Rahul Gandhi unveils cover of Sonia Gandhi’s memoir
COLOMBO – Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has shared the cover of his mother Sonia Gandhi’s forthcoming memoir, expressing pride and emotion over the publication of a book that chronicles her life, personal losses and decades of association with India’s most prominent political family.
In a post on X addressed to his mother, Rahul Gandhi reflected on the difficult years Sonia Gandhi faced following the assassination of her husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991.
“The last time I saw you and Dad together was 35 years ago,” Rahul Gandhi wrote, recalling how he and his sister Priyanka had witnessed their mother cope with the aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi’s death.
“Since the day Dad left us, I have watched you face everything life has thrown at you with unwavering courage and dignity. Only Priyanka and I truly know what you went through and how difficult your life became after Dad’s death,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said he was deeply happy and proud that his mother’s life story would finally be published and made available to readers.
Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, is scheduled for publication on November 10 by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
The book traces her journey from her childhood in a small town in Italy to her life in India as the wife of Rajiv Gandhi and daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
It also recounts the personal tragedies that shaped her life, including the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi seven years later.
“Writing about my life has not been easy. It means exposing myself and sharing moments and experiences that I had kept deep within me,” Sonia Gandhi said in a statement about the memoir.
“My story begins with the simplicity of my childhood in a small town in Italy and extends to the complex years I spent in India as the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, India’s prime minister, and as the wife of Rajiv Gandhi. It is a story shaped by bonds of love and loyalty,” she said.
Sonia Gandhi, 79, also reflects on her entry into public life, saying it was personal loss that ultimately drew her into politics.
“It was heartbreak and loss that threw me into the public world of politics. Up till then I had guarded my privacy fiercely,” she said.
The memoir is also expected to provide her account of her decision in 2004 to decline the opportunity to become India’s prime minister, despite the Congress party winning the general election and her being widely expected to lead the government.
Sonia Gandhi said the book seeks to offer a personal perspective on the Nehru-Gandhi family and the political and social changes she witnessed during her decades in India.
“Much has been written about my family, but few narratives were able to reach into the truth of their motivations, their actions and even their very human failings,” she said, describing the memoir as a tribute to their humanity.
The book covers her early life in Italy, her meeting with Rajiv Gandhi while studying in Cambridge, her marriage and subsequent entry into the Nehru-Gandhi family, and the events that eventually brought her into the centre of Indian politics.
Sonia Gandhi served as president of the Indian National Congress for nearly two decades, making her the party’s longest-serving president, and remained a central figure in Indian politics for much of the past three decades.
The memoir is being positioned by Knopf as a major autumn publication, offering a personal account of a woman whose life has been closely intertwined with some of the most significant political events in modern India.
–ENCL
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