Indira Gandhi was married to Feroze Gandhi on Ram Navami day on March 26, 1942 and not without protests and tamasha.
This was the time when the Second World War was being bitterly fought and the Congress had reluctantly agreed to meet Sir Stafford Cripps who had arrived with a new constitutional scheme approved by the British Cabinet.
The entire Congress Working Committee stayed at Anand Bhawan, Allahabad, when the marriage preparations were on. Two days after the wedding, the CWC left by the night train to Delhi with the father of the bride, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Rajendra Prasad, Syed Mahmud, Govind Ballabh Pant, Sarojini Naidu, Bhulabhai Desai and Acharya Kripalani.
Jawaharlal Nehru had to handle his daughter’s wedding preparations and simultaneously hold discussions with the CWC members. A bird imitator from Punjab arrived at Anand Bhawan, reminding Nehru of his promise to arrange for his performance at Indira’s wedding.
According to Eve Curie, daughter of Nobel Prize winners Marie and Pierre Curie, who was at Anand Bhawan a day before the wedding, the adamant bird imitator forced Nehru to adjourn political deliberations to witness the performance.
“The bird imitator did a beautiful job, and we all applauded,” wrote Curie in her book 'Journey Among Warriors', adding, “this had a disastrous effect. Stimulated by his success, the man started imitating hens, cocks and finally every animal under the sun, from horses to mosquitoes: First the male mosquitoes then female mosquitoes. Nehru getting restless, was making pathetic SOS signs to all, but this did not seem to bother the Punjabi in the least.”
In 'Feroze, the forgotten Gandhi', author Bertil Falk says the moment Indira’s wedding with Feroze was announced, there were protests. Conservative sections of Hindus reacted vehemently, asking how could a Brahmin girl marry a Parsi. Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi received many letters of protest.
Nehru had to issue a statement to the Press. It said, “A marriage is a personal and domestic matter, affecting chiefly the two parties concerned and partly their families.”
The statement went on to say, “(Nehru) have long held the view that though parents may and should advise in the matter, the choice and ultimate decision must lie with the two parties concerned. That decision, if arrived at after mature deliberation, must be given effect to and it is no business of parents and others to come in the way. When I was assured that Indira and Feroze wanted to marry one another, I accepted willingly their decision and told them that it had my blessings.”
Falk however, claims that Indira’s mother Kamala Nehru, who had died in 1936, did not approve of the marriage.
The Indira-Feroze love story had begun in March 1930, when the informal youth wing of the Congress, Vanar Sena, was formed by Indira Gandhi. Later, Feroze left studies to join the independence movement full time. He reportedly proposed to Indira in 1933 but an ailing Kamala rejected it, saying that Indira was too young to marry at 16.
Falk describes Feroze as a “womaniser" but quotes several of his contemporaries as saying that after his marriage, the politician was not “serious” about his numerous affairs. However, in one particular case, Nehru had to depute his friend and Cabinet colleague Rafi Ahmad Kidwai to prevail upon Feroze to give up on a woman he contemplated marrying. She was reportedly the daughter of a State Congress Minister in post-independence era.
Falk, 83, a seasoned follower of Indian politics, has written Feroze’s biography after 40 years of research, going through papers and interviews of those considered close to the freedom fighter-turned-journalist-politician.
Acording to Falk, Feroze was a socialist and federalist while Indira had an authoritarian attitude. Falk quotes Indira's close friend Mary Shelvankar as saying, “She (Indira) wanted all powers in her hands. She was against a federal India. In her opinion, India was not developed enough to be federal state.”
Falk thinks Feorze’s position is unique in the democratic world. “How many people on earth have had the first Prime Minister of the biggest democracy in the world as his father-in-law and his wife and son as the Prime Ministers of that nation as well?” Falk asks, naming Sanjay, Maneka, Sonia, Rahul and Feroze Varun as among the country’s most influential politicians.
"Candidly speaking, Feroze was much a founding father of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty though I am not sure that he would have appreciated the dynastic family streak,” Falk says.
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