Can Anyone Give Me A Very General Description Of What Indira Gandhi Did To Impact History?
She led India into the nuclear age when, in 1974, scientists there exploded an underground nuclear device, and she also took her nation into the space age, in 1980, when it launched its own satellite on its own rocket. This year, (the year of her death 1984) through her efforts, an Indian astronaut flew in a Soviet spacecraft.
In 1971, Mrs. Gandhi insured that her nation would become the dominant power on the subcontinent when India defeated Pakistan in an 11- month war and insured the creation of Bangladesh from what had been East Pakistan.
On the international scene, relations with the United States, which provided billions of dollars in aid from the 1950’s to the 1980’s, were sour and tense during much of her tenure. Her overall foreign policy, she maintained, was not biased in one direction or another, only ”pro-Indian,” and she was a leader of the group of nations professing nonalignment. Indian critics said, however, that she kept India locked into a rigid position, leaning toward Moscow to an extent that was clearly difficult and embarrassing during the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
Her friendship with the Soviet Union enabled her Government to build a powerful, well-equipped army.
