillating.
Indeed, the way Raghavan foregrounds this by highlighting the political economy associated with these events provides fresh insights that have been barely explored in other books on Indira’s life. The American perspective, especially the episodes involving Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, add to our understanding of even contemporary Indian politics and international relations. The section on Jammu and Kashmir, too, is a must-read to understand the current nature of the crisis.
The reader is also offered insights into India’s industrial policies, the workings of the licence-quota system, and the much-maligned Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act. We learn about the finer aspects of the five-year plans, the fuel crisis, and the double standards of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
The events before the Emergency portrayed in this book offer some alternate sources of information and understanding needed to grasp the chain of these events, especially the references to Jayprakash Narayan’s Everyman’s Weekly edited by the writer Agyeya. The active participation of students in politics through the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal or the Navanirman Andolan in Gujarat, spiralling into mini revolutions against Indira’s government, is frankly discussed. And readers benefit greatly from the underlining of the fragilities, factionalism, and opportunism masked by the call to fight against Indira’s hegemonic rule.
Thus, the Janata Party government as well as the forces behind it are vividly portrayed with all their shortcomings. Jayaprakash Narayan’s much-celebrated Total Revolution also suffered from confusion and chaos, as Raghavan demonstrates brilliantly with evidence. In addition, my favourite sections of the book are the author’s deep dive into the grit and discipline of the RSS, which can help readers understand the rise of its political wing, the BJP.
This book covers Indira’s entire political journey, including the dangers she faced and withstood to initiate a new order of politics. What separates it from other works on Indira is that it provides the context of the major political decisions she made. Indira Gandhi and the Years that Transformed India is a timely addition to understanding her and the circumstances that led to unchecked power.
