Indira Gandhi, India’s first and only female Prime Minister and better known as the Iron Lady of India, was born on November 19, 1917. Born, Indira Gandhi in Allahabad (present-day Prayagraj), she was the daughter of the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. She played a central role in the Indian National Congress, and is credited for ‘political intransigency and unprecedented centralisation of power’.

Indira Gandhi served as the first and only woman Indian Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in 1984. The only child of former Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru, Indira Gandhi started her political career after her father’s demise in 1964. She brought in several reforms like the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, the nationalisation of banks and much more. She was assassinated on 31 October 1984 by two of her security guards in retaliation for Operation Blue Star.