Know Everything About Indira Gandhi And MO Mathai Affair
For nearly 40 years, perhaps the most enduring set of rumours about the private life of India’s first female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, has been based on her alleged romantic association with M.O. Mathai, who was Jawaharlal Nehru’s private secretary from 1946 to 1959 and widely considered Nehru’s most loyal aide-de-camp. The close working relationship that Mathai maintained with both Nehru and Indira Gandhi has led many to speculate about the two of them having an extra-marital relationship, which many writers have sought to elaborate upon long after Mathai’s memoir of his time with Nehru was published, Reminiscences of the Nehru Age, in 1978.
Speculation about Indira Gandhi and Mathai’s relationship further heightened after the publisher of Mathai’s memoir removed a chapter referred to as “She” from the final version before publication, which Mathai himself contends contained personal stories from Mathai’s interactions with Indira Gandhi, and the fact that the publisher removed this chapter led to additional conjecture about their relationship. After the book was released to the public, it was reported that the government placed restrictions on it. While there is evidence that the removed chapter of his book is currently available in an unofficial format on the internet, most scholars have noted that there has never been an official account of that chapter, and thus, it remains unconfirmed.
Historically, Indira Gandhi's life has always been a subject of general interest and public speculation, as her marriage to Feroze Gandhi has been viewed as having experienced many complications accompanying it. Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi had numerous ups and downs along the way, as well as each is said to have had many extramarital affairs; historians maintain that most of the stories and articles that ascribe extramarital relationships to either Feroze Gandhi or Indira Gandhi are not supported by credible evidence.
There are many interpretations of Mathai’s involvement in the Nehru household. Katherine Frank, one biographer of Indira Gandhi, regarded him as a significant player but warned against taking too many romantic stories of their relationship for granted, stating “there are many speculative elements to the Mathai story”. Moreover, Mathai retracted the second half of his manuscript before publishing it, but did not disclose his rationale for doing so. This has led some scholars to speculate that he did this in order to guard himself politically, while others suggest he was simply fearful of being politically incorrect in embellishing details.
Unlawfully copied online versions of the missing Mathai chapter have spoken to an extensive long-term relationship between Indira Gandhi and Mathai, which supposedly began before Indian independence and lasted until at least the late 1950s. In the years following their initial relationship, it has been said that it cooled following Indira’s developing friendship with Dhirendra Brahmachari, a well-known yoga teacher who enjoyed a growing association with the Gandhi family. No version of this narrative has received scholarly authentication due to a lack of verifiable records and oral declarations.
Political insiders have suggested that “there is something to Mathai’s story” without supporting documents or historical evidence, which has resulted in numerous variations of what is referred to as the “She” chapter circulating among members of politics, family and private correspondence. This can create further difficulty in separating fact and folklore in reference to this topic today. The “Indira Gandhi – V.K. Krishna Menon” and “Indira Gandhi – V.K. Krishna Menon’s Son” stories are still being debated, as of 2023, and are still highly controversial.
