Gandhi Feroz: biography, photos and interesting facts

Often it happens that, having connected her life with a woman who has reached unprecedented heights, her companion is forced to put up with what becomes only a barely perceptible shadow in the rays of her fiancee's glory. The fate of these people was fully shared by the husband of the only Indian Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Feroz Gandhi, whose biography formed the basis of this article.

Son of despicable fire-worshipers

Feroz Gandhi was born in 1912 in Bombay, a city located in the Indian colonies of Her Majesty the Queen of England. It should be noted immediately that with his future wife - Indira - he was not in any kinship relationship, and was only her first-class surname. According to his compatriots, he was considered a man of low birth.

The fact that his parents belonged to the religious community of Zoroastrians - fire worshipers, also called Parsis, in the custom of which it was not to burn the dead and not to bury them, desecrating the earth, but to give them to the vultures. This wild ritual caused the Zoroastrians to become a despised caste. Even representatives of the lower castes disdained to sit next to them in public transport.

From history it is known that his distant ancestors left their primordial homeland of Persia at the beginning of the VIII century (which is why their name was Parsi) and settled first in the west of India, within the Gujarat peninsula, then dispersed throughout the country. Now their number is one hundred thousand people.

Unrequited love of a young politician

Despite belonging to such a low social group, Gandhi Feroz received a secondary education, and then continued it at the London School of Economics. The humiliations experienced by him from early childhood caused the young man to quickly get involved in the political struggle, the object of which, along with the problems of caste inequality, was the liberation of India from colonial dependence.

Taking active part in the activity of underground political circles, Gandhi Feroz met and closely met with the prominent public figure of those years, the future Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru. Often visited in his house, the young man became friends with the daughter of his elder brother in political struggle - Indira. She was if not a beauty, then, at any rate, a very charming girl, and it is not surprising that Feroz took a great interest in her. Meanwhile, he realized that because of his origin, he could hardly count on reciprocity.

Lonely emigrant

However, after a while the situation developed in such a way that he had a hope. While studying at the London School of Economics, Gandhi Feroz often visited Geneva, where Indira had been living for several years. Moving to Switzerland was for her a forced measure. In 1935, after interrupting her studies at the People's University of Rabindranath Tagore, she arrived there along with the sick mother Kamala, who suffered from tuberculosis and needed special treatment.

When, after the futile efforts of the Swiss doctors, she died, the girl did not rush to return to her homeland. Her father, who was arrested by the colonial authorities for his political activities, was in jail, the People's University was closed, and friends mostly left the country. Left alone, she was excruciatingly lonely.

The chance given by destiny

During this entire period of life, during her most difficult moments, her faithful friend Feroz was invariably present. He helped to look after his mother when she was still alive, and took on the painful troubles associated with her death. Biographers of Indira Gandhi always emphasize that at that time their relationship was purely platonic, and about any novel it was not. Like any woman, Indira could not help but feel the attraction that a young man felt for her, but she had nothing to answer.

Their marriage, concluded later, was not the result of mutual love. Surprisingly, behind the appearance of a fragile and pretty woman, there was a strong and ambitious person who was not at all inclined to sentimentality. Nature did not endow her with the gift of loving, suffering and crying at night from jealousy - it was alien to her, she created Indira an unyielding fighter, and her husband was to become primarily a comrade-in-arms.

The reaction of the parents of the bride and society

If in Switzerland - the center of European civilization - their caste difference did not matter, then in India the news that the daughter of a respected political leader is ready to marry all the despised fire-worshiper caused a real storm. Even the father of the bride, Jawaharlal, with all his forward views, though he did not object openly, but made it clear that he did not approve of the choice of his daughter.

Curiously, contrary to expectations, his less progressive wife, Kamala, even during her lifetime, blessed the young. However, it is possible that such a decision was the result of her completely sensible reasoning. As a mother who had studied her daughter well, she understood that a bridegroom from a noble family would hardly be able to happily get along with her inordinately ambitious and self-affirming Indira. Obviously, the same was the bride herself. In any case, after a thorough reflection, she agreed to a marriage. In the same year she entered Oxford, where her fiancé was studying.

Unhappy return home

Soon, Feroz Gandhi and Indira Gandhi returned to India. At this time, the World War II was already in full swing, and they had to travel to their homeland by circumventing them - overcoming the Atlantic and South Africa. In Cape Town, where a lot of Indians lived at that time, Feroz first had the chance to make sure that his future wife belongs not only (and not so much) to him, but the entire nation. Immigrants knew her well thanks to her father and, having met in the port, offered to say a few words. This was her first public speech with political speech.

If on the edge of Africa they met a warm welcome, then at home it was more than cold. Since by this time Jawaharlal had become a recognized leader in the struggle for India's independence and to some extent even the face of the nation, many in the country could not reconcile himself to the fact that his own daughter had committed "blasphemy" by consenting to marry a contemptible person, On which it was a shame to watch. Every day Nehru received hundreds of letters with exhortations and even direct threats addressed to him. Supporters of age-old foundations demanded that he affect his daughter and forced to abandon the "insane undertaking."

A wedding arranged according to ancient custom

What could Feero Gandhi himself feel these days, whose life story is in many respects similar to the plots of Indian films based on the age-old problem of caste inequality? Some relief was brought to him by the intercession of another of his namesake and another leader of the Indian national liberation movement, Mahatma Gandhi. Being a man of progressive views, also enjoying authority in society, he publicly defended their marriage.

When there was a preparation for the wedding, a natural question arose: how to make sure that the religious feelings of neither the Parsis nor the Indians were offended? After long discussions, they found the golden mean. It turned out to be the oldest wedding ritual, to which neither side could not find fault. According to the rules contained in it, the young seven times went around the sacred fire, each time repeating the oath of marital fidelity. The fruit of their marriage was two sons, born in 1944 and 1946.

"Gander"

However, even the most optimistic biographers do not dare to call this union happy. Very soon in the independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru formed a national government. His personal secretary, he appointed Indira, whose political career from that moment began to grow steadily.

She left her family and settled in her father's residence. That life, in which she now plunged, was expelled from her consciousness by the children, and by Feroz Gandhi himself. This story is quite typical for families in which the wife of her life successes in many ways has surpassed her husband. The main occupation of the "straw widower" was at that time the publication of a weekly newspaper founded by his father-in-law.

last years of life

In 1952, general elections were held in India, and Feroz Gandhi, whose photo is presented in the article, became a member of parliament thanks to the support of his wife. From a high rostrum, he tried to criticize the government led by his father-in-law and fight corruption that swept the country. However, his words were not taken with due seriousness. For all, he remained only a faint reflection of the rays of glory that surrounded Indira.

Experiences and frequent nervous stresses were the cause of the infarction suffered by Feroz in 1958. After leaving the hospital, he was forced to leave the parliamentary activity at the request of the doctors. Shut up from the world, he spent the last two years of his life in New Delhi, dedicating himself to raising children. Feroz Gandhi passed away on September 8, 1960.