- No relation to Mohandas K. Gandhi. Her husband, Feroze changed his name to 'Gandhi' to continue the 'powerful' name.
- Prime minister of India (1966-1977, 1980-1984).
- Daughter of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and mother of Rajiv Gandhi.
- 5th Prime minister of India (January 24, 1966 - March 24, 1977) and also 8th Prime Minister of India (January 14, 1980 - October 31, 1984).
- First woman Prime Minister of India. Second woman Prime Minister in the world (after Sirimavo Bandaranaike PM of Sri Lanka in 1960).
- Mother-in-law of Soniah Gandhi.
- Is the second non-hereditary female leader of a country, after Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka.
- On the day of her assassination on 31/10/1984, she was supposed to be interviewed by Academy Award recipient Irish actor Peter Ustinov.
- Voted by BBC as "Woman of the millennium", ahead of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and scientist Marie Curie. [1999].
- Included by Time Magazine in the list of "100 women who defined the last century". [2020].
- Unlike her father who was never held in high regard by the officer cadre of the Indian Military Forces, Indira had highly cordial relations with the top brass of all 3 branches, particularly Chairman of the Chiefs Of Staff General Sam Manekshaw, who was promoted to Field Marshall for his contributions to Indian victory in the 1971 War against Pakistan.
- Ranked 7th in CNN-IBN's "Greatest Indian" series, 3 places below her father Jawaharlal Nehru who was voted 4th in the same poll.
- US President Richard Nixon and his Secretary Of State Henry Kissinger infamously called her "a bitch" after Indian Armed Forces routed the US allied Pakistani military on both the Eastern as well as the Western Fronts in 1971. Part of this response was also attributed to the USS Enterprise sent into the Bay Of Bengal to intimidate India on the East Pakistan front being tailed by Russian nuclear missile boats as a part of the 25 Years Friendship Treaty Indira had signed with the Soviet Union, America's arch rival of the Cold War. Nixon in general had a bad rapo with Indira since his tenure as Vice President under Eisenhower, when he was snubbed by Indira, who was then president of the Congress, during his visit to India in the 1950s.
- Despite their ideological differences, she was good friends with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher(Indira was a left-wing socialist while Thatcher was a right-wing conservative).
- Controversially declared a state of Emergency across India in 1975 when she was found guilty by the Allahabad High Court of electoral fraud and banned from contesting elections for the coming 6 years.
- Bollywood director Gulzar's political drama Aandhi (1975) was released coinciding with Gandhi's declaration of Emergency. The leads were essayed by Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen, who happened to play the fictional Prime Minister of India in the movie. The plot line bought a ban on the movie in several Congress ruled states of India, yet it was nominated for 7 Filmfare Awards, including Best Actress for Sen and Best Picture while Sanjeev Kumar won his second Filmfare Best Actor Award.
- Unlike her father, she held RSS ideologue Vinayak Savarkar in highly positive light and agreed with her predecessor Lal Bahadur Shastri restoring Savarkar's freedom fighters pension post Nehru's death and even addressed Savarkar as "an unflinching nationalist". However, she also made it clear that her admiration lay strictly confined to Savarkar, not to the organizations he was affliated with.
- Once called Israel as a Jewish analogue of Pakistan due to the former's creation in 1948 being solely in the name of religion. However, as per recently revealed documents, she instructed her external affairs secretariat to start establishing diplomatic links with Tel Aviv, even if through back channels, from 1972 onwards after both US and Soviet backed nations from the Organization Of Islamic Cooperation called Indian inflicted defeat upon Pakistan in 1971 as an attack on Islam.
- During the turbulent Emergency years from 1975 to 1977, her younger son Sanjay had amassed so much power that the press circles joked India was being run not from the Prime Minister's Office but the "Prime Minister's House". However, Indira herself was frequently embarrassed at Sanjay's goon like behavior, something he was unafraid of displaying even publicly.
- First Indian Prime Minister to hold no formal college degree. The only other till date is her elder son Rajiv Gandhi. Indira attended Shantiniketan University under the tutelage of its founder, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore but never cleared her exams.
- Although never officially divorced, she lived separately along with her sons from her husband Feroze for the majority of her marriage till his death in 1960. Reasons remain unknown as of date, with some attributing it political and ideological differences, others to Feroze's extramarital affairs.
- Was responsible for covertly sponsoring the militant Khalistan Commando Force to counter the Akali Dal in Punjab state as well as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam to assist Sri Lankan Tamils in opposing Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese government. Both acts are considered as State Terrorism and State Sponsorship of Terrorism respectively as per international law.
- The pavement in the garden of the Indian Prime Minister's office on which she was assassinated on 31st October, 1984 was named as "Shakti Sthal" which translates to "Epicenter of Power".
- Controversially nominated herself for India's highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna, for the Republic Day celebrations of 1972 citing her contributions to the Bangladesh Liberation War.
- When Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded her father as Prime Minister, she was inducted in his cabinet as Minister for Information and Broadcast. However, she was so dissatisfied with her portfolio that before Shastri's death she was considering relocating to the United Kingdom with her sons for a few years.
- Personally knew Benazir Bhutto (The future Prime Minister of Pakistan) well. The similarities between them are uncanny.
- Despite her socialist leanings, she got along well with US President Ronald Reagan who was at that point of time the most globally renowned anti-communist.
- Die-hard Indian fans of the blockbuster STAR WARS franchise frequently consider her as the female version of the series' central antagonist Emperor Palpatine.
- Pulled off her support to prime minister Charan Singh's government at the crucial moment when he was asked to prove his majority on the floor of the parliament, leading to the collapse of Singh's government and president Neelam Sanjeev Reddy called for fresh elections, which she won by a comfortable majority.
- As a humorous tribute to her ability to exert pressure upon her ministers, she was jokingly called by the press as "the only man in her cabinet".
- Despite her extremely cordial ties with the Soviet Union, she was averse to Moscow's military presence in Afghanistan from 1979 onwards, which she thought might have implications on India's hegemony over the subcontinent.
- Fearing his death in judicial custody owing to poor health would lead to a public relations disaster, she offered amnesty to veteran Gandhian and her father's colleague from the independence movement Jayaprakash Narayan, who was arrested for agitating against her regime's growing corruption and suppression of civil liberties. Narayan however shrugged off the offer, knowing she would instead put him under house arrest and declared he would continue to agitate in jail irrespective of the consequences.
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