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At A Certain Point The Family Moved To Jaipur, Where No Woman Could Avoid The Doli Or Purdah. They Kept Her In The House From Morning To Night, Either Cooking Or Doing Nothing. [my Mother] Hated Doing Nothing, She Hated To Cook. So She Became Pale And Ill, And Far From Being Concerned About Her Health, My Grandfather Said, 'who's Going To Marry Her Now?' So My Grandmother Waited For My Grandfather To Go Out, And Then She Dressed My Mother As A Man And Let Her Go Out Riding With Her Brothers.

-Indira Gandhi

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At A Certain Point

Indira Gandhi

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At A Certain Point The Family Moved To Jaipur, Where No Woman Could Avoid The Doli Or Purdah. They Kept Her In The House From Morning To Night, Either Cooking Or Doing Nothing. [my Mother] Hated Doing Nothing, She Hated To Cook. So She Became Pale And Ill, And Far From Being Concerned About Her Health, My Grandfather Said, 'who's Going To Marry Her Now?' So My Grandmother Waited For My Grandfather To Go Out, And Then She Dressed My Mother As A Man And Let Her Go Out Riding With Her Brothers.

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I Know I'll Astonish Everyone By Talking Like This, But It's God's Truth. Honors Have Never Tempted Me And I've Never Sought Them.

Nothing Can Convince Me That People Are At One With Their Work Unless They're Joyous About It.

To Become Our Enemies - What An Absurdity. A Crazy Absurdity When You Stop To Think That We, Muslims And Hindus, Had Conducted The Struggle For Independence Together.

Without Courage, You Cannot Practice Any Other Virtue. You Have To Have Courage - Courage Of Different Kinds: First, Intellectual Courage, To Sort Out Different Values And Make Up Your Mind About Which Is The One Which Is Right For You To Follow. You Have To Have Moral Courage To Stick Up To That - No Matter What Comes In Your Way, No Matter What The Obstacle And The Opposition Is.

You Soon Realize That The Peak You've Climbed Was One Of The Lowest, That The Mountain Was Part Of A Chain Of Mountains, That There Are Still So Many, So Many Mountains To Climb...and The More You Climb, The More You Want To Climb - Even Though You're Dead Tired.

We Couldn't Be Everywhere, We Couldn't See Everything, And It Was Inevitable That Some Things Would Escape Us.

We Couldn't Keep Ten Million Refugees On Our Soil; We Couldn't Tolerate Such An Unstable Situation For Who Knows How Long. That Influx Of Refugees Wouldn't Have Stopped - On The Contrary. It Would Have Gone On And On And On, Until There Would Have Been An Explosion. We Were No Longer Able To Control The Arrival Of Those People, In Our Own Interest We Had To Stop It! That's What I Said To Mr.[richard] Nixon, To All The Other Leaders I Visited In An Attempt To Avert The War.

You Don't Help A Country By Supporting A Military Regime That Denies Any Sign Of Democracy, And What Defeated Pakistan Was Its Military Regime.

I Said, I'll Put On Weight. And I Started Having Massages, Taking Cod-liver Oil, And Eating Twice As Much. But I Didn't Even Gain An Ounce. I'd Made Up My Mind That On The Day The Engagement Was Announced I'd Be Fatter, And I Didn't Gain An Ounce. Then I Went To Mussoorie, Which Is A Health Resort, And I Ignored The Doctors' Instructions; I Invented My Own Regime And Gained Weight. Just The Opposite Of What I'd Like Now. Now I Have The Problem Of Keeping Slim. Still I Manage. I Don't Know If You Realize I'm A Determined Woman.

I Was A Welfare Worker For The Indian Council For Child Welfare. I'll Tell You A Story. Rajiv Was Only Four Years Old At That Time, And Was Going To Kindergarten. One Day The Mother Of One Of His Little Friends Came To See Us And Said In A Sugary Voice, 'oh, It Must Be So Sad For You To Have No Time To Spend With Your Little Boy!' Rajiv Roared Like A Lion: 'my Mother Spends More Time With Me Than You Spend With Your Little Boy, See! Your Little Boy Says You Always Leave Him Alone So You Can Play Bridge!' I Detest Women Who Do Nothing And They Play Bridge.

I Never Believed In The Danger Of A Third World War.

For Me It's Absolutely The Same - I Treat One And The Other In Exactly The Same Way. As Persons, That Is, Not As Men And Women. But, Even Here, You Have To Consider The Fact That I've Had A Very Special Education, That I'm The Daughter Of A Man Like My Father And A Woman Like My Mother.

India Wants To Avoid A War At All Costs But It Is Not A One-sided Affair, You Cannot Shake Hands With A Clenched Fist.

It Depends On What You Mean By The Word Religion. Certainly I Don't Go To Temples And Pray To The Gods Or Anything Like That.

