THE QUESTION that often accompanies the assassination of a world leader is 'where to from here, Tuesday's murder of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi places a cloud of uncertainty over the country's future and leaves a gaping hole on the international stage. It was during her 18 years as ruler that the India ushered into being by her father, Nehru, reached maturity and arrived at its status as a world power. During most of her reign Gandhi held together the ethnically divided country which continues to serve as a model for all multi-racial Third World states just as it did in the days of another Gandhi. And it was she who pointed the way to other states in the non-alignment movement as she steered the narrow course between the superpower poles. It is difficult to imagine who on the Indian political roster could fill her shoes.

Indeed, it is as difficult to imagine an India without Gandhi as it once was to picture, say, an Egypt without Sadat. Increasingly, the figure of a sari-wrapped woman with sharp features and a dramatic streak of gray hair has became symbolic for the whole subcontinent. But the fact that the name of Indira Gandhi has become synonymous for all of India points to the greatest problem now challenging the world's largest democracy, the eclipse of political institutions by personal rule. And as India's leaders look toward the future, it must be Indira's faults, not her strengths, that serve as both warning and guidance.

Already the mounting death toll, now estimated at 1,000, has confirmed the fear that the assassination would unleash a new round of ethnic violence. In a land where communal ties run deep, the pitting of one group against another can be potentially explosive "Communal madness," Gandhi's son and successor Rajiv correctly warns, "will destroy us."

Unfortunately, the current ill-health of the Indian body politic and the assassination itself are part of a tragedy whose seeds Gandhi more than anyone else helped to sow. But it is a tragedy of choice, not necessity. India's is a system carefully constructed to allow for federal authority while preserving local autonomy; to forge a national culture while respecting inevitable ethnic differences. In recent years Gandhi demonstrated an alarming disregard for the laws of ethnic arithmetic and the system of constitutional checks and balances which must govern India if she is to live in peace.

Under her stewardship, the Congress Party passed from being a representative of all nationalist elements regardless of religion to one of narrow Hindu interests. As Gandhi's craving for absolute power grew her toleration of rival parties diminished. She frequently relied on the constitutional clause investing the central government with the power to overthrow democratically elected state governments, a clause her predecessors judiciously ignored. On issues where her father tread lightly she became confrontational.

The murder of Gandhi by two Sikh bodyguards was an act of unconscionable terrorism in a time increasingly characterized by political violence. The Punjabi Sikhs have repeated clashed with the government in their desire for an independent state, most recently in the government's bloody raid last June on the Sikh shrine at Amritsar that was being used as a base for Sikh separatists. Although we cannot tolerate acts of terrorism by any group, be it Sikhs, Palestinians or Irish, we understand that they multiply in times of frustration on issues of ethnicity and autonomy and abstinence on the part of larger powers.

Where to from here? While we hope that Rajiv Gandhi learned much in the way of political skill during his two year apprenticeship under his mother, we also hope that he has vision enough to see the error of her ways. He should proceed as planned with the January elections and prove that the democratic process is alive and not endangered by nepotism. The future of a united India depends not on the extension of family rule but the health of democratic institutions. In the past these institutions have displayed a remarkable resilience. India weathered two years of emergency rule under Gandhi and emerged to elect a government of previously opposition parties. It has had state boundaries completely redrawn and survived two previous succession crises. All that is needed now is a statesman ready to lead the country back to the politics of consensus. We hope that Rajiv Gandhi is such a man.