“Even if I die while serving this country, I will be proud of it. Every drop of my blood will contribute to the progress of this country and to making it strong and dynamic.”
— Indira Gandhi
The Iron Will: Remembering Indira Gandhi on Her 41st Martyrdom Anniversary
October 31, 2025, marks the 41st anniversary of the martyrdom of Mrs. Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi, a figure whose life and political career are inextricably woven into the modern history of the Indian subcontinent. As the ‘Iron Lady’ of India, her 15 years in power (1966–1977 and 1980–1984) were a period of tumultuous, yet decisive, nation-building. She was a child of the freedom struggle and the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, but she carved her own legacy, defined by a fierce, almost unyielding, resolve to assert India’s sovereignty and domestic might.
A Decisive Leader: Forging India’s Destiny
Indira Gandhi’s tenure was marked by a series of tough, transformative decisions that reshaped India’s economic and geopolitical landscape, consolidating the vision of a self-reliant, powerful nation.
Economic Justice and Political Reaffirmation
In the late 1960s, a determined Indira Gandhi championed a ‘socialist’ path to tackle poverty and inequality. Her most significant domestic moves were:
*Nationalisation of Banks (1969): In a swift and unexpected move, she nationalised 14 major private commercial banks. This was a populist masterstroke designed to break the monopoly of a few industrial houses over credit and channel financing toward agricultural development and small-scale industries, embodying her famous slogan, Garibi Hatao (Abolish Poverty).
* Abolition of Privy Purses (1970): She moved to abolish the special payments made to the former rulers of the princely states, along with their privileges. This measure, following a massive political and constitutional battle, was essential for establishing a truly egalitarian society and eliminating remnants of a feudal past, reinforcing the principle of equality before the law.
These were not soft political choices; they were gambits that placed her in direct confrontation with the Congress Old Guard, the judiciary, and powerful economic lobbies. Her willingness to risk political upheaval for structural reform demonstrated a core leadership quality: the courage to place national interest and socialist principle above political convenience.
Geopolitical Masterstrokes and Sovereignty
On the global stage, Indira Gandhi demonstrated a strategic acumen and bold defiance that elevated India’s standing.
* The Liberation of Bangladesh (1971): The defining moment of her career. Faced with a humanitarian crisis and an influx of millions of refugees from East Pakistan, she planned and executed a successful military intervention. She defied the overtly hostile stance of the United States, led by President Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who openly supported Pakistan. Gandhi navigated this Cold War pressure by signing the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation (1971), securing a diplomatic and military shield that allowed the Indian Armed Forces to achieve a swift victory, leading to the birth of an independent Bangladesh. This act of war and diplomacy established India as the undisputed dominant power in South Asia.
* The Pokhran-I Nuclear Test (1974): Codenamed ‘Smiling Buddha’, India successfully conducted its first nuclear test at the Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan. This operation, described officially as a “peaceful nuclear explosion,” was a watershed moment that catapulted India into the club of nuclear-capable nations. It was a bold and defiant assertion of India’s technological self-reliance and strategic autonomy, directly challenging the global nuclear order and demonstrating to the world that India would not be cowed by external pressures—a profound embodiment of her unyielding resolve.
* Integration of Sikkim (1975): While the user mentioned Ladakh, the decisive territorial integration under her rule was the transition of the Himalayan protectorate of Sikkim into the 22nd state of the Indian Union. This strategic move, which involved constitutional amendments and a referendum, secured India’s crucial border with China, again demonstrating a focus on securing India’s geopolitical frontiers with unyielding determination.
The Shadow of Aberrations: Emergency and Blue Star
No evaluation of Indira Gandhi’s leadership is complete without acknowledging the two major stains on her democratic record, which the country remembers as constitutional and human rights aberrations:
* The Emergency (1975–1977): Following a court judgment invalidating her election, she declared a State of Emergency, suspending civil liberties, censoring the press, and imprisoning political opposition. While ostensibly aimed at combating internal disorder and corruption, the excesses and authoritarianism of this period were a profound attack on India’s democratic foundation. Her decision to eventually lift the Emergency and call elections in 1977, despite knowing she might lose (which she did), is often cited as a begrudging yet ultimate respect for democratic tradition.
