Abstract
This article contends that the late 1960s, a period rife with crises in Indian political and economic affairs, merits close attention from historians wanting to construct narratives of the country's post-Independence experience. More particularly it demonstrates how the challenge posed to the Congress-led Government of India by one of these crises – an agitation for central cow-protection legislation, which arrived at a crucial moment in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's first term – proved, against the odds, to be the making of her as a politician and a national leader. At two levels, then, this is an article about ‘turning points' and their application to the writing of contemporary Indian history: for if the late 1960s marked a turning point in the larger Indian story, so, too, they marked a decisive break in the biography of Mrs Indira Gandhi.
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