Political Leaders & their impact Series-1: Indira (Gandhi?), Mass Sterilization & her impact

Strong aggressive Female Leader:

Indira Gandhi is dubbed Margaret Thatcher of India but she is much more than that. Indira Gandhi was the Prime minister of India for almost 16 years (1966-1977 & 1980-1984). India got independent in 1947 from the British, relatively a young free country. 

She took the following steps during her rule as Prmie Minister

1. Victory in the 1971 India-Pakistan War led to the creation of a new country called Bangladesh (earlier it was called East Pakistan and part of Pakistan)
   1. The victory was special for Indira especially when the US, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and another 10 countries sided with Pakistan and India had only Russia's support (Israel also helped some).
2. Pushed India to be a nuclear power in 1974 in the Pokhran desert and was fearless about international sanctions and the fury of world powers.
3. Silently expanded India's territory without any fuss with her sheer might. Her father Nehru was the opposite, he avoided any conflict and generously gave away disputed border lands to Tibet (China), Nepal, and Myanmar (Burma).

The most powerful steps she took were not external but internal within India which became very controversial:

1. When her election was voided by the courts for using government machinery for electoral victory, she declared an "Emergency" (1975-1977) citing international threats. Issuing an Emergency in India means no more elections and all civil liberties are suspended. Govt. is given free hand to do what it pleases and use of the army for even internal matters
   1. All opposition leaders were thrown into jails (in every state of India) and some were even killed
   2. The press was utterly squashed, and no article against Govt. can be published. Every article has to go thru the government.
   3. Emergency Cracked on Worker unions and rights (Coal miners, etc), 50k+ were arrested and many disappeared.
   4. Extreme economic difficulties, huge unemployment, inflation, and bad price control tactics
   5. Demolished several buildings, slums, and poor people housing giving a deaf hear to people's cries and misery
   6. Mass Sterilization of both men and women (Around 8 Million were sterilized). Forced Vasectomy spearheaded by her son Sanjay Gandhi (active guy carrying out orders during Emergency time).
      1. Later on, mass sterilization was promoted by Govenmtnet to both men and women by giving out 5-Kilo Rice bags, 100-200 rupees (a few dollars), fruits, and biscuits for recovering from vasectomy surgery.
      2. People were poor for rice bags they went with surgeries and at other times, people were forced like government employees under Indira to undergo vasectomies until then their salaries were stopped.
      3. Where will the departed ancestors go when there is mass sterilization?

One can read more about emergencies here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emergency_(India)

Her mass sterilization has made a scar on the people who grew up in the 70s and 80s, they still think that as a viable contraceptive option after 1 or 2 kids and spread this solution to the next generation. But the next generation doesn't buy it as they don't share the same scars and conditioning as they did. 

Mass Sterilization as state policy in recent years to control population:

Indira started the wheel of mass sterilization and now the legacy is going on. Indian men and women are being sterilized.

The documentary in 2012 in the Rajasthan State of India:

How Indra Became Gandhi?

Indira (born 1917) is the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi's friend, fellow freedom fighter, and First prime minister of independent India.

Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi are not related blood-wise, even though she borrowed the surname from Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi was all about ahimsa (Non-Violence) but Indira Gandhi was all about Himsa (Violence). 2 Opposing sides of a coin!

Gandhi & Indra in 1924.

Indira married Feroze Jehangir Khan in 1942 against her dad Nehru's wishes. Feroze Khan was Parsi/Muslim by birth and his father used to supply groceries whereas Indra and Nehru come from a very wealthy Kashmiri Pandit Brahmin caste with a rich legacy. Nehru was unhappy and had a tough time accepting her marriage to a Parsi/ Muslim with other castes/ status equations of that time.

The rumor goes around that Feroze Khan was urged to change his last name from Khan to Gandhi, so Nehru would be placated and carry the rich legacy and ideological status of Gandhi to offset Froze Khan's lower status compared to Nehru. Some call this name change is Feroze's natural inspiration in Gandhi's ideology and some say Nehru wanted it and some say Gandhi himself gave his name to Feroze to make Nehru accept Indira back. Hard to be precise about these historical things! 

Ultimately, Nehru was happy with the name change. It was a political & strategic masterstroke to carry on Nehru's legacy and political heiress. That's how Indira Khan became Indira Gandhi!

