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Indian politician and prime minister of India between 1966 and 1977 and again from 1980 to 1984.
Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, had been India’s first prime minister. She married Feroze Gandhi (not related to Mahatma Gandhi) in 1942.
In 1975 the validity of her re-election to parliament was questioned, and she declared a state of emergency.
During this time, her son Sanjay Gandhi implemented a social and economic program (including an unpopular family-planning policy) that led to his mother’s defeat in 1977. Sanjay died in 1980 in a plane crash.
Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984 in the gardens of her home by members of her Sikh bodyguard, who were resentful of her use of troops to clear malcontents from the Sikh Golden Temple at Amritsar.
Her other son, Rajiv, succeeded her as Prime Minister. He too was assassinated in 1991.
