Indira Gandhi – Powerful or Ethical Leadership?
Not all women are great examples of Feminine leadership. Being a woman does not automatically mean that you act upon the principles of Feminine Leadership.
Indira Gandhi, is maybe, one of the best-known women of the 20th century. However, Indira is one of the best examples that powerful leadership is not necessarily Feminine Leadership even when it’s done by a woman.
Feminine Leadership is about being ethical and taking care of your people. It is about being authentic and honest and most important it is about servant leadership and not dictatorship.
Indira Gandhi might have been a role model of breakthrough for women, in the sense that she has managed to rule a country where women are being regarded as second rate citizens in a time when women were expected to stay at home and take care of the family. That on its own is a huge success; however it is not serving the idea of ethical leadership and Feminine Leadership.
Indira Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917, in a family that was at the center of Indian freedom movement. Her father Jawaharlal Nehru and grandfather Motilal Nehru were at the forefront of Indian freedom struggle. Her mother Kamla Nehru, although less involved politically, was subject to political arrest by the British. Indira Gandhi had a lonely childhood, with some of her most vivid remembrances being the entry into her home of British policemen.
Though she was spoiled by her grandfather Motilal, Gandhi later recalled she felt “insecure.” She was four years old when her father and grandfather were first jailed for their activities, then the jailing became frequent. Because of the insecurities of her childhood Gandhi hardened herself and resolved not to be hurt, as her mother had been. Growing up in the sole care of her mother, who was sick and alienated from the Nehru household, Gandhi developed strong protective instincts and a loner personality.
This on its own just shows that Indira Gandhi adopted from an early age the element of the loner, which contradicts the feminine energy and the Feminine Leadership qualities.
Among the major achievements of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister was India’s role during the liberation war in Bangladesh including humane handling of refugees and winning of 1971 war against Pakistan. Indira Gandhi gave direction to India’s economy to reach the declared objectives of democratic socialism and greater social justice for weaker sections. It was under Indira Gandhi’s leadership that the signing of Shimla Pact with Pakistani Premier Z.A. Bhutto and the signing of Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation took place.
Indira Gandhi nationalized banks, abolished privy purses of maharajas and conducted the first nuclear tests at Pokhran. Describing the test as for “peaceful purposes”, India became the world’s youngest nuclear power.
Indira Gandhi also initiated special agricultural innovation programs and extra government support that finally resulted in India’s chronic food shortages gradually being transformed into surplus production of wheat, rice, cotton and milk. The country became a food exporter, and diversified its commercial crop production as well, in what has become known as the Green Revolution. At the same time, the White Revolution was an expansion in milk production which helped to combat malnutrition, especially amidst young children. Gandhi’s economic policies remained socialistic and did not bring major industrialization. This would finally occur in 1991, with the opening of the Indian economy.
Even though Indira Gandhi’s slogan for her election was “Garibi Hatao” (eliminate poverty) Indira Gandhi’s period is defined by mainly wars, fights and at the end corruptions and not willing to admit to mistakes, which led her to a draconian campaign to stamp out opposition which included the arrest and torture of thousands of political activists; the ruthless clearing of slums around Delhi’s which left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and thousands killed, and led to the permanent ghettoisation of the nation’s capital; and the family planning program which forcibly imposed vasectomy on thousands of fathers and was often poorly administered, nurturing a public anger against family planning that persists into the 21st century.
In the end Indira Gandhi’s government was confronted with serious challenges to its ability to maintain law and order as conflicts between religious and ethnic groups broke out in different parts of the country. After the army had invaded the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the chief shrine of the Sikhs, she became the target for Sikh anger and on 31 October 1984 she was assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguard.
Indira Gandhi died the way she lived – in violence and hatred. Unfortunately, although she was exposed to one of the most peaceful, gentle and noble person in the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi, Indira had no relation to him and did not follow his line of ethical leadership.
