Indira Gandhi Queen Bee Nehru’s daughter served as PM for as many years as her father, but her political legacy was decidedly darker. She was responsible for the one period of authoritarian rule in India’s history, the Emergency, the politicisation of the bureaucracy and a statist populism that created the high noon of the License Raj. Her abiding claim on history is her inspired political and military leadership in ’71 as she midwifed the birth of Bangladesh and oversaw the breakup of Pakistan. E.M.S. Namboodiripad Red Colossus Half a century ago, he became chief minister of the first popularly elected Communist government in the world. His initiatives in land reforms, literacy and public health did much to make Kerala India’s star performer in the UNDP’s Human Development Index. He was a Left icon who practised what he preached—born a Brahmin, he renounced his caste, and gave away his inherited wealth to the Communist Party. Mayawati Dalit Regina To Mayawati and her mentor Kanshi Ram goes the credit of finding a strategy that allowed Dalits to parlay their numbers and their entrenched position within the lower echelons of the state structure into real political power. Today, BSP supremo Mayawati wields power not as a subordinate member of a coalition led by privileged groups, but as the head of an electorally potent coalition of diverse social groups with Dalits in the vanguard. Sheikh Abdullah Lion of Kashmir As Sher-e-Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah brought Kashmir into India but spent his whole life negotiating the terms of that accession. He spent the equivalent of a lifeterm in jails on charges of separatism, but had an utter lack of bitterness towards Nehru-Indira. He died as the CM of the land he had fought so hard for. Pu Laldenga Mizoram’s Rebel-turned-CM For 20 years, he led a bloody insurgency for Mizoram’s sovereignty with help from China and Pakistan, then had the sagacity to realise the futility of violence. He contested elections, became Mizoram’s chief minister—and showed other insurgents the path back to peace with honour. M.G. Ramachandran 70 mm Leader For 25 years, Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran was the biggest star in Tamil cinema. He turned his fan base into political power, founding the AIDMK, serving as CM for ten continuous years. His greatest legacy was the mid-day meal scheme which at one stroke got kids into schools, improved literacy and addressed malnutrition. Jyoti Basu Marxist Patriarch Jyoti Basu headed West Bengal from 1977 to 2000, the longest serving CM in history who almost became PM. His tenure symbolised the mixed blessings of CPI(M)’s rule: land reform and a robustly secular politics on the one hand; industrial flight, economic stagnation and the systematic politicisation of the state’s bureaucracy on the other.