cover image Indira Gandhi: An Intimate Biography

Indira Gandhi: An Intimate Biography

Pupul Jayakar. Pantheon Books, $30 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-679-42479-6

Jayakar, who was Indira Gandhi's friend for 30 years, draws on her notes of meetings and conversations for this empathetic biography of India's prime minister who was assassinated in 1984. Scanting on political analysis, she offers a vivid, unusually insightful look at the emotional and familial factors that transformed a silent, withdrawn girl into an assured, far-seeing leader who was closely attuned to her country if at times obsessive and arrogant. Indulged yet also neglected as a child, Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was prepared for leadership by her proud, expansive father, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister. Jayakar, biographer of Krishnamurti, is especially revealing on Indira's unhappy marriage to Feroze Gandhi, on her key role in freeing East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) from West Pakistan's bloody rule and on her relationship with her sons Sanjay, killed in a plane crash in 1980, and Rajiv, assassinated in 1991. Photos. (Nov.)