On January 19

On this day in ...
... 1966 (45 years ago today), the daughter of India's 1st prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, became the 1st woman to serve as Prime Minister of India. She was 48-year-old Indira Gandhi, whom the ruling Congress Party had "chosen at the end of a bitter leadership battle." Gandhi promised to

'strive to create what my father used to call a climate of peace.'

Yet as we've posted, her tenure -- from 1966 to 1977, and again from 1980 to 1984 -- would be marred by the violent struggle that led to the founding of Bangladesh, to conviction on corruption charges followed by a national state of emergency, to the storming of a temple held by Sikh militants, and finally to her assassination by her own Sikh bodyguards.


(Prior January 19 posts are here, here, and here.)

On June 26

On this day in ...
… 1975, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (right) declared a state of emergency in India, granting herself extraordinary powers and launching a massive crackdown on civil liberties and political opposition. Her opponents had long made allegations that her party had indulged in electoral malpractice to win the 1971 elections. (image credit) After 1972, her popularity started decreasing due to mass poverty and corruption. By 1974, there was severe turmoil across India. In June 1975, a court found her guilty of electoral fraud, excessive election expenditure, and the use of government machinery and officials for party purposes. It ordered her removed from her seat in Parliament and banned from running for elections for an additional six years. Rather than face the charges, on this day Gandhi declared a state of emergency. Political foes were imprisoned, impending legislative assembly elections were indefinitely postponed, constitutional rights were abrogated, and the press was placed under strict censorship. With her approval, slum dwellings were ordered removed, and, in an attempt to curb India's growing population, a program of forced sterilization was initiated.
… 1949 (60 years ago today), Belgium (flag at left) lifted the restrictions on voting rights for women. Since 1919, all women who were not prostitutes could stand for election and vote in municipal elections; on this day in 1949, women were given the right to vote at all levels. Continued underrepresentation of women in parliament led to the introduction of the Smet-Tobback law in 1994, which forced parties to include no more than 2/3 of candidates of either sex on electoral lists. The rules were applied for the first time in the June 13, 1999 elections, leading to a virtual doubling of the number of women in the House.

(Prior June 26 posts are here and here.)

India Weeps

As Americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday yesterday, the world yet again watched in shock and horror a scene now eerily familiar: coordinated bombings, this time in Mumbai, that targeted civilian locations (particularly those frequented by American and British tourists) and were stunning and terrifying in their boldness and scope. The thoughts of a nation and its diaspora were with the families of the victims, those who lost mothers, brothers, uncles, and nieces to this senseless violence.

One can only hope that these attacks are not used as excuses for further violence against Muslim minorities in India; that the world has learned from the attacks of September 11 and the excesses and abuses of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo that terror must be met with due process and fairness; that India's beautiful and vibrant democracy can overcome those who seek to destroy it without resorting to undemocratic means. History does not inspire confidence; prior terrorist threats have led India to institute draconian antiterrorism laws (the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act in the late 1980s and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) after 9/11) that were eventually scrapped because of serious civil rights violations (allowing detention for 180 days without charge; using confessions to police as evidence in court). And Indira Gandhi's infamous State of Emergency, which suspended not only civil rights but also elections, ominously reminds us how national security threats can be used to perpetrate further rights abuses. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has thus far avoided the errors of the past; one of his first acts in office was the dismantling of POTA. His focus on ending financing for terrorist groups and using existing laws to fight terrorism seems promising. Here's hoping that Singh's balanced approach stands up through this crisis.

On January 7, ...

... 1979, in Phnom Penh, Vietnam and insurgent forces it supported overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime that had held Cambodia in the thrall of terror since 1975. The New York Times cited a radio announcement that "[t]he regime of dictatorial, militarist domination of the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique has completely collapsed," then added that "[n]othing was said about the whereabouts of Prime Minister Pol Pot and Deputy Prime Minister Ieng Sary. Today, as we've posted, Ieng Sary and others of the few Khmer Rouge leaders still alive (Pol Pot is dead) are about to stand trial before a hybrid tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers of the Court of Cambodia.
... 1980, fewer than 3 years after ousting her as a purveyor of an "emergency dictatorship," voters returned Indira Gandhi to the post of Prime Minister of India. Gandhi (right) would serve until 1984, when she was assassinated by her bodyguards.
... 1960, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Cal.) was born in Lynwood, California.

On June 6, ...

... 1952, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) was born in Laurel, Mississippi.
... 1984, on orders from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (right), the Indian army attacked the Golden Temple in Amritsar, in Punjab, a state in the northern part of the country. Militants who contended that the Sikh minority there was suffering discrimination at the hands of India's Hindu majority had occupied the temple; Gandhi's government deemed them "terrorists." Operation Bluestar, as it was called, resulted in the deaths of well over 1,000 persons -- combatants and innocent civilians.

Does sex matter?

'Way back on February 12 Chris Brummer asked at blackprof.com (our newest "connections" link) "Is there such a thing as an 'African-American' foreign policy position?" News this week prompts a question in the same vein:
Is there such a thing as a 'woman's' policy position?
Arguments in the affirmative are well known. There's Carole Gilligan's A Different Voice, as well as the widespread though less erudite sense that women are better listeners, more caring, more nurturing. The notion seems consistent with the "Refugee Roulette" findings that, as Lakshmi Bai wrote, women immigration judges granted asylum 44% more often than men. And yet a look at individual women who've led their countries reveals many counterexamples -- "Iron Ladies" like Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, who, for good or ill, pursued policies as tough as those of any tough man.
Swanee Hunt (right) has answer to this enigma. A former U.S. ambassador to Austria now at the Kennedy School, Hunt urges readers of the May/June Foreign Affairs to "Let Women Rule." Though contending that women do govern differently, her essay acknowledges the "'masculinity'" of some past women leaders. What's needed to "change norms," Hunt argues, is a cohort, a "critical mass of female leaders" -- "approximately 30 percent of officeholders have to be female to for a significant effect to be felt on policy."
Surely there's comfort in numbers. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg admits to being "'lonely'" since Sandra Day O'Connor retired last year, and Ginsburg's oral dissents in cases that've cut back on women's rights underscore the new singularity of her voice.
But will reaching 30% make policy different? What do you think?