Congress leader Sonia Gandhi is set to open up about some of the most defining chapters of her life, including her marriage to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the assassinations of her mother-in-law
Indira Gandhi and husband Rajiv Gandhi, and her decision to turn down the prime minister’s post in 2004, in a memoir scheduled to be published later this year.
Titled “Belonging: A Journey of Love”, the memoir will be released in the United States on November 10 by Alfred A Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Penguin Random House India has not yet announced a release date for the Indian edition.
The book traces Sonia Gandhi’s journey from her childhood in post-war Italy to her life in India, where she became part of one of the country’s most influential political families. According to the publisher, the narrative begins in Cambridge, England, where a 19-year-old Sonia Maino met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965.
The memoir promises a rare account from a leader who has largely kept her personal life away from public scrutiny. It follows her transition from a young woman who moved to India after falling in love to a widow who was eventually drawn into electoral politics following the assassination of her husband.
Memoir Narrates The Story Of Sonia
Sonia Gandhi also recounts her early years in the Gandhi household, including her relationship with Indira Gandhi. She writes about adapting to life in India, learning Hindi, wearing saris and embracing the country’s food and culture.
Her family life was repeatedly marked by tragedy. While married to Rajiv, then a commercial pilot, she witnessed the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash. Years later, Indira Gandhi was assassinated while serving as prime minister.
Rajiv Gandhi subsequently took over as prime minister, despite Sonia’s concerns about the dangers of political life. Seven years later, he too was assassinated by a suicide bomber while campaigning in Tamil Nadu.
The losses kept Sonia Gandhi away from politics for years. She eventually entered public life and became Congress president in 1998, going on to hold the post for 19 years, making her the party’s longest-serving president.
“It was heartbreak and loss that threw me into the public world of politics. Up till then I had guarded my privacy fiercely,” she said in a statement issued about the memoir.
Her political journey included one of the most consequential decisions in Indian politics in 2004. After the Congress-led alliance won the Lok Sabha elections, Sonia Gandhi declined to become prime minister and instead backed Manmohan Singh for the post.
The memoir is also expected to provide her perspective on the social, political and economic transformation India underwent during the six decades she spent in the country.
Sonia Gandhi acknowledged that writing about her personal life required her to revisit experiences she had kept private for years.
“Writing about my life did not come easily to me. It meant opening myself up, sharing moments and experiences I had always held deep inside,” she said.
She said the book is intended to go beyond the public record surrounding the Gandhi family and explore the people behind the political legacy.
According to a statement by Knopf quoted by the Associated Press, Sonia Gandhi wrote that although much has been documented about her family, “few narratives were able to reach into the truth of their motivations, their actions and even their very human failings”.
‘Book Is Homage To Her Family’s Humanness’
“In many ways, this book is a homage to their humanness. My story also offers readers a unique perspective of the social and political changes I have witnessed for six decades in the beautiful country of my belonging,” she said.
Looking back on her life, Sonia Gandhi said the theme of love and loyalty gradually emerged as a connecting thread between her childhood in Italy and her decades in India.
“Yet as I gradually removed myself from the political sphere and looked back at all I had seen, the thread of love and loyalty that wove through my story began to define itself, from the simplicity of my childhood in small-town Italy, to the complexity of my years in India as the wife of Rajiv Gandhi and the daughter-in-law of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,” AP quoted her as saying.
Born in Italy, Sonia Gandhi was studying in Cambridge when she met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965. The couple married on February 25, 1968.
The memoir’s cover features a black-and-white photograph of Sonia Gandhi from her younger years, with Knopf describing the book as an account of “love, family, and an endlessly fascinating country: India”.
For Sonia Gandhi, the memoir represents a departure from the reticence that has long defined her public persona, offering readers a personal account of the relationships, tragedies and political choices that shaped her life in India.
With inputs from ANI, PTI