Satisfied Is A Word I Use Only In Reference To My Country, And I'll Never Be Satisfied For My Country. For This Reasons I Go On Taking Difficult Paths, And Between A Paved Road And A Footpath That Goes Up The Mountain, I Choose The Footpath. To The Great Irritation Of My Bodyguards.

I Had Many Dolls. And You Know How I Played With Them? By Performing Insurrections, Assemblies, Scenes Of Arrest. My Dolls Were Almost Never Babies To Be Nursed But Men And Women Who Attacked Barracks And Ended Up In Prison.

You Cannot Shake Hands With A Clenched Fist.

You Found An Uncle On One Side And A Nephew On The Other, A Cousin Here And A Cousin There. Besides It's Still True Today. I'll Tell You Something Else. There Was A Time When Even Two Ambassadors To Switzerland, The One From India And The One From Pakistan, Were Two Blood Brothers. Oh, The Partition Imposed On Us By The British Was So Unnatural!

My Children Needed Me, And I Like My Job As A Social Worker.

It Is Our Duty To Create A Social Milieu In Which The Young And The Socially Weak Feel That The Present And Future Belong To Them.

All My Games Were Political Games; I Was, Like Joan Of Arc, Perpetually Being Burned At The Stake.

We Announced That There'd Be No More Starvation In India. And You Responded, 'impossible. You'll Never Succeed!' Instead We Succeeded; Today In India No One Dies Of Hunger Any More; Food Production Far Exceeds Consumption.

Rebels And Non-conformists Are Often The Pioneers And Designers Of Change.

Defeats Are Always Pitiful. Victories Are Always Last Resources.

I Don't Care If I Remain Prime Minister. I'm Only Interested In Doing A Good Job As Long As I'm Capable And For As Long As I Don't Get Tired.

Finally We Promised To Limit The Birth Rate. And This You Really Didn't Believe; You Smiled Scornfully. Well, Even In This Things Have Gone Well. The Fact Is That We Have Grown By Over Seventy Millions In Ten Years, But It's Also True That We Have Grown Less Than Many Other Countries, Including The Countries Of Europe.

If By Religion We Mean A Belief In Humanity Rather Than The Gods, An Effort To Make Man Better And A Little Happier, Then Yes, I'm Very Religious.

I Don't Waste Time In Flowery Small Talk, As People Do In India.

Women Sometimes Go Too Far, It's True. But It's Only When You Go Too Far That Others Listen.

In All Societies That Have Applied A Form Of Socialism, A Certain Degree Of Social Economic Equality Has Been Achieved.

Even If I Died In The Service Of The Nation, I Would Be Proud Of It. Every Drop Of My Blood... Will Contribute To The Growth Of This Nation And To Make It Strong And Dynamic.

To Be Liberated, Woman Must Feel Free To Be Herself, Not In Rivalry To Man But In The Context Of Her Own Capacity And Her Personality.

One Must Beware Of Ministers Who Can Do Nothing Without Money, And Those Who Want To Do Everything With Money.

Sometimes Friends Are Dangerous. We Must Be Very Careful About The Help Friends Give Us.

Every New Experience Brings Its Own Maturity And A Greater Clarity Of Vision.

New Experiences

Naturally, If The Americans Had Fired A Shot, If The Seventh Fleet Had Done Something More Than Sit There In The Bay Of Bengal...yes, The Third World War Would Have Exploded. But, In All Honesty, Not Even That Fear Occurred To Me.

For Me The Only Point That Has Remained Unchanged Through The Years Is That In India There Is Still So Much Poverty.

Forgiveness Is The Virtue Of Brave.

To Me The Function Of Politics Is To Make Possible The Desirable.

Even Today To Be Civilised Is Held To Be Synonymous With Being Westernised. Advanced Countries Devote Large Resources To Formulating And Spreading Ideas And Doctrines And They Tend To Impose On The Developing Nations Their Own Norms And Methods. The Pattern Of The Classical Acquisitive Society With Its Deliberate Multiplication Of Wants Not Only Is Unsuited To Conditions In Our Countries But Is Positively Harmful.

You Said, 'planning Is Something For Communist Countries; Democracy And Planning Don't Go Together!' But, With All The Errors We Committed, Our Plans Succeeded.

America Always Thought It Was Helping Pakistan. But If It Hadn't Helped Pakistan, Pakistan Would Have Been A Stronger Country.

All Unprejudiced Persons Objectively Surveying The Grim Events In Bangla Desh Since March 25 Have Recognized The Revolt Of 75 Million People, A People Who Were Forced To The Conclusion That Neither Their Life, Nor Their Liberty, To Say Nothing Of The Possibility Of The Pursuit Of Happiness, Was Available To Them.

