Indira Gandhi: A Biography (Paperback)  | Released: 27-Nov-97

‘Indira Gandhi’s life was part of the unfolding history of India, intricately woven with India’s past and future. It (became) inevitable, therefore, that politics (formed) a backdrop to her public and often private actions.’ Indira Gandhi’s life spanned over two-thirds of a century. By the time of her brutal assassination in 1984, she had established herself as the most significant political leader India had seen since the death of her father, Jawaharlal Nehru. In this book, written with the close cooperation of her subject, Pupul Jayakar seeks to uncover the many personalities that lay hidden within Mrs Gandhi. Much more than a political biography, the book reveals the complex personality of Indira Gandhi—her thoughts and feelings, her hates and prejudices, her insights and her faults, her loves and emotional entanglements. Full of startling insights, Indira Gandhi: A Biography paints a magnificent portrait—at once empathetic and unprejudiced—of one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable women. About the Author Pupul Jayakar was born in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, in 1915. She was closely involved with the development of indigenous culture, handicrafts and textiles since the country achieved independence in 1947. She has been the Chairman of the All India Handicrafts Board, the Governing Body of the National Institute of Design, the Handicraft and Handloom Exports Corporation of India, the National Institute of Fashion Technology, the Crafts Museum of India, the Calico Museum of Textiles, the Festivals on India in Great Britain, France, USA and Japan, and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). She was Chairman of the Krishnamurti Foundation, India and published a bestselling biography of Krishnamurti in 1986. She has written several other books, including The Earth Mother, The Children of Barren Women, The Buddha and God is Not a Full-Stop, a volume of short stories.