Who was Feroze Gandhi? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Indian Celebrities Born In September

Also Known As: Feroze Jehangir Gandhy

Died At Age: 47

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Indira Gandhi (m. 1942)

father: Faredoon Jehangir Ghandy

mother: Ratimai Commissariat

siblings: Aloo Dastur, Dorab, Faridun Jehangir, Tehmina Kershashp

children: Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi

Born Country: India

Political Leaders Indian Men

Died on: September 8, 1960

place of death: New Delhi

Cause of Death: Heart Attack

City: Mumbai, India

More Facts

education: London School of Economics, Ewing Christian College

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Career

In 1930, Feroze Gandhi joined the Indian independence movement. During this time, he changed his surname from "Ghandy" to "Gandhi” after being inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. After spending nineteen months in Faizabad jail, he supported the agrarian no-rent campaign in the United Province (presently Uttar Pradesh) for which he was imprisoned twice.

After independence, Gandhi started serving as the managing director of the newspaper ‘The National Herald.’ During this period, his father-in-law Jawaharlal Nehru became the prime minister of India. As a part of the provincial parliament in 1952, Feroze Gandhi won independent India's first general elections from Rae Bareli.

He soon attained power of his own and criticized his father-in-law’s government in various ways.

In December 1955, Gandhi exposed Ram Kishan Dalmia, the chairman of a bank, for his illegal ways of making money from publicly-held agencies for personal benefit. Two years later, he again won the general elections from the Rae Bareli constituency. Then in 1958, he raised the Haridas Mundhra scandal involving the Life Insurance Corporation. At one point in the parliament, he also proposed a number of nationalization drives and suggested that many companies, including Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO), be nationalized. According to him, TELCO was selling railway engines for nearly double the original price.

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Family & Personal Life

Feroze Gandhi was born as Feroze Jehangir Ghandy on 12 September 1912, in Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India, to Ratimai and Jehangir Faredoon Ghandy. He had two brothers, Faridun and Dorab, and two sisters, Aloo Dastur and Tehmina Kershashp.

In the early 1920s, Feroze alongside his mother moved to Allahabad after the death of his father. There, he enrolled at Vidya Mandir High School and later attended Ewing Christian College.

In 1933, Feroze Gandhi first proposed to Indira, the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala. However, the proposal was rejected by her and her mother as she was only 16. In the subsequent years, Gandhi developed good relations with the Nehru family, especially with Kamala Nehru and was also by her deathbed in 1936. In March 1942, he married Indira according to Hindu rituals even though Indira's father was still against their relationship.

In August 1942, the couple was arrested during the Quit India Movement. They later led a comfortable domestic life and had two sons, Rajiv and Sanjay, who were born in 1944 and 1946, respectively. Their relationship suffered a lot owing to Feroze’s continuous criticism of Jawaharlal Nehru’s government.

Feroze Gandhi died in 1960 in Delhi after suffering a heart attack.

Feroze Gandhi Biography