Pursuit Of Happiness

All Of A Sudden Inscriptions Appeared On Walls. Signs Appeared. And That 'no' Exploded All Over India, In An Act Of Pride That Surprised Even Me. Then Even The Political Parties, All Of Them, Even The Deputies In Parliament, Said No: It's Better To Die Of Hunger Than Be Taken For A Nation Of Beggars.

The International Control Commission Isn't Doing Anything, It's Never Done Anything. What Good Does It Do To Be On It Or Not? Before Opening The Embassy In Hanoi, I Gave It A Lot Of Thought, But It Wasn't Really A Painful Decision. American Policy In Vietnam Is What It Is, In Saigon The Situation Is Anything But Normal, And I'm Happy To Have Done What I Did.

India Had Barely Become Independent, In 1947, When Pakistan Invaded Kashmir, Which At The Time Was Ruled By A Maharajah. The Maharajah Fled, And The People Of Kashmir, Led By Sheikh Abdullah, Asked For Indian Help. Lord [louis] Mountbatten, Who Was Still Governor General, Replied That He Wouldn't Be Able To Supply Aid To Kashmir Unless Pakistan Declared War, And He Didn't Seem Bothered By The Fact That The Pakistanis Were Slaughtering The Population.

No One Ever Indoctrinated Me.

Politics Is The Art Of Acquiring, Holding, And Wielding Power.

At A Certain Point The Family Moved To Jaipur, Where No Woman Could Avoid The Doli Or Purdah. They Kept Her In The House From Morning To Night, Either Cooking Or Doing Nothing. [my Mother] Hated Doing Nothing, She Hated To Cook. So She Became Pale And Ill, And Far From Being Concerned About Her Health, My Grandfather Said, 'who's Going To Marry Her Now?' So My Grandmother Waited For My Grandfather To Go Out, And Then She Dressed My Mother As A Man And Let Her Go Out Riding With Her Brothers.

Still, In International Matters, The Treaty Changes Nothing. That Is, It Doesn't Prevent Us From Being Friends With Other Countries, Which Indeed We Are.

Difficulties Can't Be Eliminated From Life. Individuals Will Always Have Them, Countries Will Always Have Them...the Only Thing Is To Accept Them, If Possible Overcome Them, Otherwise To Come To Terms With Them. It's All Right To Fight, Yes, But Only When It's Possible.

I Always Defended My Father, As A Child, And I Think I'm Still Defending Him - His Policies At Least. Oh, He Wasn't At All A Politician, In No Sense Of The Word. He Was Sustained In His Work Only By A Blind Faith In India - He Was Preoccupied In Such An Obsessive Way By The Future Of India. We Understood Each Other.

In All Communities You Find Groups That Behave Badly. But You Must Understand Them Too.

I Can't Take It Seriously When People Get Excited And Scream That Religion Is In Danger, And Similar Stupidities.

My Father Was A Saint. He Was The Closest Thing To A Saint That You Can Find In A Normal Man.

Yes, He [mahatma Gandhi] Was A Great Man. However...between Me And Gandhi There Was Never The Understanding There Was Between Me And My Father.

In The Face Of Such A Threat, They Had No Other Choice But To Throw Themselves To The Far Left. But Now That The People Are Conscious Of Our Efforts, Now That They See Us Resolving Problems, The Communists Are Losing Strength.

When It's Impossible, It's Better To Stoop To Compromise, Without Resisting And Without Complaining. People Who Complain Are Selfish.

My Grandfather Once Told Me That There Were Two Kinds Of People: Those Who Do The Work And Those Who Take The Credit. He Told Me To Try To Be In The First Group; There Was Much Less Competition.

The Question Before The Advanced Nations Is Not Whether They Can Afford To Help The Developing Nations, But Whether They Can Afford Not To Do So.

With Boys I Climbed Trees, Ran Races, And Wrestled. I Had No Complexes Of Envy Or Inferiority Toward Boys. At The Same Time, However, I Liked Dolls.

Life Is Always Full Of Dangers And I Don't Think One Should Avoid Dangers.

If We Offer Something To Bangladesh, It's Obvious That Bangladesh Is Offering Something To Us. And Why Shouldn't Bangladesh Be Able To Keep Its Promises? Economically It's Full Of Resources And Can Stand On Its Feet. Politically It Seems To Me Led By Trained People. The Refugees Who Took Shelter Here Are Going Home.

In India's Distant Past, When The Population Was Low, The Blessing Given A Woman Was, 'may You Have Many Children.' Most Of Our Epics And Literature Stress This Wish, And The Idea That A Woman Should Have Many Children Hasn't Declined.

To Be A Mother, A Housewife, Never Cost Me Any Sacrifice - I Savored Every Minute Of Those Years.

