Learning politics from Mrs Gandhi

OPINION: Sonia Gandhi

It is appropriate that I speak about the theme of my lecture in this fascinating country because the story I have to tell is a bit like the works of two of your greatest artists. Like Rembrandt's, it is a story of light and darkness, of mystery and the hidden hand of Destiny. Like Van Gogh's, it is a story of inner struggle and torment, a story of how the experience of loss can impart a deeper meaning to life.

I was born in Europe but was soon claimed by another world more diverse and more ancient. Mine was a middle-class family from a provincial town in the north of Italy, not very different from a traditional Indian family. At school, I learnt of Mazzini and Garibaldi but of India I was taught nothing. My discovery of India happened differently, through an encounter with a remarkable human being...Rajiv Gandhi.

Though his mother, Indira Gandhi, headed the government, and we lived in the prime minister's house, our life together was essentially private. Yet it was permeated by the turbulence of politics. Looking back, I can say it was through the private world of family that the public world of politics came alive for me.

My mother-in-law was regarded as a strong, rather formidable personality. Indeed, she had the calm authority of a natural leader. But I knew her also as a sensitive, intuitive person with a love for the arts and for the conservation of nature, a sense of humour and the ability to laugh at herself. In the midst of preoccupation with affairs of state, she never failed to make time for personal concerns. Her breadth of spirit was evident: although rooted in a traditional society, she had accepted her son's decision to marry a girl from a distant land. Along with my husband, she guided me patiently through the confusions and hesitations of my early adjustments to India.

At the time I entered my new family, India was not quite 21 years independent from British colonial rule. The Congress Party, now led by my mother-in-law, was still pre-eminent, but was beginning to face a resurgent political opposition. Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, had passed from the stage less than four years earlier.

Indira Gandhi, who succeeded him, was as yet untested in statecraft. She had come to power in the wake of two wars and two famines. Her first challenge was a trial by fire, as she strove to establish her authority over her party and government. In that struggle, her shield was her ability to connect directly with the people; her sword was her empathy with the poor, and the policies she initiated on their behalf.

My first political classroom thus echoed to momentous unfolding events. Two stand out in my memory. The first was the 1971 crisis which transformed Mrs Gandhi into a statesman. Following a crackdown by the Pakistan military in what was then East Pakistan, more than 10 million refugees flooded into India from across the border. Obviously, India could not shoulder such a burden. My mother-in-law travelled to all the major world capitals, striving to convince the international community to intervene in what was a humanitarian catastrophe. She was met largely with indifference, and in some cases, opposition. When India was attacked, her response was swift and sure. She withdrew Indian forces immediately after a representative government took charge in the new-born country of Bangladesh. Evident here was the importance in politics of patience and tenacity, of daring and courage and, above all, of action at the opportune and decisive moment.

Another memory I have of her as a political leader is of her steely determination to raise India out of the cycle of famine and dependency on imports of foodgrains. Her actions saw India move from being seen as indigent and helpless to becoming self-sufficient in foodgrains production. This reflected the driving force of her passion to uphold the dignity and independence of her country. That was the mainspring of her political creed.

(Excerpts from Congress President Sonia Gandhi's lecture "Living Politics: What India has taught me" at Nexus Institute, The Hague, June 9, 2007)