* Operation Blue Star (1984): The military action ordered to flush out Sikh militants hiding inside the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar was aimed at countering a growing separatist movement. It was a tragic and deeply polarizing decision that deeply wounded national sentiment and led directly to her assassination by her own bodyguards later that year.
These events underscore a complex truth: her great strength—unyielding decisiveness—could also manifest as an autocratic tendency, demonstrating a dangerous willingness to centralize power and bypass institutional checks when she perceived a threat to the State or her rule.
A Study in Contrast: The Clash of Leadership Eras
The core of Indira Gandhi’s foreign policy was an aggressive, independent assertion of Indian self-interest, particularly in the face of dominant powers. This stands in stark contrast to the challenges faced by the present leadership, as highlighted by recent geopolitical controversies.
Facing the US: Defiance vs. Diplomatic Silence
During the 1971 war, Indira Gandhi’s defiance of the US, who even sent the USS Enterprise into the Bay of Bengal, was a testament to her hard-nosed, independent leadership. She refused to be cowed by a superpower, choosing instead to strengthen alliances (with the USSR) to protect national interests and territorial integrity.
The contrast is sharply drawn in the context of recent US-India relations under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump. The controversy surrounding ‘Operation Sindoor’—India’s retaliatory precision strikes against terror camps following the April 2025 Pahalgam attack—and the question of tariffs, offers a clear point of comparison.
* The ‘Operation Sindoor’ & Mediation Claims: President Donald Trump repeatedly and publicly claimed that he threatened India with massive 250% tariffs to force a de-escalation of hostilities with Pakistan, thereby claiming credit for ending the military conflict. Trump’s claims—calling Modi ‘the nicest-looking guy’ while also ‘tough as hell,’ but ultimately capitulating to US trade pressure—were a significant diplomatic embarrassment.
* The Tariff Question: The current leadership, despite a strong focus on national pride, has been subjected to public pressure concerning US trade policy. The trade negotiations under the Modi government involved attempts to resolve significant tariff disputes imposed by the Trump administration, with the US even threatening punitive tariffs (which the user cites as 50% and 250%). The perceived lack of a forceful, public rebuttal to Trump’s mediation claims, and the apparent use of trade as a pressure point on a core security matter, has been interpreted by critics as a diplomatic surrender, driven by the desire for a swift trade deal.
The qualitative difference is one of posture and principle:
* Indira Gandhi’s Leadership: Bold, Defiant, and Principled. Her foreign policy prioritised strategic autonomy and would not tolerate the conflation of an independent security operation with trade leverage. She risked the hostility of the most powerful nation on Earth to pursue India’s moral and strategic goals.
* Present Leadership (Modi/Trump Era): Pragmatic, Image-Conscious, and Concessional. While relations with the US have improved strategically, the silence on Trump’s claims, particularly the suggestion that a military operation was halted due to trade threats, is seen as a compromise of sovereign dignity for transactional gains. The emphasis appears to be on diplomatic optics and economic pragmatism over the unyielding, defiant assertion of national sovereignty that characterised the Gandhi era.
Legacy: A Torch of Unflinching Resolve
Indira Gandhi was a complex, contradictory, and towering figure. She nationalised the banks for the poor, and she crushed dissent during the Emergency. She gifted India the victory of 1971, secured its nuclear status in 1974, and paid the ultimate price for the trauma of Blue Star.
Her legacy, however, remains a study in unflinching resolve. In an era of cautious multilateralism, her memory serves as a reminder of the raw, unapologetic assertion of national power. On this 41st anniversary, the enduring question for India’s leadership is not merely one of economic growth or electoral victory, but whether they possess the same ‘Iron Will’—the courage to stand up to global pressure, even at great cost, for the sake of India’s fundamental dignity and independent destiny. Her blood, indeed, contributed to making the nation dynamic, a dynamism that requires a leadership with the same uncompromising spirit.
Hasnain Naqvi is a former member of the history faculty at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai
