of her territory was partitioned off to form a new country, Pakistan. Independent India came to have a predominantly Hindu leadership, although there were many Muslims living in the country, while Pakistan had a Muslim government. Many Hindus in the country were very dissatisfied with the loss of land, which resulted from the establishment of Pakistan. As a result, relations between India's Muslim and Hindu population were often strained, frequently erupting into bloodshed as one or the other side felt underrepresented or unfairly treated.It was in this unsettled atmosphere that Indira Gandhi first came to power. She was chosen as Prime Minister in 1966, and with the exception of a three-year period during which she was first voted out of office and then subsequently voted back in, Gandhi remained the Prime Minister until her death (New York Times). The incident of her being voted out, however, shows that Indira was a controversial figure in Indian politics. She was accused by many of being a dictator whose focus on enlarging her own sphere of power led her to neglect the needs of her country, swinging it further into poverty. When she was voted out of office in 1977 it was as a result of an increasing public opinion that Gandhi was too authoritarian, and that she did not have India's interests in mind (Rediff on the net). The tension between autocratic and democratic tendencies complicated Gandhi's life even more. She followed a centuries-old practice of holding darshan, or seeing, whenever she was in New Delhi (New Rediff on the net). Every morning more than 100 people crowded into the garden to get a glimpse of her and bring her their problems. Critics said this was evidence of her feudal style. Supporters claimed it proved her success in grafting an important Indian tradition to the inherited British democratic process. "Her greatest asset was to listen to people and to feel the traumas they suffered," says journalist T.R. Ramachan...
