Feroze Gandhi

Feroze Gandhi Biography

Feroze Gandhi was Indian politician and journalist better known as the better half of former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. He married Indira in March 1942 according to Hindu rituals. He is the son-in-law of India’s first Prime Minster Nehru and his sons and grandchildren too, are quite popular. His sons are Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi and daughter-in-laws are Soniya Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi respectively. His grandkids are Rahul, Priyanka and Varun. Thus with his marriage with Indira Gandhi, he became a part of the Nehru–Gandhi dynasty. He served as the publisher of the The National Herald and The Navjivan newspapers from Lucknow.

Feroze Jehangir Gandhi was born to a Parsi family in Mumbai. Feroze was the youngest of the five children of Jehangir Faredoon Gandhi and Ratimai. Later the family migrated to their ancestor home at Mumbai. In the early 1920s, after the death of his father, they moved to Allahabad where they lived with his unmarried maternal aunt. He completed schooling from Vidya Mandir High School and graduation from the British-staffed Ewing Christian College.

In 1930, the wing of Congress Freedom fighters, the Vanar Sena was formed. That’s how he came to be associated with Nehru family members, Kamala Nehru and young Indira. In 1930, he gave up his studies to join freedom movement. Feroze first proposed to Indira in 1933 when Indira was only 16. Due to the same reason, both Indira and her mother denied the proposal. He accompanied Kamala to the TB Sanatorium at Bhowali in 1934 and arranged her foreign trips while her condition was worse. Thus he became close to Nehru family. He frequently visited Kamala at sanitarium at Badenweiler and at the time of her death, he was near. Thus Indira and Feroze grew closer to each other while in England and got married in 1942.

Nehru opposed the relationship and even approached Mahatma Gandhi to dissuade the young couple. A few months later, the couple got arrested during Quit India Movement and released later. He was imprisoned for a year in Allahabad's Naini Central Prison. Once released they had a comfortable family life and Rajiv and Sanjay were born in 1944 and 1946 respectively. After independence, Feroze with family moved to Allahabad and became the Managing Director of The National Herald, a newspaper founded by his father-in-law. He was also the first chairman of Indian Oil Corporation Limited.

Feroze Gandhi won independent India's first general elections in 1952, from Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Gandhi soon became a prominent force in his own right and even dared to criticize bad policies of Nehru and his government. Life Insurance Corporation was started by him and also took steps to nationalize Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company. Though he challenged ruling government’s bad policies, he emerged as a parliamentarian well-respected on both sides of the bench. He died in 1960 at a comparatively young age of 47.  

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Updated: January 17, 2014