On a Tuesday in November, a memoir by Sonia Gandhi, the former Congress president, reached bookshops under the title "Belonging: A Journey of Love." It traces how a young woman from a small village near Vicenza came to stand at the center of India's most powerful political dynasty, and it arrives at a moment when every family story in public life is also a political argument. Gandhi presents her account as personal rather than political, yet the ruling BJP has already called it "whitewashing," which tells us that in India the past of the Nehru-Gandhi family is still something the present is fi
Sonia Gandhi's memoir 'Belonging' goes on sale, drawing BJP charge of 'whitewashing' family history
"Absolutely not," she says she answered, almost indignantly.
Mark
Why does a memoir from a woman who avoids the spotlight matter this much?
Mimi
Because the family has given India three prime ministers, and she was at the center of its worst moments. She held Indira Gandhi as she was dying, and her husband Rajiv was killed seven years later.
Mark
The 2004 passage seems to be the headline. What does it say?
Mimi
That she told her children she would absolutely not take the prime minister's job, and that they were relieved. They saw the office as tied to danger after the two assassinations.
Luke
Worth noting that's her account, in an excerpt. Nobody else is quoted confirming that conversation.
Mark
And the BJP's reaction?
Mimi
Spokesperson C R Kesavan said she should have titled it "whitewashing" and accused it of sugar-coating the family's historical wrongs.
Luke
He's attacking the book on its launch day. The reporting doesn't say which wrongs he means, or whether he'd read the whole thing.
Mark
So the book is both personal and political?
Mimi
She says personal. But Rahul Gandhi is leading opposition protests, so the timing makes it hard to separate.
Luke
Whether it changes anything for Congress is unknown. The piece offers no evidence on that yet.
Le Pouls
- A memoir from a famously private public figure has hit the shelves and immediately drawn fire from the ruling party.
- The BJP's charge of "whitewashing" turns a personal reckoning into a contest over history and reputation.
- Gandhi's account of refusing the prime minister's office in 2004, with her children's blessing, lands as a rare glimpse behind the dynastic curtain.
- With Congress pressing against the BJP through a month of opposition protests, the book is being read as a weapon as much as a witness.
On a Tuesday in November, a memoir by Sonia Gandhi, the former Congress president, reached bookshops under the title "Belonging: A Journey of Love." It traces how a young woman from a small village near Vicenza came to stand at the center of India's most powerful political dynasty, and it arrives at a moment when every family story in public life is also a political argument. Gandhi presents her account as personal rather than political, yet the ruling BJP has already called it "whitewashing," which tells us that in India the past of the Nehru-Gandhi family is still something the present is fighting over.
A memoir by Sonia Gandhi, the former Congress president, went on sale on Tuesday under the title "Belonging: A Journey of Love," published by HarperCollins India. It is an unusual book from a woman who has long kept her private life out of view. In it she traces her path from a small Italian village to the matriarchy of the Nehru-Gandhi family, and she says she wants to portray the family honestly, as people she knew and loved, with their struggles and their human flaws. She describes the book as personal rather than political.
The outline of her life is well known. She met Rajiv Gandhi in Cambridge and married him in New Delhi in 1968. The family's history then turned violent. Indira Gandhi was shot by her own bodyguards in 1984, and Sonia held her dying mother-in-law in her arms. Rajiv was drawn into politics, became prime minister, and was killed in a suicide bombing in 1991. Sonia later entered politics herself and led the Congress party for many years.
An excerpt in The Indian Express recounts her 2004 decision not to become prime minister. Her children raised the question with her, and she answered that she would absolutely not accept the post. Neither child wanted it for her, having already lost their grandmother and father to violence. She writes that they looked relieved, and that she felt lighter for speaking her view aloud.
The BJP responded as the book launched. Spokesperson C R Kesavan said Gandhi should have called the book "whitewashing," accusing it of sugar-coating the family's historical wrongs. The timing sharpens the dispute, since Congress is trying to regain ground and Rahul Gandhi has been leading opposition protests for the past month. The memoir now sits inside that contest, and its reception will likely be argued over as much as it is read.
A memoir by Sonia Gandhi, the former Congress party president, went on sale on Tuesday. It is titled "Belonging: A Journey of Love" and published by HarperCollins India. It is an unusual book from a politician who has kept her private life largely private, and it traces how a woman from a small Italian village became the matriarch of the Nehru-Gandhi family, India's most powerful political dynasty.
Gandhi, who is 79, set out her aim in an article in The Hindu earlier this week. Much has been written about her family, she said, but rarely with real insight into who they were, their motivations, their struggles and their very human flaws. She wanted to portray them honestly, as people she knew and loved. She has described the book as personal rather than political.
The outline of her life is well known. Born Sonia Maino in 1946 in a village near Vicenza, Italy, she met Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, at a restaurant in Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. They married in New Delhi in 1968, while Rajiv's mother, Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi, was prime minister.
The family's history then turned violent. In 1984, Indira Gandhi was shot by her bodyguards, an act of revenge for her suppression of an insurgency that ended in Operation Blue Star, the army assault on the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine. Sonia held her bloodied, dying mother-in-law in her arms. Rajiv, a pilot, was drawn into politics after his mother's death and became India's youngest prime minister at 40. He was killed in a suicide bombing in 1991. Sonia later entered politics herself and became the longest-serving president of the Congress party.
An excerpt published in The Indian Express covers her 2004 decision not to take the prime minister's job. She writes that her children, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, now a senior Congress leader, and Rahul Gandhi, now leader of the opposition, raised the question with her. One of them asked outright whether she would accept the post if the party won. "Absolutely not," she says she answered, almost indignantly. According to the excerpt, neither child wanted her to become prime minister. They had lived through their grandmother's assassination and their father's murder, and saw the office as bound up with danger. They looked relieved, she writes, and she felt lighter for having said her view aloud for the first time.
The governing Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded as the book launched. National spokesperson C R Kesavan said Gandhi should have called the book "whitewashing," and accused it of sugar-coating the historical wrongs of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
The timing adds to the friction. Congress is trying to regain ground against the BJP, and over the past month Rahul Gandhi has been rallying opposition parties in a series of protests. The memoir, whatever its author intends, now sits inside that contest, and the BJP's charge suggests it will be argued over as much as read.
Citations marquantes
I wanted to portray them honestly, as people I knew and loved.— Sonia Gandhi, in The Hindu
The book sugar-coats the historical wrongs perpetrated by the Nehru-Gandhi family (paraphrased).— C R Kesavan, BJP national spokesperson
Envie de l'histoire complète ?
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Politics & Governance