Rajiv Gandhi, who served as the seventh Prime Minister of India from 1984 to 1989, was born on August 20, 1944. He was named after his maternal grandmother, Kamala Nehru, the wife of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Rajiv Gandhi was the last member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to hold the office of Prime Minister of India.

Rajiv Gandhi was born in Mumbai (then Bombay) and was three years old when India gained independence, with his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, becoming the country's first Prime Minister.