Indira Gandhi: The story of a leader

On a travel, that was expected to be short and bumpy, I wanted to read a small book with big prints. The first book that caught my attention was a 129 page book titled “Indira Gandhi: The story of a leader”. Just having heard of terms like Emergency and Operation Blue Star, I took the book without a second thought in my mind.

The author Shahana Dasgupta, previously unheard of, made an instant mark by the way she presented the subject. Presently living in Berlin, and graduated from Ann Arbor, Michigan this was her first work I was reading. She tells the story of Indira Gandhi through the eyes of a 13 year old, Priya, who was asked to work on a school project “The women of India”.

The book is a breezer and gets over quickly. Though initially I thought the author would treat our late-prime-minister as a demigod. The author has researched on the subject very well and has given the sequence of events which are a brief and concise. And blames her for which the author thinks she was not right.

Reading the names of her other titles, initially she passes of as a feminist, atleast she did to me. In the book she does speak of her subject in equal light and gives the feeling that she wants to present the iron-character of Indian women.

Though the book did not elaborate on Emergency or Operation Blue Star, it’s a worth read; to see how a shy and tongue-tied-Indira transformed into a bold and powerful leader. Now I think those subjects could be books in themselves and would have been out of context especially when the story has been narrated through the voice of a 13 year old girl.

My Rating: 3.5 / 5

If you want to more about Operation Blue Star: Watch Amu.