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Article: Rajiv Gandhi and The Mantle Unsought;The Reluctant Leader, Learning to Govern Amid India's Crises
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 20, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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ABOARD AIR INDIA ONE-When Indira Gandhi was elected prime
minister of India for the first time, she wrote a letter to her elder
son Rajiv telling him that a line of Robert Frost's had been running
through her head: "How hard it is to keep from being king, when it's
in you and in the situation."
Four generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family has been the
situation of Indian politics. Rajiv Gandhi's great-grandfather
Motilal Nehru was a pioneer in the independence movement.
Jawaharlal Nehru ruled for 17 years, from the day India won autonomy
from Britain in 1947. Nehru's mercurial daughter Indira ruled on and
off for 15 years, and her younger son Sanjay was widely considered
presumptive ...