Power and leadership are not just for men — Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Indira Gandhi demonstrated this for generations of women
Today is Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s birth anniversary. You may or may not have known that she has been the first female Prime Minister of the world. I myself was caught unaware until google alerted me of her birthday this morning. And to be very honest I was taken aback with this revelation. This was probably due to the monopoly that the west often claims on leading the ‘feminist movement’ by being the first ones to grant voting rights to women or by having first produced feminist writers like Virginia Woolf. While those are indeed great contributions to the movement, I was surprised to find that it was the “developing third world” that had produced the first women leaders of the world — Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Indira Gandhi.
One may or may not agree with the political philosophies or actions of the above mentioned women leaders but none can deny their fierceness and undeterred determination. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was not just the first woman Prime Minister. She in fact served three terms from 1960–65, 190–77 and again in 1994–2000. She survived an attempted coup in 1962 and an insurrection in 1971. In the year 1980, she was stripped of her civil rights for abuses of power during her tenure. Yet she served as Leader of Opposition until she returned to power in 1994. She retired only in 2000 which was two months prior to her death! In the midst of all this she re-drafted the Constitution of Sri Lanka and helped Sri Lanka’s transition into a republic. She also set up what eventually became the Sri Lankan Ministry of Women and Child Affairs.
This journey has a striking similarity with that of the first Indian female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Gandhi, too often dubbed as “gudiya” (doll) by her colleagues, managed to hold onto power for several terms between 1966–1977. She too lost power for allegations of abuse of power in the years of emergency and during election campaigns. But she continued undeterred as well. She returned to power in 1980 and served until her assassination in 1984.
Another striking similarity between the two ladies, is that they were both bold decision makers. Sirimavo Bandaranaike refused the aid of Indian Peace Keeping Force to intervene in a civil war believing that it violated the sovereignty of her country. Indira Gandhi took the bold and unprecedented move of declaring war in support of the independent movement in East Pakistan which lead to the creation of Bangladesh and the increase in India’s regional influence.
Of course the picture is not all rosy. Both the women were from privileged backgrounds and were brought up in a contradistinctive manner when compared to women of the early 1900s. Bandaranaike grew up in a colonial manor of her maternal grandfather with access to a vast library of literary and scientific works. She was sent to the best schools of Sri Lanka and was later married to a husband who became Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Gandhi herself went to some of the best schools, colleges and universities of the world and was the daughter of the Prime Minister of India. She had a strong background in history, political science and economics. These are exposures that not many women of their time had. Yet it is still commendable that they made use of their strong foundations and took ownership of the issues that their countries were facing instead of falling into societal norms and marital lives.
They took the less treaded path despite being attacked for their “megalomaniac tendencies” and nationalist overtones. They also faced opposition and outrage for economic policies that had gone wrong. It is interesting how they both nationalised banks and introduced several socialist schemes for the upliftment of the rural poor. And while they were praised for these policies at the time, they were severely criticised for inflation, unemployment and economic instability that came thereafter. Ofcourse any leader would be criticised for the latter being in a position of responsibility, but they arguably wore the brunt of it more than other leaders of the time who were all facing a financial crisis after the socialist wave had swept over much of Latin America, Africa and Asia in the 1970s and 1980s. The answer to most financial crises were military coups in Latin America and Africa in the 1980s that came with media restrictions. However, the trajectory of events was different in Sri Lanka and India. The two female leaders were removed from their positions. They regain power only through elections later (again a less treaded path).
Hence, on the birth anniversary of Sirimavo Bandaranaike I had to write on the two bold and hence beautiful women of the generation. They were just so daring! They were after all the first of women to lead. Ofcourse they were soon followed by like Margaret Thatcher, Aung San Suu Kyi, Angela Merkel, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and so many others. But they were amongst the first to show that power and leadership are concepts not just for men.