New Delhi, November 8: Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi has described her forthcoming memoir, ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, as a personal story rather than a political book. The memoir seeks to offer an honest account of her family, love, grief and the journey of finding a home in India.
HarperCollins India will publish the book in India on November 10, bringing an end to the uncertainty surrounding its release following a reported deadlock between the author’s representative and Penguin Random House India.
In the memoir’s introductory note, Sonia Gandhi writes that she had kept her inner world private for most of her life. Even after personal tragedies drew her into politics, she tried to preserve her privacy. She says that writing openly about her life once seemed almost unimaginable.
It was only after stepping away from the demands of public life that she felt able to look back at her journey with greater clarity. According to her, the thread connecting the different phases of her life has been love and the loyalty that grew out of it.
Sonia Gandhi traces the beginning of her journey to England, where, as a 19-year-old woman from a small town in Italy, she met an Indian student. That relationship eventually brought her to India and introduced her to a new family. Her relationship with her mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the years spent raising her children also form part of the narrative.
The memoir also reflects on the transformation of India over more than five decades. Sonia Gandhi writes about observing the country first from the margins and later from the centre of public life. She describes the book as an account of that journey and the country she came to regard as home.
Family, Love and Personal Tragedies
Sonia Gandhi has said that although much has been written about the Gandhi family, relatively little has explored its members as people—their motivations, struggles and human vulnerabilities.
Through the memoir, she seeks to portray the members of her family as people she knew and loved, with honesty and personal insight.
The book reportedly recounts several major tragedies that shaped the Gandhi family, including the death of Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash, the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the assassination of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991.
Reflecting on those losses, Sonia Gandhi writes that her love for Rajiv Gandhi and India gave her the strength to endure the difficult period. She also describes how her sense of belonging to India and her feeling of responsibility eventually drew her into public life, despite her initial reluctance.
From Personal Loss to Public Life
The memoir also discusses the political developments following the Congress-led alliance’s victory in the 2004 general election. Sonia Gandhi declined to become Prime Minister and instead led the party and the coalition, which went on to govern the country for the next decade.
Through ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, Sonia Gandhi presents her life as a journey shaped by personal relationships, loss, political responsibility and her evolving connection with India.
The book is scheduled to be released in India by HarperCollins India on November 10.
