Women world leaders educated at oxford. The series, part one: Indira Gandhi
Hello there.
I'm Rob Walters, long-term city guide in the fascinating city of oxford
and this time the addition to Rob's Oxford channel is going to be based on
women world leaders who have been educated in Oxford University.
Ahh, how to choose?
I've chosen three based on their fame, their influence, and the inspiration they've given to others in the world.
Women students in oxford. Well for a long time, a very long time, there weren'tany
The university is about 800 years old, but it wasn't until 1879 that the first lady's college was founded.
Its name is Lady Margaret Hall and it set off with just nine young lady students.
By the end of the year a second college for ladies had started and that's called
Somerville you'll be hearing a lot more about that soon.
Ladies were restricted. They could actually go to lectures with the men in the university itself but only with a chaperone!
The ladies were allowed to take exactly the same exams as the men but they could not get degrees.
That didn't change until 1920 - just two years after women in the United Kingdom were finally given the vote
Leaping on to 1974 that's the year when the men's colleges in oxford began to
accept women at last. By 1984 they all had but the women's colleges were slower to change actually
but now all colleges accept both men and women and interestingly enough there are more female
undergraduates accepted by oxford university than there are men. And with that introduction
let's get started on women world leaders educated at oxford.
Here we go
The three leaders are going to be presented in historical order
and the first of them is Indira Gandhi from India. Daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru
that staunch proponent of Indian independence and of course the first Prime Minister of India
You can see him there where you see Indira as a very young girl. She was born in 1917 in Allahabad
in northern India. A very privileged background in many ways though troubled and somewhat
chaotic owing to this fight for independence and, of course, the early death of her mother
the photo there is of Anand Bhavan where she grew up. Actually there were two houses in their estate
and it is now a very interesting museum devoted to the family
The first building that indira would have attended in oxford as an undergraduate
back in 1937 would have been this one: the Sheldonian Theatre. She would have attended there
in her gown to matriculate, that is to become part of the university. Afterwards she would have returned to
her college and let's accompany her, turning right in front of the Sheldonian we look at Broad Street
and walk past the college of Exeter on our left. If we glance to our right we would also see into the
gardens of Trinity, and then immediately after that the very impressive building of Balliol College.
She would then have turned right into Magdalen Street and going up there she would come to
a rather noticeable symbol of Oxford that's the Martyrs' Memorial I won't tell you all about that.
As she walked on she might glance to her right again and see Saint John's college the richest of all
the colleges in Oxford. But she would have crossed the road to the left then entering Saint Giles
a very wide street in Oxford. As she went along there she would pass the ashmolean on her left
And then after quite a few steps she would come to a famous pub and that pub is called the Eagle and Child.
You can just see it on the left there. You can also see that there's a fork in the road
She would have taken the left fork passing Saint Giles church on her right, and as she proceeded
up the Woodstock Road she would come to another church that's the Roman Catholic church of
central Oxford, Saint Aloysius. Imediately after that is her college, Somerville College
indira was only here for one year. During that year she began her studies on modern history
and she joined the Oxford Ma,jlis that's a society for Asian students in the university
which still exists to this day. And, demonstrating her political leanings, she also joined the Labour Club
We're looking at Somerville at the moment. We're looking towards its main entrance from
Woodstock Road, the road that I live in in Oxford. Not a particularly impressive view
in this particular circumstance, but it gets much better inside.
iI is the second ladies college in Oxford founded back in 1879 and named after Mary Somerville
A self-taught polymath of the 19th century. We are now viewing the oldest building inside
and that building is called Walton House although within somerville it's simply called House
and nowadays that building looks out towards a green and glorious quad surrounded by the more
modern buildings of the college and these include the dining hall which you can see at the moment.
We'll have a closer look at Somerville later, together with the next world leader.
Things did not go well for indira. She failed the first year exam twice and avoided the third opportunity entirely by not turning up.
A combination of ill health and understandable problems with that terrible thing the compulsory Latin exam
sadly curtailed her undergraduate career
She returned to India where following independence where she supported Nehru, her father, in carrying out his duties as the first prime minister of India
and bringing up her own two sons who you can see in the photograph there.
In 1966 two years after her father died and his successor had a heart attack and also died
Indira was elected as the third Prime Minister of India and the second woman prime minister in the whole world
She held office until 1977 and was back again for another four years in the 1980s
Her lowest point over this long period of power is said to be the declaration of a nationwide emergency
which resulted in a very unpopular ban on the press and the media still not forgiven to this day by many.
Her achievements were many though but prime amongst them must be the aid given
to east pakistan which enabled it to become the independent country of Bangladesh.
She is sometimes known as the iron lady of india and was given a peace award by the Bangladeshis after her death
Though Indira did not complete her degree course in Oxford
she was given an honorary degree by the University in 1971.
The degree was conferred by the then Chancellor Harold Macmillan who was a former Prime Minister of the UK
Her college of Somerville has established a scholarship in her name for Indian students.
She was without a doubt a world leader and had good relationships and possibly even strong
friendships with many other world leaders at that time including two very much opposites.
That is Margaret Thatcher and General Castro. She also made visits to the seat of government in America as we can see here.
There's Ronald Reagan walking with her through the White House garden prior to her departure back to India
Her government's second term was dominated by
problems in the Punjab leading to the storming of the famous Golden Temple of the Sikhs
in Amritstar and possibly Indira's own assassination by her Sikh bodyguards
She was shot on the 31st of October 1984 whilst walking towards her office adjacent to the Prime
Ministerial residence in New Delhi. She was on her way to be interviewed as a matter of fact
by english actor and broadcaster Peter Ustinov for a series on world leaders.
The path where she was so violently slaughtered is now a memorial to her in glass and crystal as you can see.
To finish this brief overview of Indira's life
here is a note from another world leadersent to her son Rajiv following her untimely
death what a sad ending to Indira Gandhi's life. To the woman who was voted
the greatest woman in the last 1000 years by a poll conducted by the BBC in 1999.
her life was very interesting and very high profile as you will understand. One question remains of course
and I can't really answer it... How much was she influenced by that one year in Oxford if at all
She's the first in this series on women world leaders who have been educated in Oxford.
There will be more. If you liked this one please like it below. If you want to hear and see the rest of them
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Thanks for watching bye bye