Indira Gandhi was the first and, to date, only woman to serve as prime minister of India, a formidable and divisive leader who dominated her country's politics for much of two decades. The only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, she grew up at the center of the independence movement and absorbed politics from her earliest years. Despite her surname, she was not related to Mahatma Gandhi; she took the name through marriage.
After her father's death she rose through the Congress Party and became prime minister in 1966. At first underestimated by the party's bosses, she proved a tough and shrewd politician, consolidating power and winning a decisive popular mandate. Her great triumph came in 1971, when India's military victory over Pakistan led to the creation of independent Bangladesh, making her hugely popular.
Her rule grew increasingly authoritarian. Facing mounting opposition and a court ruling against her, in 1975 she declared a state of emergency, suspending civil liberties, jailing opponents, and ruling by decree — a dark period that ended only when she called elections in 1977 and was voted out of office.
She returned to power in 1980. Her final years were dominated by the crisis in Punjab, where she ordered the army to storm the Sikhs' holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, to flush out armed militants. In retaliation, in 1984, she was assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards, her death setting off waves of violence.