It Is Legitimate To Have One's Own Point Of View And Political Philosophy. But There Are People Who Make Anger, Rather Than A Deeply Held Belief, The Basis Of Their Actions. They Do Not Seem To Mind Harming Society As A Whole In The Pursuit Of Their Immediate Objective. No Society Can Survive If It Yields To The Demands Of Frenzy, Whether Of The Few Or The Many.

My Husband Lived In Lucknow. My Father Lived In Delhi, Of Course. So I Shuttled Between Delhi And Lucknow And...naturally, If My Husband Needed Me On Days When I Was In Delhi, I Ran Back To Lucknow. But If It Was My Father Who Needed Me, On The Days When I Was In Lucknow. And...yes, My Husband Got Angry. And He Quarreled. We Quarreled. We Quarreled A Lot. It's True.

In India People Can't Stomach This Attitude Of Mine, And When I Say, 'hurry Up, Let's Get To The Point,' They Feel Hurt.

I'm Trained To Difficulties; Difficulties Can't Be Eliminated From Life.

The Meek May One Day Inherit The Earth, But Not The Headlines.

You Said, 'how Is It Possible For Democracy To Work With An Illiterate People Who Are Dying Of Hunger?' But With That People We Made A Democracy Work.

If I Die A Violent Death, As Some Fear And A Few Are Plotting, I Know That The Violence Will Be In The Thought And The Action Of The Assassins, Not In My Dying.

The Power To Question Is The Basis Of All Human Progress.

Inspirational Life

My Fiancé, You See, Belonged To Another Religion. He Was A Parsi. And This Was Something Nobody Could Stand - All Of India Was Against Us. They Wrote To Gandhi, To My Fther, To Me. Insults, Death Threats. Every Day The Postman Arrived With An Enormous Sack And Dumped The Letters On The Floor. We Even Stopped Reading Them; We Let A Couple Of Friends Read Them And Tell Us What Was In Them.

How Is It Possible For People In The Modern World To Go On Killing Each Other For Religion? The Problems We Should Be Concerned With Nowadays Are Quite Different!

My Theory Is That Men Are No More Liberated Than Women.

People Often Ask Me: Who Has Influenced You The Most? Your Father? Mahatma Gandhi? Yes, My Choices Were Fundamentally Influenced By Them, By The Spirit Of Equality They Infused In Me - My Obsession For Justice Comes From My Father, Who In Turn Got It From Mahatma Gandhi.

You Must Learn To Be Still In The Midst Of Activity And To Be Vibrantly Alive In Repose.

I Always Wanted To Have Children - If It Had Been Up To Me, I Would Have Had Eleven. It Was My Husband Who Wanted Only Two.

Life Is A Continuous Process Of Adjustment.

Whenever You Take A Step Forward, You Are Bound To Disturb Something.

I Remember Harrowing Episodes. People Who Emigrated, People Who Didn't Want To Emigrate...many Muslims Didn't Want To Leave India To Go To Live In Pakistan, But The Propaganda Was That There They'd Have Greater Opportunities And So They Left. Many Hindus, On The Other Hand, Didn't Want To Stay In Pakistan, But They Had Ties There Or Property And So They Stayed.

What We Do Now, On The Other Hand...don't Think That I'm Crazy About This Kind Of Politics. It's No Accident That I've Done Everything To Keep My Sons Out Of It, And So Far I've Succeeded. After Independence I Retired Immediately From Politics.

I Don't At All Care Who's On The Right Or Left Or In The Center. Even Though We Use Them, Even Though I Use Them Myself, These Expressions Have Lost All Meaning.

The Purpose Of Life Is To Believe, To Hope, And To Strive.

It's A Law Of Life - Check It And You'll See It Holds True In Every Situation Of Life.

[mahatma Gandhi] Said That The First President Of India Ought To Be A Harijan Girl, An Untouchable. He Was So Against The Class System And The Oppression Of Women That An Untouchable Woman Became For Him The Epitome Of Purity And Benediction.

If You Only Knew, For Instance, How Much I Enjoy Being A Grandmother! Do You Know I'm Twice A Grandmother? Rajiv And Sonia Have Had A Boy And A Girl.

Even I, When I Was A Student In London, Often Wore Western Clothes, And Yet I'm The Most Indian Indian I Know.

The Immediate Is Often The Enemy Of The Ultimate.

Maybe I Would Have Considered The Problem If I'd Met Someone With Whom I'd Have Liked To Live. But I Never Met This Someone And... No, Even If I Had Met Him, I'm Sure I Wouldn't Have Got Married Again. Why Should I Get Married Now That My Life Is So Full? No, No, It's Out Of The Question.

The Doctors Advised Me Not To Have Even One. My Health Was Still Not Good, And They Said That Pregnancy Might Be Fatal. If They Hadn't Said That To Me, Maybe I Wouldn't Have Got Married. But That Diagnosis Provoked Me, It Infuriated Me. I Answered, 'why Do You Think I'm Getting Married If Not To Have Children? I Don't Want To Hear That I Can't Have Children; I Want You To Tell Me What I Have To Do In Order To Have Children!'

