Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, center left, with other leaders during the launch of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, or Procession to Unite India, in Kanyakumari, India, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. Credit: AP
(CNN) --
He has about 2,500 kilometers left to complete his journey.
But the great-grandson of India's first prime minister seems determined.
Dressed in white from head to toe, Rahul Gandhi will travel 3,500 kilometers across India to meet voters and rekindle interest in the Indian National Congress, a once-powerful political party now struggling to win votes.
Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, center left, with other leaders during the launch of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, or Procession to Unite India, in Kanyakumari, India, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. Credit: AP
Each stage is documented live and on social media, but Gandhi is no longer the leader of the party and will not lead his supporters to the upcoming national elections in 2024.
It will be Mallikarjun Kharge, a veteran of Congress, who was appointed to the top job on Wednesday, in a move that means for the first time in more than 20 years the party will be led by someone other than Gandhi.
The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Credit: Bettmann/Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
That a Gandhi would not be the face of India's oldest political unit is almost unthinkable to many: a member of the family has headed it for 40 of its 75 years of independence, and has been involved in directing for much of the other 35 years.
But analysts say that as the country enters a new era, in which a wave of right-wing nationalist politics unfolds, family and Congress play little part in the country's political present, fueled in part by the many corruption scandals and mismanagement of the party.
advertising
"The Gandhis are today completely dwarfed and overshadowed by Narendra Modi," says Arati R. Jerath, a New Delhi-based political commentator.
"It's hard to predict the future, but for a family that ruled much of independent India, it's unlikely we'll ever see a Gandhi as the country's leader again."
The Nehru-Gandhi Legacy
As a powerful political dynasty, the Gandhis have been compared by some to the Kennedys, as for decades they have carefully navigated a series of personal tragedies along with a harsh balancing act.
The family does not take its name from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the country's famous independence leader.
Instead, they are descendants of Jawaharlal Nehru, who was instrumental in the country's independence movement from British rule and in 1947 became its first prime minister.
Nehru's daughter, Indira, took the surname Gandhi by marrying Feroze Gandhi, another party member with no relation to their leader.
Indira would later succeed her father, before giving leadership to her son, Rajiv.
Later, his wife, Sonia Gandhi, and his son, Rahul, would take over.
Nehru ruled for 17 years after independence from British rule, ushering India into a new era after its bloody partition, which led to the creation of Pakistan, killed 2 million people and uprooted an estimated 15 million more.
Nehru united the impoverished nation by planting the seeds of decades of economic, social, and political development.
"He was part of the fight for freedom, and so he wanted to make sure India reached its potential and grew," Jerath said.
"He wanted to take her people into a brave new world."
Throughout his time in power, Nehru promoted democracy and secularism, invested in science and technology, built outstanding educational institutes, and promoted gender equality in a deeply patriarchal country.
When he died in office on May 28, 1964, tributes poured in from around the world.
Two years later, her daughter, Indira Gandhi (who took her husband's surname), would take her place as the country's first, and so far only, female prime minister.
Groomed for office from an early age, Indira Gandhi was considered a canny, strong-willed and, by some, autocratic leader.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the historic Red Fort in New Delhi.
Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty images
She was elected prime minister from 1966 to 1977, and again in 1980. But her years in office were marked as much by personal tragedy - her son Sanjay died shortly after his second term - as by upheaval, in part, by the war with Pakistan, droughts, famine and economic crisis.
In the face of growing discontent, Indira Gandhi proclaimed a controversial 21-month state of emergency in India in 1975, suspending basic freedoms, imposing press censorship and jailing members of the opposition.
Women of the 21st century: traditional vs.
rebels
Her years in power reached a tragic climax when, on October 31, 1984, she was shot dead at her home in New Delhi by her Sikh bodyguards, four months after she ordered Indian troops to storm the Golden Temple, one of the the holiest shrines in Sikhism, to expel separatists.
"The mood of the nation changed after the assassination," said Rasheed Kidwai, author of "Sonia, A Biography" and a visiting fellow at the Observer Research Foundation.
