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  INDIRA GHANDI  Born 1917

Insiders who in 1966 brokered the selection of Indira Gandhi, daughter of Indian national hero Jawaharlal Nehru, as prime minister figured her for a pampered pussycat. Wrong. She led her nation to victory in a war with Pakistan -- although she couldn't win against India's crippling poverty and sectarian violence -- and she gave diplomatic recognition to Bangladesh. In 1972, Gandhi was indicted on fraud charges she disdained as manufactured. Declaring a state of emergency, she suspended civil liberties and jailed opponents. Voted out of office and then in again, Gandhi was assassinated by two of her guards in 1984 after her army gunned down 450 Sikh demonstrators. Her son Rajiv succeeded her as prime minister but was assassinated in 1991. His widow, Sonia, leads the opposition Congress Party, and her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, is a rising political star.