In the tumultuous early period of her premiership, Indira Gandhi navigated fierce factional struggles within the Indian National Congress while managing pressing economic crises, including food shortages and currency devaluation. Her leadership during this period set the stage for her later dominance of Indian politics through the 1970s, including the controversial Emergency period of 1975.
Indira Gandhi had become prime minister in January 1966 largely because Congress Party bosses, the so-called Syndicate, believed the soft-spoken daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru would be easy to control. They badly misjudged her. Through late 1966, she was locked in a delicate balancing act—managing a severe drought-driven food crisis, a recent and unpopular devaluation of the rupee, and restive party elders who chafed at her independent instincts.
Her government during this period pushed through administrative and economic measures aimed at stabilizing the country while she quietly built her own political base, appealing directly to the public and to poorer voters over the heads of party bosses.
The steel beneath her soft public image would become unmistakable within a few years: by 1969 she split the Congress Party rather than bow to the Syndicate, and by 1971 she led India to decisive victory in war against Pakistan. Her methods of centralizing power, visible in embryonic form in 1966, culminated in 1975's Emergency, when she suspended civil liberties and jailed opponents—a period many historians see as the near-collapse of Indian democracy.