Son of Jehangir Faredoon Kahn, a marine engineer and Ratimai ---,
Adopted by Mahatma Gandhi to change his surname to Gandhi when he was in England.
"Feroze Gandhi was born on September 12, 1912, in a Parsee family. His mother was Ratimai and father Jehangir Faredoon. Feroze Gandhi was born in Tehmulji Nariman Hospital situated in the fashionable Fort area of Bombay, a city which had earned distinction for its cosmopolitan characteristics. His parents lived in Nauroji Natakwala Bhawan in Khetwadi Mohalla, a locality of this metropolis. Like other Parsee families, Gandhis had also migrated to Bombay from Gujarat and had settled down there permanently. The mother of Feroze hailed from Surat and father from Barauch. Jehangir Faredoon was a simple religious minded man. He entered service as a Marine Engineer in Kellick Nixon and was later promoted as a Warrant Engineer. Jehangir Faredoon was the first in his country to hold such an office..."
Writes M.O. Mathai (a long time Private Secretary of Nehru) in his renowned (but now suppressed by the GOI) reminisces of the Nehru Age on page 94, second paragraph: “For some inexplicable reason, Nehru allowed the marriage to be performed according to Vedic rites in 1942. An inter-religious and inter-caste marriage under Vedic rites at that time was not valid in law. To be legal, it had to be a civil marriage.” It’s a known fact that after Rajiv’s birth, Indira and Feroze lived separately, but they were not divorced. Feroze used to harass Nehru frequently for money and also interfere in Nehru’s political activities. Nehru got fed up and left instructions not to allow him into the Prime Minster’s residence – Trimurti Bhawan.
Children:
1.+Rajiv GANDHI, b.20 Aug.1944 India, d.21 May 1991
2.+Sanjai GANDHI, b.14 Dec.1946 India, d.23 June 1980 India, assassinated by a Tamil Tiger separatist,
4th Prime Minister of India 15 January 1980 – 31 October 1984
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindi: इंदिरा प्रियदर्शिनी गांधी ) Indirā Priyadarśinī Gāndhī) (19 November 1917 - October 31, 1984) was the Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was Indias first and to date only female prime minister.
Born in the politically influential Nehru dynasty, she grew up in an intensely political atmosphere. Her grandfather, Motilal Nehru, was a prominent Indian nationalist leader. Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru was a pivotal figure in the Indian independence movement and the first Prime Minister of Independent India. Returning to India from Oxford in 1941, she became involved in the Indian Independence movement.
In the 1950s, she served her father unofficially as a personal assistant during his tenure as Indias first Prime Minister. After her fathers death in 1964, she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha by the President of India and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastris cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
The then Congress Party President K. Kamaraj was instrumental in making Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister after the sudden demise of Shastri. Gandhi soon showed an ability to win elections and outmaneuver opponents through populism. She introduced more left-wing economic policies and promoted agricultural productivity. A crushing victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan was followed by a period of instability that led her to impose a state of emergency in 1975; she paid for the authoritarian excesses of the period with three years in opposition. Returned to office in 1980, she became increasingly involved in an escalating conflict with separatists in Punjab that eventually led to her assassination by her own bodyguards in 1984. [Wikipedia]