What Is Popular Need Not Necessarily Be Right Or Wise.

In The Western World, Women Have No Other Choice. In India, No. And I'll Explain The Reason. It's A Reason That Also Has To Do With My Own Case. In India Women Have Never Been A Hostile Competition With Men - Even In The Most Distant Past, Every Time A Woman Emerged As A Leader, Perhaps As A Queen, The People Accepted Her. As Something Normal And Not Exceptional.

Mahatma Gandhi Was Always Talking Of Religion...he Was Convinced That Was Right...the Fact Is, We Young People Didn't Agree With Him On Many Things.

The Western Press Has Always Insisted That India Was Pakistan's Enemy And Vice Versa, That The Hindus Were Against The Muslims And Vice Versa. They've Never Said, For Instance, That My Party Has Been Fighting This Attitude Ever Since We Have Maintained That Religious Hostilities Are Wrong And Absurd, That Minorities Cannot Be Eliminated From A Country, That People Of Different Religions Must Live Together.

As For The Job Of Prime Minister, I Like It, Yes. But No More Than I've Liked Other Work That I've Done As An Adult.

I Don't See Why We And The Chinese Should Have To Be Enemies.

Nothing Lasts Forever, And No One Can Predict What Will Happen To Me In The Near Or Distant Future.

Nothing Lasts Forever

A Revolution Is Already Taking Place In India. Things Are Changing Here Already - Peacefully And Democratically. There's No Danger Of Communism. There Would Be If We Had A Rightist Government Instead Of Mine.

As I Always Say, I Do Not Wish You An Easy Time, But I Wish You That Whatever Difficulty You May Have, You Will Overcome It.

There Are Only Moments Of Happiness - From Contentment To Ecstacy.

Moments Of Happiness

Peace We Want Because There Is Another War To Fight Against Poverty, Disease And Ignorance.

In Today's World No Country Can Be Absolutely Independent Of Another. It Is A World Of Interdependence.

Nothing That Is Worthwhile Is Ever Easy.

Message In A Bottle

The Future Doesn't Frighten Me, Even If It Threatens To Be Full Of Other Difficulties.

I Began To Travel By Myself, In Europe, When I Was Eight Years Old. At That Age I Was Already On The Move Between India And Swizerland, Switzerland And France, France And England. Administering My Own Finances Like An Adult.

I Cannot Understand How Anyone Can Be An Indian And Not Be Proud.

My Father Cared Very Much About Courage, Physical Courage As Well. He Despised Those Who Didn't Have It. But He Never Said To Me, 'i Want You To Be Courageous.' He Just Smiled With Pride Every Time I Did Something Difficult Or Won A Race With The Boys.

People Who Say It Was Her Father Who Prepared Her For The Post Of Prime Minister, It Was Her Father Who Launched Her, Are Wrong.

At First People Asked Us, 'can You Do It?' And We Kept Silent Because We Didn't Believe In Ourselves, We Didn't Believe That We Could Do Things. Today People No Longer Say To Us, 'can You?' They Say, 'when Can You?' Because The Indians Finally Believe In Themselves, They Believe They Can Do Things.

A Nation' S Strength Ultimately Consists In What It Can Do On Its Own, And Not In What It Can Borrow From Others.

Home Is Wherever I Go.

Until The Day She Died, My Mother Continued To Fight For The Rights Of Women. She Joined All The Women's Movements Of The Time; She Stirred Up A Lot Of Revolts. She Was A Great Woman, A Great Figure. Women Today Would Like Her Immensely.

The Struggle For Independence Here Has Been Conducted In Equal Measure By Men And By Women. And When We Got Our Independence, No One Forgot That. In The Western World, On The Other Hand, Nothing Of The Kind Has Ever Happened - Women Have Participated, Yes, But Revolutions Have Always Been Made By Men Alone.

I Don't See The World As Something Divided Between Right And Left.

Dacca Is Now The Free Capital Of A Free Country.

In An Underdeveloped Society, The First Anxiety Is Of Infant Mortality. In An Advanced One It Is To Keep Alive The Aged.

Just When You Think You've Achieved Something, You Realize You've Achieved Nothing. And Still You Have To Go Forward Just The Same - Toward A Dream So Distant That Your Road Has Neither Beginning Nor End.

We Were To Equally Strong Types [with My Husband], Equally Pigheaded - Neither Of Us Wanted To Give In. And...i Like To Think Those Quarrels Made Us Better, That They Enlivened Our Life, Because Without Them We Would Have Had A Normal Life, Yes, But Banal And Boring.

