Rajiv Gandhi (1944-1991) entered Indian politics after the death of his younger brother Sanjay in 1980, serving as adviser to his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and as an elected member of Parliament. He became prime minister shortly after the assassination of his mother in 1984.

Rajiv Gandhi, India's sixth prime minister and general secretary of the Congress (I) party, was born on August 20, 1944, in Bombay, India. He was the grandson of India's first prime minister, Jawarharlal Nehru, and the eldest son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her journalist, parliamentarian husband, Feroze Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi). Brought up surrounded by politics, Rajiv Gandhi stayed out of the political world until the death of his younger brother Sanjay, who had been active politically as his mother's adviser and as a member of Parliament.

Gandhi's early years were spent at the prime minister's residence in New Delhi where his...