Feroz Gandhi is known more for his marriage to Indira Gandhi than in his own right. He was born in a Parsi family in Baruch,
Gujarat. Accounts vary as to how Feroz got that surname. One version attributes this to his ‘adoption’ by Mahatma Gandhi. Another tale is that Mahatma Gandhi altered Feroz’s original surname Gandy to Gandhi. Reportedly, these changes were necessary to get the alliance approved by Jawaharlal Nehru who was wary of his political career. This love-marriage in 1942, as against the norm of arranged marriages, was hailed as illustrative of the openness of the Nehru family. Indira and Feroz plunged headlong into the Independence Movement and served prison terms several times. After Independence, however, they drifted apart mainly as Feroz had differences with Nehru’s style of functioning. Feroz’s separate political career was short-lived as he died of a heart attack in 1960. The couple had two sons, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi.
