Viewing page 59 of 100

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

INDIRA GANDHI                                    TERRELL

Gandhi and has won for her the acclaim of the majority of the Indians and the majority of the world.
The need to bring about planned and accelerated change has compelled the Indian government to assume direct responsibility for a large number of productive and distributive functions. One such function led Mrs. Gandhi's administration to nationalize the leading private banks and insurance companies in the interest of the larger Indian population. To quote her on this matter: "...public ownership of the major banks will help eliminate the use of bank credit for speculative and unproductive purposes and will remove the control of the few in order to serve the many."
Who is this moral political leader of India with such vision and social purpose that she has attracted the attention of the world?
Indira Prujadarskini (Dearly Beloved) is the only child of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his wife Kamala. She was born November 19, 1917. Indira grew up in an atmosphere of revolution and struggle and much of the strength that she projects today comes out of her history of struggle. I believe that there is a certain message in the Indian struggle for all oppressed people and I especially think the women of the world could learn from the following quote of Indira Gandhi: "The rights of Indian women were not won as a result of the fight of religious, assertive, suffragist womanhood against an entrenched male privilege as it happened in the West. In India, the rights [of] the old oppressed groups such as women, the Scheduled caste and Tribes, the illiterate, landless...were the outcome of a century and a half of social revolution." Thus it is evident from history that it takes the combined efforts of the people to free all the people. At 16, Indira was sent to Shantiniketan, a school founded by the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. She also attended schools in Switzerland and completed her studies at Oxford.
In March, 1942, she was married in Allahbad to Feroze Gandhi, a lawyer, (not related to Mahatma Gandhi) who was a childhood friend. Between 1943 and 1947 Indira has two sons Rajio and Sarjay. When India became independent in 1947, Indira served as hostess for her father, who became the first Prime Minister. This exposure gave her considerable knowledge of the working of politics behind the scenes. Indira first emerged into politics in 1958 when she was voted to the Congress Working Committee. In 1959, she was elected president of the Congress Party. Her husband, Feroze Gandhi, died in 1960 and four years later on May 26, 1964, her father Jawaharlal Nehru

233

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-26 13:43:32