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Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was born in November 19, 1917 in India. She was the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977, and then again from 1980 to 1984 when she was assassinated. She was also the daughter of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and gave birth to another Prime Minister in her daughter Rajiv Gandhi.

Her first exercise in public service came when in 1947 during the Partition of India she helped organize refugee camps and helped provide medical care for the millions of Pakistani refugees. This would provide her with valuable skills and lessons in the challenges that were soon to come.

Her rise to power started when she went to her fathers aide while he was Prime Minister and became ill. She became his nurse, secretary and confidante.  In 1959-60 she was elected President of the Indian National Congress and was also acting as her fathers chief of staff. Nehru, her father, died in 1964 and when the new Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died a year later Gandhi defeated her opponent 355 votes to 169 to become the Third Prime Minister of India and the first woman to hold that position. She soon began an ambitious program of modernization for the country.

In 1975 she was convicted of violations coming out of the 1971 elections and was ordered to resign. She then declared a state of emergency and clamped down on her position. She lost power in 1977, but made a comeback in 1980. In 1984 she started an initiative to suppress Sikh rebels and a few months later on October 31st 1984 she was assassinated.

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