Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s memoir will be published this autumn. The book will offer a personal account of her journey from a small town in Italy to one of the central pieces of contemporary Indian politics, and of the love, bereavement and political duty that shaped her life.
Publisher Alfred A Knopf announced on Tuesday that Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, will be published on November 10.
The book will explore her marriage into the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, the assassinations of her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi and husband Rajiv Gandhi, her entry into politics and her years at the head of the Congress. “We witness Sonia’s introduction to her formidable mother-in-law, India’s first female prime minister: Indira Gandhi. We see Sonia gain confidence by Rajiv’s side as she learns to speak Hindi, wear saris, and relish India’s cuisine. Rajiv works as a commercial airline pilot, and they raise their two children in the prime minister’s house in Delhi,” it continues. Her eventual decision to enter politics turned her into a central actor in Indian public life and she went on to become the longest-serving president of the Congress. She chose to lead the Congress-led alliance from outside the government while Manmohan Singh became prime minister.
The most consequential phase of her career came after the 2004 general elections, when Congress emerged as the largest party and formed the United Progressive Alliance, with Sonia Gandhi as its leader.
That thread, she said, runs from her childhood in small-town Italy to her years in India as Rajiv Gandhi’s wife and Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law.
