Who is popularly called the 'Iron Lady of India'?

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), India's first and so far only woman Prime Minister, is popularly called the "Iron Lady of India" because of her strong and decisive leadership.

Reasons for the title:

• She led India to victory in the war with Pakistan in December 1971, which led to the creation of Bangladesh.
• India conducted its first nuclear test, "Smiling Buddha", at Pokhran in May 1974 during her government.
• Sikkim became a state of India in 1975.
• She nationalised 14 major banks in July 1969 and abolished the privy purses of former princely rulers (26th Amendment, 1971).
• She gave the slogan "Garibi Hatao" ("Remove Poverty") in the 1971 elections.

About Indira Gandhi:

• She was born on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad, the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru.
• She studied at Visva-Bharati (Santiniketan) and Somerville College, Oxford.
• She was Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her death in 1984.
• She declared a national Emergency from June 1975 to March 1977; the Congress then lost the 1977 elections.
• In June 1984, she ordered "Operation Blue Star" to remove militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
• She was assassinated by her bodyguards on 31 October 1984 in New Delhi.
• She received the Bharat Ratna in 1971.
• Her birthday, 19 November, is observed as "National Integration Day".
• Her memorial in Delhi is "Shakti Sthal".

Other "Iron Lady" titles:

• Margaret Thatcher (UK Prime Minister) was called the "Iron Lady" first, by a Soviet newspaper in 1976.
• Irom Sharmila of Manipur, who fasted for 16 years against the AFSPA, is called the "Iron Lady of Manipur".

Why not the other options?

• ✗Sarojini Naidu was the "Nightingale of India".
• ✗Sucheta Kripalani was India's first woman Chief Minister (Uttar Pradesh, 1963).
• ✗Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was the first woman President of the UN General Assembly (1953).