Indira Gandhi's last years in office as India's prime minister ran from January 1980 to her assassination in October 1984 but until now no book has been devoted to her final term. Among the principal themes discussed in this innovative volume are how Indian politics and society changed in the 1970s, including the State of Emergency (1975-77)

Congress's response to insurgency in Punjab, Assam and Kashmir; the rise of new forms of political mobilisation in the early 1980s; and the prime minister's relationship with the key institutions of state. Maiorano also reveals how Mrs Gandhi's policies in the 1980s impacted on the big industrialists, the middle class, the rich peasantry and the poor, thereby crucially re-orienting India's economic strategy. 'Autumn of the Matriarch' is the first major study of Mrs Gandhi's last years in power, an important juncture in India's recent history, as it was then that trends emerged that influenced the country for the next three decades.