Members of the same family ruled a large country for a long time; most of them were assassinated instead of transfer power among themselves. This is story of the Jawaharlal Nehru family in India. Jawahir Lal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889 in Allahabad from a wealthy family. His father was a lawyer. He was one of the figures who played a major role in India’s independence. He was greatly influenced by the principles of Gandhi. After India’s independence and liberation from British colonialism, he became the country’s first prime minister. Nehru became president of the All India People’s Congress in 1939. On the eve of the outbreak of World War II, he played an important role in the long peaceful protest movements for independence. In 1946, he became Deputy Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, which ruled India on behalf of the British Crown.
Nehru was elected as a head of the negotiating delegation in the negotiations known as the “Transfer of Power” from the British. After the success of those negotiations, Nehru became the head of the transitional government formed at that time. In 1947, India declared independence. On August 15, 1947, Nehru became the first Prime Minister of independent India. He remained as a prime minister until his death on May 27, 1964, after suffering a heart attack. In 1916, he married Kamala Nehru, and they had a daughter, Indira Gandhi, born on November 19, after her father’s death, he became a prime minister.
“Indira Gandhi, the Strongest Woman”
Indira Gandhi (1917 – 1984), attended Indian schools, and then went to the University of Oxford. Because of his father, he participated in the national liberation movements from an early age and was imprisoned for this. He joined the Congress Party in 1939 and married journalist Fairuz Gandhi in 1942.
Fairuz died in 1959, Indira Gandhi became the President of the Indian Congress Party. After his father’s death in 1964, she became a member of the Rajya Sabha. She became Minister of Information in Bahadur Shastri’s cabinet. After the death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in early 1966, she became the third Prime Minister of India.
“Assassination of Andrea”
In the 1980s, Andhra and the Sikhs of India came into a fierce conflict. Sikhs lived mainly in Amri Tsar, one of the holy cities of the Sikhs, where their temple is located. After Sikh spiritual leader St. Bindra went on strike with a large number of his followers at their temple, Andhra ordered police to attack the area. More than 500 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in the attack. More than 2,000 Sikhs were arrested. In this battle, Saint Bidra, the leader of the Sikhs, was killed.
The killing of Bindra and the destruction of their temple fired feelings of hatred and revenge among the Sikhs. They demonstrated for days demanding Andrea’s death. The prime minister responded by arresting more Sikhs and forcing them into prison.
At the time, people who were close to Andrea felt that her life was in danger. For example, the defense minister wanted to convince her to change her bodyguards from police to army. “I am the head of a democratic government elected by the people, not a dictator who came through a military coup,” she said. Why do you want me to be afraid of myself?
The intelligence chief then asked Andhra to remove all her bodyguards, who were of Sikh origin and were not trusted. But Andera loved the guards so much that she didn’t want to take anyone away. Finally, what Andera had never imagined happened. On October 31, 1984, while walking from home to the prime minister’s headquarters, three Sikh bodyguards shot her dead.
“Rajiv will become president”
After Andhra’s assassination, her eldest son Rajevi became the third member of Jawaharlal Nehru’s family to become prime minister.
In the 1991 elections, he ran for election. He visited most of the states during the election campaign. His party was expected to win the most seats. But violence between Hindus and Muslims made the election the country’s most violent, killing more than 2,000 people. On May 21, 1991, on the second day of voting, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a controlling bomb in a vase. Although no one claimed responsibility for the blast, the blame was laid on the Tamil Tigers, who were fighting to create a state for the Tamils on the island of Sri Lanka.