When Indira Gandhi first entered Indian politics, party bosses dismissed her as a "dumb doll" they could easily manipulate. Within years she had outmaneuvered every one of them, centralized power with an iron grip, won a war that split Pakistan in two, and made India a nuclear state — becoming the most formidable political figure in modern South Asian history.

This episode traces Indira's journey from a lonely childhood in the shadow of Nehru's independence movement through her rise to prime minister, the Emergency that suspended Indian democracy, and the assassination that shocked the world.

• How party bosses installed Indira as a puppet and lived to regret it
• The 1971 war with Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh
• The Emergency period when Indira suspended civil liberties and ruled by decree
• Operation B ...