New Delhi. On the morning of November 10, as bookstores across the country opened their shutters, many already had readers waiting in line. In their hands was a book that had been awaited for months: Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’. From a small village in Italy to becoming one of the most influential political figures in India, Sonia Gandhi opens up about her extraordinary journey in Belonging.

As the day progressed, the book spread beyond the shelves and took over social media timelines. Photos of pages, screenshots of favourite lines, emotional posts and sharp political attacks all began circulating. Congress leaders called it a story of sacrifice and love. BJP leaders questioned what it says and, just as pointedly, what it leaves out.

The buzz is not only about the book, but also about how it reached readers. HarperCollins India’s announcement ended weeks of uncertainty over whether the book would be published in the country. The rights went to HarperCollins after a rift with Penguin Random House India.

Sonia Gandhi’s social media debut: Long absent from these platforms, she joined Instagram and then X in October. In her Instagram video, she shows the book to her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and remarks that it has “lots of pictures.”

Ahead of the launch, Sonia said there was bound to be some “tamasha.” After launch day, many users say it has begun.

What are readers excited about?

The 544-page book begins with Sonia’s childhood in post-war Veneto, Italy, and follows her to Cambridge, where she met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965. The story of an Italian girl who became part of India’s most powerful political family, and then endured one tragedy after another, reads almost like a film script.

Beginning with her love story with Rajiv Gandhi in Cambridge, the book takes readers through her early years in India, her relationship with Indira Gandhi, the joys of family life, and the heartbreaking tragedies that changed her life forever. With honesty and warmth, Sonia Gandhi recounts her journey from being a foreign-born outsider to becoming the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress.

She also reflects on her decision to decline the office of Prime Minister and her years of public service. More than a political memoir, Belonging is an intimate story of love, loss, identity, resilience and finding a home in a country that became her own. Sonia has dedicated the book to her children, Rahul and Priyanka, and her grandchildren, Raihan and Miraya.

These are the passages readers have shared most widely on social media:

1. “What if they kill you too?”

The most-shared excerpt comes after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. According to users, when Rajiv Gandhi spoke of taking over as Prime Minister, Sonia was alarmed and asked him this very question. Rajiv replied that they would kill him anyway. Several users, including Jaiky Yadav, Neeraj Bhawani and Santosh Yadav, described it as a moving portrait of a wife’s helplessness and a mother’s worry for Rahul and Priyanka’s future.

2. The PM’s chair she walked away from

Readers are also drawn to her account of declining the prime ministership in 2004. In the excerpts shared, Sonia says she had discussed it with Rahul and Priyanka before the election, and both did not want her to take the post, since the family had already lost Indira and Rajiv. Gandhian blogger Apoorva Bhardwaj called it renouncing power when it was within reach, writing that “being Sonia Gandhi is not easy.” She eventually handed the reins to Dr. Manmohan Singh.

3. The passage on Maneka Gandhi

An excerpt shared by senior journalist Ajay Jha has opened a separate debate. In it, Sonia writes about Maneka’s campaign against Rajiv Gandhi and her distress at seeing a young child, Maneka’s four-year-old son Varun, used in electioneering. It is the first time this family bitterness has appeared in Sonia’s own words. Jha quotes the passage as follows:

“Maneka had formed her own political party, the Sanjay Vichar Manch. She contested against Rajiv Gandhi and kept levelling malicious allegations against us throughout the campaign. She would take her four-year-old son along and hold him up through the hatch of an open-roof vehicle while asking for votes. It was heartbreaking to see our dear child being used as a political pawn.”

4. A first meeting and a family album

The book’s personal side is also winning readers over. The Kerala Chief Minister noted with surprise that the cover photograph was taken by Rajiv Gandhi in Turin in 1966. The book also contains a large collection of family photographs.

What are leaders and readers saying?

Congress and allies

Rajiv Shukla (Congress): Shukla went to buy a copy and was surprised by the crowds. He said that after Nehru, Sonia may be the first in the family to write a memoir, and that people should respect her feelings and not turn the book into a controversy.

Kerala Chief Minister VD Sateeshan called it “a personal journey of love, loss and belonging,” and wrote that Sonia’s life shows empathy is the true foundation of politics.

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot wrote on x, "Sonia’s life is “a rare example of sacrifice, dedication and struggle” in contemporary Indian politics." He recalled that the prime minister’s post was one that the people, the Congress and all UPA leaders wanted to hand her, yet she declined it with humility. “I was personally present in the Central Hall of Parliament on that historic day,” he wrote, when all UPA MPs wanted her to become Prime Minister, but she placed the party’s and the country’s wider interests above the highest office. He added that even today the Gandhi family stands at the forefront as the biggest ideological challenge to the divisive ideology of the RSS and BJP, and that despite conspiracies and personal attacks it has continued to fight for the Constitution, democratic values and national unity.

Awadhesh Shukla, Shiv Sena UBT spokesperson, said what is inside the book will be known only after reading it, but that whatever she has written is in the national interest. He accused the BJP of spreading propaganda and doing politics in the name of the book, and said the party made a huge fuss when Sanjay Raut’s book came out recently. “BJP doesn’t practise what it preaches,” he said, adding that Sonia Gandhi has made great sacrifices for the country.

Many social media users argue that Sonia was the target of rumours for decades and has now told her own story. In their view, the book is more personal than political: about family, loss, love and finding a home in India.

Journalist Zakir Ali Tyagi appealed to HarperCollins India to bring out a Hindi edition soon, saying crores of Hindi readers who are not comfortable in English should not be left out.

The other side: BJP’s attack

As with any major political memoir, politics has followed quickly. The BJP has questioned the book’s timing and publication. It has also objected to how the book refers to the Babri Masjid demolition, and has attacked what it calls a silence on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Tuhin Sinha (BJP spokesperson) congratulated Sonia on the launch and then listed three questions he hopes the book will answer:

1. She came to India in 1968 but received citizenship only in 1983, so how did she vote in 1980?

2. What was in the 2008 MoU between the Congress and the CCP?

3. Does she weep only when her vote bank is at risk, or also when security personnel are martyred?

Pradeep Bhandari (BJP national spokesperson) said the book makes it clear that its core thinking revolves around “Babri vote bank” politics, and that this kind of politics is deeply rooted in her thinking.

Tarun Chugh (BJP MP) urged Sonia not to view events selectively. The country wants to know, he said, what her family thought about the Emergency of 1975, when journalists, media houses and politicians were jailed, the Constitution was suspended and free speech was curbed.

Manjinder Singh Sirsa (Minister), speaking to IANS, called what Sonia has written “completely false and fraudulent.” As a wife, he said, she has naturally tried to defend her husband, which is understandable, but she could hardly say that Rajiv Gandhi was responsible for the massacre.

Surendra Jain (VHP general secretary) said that while the whole world was proud of the demolition of the Babri structure, which he described as a symbol of the cruelty of the foreign invader Babur, Sonia Gandhi was shedding tears, and that she has written as much in the book. He also said she wept when Delhi Police killed terrorists in an encounter after bomb blasts in the capital.

Rahul Sinha (BJP MP), speaking to ANI, said nothing Sonia writes will make a difference and that no one will read it. Even if she supports Indira Gandhi despite the Emergency and the jailing of citizens, he said, the people of this country will not.

The book has been in stores only a few hours, and most reactions, on both sides, are based on selected excerpts and on what the book is said to contain. Detailed reviews from readers who have finished all 544 pages are yet to come. One thing is already clear: for the first time, Sonia Gandhi has put her life, her decisions and her family’s story in her own words, and the country has begun reading, sharing and arguing over it.