A Mysterious Family

The childhood a stage of building attitude is based mostly from the mother as first teacher, family living culture; friends around, schooling and the society the child feel easy with. This basic environment sets the aim of life to be saint, scholar, inventor, server to society, politician or to adopt the parental trade.

Nehru-Gandhi family is known as the strong political family from pre and post independence of the country. Their child-age reveals much to learn and understand what they were and are.

Indira was mostly taught at home by tutors, and intermittently attended school until matriculation in 1934. She was a student at the Modern School in Delhi, St Cecilia’s and St Mary’s Christian convent schools in Allahabad, the International School of Geneva, the Ecole Nouvelle in Bex, and the Pupils’ Own School in Poona and Bombay, which is affiliated to University of Mumbai. She and her mother Kamala Nehru moved to Belur Math headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission where Swami Ranganathananda was her guardian. Later she went on to study at the Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan. It was during her interview that Rabindranath Tagore named her Priyadarshini, and she came to be known as Indira Priyadarshini Nehru. A year later, however, she had to leave university. She attended her ailing mother in Europe. While there, it was decided that Indira would continue her education at the University of Oxford. She briefly attended the Badminton School before enrolling at Somerville College in 1937 to study history. Indira had to take the entrance examination twice, having failed at her first attempt with a poor performance in Latin. At Oxford, she did well in history, political science and economics, but her grades in Latin, a compulsory subject, remained poor. She did, however, have an active part within the student life of the university, such as the Oxford Majlis Asian Society.

The university later awarded her an honorary Degree. In 2010, Oxford further honoured her by selecting her as one of the ten Oxasians, illustrious Asian graduates from the University of Oxford. During her stay in Great Britain, Indira frequently met her future husband Feroze Jahangir Gandhi (not related to Mahatma Gandhi) whom she knew from Allahabad, and who was studying at the London School of Economics. The marriage took place in Allahabad according to Adi Dharm rituals though Feroze belonged to a Zoroastrian Parsi family of Gujarat. They had two sons Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi.

In 1968, after three years of courtship, he married Edvige Antonia Albina Màino, who changed her name to Sonia Gandhi and made India her home.

Sonia Maino was born on December 9, 1946 to Stefano and Paola Maino in Lusiana (in Maini street), a historically Cimbrian-speaking village about 35 km from Vicenza in Veneto, Italy. Sonia spent her adolescence in Orbassano, a town near Turin, and was raised in a traditional Roman Catholic Christian family. She attained primary education attending the local Catholic schools; Sister Maria, one of her early teachers described her as “a diligent little girl, [who] studied as much as was necessary”.

Sonia Gandhi completed her schooling at the age of 13; her final report card read: “intelligent, diligent, committed … would succeed well at the high school for teachers”. She aspired to become a flight attendant. In 1964, she went to study English at the Bell Educational Trust’s language school in the city of Cambridge. The following year, she met Rajiv Gandhi at the Varsity Restaurant, where she was working as a part-time waitress, while he was enrolled for an engineering degree in the Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. In this context, the Times, London reported, “Mrs. Gandhi was an 18-year-old student at a small language college in Cambridge in 1965, when she met a handsome young engineering student”. The couple married in 1968, in a Hindu ceremony, following which she moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi attended St. Columba’s School, Delhi before entering The Doon School in Dehradun, Uttarakhand from 1981 to 1983. Meanwhile, his father had joined politics and became the Prime Minister on October 31, 1984 when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Due to the security threats faced by Indira Gandhi’s family from Sikh extremists, Rahul Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka were home-schooled thereafter.

Rahul Gandhi joined St. Stephen’s College, Delhi in 1989 for his undergraduate education but moved to Harvard University after he completed the first year examinations. In 1991, after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) during an election rally, he shifted to Rollins College in Florida, USA, due to security concerns and obtained his BA in 1994. During his time at Rollins, he assumed the pseudonym Raul Vinci and his identity was known only to the university officials and security agencies. He further went on to obtain an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1995.

MPhil degree of Rahul Gandhi is in the name of Raul Vinci, confirmed on April 22, 2008 that Raul Vinci read for MPhil in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge during 2004-2005 means he qualified for this in 2005 not in 1995 as Rahul Gandhi—Wikipedia tells. He was MP of India from 2004 onward. Was he regularly attending university for one year there? It’s confusing so require it rectified on Wikipedia also.

Indira Gandhi lacked education help because of her ailing mother and father over politically busy. Rajiv Gandhi went on to admit later as he was not studious enough. Sonia Gandhi studied up to 13 years age and at 18 moved to learn English. Possibly her family environment was not suitable for her further education and Wikipedia is silent about her life between 13 to 18 yrs age. Rahul Gandhi being mostly home-schooled and remained isolated to society found it difficult to adjust. His Mphil in one year is silent about the PhD registration and that’s result of 1995. But attendance of 2004-2005 in University of Cambridge confuses further. This family has mysteries more than the reality to people which has confused society requires facts revealed.