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Speaker 1: Hey, history fans, here's a rerun for today, brought to

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Speaker 1: you by Tracy V. Wilson. Welcome to this day in

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Speaker 1: History Class from how Stuff Works dot Com and from

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Speaker 1: the desk of Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's

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Speaker 1: the show where we explore the past one day at

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Speaker 1: a time with a quick look at what happened today

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Speaker 1: in history. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson,

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Speaker 1: and it's November nineteen. Indira Gandhi was born on the

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Speaker 1: Stay in nineteen seventeen. She is, as of this recording,

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Speaker 1: the only woman to be Prime Minister of India. Her father,

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Speaker 1: Jahlal Nuru, was India's first Prime Minister, serving from nine

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Speaker 1: seven to nineteen sixty four. She got a very prestigious

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Speaker 1: education and as a young woman, was part of India's

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Speaker 1: struggle for independence from Britain. So was her father, so

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Speaker 1: were many other people in their family. She joined the

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Speaker 1: Congress Party in ninety eight and then she married her husband,

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Speaker 1: he Rose Gandhi, on March two. He was also a

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Speaker 1: member of the Congress Party. They would go on to

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Speaker 1: have two children. Indira Gandhi held a lot of political

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Speaker 1: offices in India, and then when her father became the

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister, she acted as his hostess. This was a

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Speaker 1: role that often would be filled by the prime minister's spouse,

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Speaker 1: but Indira Gandhi's mother died of tuberculosis in nineteen thirty six,

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Speaker 1: so she became the person who acted as his host

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Speaker 1: and was often his companion when he traveled. Also, after

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Speaker 1: her father became Prime Minister, she became part of the

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Speaker 1: Congress Party's Working Committee. In nineteen sixty four, her father's

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Speaker 1: successor named her the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, and

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Speaker 1: then he died in office in nineteen sixty six. That's

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Speaker 1: when Indira Gandhi became the leader of the Congress Party,

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Speaker 1: which also made her the Prime Minister. She had been

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Speaker 1: placed in this position through a compromise between different factions

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Speaker 1: within the Congress Party, but at the same time, her

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Speaker 1: leadership was immediately and frequently challenged. She served three consecutive terms,

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Speaker 1: though holding other roles during that time, which included being

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Speaker 1: the Minister of Atomic Energy and leading the Ministry of

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Speaker 1: External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs at various points.

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Speaker 1: Her first terms in office were really contentious and marked

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Speaker 1: with a lot of infighting within her political party, including

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Speaker 1: a spinoff into an entirely new party known as the

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Speaker 1: New Congress Party, and this time was also marked with

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Speaker 1: a lot of strife on the Indian subcontinent. But at

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Speaker 1: the same time, Gandhi's early tenure as Prime minister also

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Speaker 1: had its share of successes, including a program that made

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Speaker 1: the country more self sufficient in terms of its food production.

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Speaker 1: There were also a lot of very popular social welfare

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Speaker 1: programs that were ruled out in nine seventy one. Gandhi

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Speaker 1: also supported East Pakistan in its effort to separate from

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Speaker 1: West Pakistan, becoming the independent nation of Bangladesh. This included

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Speaker 1: taking in Pakistani refugees, as well as supplying troops and arms,

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Speaker 1: and eventually invading Pakistan. After the nineteen seventy one election,

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Speaker 1: though she was charged with breaking election law, and after

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Speaker 1: a court ruled against her, she was supposed to resign

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Speaker 1: her post and then not run for office again for

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Speaker 1: a period of six years. Instead, though she declared a

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Speaker 1: state of emergency and imprisoned her political opponents as well

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Speaker 1: as political dissidents. She implemented a number of widely unpopular measures,

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Speaker 1: including a mass sterilization program that was an attempt at

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Speaker 1: population control. This period is called the Emergency and it's

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Speaker 1: also nicknamed the Reign of Terror. There was heavy resistance

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Speaker 1: to all of this, but the state of Emergency went

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Speaker 1: on for twenty one months when a new election was

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Speaker 1: finally held in nineteen seventy seven, at which point she

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Speaker 1: was pretty confident that the new Congress Party would win again.

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Speaker 1: The party was instead massively defeated. Gandhi once again for

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Speaker 1: another political party, this time called congress Ie with the

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Speaker 1: Eye for Indira in parentheses, and this party started gaining

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Speaker 1: power in Parliament before winning a wide majority in nineteen eighty,

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Speaker 1: which put Gandhi back into the role of Prime Minister.

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Speaker 1: Her son, Sanjay, who she had been grooming as her successor,

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Speaker 1: had a seat in Parliament as well and was one

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Speaker 1: of her advisors, but he died in a plane crash

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Speaker 1: that June. This term as prime minister was once again

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Speaker 1: really tumultuous. There were some Indian states that were looking

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Speaker 1: for autonomy, and there was also an increasing separatist movement

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Speaker 1: among Sikhs who wanted a Sikh state to be established.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty two, Gandhi ordered the Indian army to

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Speaker 1: attack a large number of Sikh separatists who had occupied

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Speaker 1: a temple complex that was one of the most important

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Speaker 1: religious sites in Sikhi is Um. Hundreds of Sikhs were

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Speaker 1: killed in this attack, and then two years later, on

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Speaker 1: October thirty, one of Gandhi was assassinated by two Seek

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Speaker 1: bodyguards and retaliation for what had happened in two Her

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Speaker 1: surviving son succeeded her, but in the aftermath at this assassination,

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Speaker 1: there was widespread anti Seek rioting in which thousands were

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Speaker 1: killed over the span of four days. Thanks to Christopher

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Speaker 1: Hasciotis for his research on today's episode into Casey Pegram

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Speaker 1: and Chandler Maze for their audio work on the show.

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Speaker 1: You can subscribe to the Stay in History Class on

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