Feroze Gandhi

Feroze Gandhi (12 August 1912 - 8 September 1960) was an Indian politician and journalist. He was born Feroze Khan, but changed his name to Feroze Gandhi before marrying Indira Nehru (later Indira Gandhi), the daughter of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

He was born into a Parsi family at Allahabad, and educated at the City Anglo-Vernacular High School and Ewing Christian College, followed by the London School of Economics. He abandoned his studies in 1930 to join the struggle for Indian independence.

Drawn to the Nehru family by their common aims, Feroze married Indira on 26 March 1942 at Anand Bhawan, the Nehrus' home.

Arrested and jailed for nationalist activities less than six months after their marriage, he was imprisoned for a year in Allahabad's Naini Central Prison. In 1946 Feroze became editor of The National Herald, a newspaper founded by his father-in-law.

However, as a politician in the 1950s, he was often at odds with Nehru's policies. He was considered "the unofficial leader of the opposition" in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. Feroze belonged to the ruling Congress Party, but the opposition from other parties in the Lok Sabha was so weak that a democratic void was created, which Feroze filled with his critical stance. He aimed to root out corruption and inefficiency, and was a champion of the poor and needy.

He died of heart failure in 1960. Feroze and Indira had two sons who also entered politics: Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi.