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Pakistan does not pose the threat to India's security that it did before the 1971 war. But war jitters still break out sporadically. Furthermore, the Pakistanis are reportedly well along on their efforts to produce their own nuclear weapon. Echoing his mother's anger, Rajiv Gandhi said a few weeks ago that he expected war between India and Pakistan before the end of the year. He could do much to avert the threat of such a war by allowing a resumption of the talks with Pakistan that India called off in July.
Still, Rajiv's most immediate priority is to negotiate some sort of truce with the Sikh community and to end the bloodshed that is ravaging the country. Mrs. Gandhi contributed to the rise of Sikh extremism by refusing to compromise with the moderate faction of the Akali Dal, the Sikh political party, thereby enabling the fanatical Sant Bhindranwale to rise in the esteem of Sikh militants. Rajiv will have to find a way to seek a reconciliation at a time when emotions are inflamed on every side. One step toward solving this and other conflicts would be to permit a greater degree of autonomy for India's states and territories.
Rajiv has one sure advantage: he begins with the sympathy of the Indian people. Indira Gandhi, who had been a shy young woman, was never really trained to succeed her powerful parent, any more than Rajiv was. But in time she became a world figure who could still communicate with her people. One journalist who accompanied her on a trip a few years ago remembers how Mrs. Gandhi, when she visited a group of Harijan (untouchable) women who had been raped by men of a higher caste, sat down on the ground and listened to their stories. But she could be caustic and ruthless in dealing with party politicians. She once declared, "Some people say my father was like the banyan tree, that nothing could grow in his shadow. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was like the sun. He allowed everything to grow, including—let us be honest—the weeds." Even before succeeding his mother, Rajiv had set out to uproot some of these weeds, or their progeny.
Five days before her death, Indira Gandhi was talking with a foreign visitor about the problems of her country. She did not mention the Sikh problem by name, but she spoke of the need for India to "transcend its demons" and fight off the fanaticism on every side. On Saturday afternoon, her own demons vanquished at last, she was cremated and thereby freed, according to Hindu belief, to proceed with the inevitable process of reincarnation.
—By William E. Smith. Reported by Dean Brelis and K.K. Sharma/New Delhi, with other bureaus