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Quote by Indira Gandhi

“I see nothing wrong in sterilizing a man who has already brought eight or ten children into the world. Especially if it helps those eight or ten children to live better.”

Quote by Indira Gandhi

Author

Indira Gandhi, born on November 19, 1917, and died on October 31, 1984, was the first female Prime Minister of India and one of the longest-serving Prime Ministers in Indian history. more

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“I've always been able to do what I wanted. On the other hand, my mother was. She considered the fact of being a woman a great disadvantage. She had her reasons. In her day women lived in seclusion - in almost all Indian states they couldn't even show themselves on the street.”

States Reason Facts Shows Hands Able Wanted Mother Streets Indian Disadvantages Being A Woman Seclusion

Author:Indira Gandhi

“Muslim women had to go out in purdah, that heavy sheet that covers even the eyes. Hindu women had to go out in the doli, a kind of closed sedan chair like a catafalque. My mother always told me about these things with bitterness and rage.”

Kind Eye Mother Heavy Rage Chairs Bitterness Sheets Muslim Women Purdah

Author:Indira Gandhi

“[My mother] was the oldest of two sisters and two brothers, and she grew up with her brothers, who were about her age. She grew up, to the age of ten, like a wild colt, and then all of a sudden that was over. They had forced on her her 'woman's destiny' by saying, 'This isn't done, this isn't good, this isn't worthy of a lady.'”

Two Done Age Mother Destiny Brother Grew Ten Grew Up Worthy Two Brothers Two Sisters Colts

Author:Indira Gandhi

“At a certain point the family moved to Jaipur, where no woman could avoid the doli or purdah. They kept her in the house from morning to night, either cooking or doing nothing. [My mother] hated doing nothing, she hated to cook. So she became pale and ill, and far from being concerned about her health, my grandfather said, 'Who's going to marry her now?' So my grandmother waited for my grandfather to go out, and then she dressed my mother as a man and let her go out riding with her brothers.”

Men Said Mother Night Certain House Morning Brother Concerned Cooking Moved Ill Cooks Hated Grandmother Riding Grandfather Pale My Grandmother Doing Nothing My Grandfather Let Her Go Purdah

Author:Indira Gandhi

“Until the day she died, my mother continued to fight for the rights of women. She joined all the women's movements of the time; she stirred up a lot of revolts. She was a great woman, a great figure. Women today would like her immensely.”

Today Mother Fighting Rights Figures Movement Died Revolt Like Her Great Women

Author:Indira Gandhi

“Until today the rights of people have always been put forward by a few individuals acting in the name of the masses. Today instead of people no longer want to be represented; each wants to speak for himself and participate directly - it's the same for the Negroes, for the Jews, for women.”

People Want Today Names Individual Speak Acting Rights Mass Jew

Author:Indira Gandhi

“Not only Negroes and Jews, but also women are part of a great revolt of which one can only approve.”

Author:Indira Gandhi

“Women sometimes go too far, it's true. But it's only when you go too far that others listen.”

Author:Indira Gandhi

“This is also something I've learned from experience. Didn't they perhaps give us the vote because we went too far?”

Giving Vote I've Learned

Author:Indira Gandhi

“In the Western world, women have no other choice. In India, no. And I'll explain the reason. It's a reason that also has to do with my own case. In India women have never been a hostile competition with men - even in the most distant past, every time a woman emerged as a leader, perhaps as a queen, the people accepted her. As something normal and not exceptional.”

People Men World Reason Past Choices My Own Leader Cases Normal India Competition Western Accepted Queens Hostile Exceptional Western World

Author:Indira Gandhi