When I'm Not Governing My Country Any More, I'll Go Back To Taking Care Of Children. Or Else I'll Start Studying Anthropology - It's A Science That's Always Interested Me Very Much, Also In Relation To The Problem Of Poverty. Or Else I'll Go Back To Studying History - At Oxford I Took My Degree In History. Or Else...i Don't Know, I'm Fascinated By The Tribal Communities. I Might Busy Myself With Them.

Our Pride Has Grown In The Last Twenty-five Years, Though Others Don't Understand It And Underestimate It.

To Become Capable, One Must Have Faith In Oneself.

... Where Does Strength Come From? It Is Not Muscle Strength Any More. It Is Not Also Mere Intellectual Strength. What Is Strength? Strength Is The Support Of The People.

My Father Was A Statesman, I'm A Political Woman. My Father Was A Saint. I'm Not.

The Life I've Had, The Difficulties, The Hardships, The Pain I've Suffered Since I Was A Child. It's A Great Privilege To Have Led A Difficult Life, And Many People In My Generation Have Had This Privilege - I Sometimes Wonder If Young People Today Aren't Deprived Of The Dramas That Shaped Us.

I Don't Know How To Put On An Act; I Always Show Myself For What I Am, In Whatever Mood I'm In.

What Good Does It Do To Remain Tied To An Ideology If You Don't Achieve Anything By It? I Have An Ideology Myself - You Can't Work In A Vacuum; You Have To Have Faith In Something.

Little By Little I Changed My Mind, And When I Was About Eighteen, I Began To Consider The Possibility Of Getting Married. Not To Have A Husband, But To Have Children.

The Fact That I Have An Ideology, However, Doesn't Mean I'm Indoctrinated.

I Examine The Consequences Later, When A New Situation Arises And I Then Face The New Situation. And That's It.

When One Has Had A Life As Difficult As Mine, One Doesn't Worry About How Others Will React.

When I Was Young, I Was Very Selfish, Now Not Any More.

I See Nothing Wrong In Sterilizing A Man Who Has Already Brought Eight Or Ten Children Into The World. Especially If It Helps Those Eight Or Ten Children To Live Better.

I Know You Were Surprised When, After The Fall Of Dacca, Pakistani And Indian Officers Shook Hands. But Do You Realize That, Up Until 1965, In Our Army And The Pakistani One You Could Come Across Generals Who Were Brothers? Blood Brothers, Sons Of The Same Father And The Same Mother.

A Lot Of Mythology Arose After [mahatma Gandhi] Death. But The Fact Remains That He Was An Exceptional Man, Terribly Intelligent, With Tremendous Intuition For People, And A Great Instinct For What Was Right.

Happiness Is Such A Fleeting Point Of View - There's No Such Thing As Continual Happiness.

People Tend To Forget Their Duties But Remember Their Rights.

Political Games

Everything I've Done, I've Done Because I Wanted To Do It. In Doing It, I've Plunged In Headlong, Always Believing In It.

The Doctors Shrugged Their Shoulders And Grumbled That Perhaps If I Were To Put On Weight That Would Protect Me A Little - Being So Thin, I Would Never Succeed In Remaining Pregnant.

Muslim Women Had To Go Out In Purdah, That Heavy Sheet That Covers Even The Eyes. Hindu Women Had To Go Out In The Doli, A Kind Of Closed Sedan Chair Like A Catafalque. My Mother Always Told Me About These Things With Bitterness And Rage.

What Does Nonalignment Mean? It Means We Don't Belong To Any Military Bloc And That We Reserve The Right To Be Friends With Any Country, Independently Of The Influence Of Any Country. All This Has Remained Unchanged After The Signing Of The Indo-soviet Treaty, And Others Can Say Or Think What They Like - Our Policy Won't Change Because Of The Soviet Union.

If By Happiness You Mean Instead An Ordinary Contentment, Then Yes - I'm Fairly Contented. Not Satisfied - Contented.

My Father Was Prime Minister, And To Take Care Of His Home, To Be His Hostess, Automatically Meant To Have My Hands In Politics - To Meet People, To Know Their Games, Their Secrets.

We Would Rather Starve Than Sell Our National Honor.

The Old Need The Company Of The Young So That They Renew Their Contact With Life.

You Say This Victory Is Dangerous. I Say That Today No One Can Yet Tell If It's Dangerous, That Today I Don't See The Risks You Mention. If, However, Those Risks Should Become Reality...i'll Act In Accordance With The New Reality.

Let's Not Forget That In India The Symbol Of Strength Is A Woman; The Goddess Shakti.

There Is Not Love Where There Is No Will.

Poverty Assumes So Many Aspects Here In India. There Aren't Only The Poor That You See In The Cities, There Are The Poor Among The Tribes, The Poor Who Live In The Forest, The Poor Who Live On The Mountains. Should We Ignore Them As Long As The Poor In The Cities Are Better Off? And Better Off With Reference To What? To What People Wanted Ten Years Ago? Then It Seemed Like So Much. Today It's No Longer So Much.

