The Nehru-Gandhis are a political dynasty that’s dominated the Indian National Congress ever since India claimed its independence. Jawaharlal Nehru, the patriarch of the family, opposed British occupation in India and led numerous civil disobedience campaigns, which put him behind bars. After being released in 1945 he played an important role in the negotiations that would create the independent states of India and Pakistan. He was appointed Prime Minster of the Republic of India in 1947, a position he held until his death in 1964, seventeen years later.
Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi spent a year in prison for opposing British occupation. She was Prime Minister between 1966 and 1977 and again from 1980 through 1984, ruling like a dictator. She was assassinated by a Sikh member of her personal bodyguards. Her son Rajiv Ghandi shared the same tragic fate, killed during the 1991 elections by a young Tamil girl who tied a bomb to her body in protest of India’s political actions in Sri Lanka. Rajiv’s son, Rahul Ghandi, has picked up the family mantle and entered politics in 2004, aged 34. Unsurprisingly, given his family name, he has done well for himself on the national level.
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