It often happens that, having connected her life with a woman who has reached unprecedented heights, her companion is forced to put up with the fact that it becomes only a barely noticeable shadow in the rays of the glory of her chosen one. The fate of these people was fully shared by the husband of Indira Gandhi, the only woman Prime Minister of India, 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 on the territory of the Indian colonies of Her Majesty the Queen of England. It should be immediately noted that with his future wife - Indira - he was not in any kindred relationship, but was only her namesake. According to the concepts of his compatriots, he was considered a man of low origin.
The fact is that his parents belonged to the religious community of Zoroastrians - fire worshipers, also called Parsi, whose custom was not to burn the dead and not to bury, corrupting the earth with corpses, 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.
It is known from history that his distant ancestors left their original homeland Persia at the beginning of the 8th century (which is why their name came to be Parsi) and, having settled first in the west of India, within the Gujarat peninsula, then scattered throughout the country. Currently, their number is one hundred thousand people.
The unrequited love of a young politician
Despite belonging to such a low social group, Gandhi Feroz received his secondary education, and then continued it at the London School of Economics. The humiliation experienced by him from early childhood became the reason that the young man quickly became 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 an active part in the activities of clandestine political circles, Gandhi Feroz met and became close friends with the prominent public figure of those years, the future Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Often in his house, the young man became friends with the daughter of his older brother in the political struggle - Indira. She was, if not a beauty, then, in any case, a very charming girl, and it is not surprising that Feroz was carried away by her. Meanwhile, he understood that because of his origin he can hardly count on reciprocity.
Lonely emigrant
However, after some time the situation developed in such a way that he had hope. Studying at the London School of Economics, Gandhi Feroz often visited Geneva, where Indira had been living permanently for several years. Moving to Switzerland was a necessary measure for her. In 1935, interrupting classes at the People's University of Rabindranath Tagore, she arrived there with her sick mother Kamala, who suffered from tuberculosis and needed special treatment.
When, after the futile efforts of 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 prison, the People’s University was closed, and friends mostly left the country. Left alone, she was painfully lonely.
A chance granted by fate
Throughout this period of life, in the most difficult moments, her faithful friend Feroz was invariably present next to her. He helped take care of his mother when she was still alive, and took upon himself the painful chores associated with her death. The biographers of Indira Gandhi always emphasize that at that time their relationship was purely platonic in nature, and there was no talk of any romance. Like any woman, Indira could not help but feel the attraction that the young man had for her, but she had nothing to answer.
Their marriage, subsequently concluded, was not the result of mutual love. Surprisingly, behind the appearance of a fragile and pretty woman hid a strong and ambitious personality, not at all prone to sentimentality. Nature did not give her the gift of love, suffering and crying at night from jealousy - it was alien to her, she created Indira an adamant fighter, and her husband should have become, first of all, a comrade-in-arms of the fight.
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 was ready to marry a despised fire-worshiper caused a real storm. Even the father of the bride Jawaharlal, for all his advanced views, although he did not object openly, made it clear that he did not approve of the daughter’s choice.
It is curious that, contrary to expectations, his less progressive wife Kamala, while still alive, blessed the young. However, it is possible that such a decision was the result of her completely sound reasoning. As a mother who had studied her daughter well, she understood that a bridegroom from a noble family would hardly be able to get along happily with her excessively ambitious and self-affirming Indira. Obviously, the bride herself was of the same opinion. In any case, with thorough reflection, she agreed to marriage. In the same year, she entered Oxford, where her fiancé then studied.
Rejoicing homecoming
Soon, Feroz Gandhi and Indira Gandhi returned to India. At that time, the Second World War was already in full swing, and they had to get to their homeland in a circuitous way - overcoming the Atlantic and South Africa. In Cape Town, where at that time many Indians lived, Feroz had the first opportunity to make sure that his future wife belongs not only (and not so much) to him, but to the whole nation. Immigrants knew her well thanks to her father and, meeting at the port, offered to say a few words. This was her first public appearance in a political speech.
If on the edge of Africa they met a warm welcome, then at home it turned out to be more than cold. Since by this time, Jawaharlal had become a recognized leader in the struggle for Indian independence and, to some extent, even the face of the nation, very many in the country could not accept the fact that his own daughter had committed “sacrilege” by consenting to a marriage with a despicable person, which it was shameful to look at. Every day, Nehru received hundreds of letters of exhortation and even direct threats to him. Proponents of centuries-old foundations demanded that he influence his daughter and force him to abandon the "crazy venture."
An ancient custom wedding
What could Feroz Gandhi himself feel these days, whose life story is in many ways akin to the plots of Indian films built on the eternal problem of caste inequality? Some relief was brought to him by the intercession of his other namesake and another leader of the Indian national liberation movement - Mahatma Gandhi. Being a man of progressive views, besides enjoying authority in society, he publicly spoke out in defense of their marriage.
When preparations were being made 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 much discussion, found a middle ground. She turned out to be the oldest wedding ritual to which neither one nor the other side could find fault. According to the instructions contained in it, the young people walked around the sacred fire seven times, each time repeating the oath of marital fidelity. The fruit of their marriage were 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 newly independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru formed a national government. He appointed Indira as his personal secretary, whose political career from that moment began to grow steadily.
She left the family and settled in the residence of her father. That life, which she now plunged into, was expelled from her consciousness by both children and Feroz Gandhi himself. This story is quite typical for families in which the wife surpassed her husband in many respects by her life successes. The main occupation of the “straw widower” in those years was 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, thanks to the support of his wife, became a member of parliament. From a high rostrum, he tried to criticize the government, led by his father-in-law, and to 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 surrounding Indira.
Experiences and frequent nervous stresses caused the heart attack suffered by Feroz in 1958. Leaving the hospital, he was forced to quit parliamentary activity at the request of doctors. Locked off from the world, he spent the last two years of his life in New Delhi, devoting himself to raising children. Feroz Gandhi died on September 8, 1960.