Week 3: “Indira is India, India is Indira”

Lecture 6

Prof Prerna Singh

AfterNehru?

Pressing Problems Foreign:

◦ War with Pakistan (1965)

War with Pakistan

Pressing Problems Foreign:

◦ War with Pakistan (1965)

Domestic:◦ Question of National Language

Pressing Problems Foreign:

◦ War with Pakistan (1965)

Domestic:◦ Question of National Language◦ Problem of Food Shortages

Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India, 1964-1966

Indira Gandhi

Why Indira? Vote getter

Could be controlled

Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-1977, 1980-1984

Indira Gandhi

Forged direct link with masses Populist “socialist” initiatives

Split the Congress Party◦ Congress (Indira)

Establishment of powerful connection with the masses

Drive towards personalization and centralization of power

“Indira is India, India is Indira”

Highly Controversial Figure

Savior of the Masses or Tyrannical Villain

Amma or ‘Nazi Priestess’

Indira Gandhi

Common Scholarly Assessment:

Deinstitutionalizing India◦ Weakening Congress party,

bureaucracy and other institutions

◦ Undermining Indian democracy

Revisionist Assessment: Situated Mrs Gandhi’s

problems in the context of the number and magnitude of the problems

Indira Gandhi

Was Mrs Gandhi more a cause or consequence of the personalization and deinstitutionalization of the Indian polity?

Indira Gandhi

Ashis Nandy: Psychoanalysis of

Indira, as a politician and Indian society

Indira Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi with a young Indira Nehru

What kind of mass sentiments allow authoritarian politics to come to the fore?

Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:

◦ Crisis of National Faith Rise of Post-Independence generation Cracks in the Nehruvian edifice are beginning to show

Humiliating defeat in Sino-Indian War Low economic growth Agricultural Problem High poverty Abysmal social services

Vast numbers of illiterate, rural, disgruntled poor Land grab programs Rise of Revolutionary Class Movements

Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:

◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik

Against Gandhi, Nehru “Pure Politics” Gandhi as an aberration Tough politics for Tough Times Middle classes and intelligentsia cheered her on as a

“real leader”

Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:

◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik◦ Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder

Economic problems Lack of growth Corruption

Social Unrest Protests, Strikes, Riots, bandhs

Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:

◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik◦ Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder ◦ Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing

its appeal

Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:

◦ Crisis of National Faith ◦ Idea that India needed Realpolitik◦ Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder ◦ Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing

its appeal Economic interests over civil liberties

Indira Gandhi Product of Four Intellectual Currents:

◦Crisis of National Faith

◦Idea that India needed Realpolitik

◦Middle class fear of Chaos and Disorder

◦Idea of a plural, democratic society was losing its appeal

Samuel Huntington (1968): Importance of political institutions, esp

political parties Social mobilization in the absence of

strong political parties leads to political instability

Indira Gandhi

Personalization and deinstitutionalization of Congress and other institutions

Personalization and Deinstitutionalization had begun before Mrs Gandhi Inherited weak, faction-ridden Congress

+ Economic distress Socio-political Mobilization

= Crisis of Governability

Indira Gandhi

…product of the situationBUT greatly aggravated situation

Indira Gandhi

Established direct link with votersBUTUndermined the party

Made electoral promisesBUT Party not strong enough to fulfill these

promises

Indira Gandhi

Populist “socialist” initiatives:

Nationalization of banks

Abolition of privy purses

BUT left untouched:

Poverty Provision of

essential social services

Land redistribution

Indira Gandhi

Personalization of Power and Politicization of Institutions

Party

Abandoned even nominal intra-party democracy

Made state party structures subservient to central high command

Appointed key functionaries

Promoted “yes men”

State Institutions: Civil Service Judiciary Parliament Constitution

Next Week…Indira Gandhi’s Darkest Hours