Indira Gandhi and the Years that Transformed India

Srinath Raghavan is professor of international relations and history at Ashoka University, New Delhi. He is the author of several acclaimed books, including India’s War: The Making of Modern South Asia and Fierce Enigmas: A History of the United States in South Asia.

A History Today Book of the Year 2025“A masterful study.”—Sanjay Ruparelia, Financial Times“Raghavan pulls no punches: he details Gandhi’s paranoia, hunger for power, and corruption while offering some revisionist takes, such as on her surprisingly pragmatic economic policy.”—Dinya Patel, History Today“By far the single most sophisticated treatment of Indira Gandhi’s political life, and the economic, political, strategic and legal context that shaped her political choices. With lightly carried erudition, Raghavan gives an analytically sharp history of a decisive period in the making of modern India.”—Pratap Bhanu Mehta, author of The Burden of Democracy“Srinath Raghavan has given us a skilful, gripping, and clear-sighted political biography of Indira Gandhi. He has also achieved something more: this is a revelatory account of how the long 1970s paved the way for India’s contemporary transformations, brimming with insight and sharp analysis.”—Sunil Amrith, author of The Burning World“A tour de force. Drawing upon recently declassified files, Raghavan constructs a masterly account of India’s political history in the long 1970s, locating its multiple crises in a global context.”—Niraja Gopal Jayal, author of Citizenship and its Discontents“Acclaimed historian Srinath Raghavan has turned in another extraordinary book, remembering Indira Gandhi’s India with the global 1970s as its backdrop. Concentrating power but expanding representation, the Emergency emerges as a hinge between the reign of developmentalist elites reaching impasse and a neoliberal and populist age since.”—Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism against Itself“A riveting, indispensable history of Indira Gandhi’s extraordinary political career by India’s finest political historian. Raghavan masterfully weaves the intricate drama of high party politics—psychological dynamics and key personalities—around a cohesive understanding of the larger social and economic forces that wrought Indian democracy as we know it today.”—Karuna Mantena, author of Alibis of Empire