January 19, 1966. It’s a very important day for India. The country is to get a new Prime Minister (its third, actually), after Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent a few days ago. It has come down to two contenders: the 70-year-old Gandhian Morarji Desai, and Indira Gandhi, the 49-year-old Information and Broadcasting minister in Shastri’s cabinet.
It’s still dawn when Mrs Gandhi leaves her home, 1 Safdarjung Road, for Raj Ghat and Shanti Vana, after which she arrives at Teen Murti House...

Text by Devapriya Roy. Art by Priya Kuriyan.

Excerpted with permission from Indira, Devapriya Roy and Priya Kuriyan, Westland (to be published in 2018).