Feroze Gandhi
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Date of Birth |
: |
Aug 12, 1912 |
Date of Death |
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Sep 8, 1960 |
Place of Birth |
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India |
Feroze
Gandhi (12 August 1912 - 8 September 1960) was an Indian politician and
journalist of Parsi descent. He was the husband of Indira Gandhi, the
former Prime Minister of India and daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the
first Indian Prime Minister. He was educated at the City
Anglo-Vernacular High School and Ewing Christian College, followed by
the London School of Economics. He abandoned his studies in 1930 to join
the struggle for Indian independence. Feroze grew close to the Nehru
family, especially Indira's mother Kamala Nehru and Indira herself.
Feroze helped nurse the ailing Kamala, and briefly traveled with Nehru,
Kamala and Indira to Europe. Even before Kamala's death, Indira and
Feroze had begun falling in love. Indira and Feroze grew more close to
each other in England. They married in 1942.
Arrested and jailed during the Quit India Movement less
than six months after their marriage, he was imprisoned for a year in
Allahabad's Naini Central Prison. Indira was also imprisoned. In 1944,
she gave birth to Rajiv Gandhi, a future Prime Minister. In 1946, Sanjay
Gandhi, a major political influence on his mother when she was PM, was
born. Indira and Feroze settled in Allahabad with their two young
children, and Feroze became editor of The National Herald, a newspaper
founded by his father-in-law. Feroze Gandhi contested elections to the
Parliament of India in 1952, independent India's first general
elections. His wife served as his campaign organizer, and Gandhi won.
But Feroze soon became a prominent force in his own right, criticizing
the Government of his father-in-law and beginning a tirade against
corruption. His exposure of a scandal involving major insurance
companies and the Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari caused the latter
to resign, and Nehru major embarrassment. Feroze began building his own
reputation and small coterie of supporters and advisors, and continued
challenging the government. He was re-elected in 1957. The marriage of
Feroze and Indira was tumultuous, as Indira began living with her
father, who was alone, and cared for him personally and often acted as
his private secretary. When he became an MP, Feroze started living in
his own house in Delhi, away from his father-in-law and wife. Indira and
Feroze were re-united in 1958, when Feroze suffered his first heart
attack. Indira took him to recuperate in Kashmir, where with their young
boys, they were together again. However, Feroze died in 1960 of a
second heart attack.