Indira's assasination:

She had 2 kids Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Sanjay Gandhi thought to be Indira's successor died in a plane crash in 1980 and Rajiv Gandhi became the heir he also went on to become prime minister after his mother's brutal assassination in 1984.

Indira was brutally assassinated by her own Sikh personal security guards in 1984, they wanted to make sure she is dead so they emptied their gun cartridges by firing more than 30 rounds during her morning walk in her prime minister's house. The resentment of Sikhs was due to her Operation Blue Star where she sent the army to clean up the rebels hiding in the Holy Golden Temple which is considered as the Vatican for Sikhs.

In that operation, several pilgrims, laity, and rebels died, the numbers ranging to several thousand (at least 5000+)  Holy Golden temples were badly damaged, burnt, and several bullets were all over the holy walls. 

Image after holy Golden Temple after damage and today

Intelligence alerted Indira that her personal guards being Sikh after this brutal operation is an imminent risk but she refused to change them and had tremendous confidence in them and downplayed the risk. 

After her assassination in 1984, Rajiv Rajiv Gandhi (her son) became the Prime minister winning the election in a sympathy wave in the sweeping majority. The genocide of Sikhs took place after Indira's assassination. More can be read in this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_anti-Sikh_riots. 

This was Rajiv's reported insensitive speech in a public gathering: “We must remember Indiraji. We must remember why her assassination happened. We must remember who could be the people behind this. When Indira's assassination happened, there were riots in the country. We know that the hearts of the Indian people were full of anger and that for a few days, people felt India was shaking. When a big tree falls, the earth shakes."

This led to several Sikhs migrating to Canada, the USA, the UK, and Europe in the 1980s. A difficult time for the Sikhs, they were shaving their beards and cutting their hair to hide their Sikh heritage to avoid any attacks on the roads or streets, even on the flights they boarded, they had to hide their cultural identity. It was reported from 3,000-18,000 deaths of Sikhs during that time. Indeed a difficult time!

Rajiv Gandhi shares a similar fate:

Rajiv Gandhi was not as aggressive like his mother but still, the remnant left over aggressive energy from Indra spilled to Rajiv Gandhi, which led him to send the Indian army as a UN peacekeeping force to Sri Lanka to end the civil war between Hindu-Tamils Minority and Buddhist-Sinhalese Majority. Indira Gandhi and the Indian army empowered and gave arms training to Tamil-Hindus to fight for their independence but her son Rajiv sent the same Indian army to compel the Hindu Tamils to give up their arms and surrender. Tamils relented and that led to genocidal and war crimes against Tamil. Even though later peacekeeping forces were retreated due to several guerrilla attacks on them and left it to Sri Lanka to solve their internal conflict. The resentment and the betrayal were still lingering in Sri Lankan Tamils, the resentment energy took a form of a suicide bomber and killed Rajiv Gandhi. This was association was even brutal that they have to pick the shattered pieces of his physical body to cremate. 

A rare record of have three successive generations of Prime Ministers in a family winning elections in a democratic country. Jawaharlal Nehru → Indira Gandhi → Rajiv Gandhi. Nehru died in sleep and was relatively peaceful and less aggressive. Indra and Rajiv shared a brutal assassination. 

Concluding remarks:

The best way to conclude the controversial rule of Indira in one line is this:

"Indira is India, India is Indira"

— Indian Congress president D. K. Barooah, c. 1974

This was her attitude when she ruled.

• Which group of astral beings empowered her to wage wars and win, tight control of a huge country?
• When peace and a middle path were options, why use extremities and brutal force and earn resentment?
• Why such a brutal death?
• Who will answer the ancestors whom she deprived of in her mass sterilization program?
• Why give so much traumatic psychic content of wars, unemployment, house demolition, genocide, holy places attack, mass sterilization, babyless villages, etc, and passed on this trauma over the next generations? Is it fate? 
• Aren't females symbolic of motherly affection and nourishing, did we need so much violence? or was she used as a pawn by astral entities and fate? Could it have been eased?
• Dictator/Autocratic style in Democratic setup!
• Ahimsa (Gandhi) in name, Himsa in action!

Bibliography:

A few videos on Indira Gandhi's biography gives a feel for the kind of impact on India and Indians, and there is still certain remnant trauma content in their psyche.