Clad in a white sari, Indira Gandhi sat weeping on the floor beside her dead father's bed. He lay stretched out under a sheet, two crossed lotus blossoms resting above his head. Later, the body was moved to the doorway of the Prime Minister's white-walled house as a line of weeping, shouting mourners two miles long formed to offer final tribute to Jawaharlal Nehru.
Throughout the land, Indians wept and fasted for the remainder of the day. As the news slowly spread to the remote provinces, some feared that Nehru's passing would trigger war or natural disasters—and, in fact, Delhi...
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