Indian figurehead's three letters in a row (6)
I believe the answer is:
gandhi
'indian figurehead's' is the definition.
(Gandhi was a figurehead for Indian independence)
'three letters in a row' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for gandhi that I've seen before include "Spiritualistic Indian statesman" , "Peacemaker" , "Pacifist Indian leader" , "resistance leader" , "Indian leader, Indira, assassinated 1984" .)