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Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (November 19, 1917 - October 31, 1984) was Prime Minister of India and central figure of the Indian National Congress party. She was the only child of the first Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. She served as the Chief of Staff of her father's administration between 1947 and 1964. She was 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, she defeated her rival, Morarji Desai, to become leader and succeed Shastri as the prime minister of India. As the Prime Minister of India, Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralization 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 controversial state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 during which she ruled by decree. She was assassinated in 1984, at the age of 66, by her Sikh bodyguards a few months after she ordered the storming of the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar to counter the Punjab insurgency. She is the second-longest-serving Prime Minister of India and the only woman to hold the office.