I Want To Succeed. And I Want To Succeed In The Best Way Possible, Without Caring Whether People Call My Actions Leftist Or Rightist.

Even Under The British There Were Hostile Groups. There Were Clashes. But, As We Found Out Later, These Were Clashes Provoked By Those Who Had No Wish To Let Us Live Together - On The Eve Of The Partition. The Policy Of Keeping Us Divided Was Always Followed By Foreigners, Even After The Partition. If Indians And Pakistanis Had Been Together...i Don't Say As Confederated Countries But As Neighboring And Friendly Countries...like Italy And France, For Example ...believe Me, Both Of Us Would Have Progressed Much Further.

I Had Recently Had The Impression They Were Changing - Not So Much By Becoming Less Pro-pakistan As By Becoming Less Anti-india. I Was Wrong. My Visit To [richard] Nixon Did Anything But Avert The War.

I Suggested A Compromise To Give The Banks A Year's Time And See If They Succeed In Showing Us That Nationalization Wasn't Necessary. The Year Went By And We Realized It Hadn't Done Any Good, That The Money Still Ended Up In The Hands Of The Rich Industrialists Or Friends Of The Bankers. So I Concluded That It Was Necessary To Nationalize The Banks. And We Did. Without Considering It A Socialist Gesture Or An Antisocialist Gesture, Just A Necessary One. Anyone Who Nationalizes Only So As To Be Considered On The Left To Me Is A Fool.

You've Never Been Very Generous, You Westerners, Toward Us Indians. You Should Have Seen That Things Were Changing, Albeit Slowly. You Should Have Seen That Something Was Happening. Not Much, But Something.

I Like To Think I've Provided This Faith. I Also Think That By Providing Faith, I've Focused Their Pride. I Say Focused Because Pride Isn't Something You Give. It Doesn't Even Break Out Suddenly; It's A Feeling That Grows Very Slowly, Very Confusedly.

I've Never Understood Women Who, Because Of Their Children, Pose As Victims And Don't Allow Themselves Any Other Activities.

There Are Moments In History When Brooding Tragedy And Its Dark Shadows Can Be Lightened By Recalling Great Moments Of The Past.

I Think I'm Cold, Indeed Icy, Hard. Then There's Another Reason, One That Goes With My Frankness: I Don't Put On Act.

Nowadays You Can No Longer Let Yourself Be Indoctrinated - The World Is Changing So Fast! Even What You Wanted Twenty Years Ago Is No Longer Relevant Today; It's Outdated.

Have A Bias Toward Action - Let's See Something Happen Now. You Can Break That Big Plan Into Small Steps And Take The First Step Right Away.

No One Wanted That Marriage, No One. Even Mahatma Gandhi Wasn't Happy About It. As For My Father...it's Not True That He Opposed It, As People Say, But He Wasn't Eager For It. I Suppose Because The Fathers Of Only Daughters Would Prefer To See Them Get Married As Late As Possible.

I Am Proud That I Spent The Whole Of My Life In The Service Of My People ... I Shall Continue To Serve Until My Last Breath And When I Die, I Can Say, That Every Drop Of My Blood Will Invigorate India And Strengthen It.

They're The Problems Of Poverty, Of The Rights Of The Individual, Of The Changes Brought About By Technology. They're The Ones That Count, More Than Religion!

By Now Even The Word Socialism Has So Many Meanings And Interpretations. The Russians Call Themselves Socialists, The Swedes Call Themselves. And Let's Not Forget That In Germany There Was Also A National Socialism.

At No Point, At A Very Important Point: That Of Having Convinced The Indians That They Can Do Things.

If By Happiness You Mean Ecstasy ... Yes, I've Known Ecstasy, And It's A Blessing To Be Able To Say It Because Those Who Can Say It Are Very Few. But Ecstasy Doesn't Last Long And Is Seldom If Ever Repeated.

However, The Treaty Exists And It Puts Us In A Different Position Toward The Soviet Union Than The One We Have Toward Other Countries. Yes, The Treaty Exists. Nor Does It Exist On Only One Side. Look How W3e're Situated Geographically And You'll See That India Is Very Important For The Soviet Union.

The India I Want, I'll Never Tire Of Repeating, Is A More Just And Less Poor India, One Entirely Free Of Foreign Influences. If I Thought The Country Was Already Marching Toward These Objectives, I'd Give Up Politics Immediately And Retire As Prime Minister.

Do You Know That, Until Recently, Poor People Brought Children Into The World For The Sole Purpose Of Making Use Of Them? But How Can You Change, By Force Or All Of A Sudden, An Age-old Habit? The Only Way Is To Plan Births, By One Means Or Another.

