ABSTRACT
The political career of Indira Gandhi has unfolded as a serial story of the unexpected. Chosen as India's Prime Minister because her backers judged her to be a political lightweight who would be malleable in their hands, she turned out to be tougher than them all. Internal events now became secondary to the gathering border dispute with China; a dispute which Nehru attempted to minimise and shrug aside, much influenced by his Defence Minister, V. K. Krishna Menon. At last, in November 1962, his policy collapsed. Under pressure from public opinion, he ordered the Indian army to eject the Chinese from their front-line positions. Mrs. Gandhi succeeded in convincing the electors that just as before independence Congress had challenged the forces of authority so now she was combating entrenched interests: in a sense, she succeeded in reversing roles, portraying herself as the leader of the " Have-Nots" challenging the " Haves.".
