The man who gave his name to India’s most celebrated political family, the Gandhis, is rarely mentioned. Now, in his book on Feroze Gandhi — Indira Gandhi’s husband, Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi’s father, and Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi’s grandfather — Swedish journalist Bertil Falk seeks to fill that gap.
Interestingly, what began as a newspaper article 40 years ago, is now a full-fledged, painstakingly researched biography, with parallel accounts by eyewitnesses of the same incidents. The book not only fleshes out what is generally known about Feroze Gandhi, but places him at the heart of the freedom struggle as it played out in Allahabad, the city in which both he and Indira spent their childhood.
The portrait that emerges is of a man, who possessed charm, intelligence, tenacity, a sense of humour as well as a commitment to truth and improving the lot of the poor. Born into the Parsi faith, his family didn’t approve of his political activities. The book quotes a meeting between Feroze’s mother Rattimai Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi in 1931 in which she begged him to urge her son to return to his studies. Gandhi’s response was: “... If I could get seven boys like Feroze to work for me, I will get Swaraj in seven days.” At 21, he had already been jailed thrice, making enduring friendships with people like Lal Bahadur Shastri.
The spark that Mahatma Gandhi saw was seen by everyone when he became MP in the country’s first general elections in 1952 — and again in 1957 — from Rae Bareli, which his daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi, now represents. The Congress and Nehru dominated Parliament then, and Feroze, now the Prime Minister’s son-in-law, a mesmerising speaker, took on the role of a one-man opposition, exposing wrong-doing.
The Nehrus, of course, had the most profound influence on Feroze. A chance meeting with Indira’s mother, Kamala Nehru, in Allahabad led eventually to his marriage with Indira. The initial years of the marriage were happy, but differences emerged after Independence. Indira moved into the PM’s official residence at Teen Murti Marg with her sons, and Feroze to his MP’s flat. But he was a loving father, who kept in touch with his sons till his untimely demise in 1960 at age 48, largely a result of his own neglect of his health.