I've Always Discovered Things For Myself, In Marvelous Freedom.

Popularity Is Not A Gurantee Of Quality.

Not Only My Parents But The Whole Family Was Involved In The Resistance - My Grandfather And Grandmother, My Uncles And Aunts, My Cousings Of Both Sexes. So Ever So Often The Police Came And Took Them Away, Indiscriminately. Well, The Fact That They Arrested Both My Father And Mother, Both My Grandfather And Grandmother, Both An Uncle And An Aunt, Made Me Accustomed To Looking On Men And Women With The Same Eyes, On An Absolute Plane Of Equality.

It Has Been My Experience That People Who Are At Cross-purposes With Nature Are Cynical About Mankind And Ill At Ease With Themselves.

Have You Ever Climbed A Mountain? You See, Once You Arrive At The Top Of A Mountain, You Think You've Reached The Highest Point. But It's Only An Impression That Doesn't Last Long.

The Sterilization Of Men Is One Method Of Birth Control. The Surest, Most Radical Method. To You It Seems Dreadful. To Me It Seems That, Properly Applied, It's By No Means Dreadful.

Sometimes We Hurt One Another Without Realizing It.

Education Is A Liberating Force, And In Our Age It Is Also A Democratizing Force, Cutting Across The Barriers Of Caste And Class, Smoothing Out Inequalities Imposed By Birth And Other Circumstances.

[visiting Richard Nixon] Useful Only To Me. The Experience Taught Me That When People Do Something Against You, That Something Always Turns Out In Your Favor.

When I'm Not Governing My Country Any More, I'll Go Back To Taking Care Of Children.

I Said That My Father Was Not A Politician. I, Instead, Think I Am. But Not In The Sense Of Being Interested In A Political Career - Rather In The Sense That I Think It Necessary To Strive To Build A Certain India, The India I Want.

I Was A Perfect Housewife. Being A Mother Has Always Been The Job I Liked Best. Absolutely.

I'm Not Interested In One Label Or The Other - I'm Only Interested In Solving Certain Problems, In Getting Where I Want To Go.

The Civil Servant Is Primarily The Master Of The Short-term Solution.

In Fact The Communists Gained Strength In India When The People Thought My Party Was Moving To The Right. And They Were Correct.

Forgiveness Is A Virtue Of The Brave.

To Bear Many Children Is Considered Not Only A Religious Blessing But Also An Investment. The Greater Their Number, Some Indians Reason, The More Alms They Can Beg.

If You Only Knew What It Did To Me To Have Lived In That House Where The Police Were Bursting In To Take Everyone Away! I Certainly Didn't Have A Happy And Serene Childhood.

Without Peace There Can Be No Prosperity For Any People, Rich Or Poor. And Yet, There Can Be No Peace Without Erasing The Harshness Of The Growing Contrast Between The Rich And The Poor.

I Suspected [richard Nixon] Was Very Pro-pakistan. Or Rather I Knew That The Americans Had Always Been In Favor Of Pakistan - Not So Much Because They Were In Favor Of Pakistan, But Because They Were Against India.

The Greatest Of All Contraceptives Is Affluence.

It's The Same Story As When We Nationalized The Banks. I'm Not For Nationalization Because Of The Rhetoric Of Nationalization, Or Because I See In Nationalization The Cure-all For Every Injustice. I'm For Nationalization In Cases Where It's Necessary.

It's Not At All Hard To Reconcile The Two Things If You Organize Your Time Intelligently. Even When My Sons Were Little, I Was Working.

[ Zulfikar Ali] Bhutto Is Not A Very Balanced Man. When He Talks, You Never Understand What He Means. What Does He Mean This Time? That He Wants To Be Friends With Us? We've Wanted To Be Friends With Him For Some Time; I've Always Wanted To.

It's True That I Refused Foreign Aid. It's True. It Wasn't My Personal Decision, However - It Was The Whole Country That Said No.

When [my Father] Asked Me To Help Him, I Really Didn't Suspect The Consequences.

I Refuse To Indulge In Small Talk. And Compliments, If At All, I Save For After The Job Is Done.

It's Not Right To Say That My Father Influenced Me More Than Others, And I Wouldn't Be Able To Say Whether My Personality Was Formed More By My Father Or My Mother Or The Mahatma [gandhi] Or The Friends Who Were With Us.

I Don't Mind If My Life Goes In The Service Of The Nation. If I Die, Every Drop Of My Blood Will Invigorate The Nation.

I Began To Associate With Mahatma Gandhi When He Came And Went In Our House - Together With My Father And Mother He Was On The Executive Committee. After Independence I Worked With Him A Lot - In The Period When There Were The Troubles Between Hindus And Muslims, He Assigned Me To Take Care Of The Muslims. To Protect Them.

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