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Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (bahasa Hindi: इन्दिरा प्रियदर्शिनी गान्धी, dilafalkan: / ɪnd̪ɪraː prɪjəd̪ərʃɪniː gaːnd̪ʰiː /) (lahir di Allahabad, UP, India, 19 November 1917 – meninggal 31 Oktober 1984 pada umur 66 tahun) adalah Perdana Menteri India pada periode 19 Januari 1966 - 24 Maret 1977 dan berlanjut pada 14 Januari 1980 hingga ia mengalami pembunuhan pada 31 Oktober 1984. Sebagai anak Perdana Menteri India yang pertama Jawaharlal Nehru dan ibu dari Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi merupakan seorang wanita yang penuh gejolak dan sangat kontroversial sebagai pimpinan partai politik dan politik negaranya. Pada 19 Januari 1966, ia terpilih sebagai Ketua Partai Kongres untuk menggantikan Lal Bahadur Shastri. Indira kemudian tewas dalam sebuah aksi penembakan pada 1984.Terlahir sebagai Indira Nehru, ia menikah dengan Feroze Gandhi, yang telah mengubah namanya dari "Feroze Khan" dan tidak memiliki hubungan dengan tokoh terkenal kemerdekaan India, Mahatma Gandhi. Ia merupakan wanita pertama yang menjadi perdana menteri India. Ia tewas terbunuh pada 1984 dalam aksi teror yang dilakukan dua pengawal yang memeluk ajaran Sikhisme. Aksi itu dipicu oleh instruksinya yang memerintahkan tentara menyerang Kuil Emas di Punjab. Kuil itu dijadikan markas para pengikut Sikh yang menginginkan Punjab sebagai negara mereka.
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindustani: [ˈɪnːdɪrə ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] ( listen); née Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was the third Prime Minister of India and a central figure of the Indian National Congress party. Gandhi, who served from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, is the second-longest-serving Prime Minister of India and the only woman to hold the office.
Indira Gandhi was the only child of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. She served as the Chief of Staff of her father's highly centralised administration between 1947 and 1964 and came to wield considerable unofficial influence in government. Elected Congress President in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964, Gandhi refused to enter Congress party leadership contest and instead chose to become a cabinet minister in the government led by Lal Bahadur Shastri . In Congress party parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966 upon the death of Shastri, she defeated her rival, Morarji Desai to become leader and thus succeed Shastri as the prime minister of India.
As Prime Minister, Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralisation of power. She went to war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India's influence to the point where it became the regional hegemon of South Asia. Gandhi also presided over a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 during which she ruled by decree and made lasting changes to the constitution of India. She was assassinated in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star.
In 2001, Gandhi was voted the greatest Indian Prime Minister in a poll organised by India Today. She was also named "Woman of the Millennium" in a poll organised by the BBC in 1999.