"But the tragedy is that she has a law of diminishing returns. Today, not many of our young children know about the sacrifices and tough decisions she made."
Indira Gandhi's son, Rajiv, took over the post after her death.
Rajiv Gandhi and his wife Sonia, born in Italy, during a campaign trip.
Credit: Alain Nogues/Sygma/Getty Images
Known as the "involuntary" prime minister who never wanted the job, Rajiv Gandhi became the youngest leader, at the age of 40.
But he was in office for less than a decade, losing the 1989 general election following a corruption scandal, and was assassinated two years later by the Sri Lankan separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
During his tenure, he signed peace agreements with insurgent groups in states where religious tensions were high, and is credited with developing India's science and technology sectors, earning him the nickname "Father of Information and Information". Technology".
Without Gandhi at the helm, and with the rise of the Indian People's Party (BJP) in the 1990s, the Congress struggled.
In the years that followed, India's leadership oscillated between parties.
It was not until Sonia, Rajiv's widow, born in Italy, assumed the leadership of Congress in 1998, when his political comeback took place.
Hinduism and nationalism could triumph in the legislative elections in India
Six years later, he led the party to victory in the general election but fell short of the top spot and appointed the economist Manmohan Singh as prime minister.
But with the rise of a new wave of right-wing politics, his party now finds itself in a marginal role, according to analysts.
In 2014, Modi was elected prime minister by a large majority.
"[The Gandhis] exude the tragic glamor of the Kennedys," said Jerath, the political commentator.
"This is about a family that built India's educational, health and technological institutions. Their legacy is still felt today."
rise of the right
On July 3, 2019, after a humiliating and landslide defeat in the Indian general election, Rahul Gandhi publicly resigned as leader of Congress.
Modi's BJP had just won a historic majority in the lower house of parliament, cementing the antithesis of Gandhi's Congress as the most formidable political force in Indian politics in decades.
"Modi has perfected the narrative that the Gandhi are the liberal elite, the dynasty that should not be in power," Kidwai said.
"And as the country moves to the right, his politics are proving wildly popular."
The BJP has its roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu group advocating Hindutva ideology: make India the land of Hindus.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives a victory speech after winning India's general election in New Delhi on May 23, 2019. Credit: Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images
Nearly 80% of the country's 1.3 billion people are Hindu, and analysts say Modi's populist politics appeal to the masses.
"India is changing. As democracy has deepened, we have seen the rise of a new class of people, and this class is really not educated in the Nehruvian principles of democracy," Jerath said.
"They are willing to accept the Hindutva policy of the Modi-led BJP. And this is something that this generation of Gandhi has not been able to counter."
Furthermore, analysts point to decades of infighting and mismanagement within the Congress party, which have weakened its position in the country.
Rahul and Sonia Gandhi have also been accused of corruption, charges they deny.
The second term of the last Congressional Prime Minister who ruled India was plagued by corruption allegations and bribery scandals worth tens of millions of dollars.
Modi's humble beginnings as the son of a tea seller, versus the privileged and Western-influenced upbringing of the Gandhi, also make him more akin to an emerging middle-class population, Jerath said.
Nehru, like Rajiv and Rahul, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge.
His daughter, Indira, at Oxford University.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi tells Putin: This is not the time for war
"Rahul Gandhi kept looking for success, but it was quite elusive," Kidwai said.
"That's why he's taken on a different role and done this campaign across the country."
As Rahul Gandhi continues his journey to unite the country, he may be able to rebuild the image of Congress.
But it seems unlikely that he will become the country's prime minister, like his father, his grandmother and his great-grandfather before him.
He never married and has no children.
His sister, Priyanka, also a member of the party, has two young children, but it is not clear if they will ever enter political life.
All eyes will be on the next leader, who will try to garner enough votes to unseat Modi in 2024.
"Without a doubt, Modi is in control of power," Jerath said.
"But if Congress gets its act together, we may see a comeback."
GandhiIndia