The Emergency (India)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Indian Emergency
)

On the advice of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed proclaimed a state of national emergency on 25 June 1975.

The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared across the country.

Officially issued by President

human rights violations were reported from the time, including a mass campaign for vasectomy spearheaded by her son Sanjay Gandhi. The Emergency is one of the most controversial periods of Indian history since its independence. The final decision to impose an emergency was proposed by Indira Gandhi, agreed upon by the President of India, and ratified by the Cabinet and the Parliament from July to August 1975. It was based on the rationale that there were imminent internal and external threats to the Indian state.[1][2]

Prelude

Rise of Indira Gandhi

Between 1967 and 1971, Prime Minister

Cabinet, whose elected members she saw as a threat and distrusted. For this, she relied on her principal secretary, P. N. Haksar
, a central figure in Indira's inner circle of advisors. Further, Haksar promoted the idea of a "committed bureaucracy" that required hitherto-impartial government officials to be "committed" to the ideology of the Congress.

Within the Congress, Indira outmaneuvered her rivals, forcing the party to split in 1969—into the

All-India Congress Committee and Congress MPs sided with the prime minister. Indira's party was of a different breed from the Congress of old, which had been a robust institution with traditions of internal democracy. In the Congress (R), on the other hand, members quickly realised that their progress within the ranks depended solely on their loyalty to Indira Gandhi and her family, and ostentatious displays of sycophancy
became routine. In the coming years, Indira's influence was such that she could install hand-picked loyalists as chief ministers of states, rather than their being elected by the Congress legislative party.

Indira's ascent was backed by her charismatic appeal among the masses that was aided by her government's near-radical leftward turns. These included the July 1969 nationalisation of several major banks and the September 1970 abolition of the

Dalits, women and minorities. Indira was seen as "standing for socialism in economics and secularism in matters of religion, as being pro-poor and for the development of the nation as a whole."[3]

In the

personality cult, referred to her as Durga, a Hindu goddess.[4][5][6]

Increasing government control of the judiciary

Jayaprakash Narayan on a 2001 stamp of India. He is remembered for leading the mid-1970s opposition against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the Indian Emergency, for whose overthrow he had called for a "total revolution".

In 1967's

Golaknath case,[7] the Supreme Court said that the Constitution could not be amended by Parliament if the changes affect basic issues such as fundamental rights. To nullify this judgement, Parliament, dominated by the Gandhi-led Congress, passed the 24th Amendment in 1971. Similarly, after the government lost a Supreme Court case for withdrawing the privy purse
given to erstwhile princes, Parliament passed the 26th Amendment. This gave constitutional validity to the government's abolition of the privy purse and nullified the Supreme Court's order.

This judiciary–executive battle would continue in the landmark

basic structure" of the Constitution. Subsequently, Prime Minister Gandhi made A. N. Ray—the senior-most judge amongst those in the minority in Kesavananda BharatiChief Justice of India. Ray superseded three judges more senior to him—J. M. Shelat, K. S. Hegde and Grover—all members of the majority in Kesavananda Bharati. Indira Gandhi's tendency to control the judiciary met with severe criticism, both from the press and political opponents such as Jayaprakash Narayan
("JP").

Political unrest

This led some Congress party leaders to demand a move towards a

Nav Nirman movement in Gujarat, between December 1973 and March 1974. Student unrest against the state's education minister ultimately forced the central government to dissolve the state legislature, leading to the resignation of the chief minister, Chimanbhai Patel, and the imposition of President's rule. Meanwhile, there were assassination attempts on public leaders as well as the assassination of the railway minister Lalit Narayan Mishra
by a bomb. All of these indicated a growing law and order problem in the entire country, which Mrs. Gandhi's advisors warned her of for months.

In March–April 1974, a student agitation by the Bihar Chatra Sangharsh Samiti received the support of

labour unions to non-violently transform Indian society. He also demanded the dissolution of the state government, but this was not accepted by the center. A month later, the railway-employees union, the largest union in the country, went on a nationwide railways strike. This strike was led by the firebrand trade union leader George Fernandes who was the President of the All India Railwaymen's Federation. He was also the President of the Socialist Party. The strike was brutally suppressed by the Indira Gandhi government, which arrested thousands of employees and drove their families out of their quarters.[8]

Raj Narain verdict

Raj Narain, who had been defeated in the 1971 parliamentary election by Indira Gandhi, lodged cases of election fraud and use of state machinery for election purposes against her in the Allahabad High Court. Shanti Bhushan fought the case for Narain (Nani Palkhivala fought the case for Indira). Indira Gandhi was also cross-examined in the High Court which was the first such instance for an Indian Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi had to present herself for 5 hours in front of judge).[9]

On 12 June 1975, Justice

Yashpal Kapoor, during the elections before he had resigned from his position, and use of electricity from the state electricity department.[10]

Her supporters organised mass pro-Indira demonstrations in the streets of Delhi close to the Prime Minister's residence.[11] The persistent efforts of Narain were praised worldwide as it took over four years for Justice Sinha to pass judgement against the prime minister.[citation needed]

Indira Gandhi challenged the High Court's decision in the Supreme Court. Justice

state of emergency. Within three hours, the electricity to all major newspapers was cut and the political opposition arrested. The proposal was sent without discussion with the Union Cabinet, who only learnt of it and ratified it the next morning.[12][13]

Preventive detention laws

Before the emergency, the Indira Gandhi government passed draconian laws which would be used to arrest political opponents before and during emergency. One of these was the

Defence of India rules, which was withdrawn in 1967,[15] Defence of India rules were given an expanded mandate 5 days into the emergency and renamed as Defence and Internal Security of India Rules. Another law, Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act passed in December 1974, was also frequently used to target political opponents.[14]

Proclamation of the Emergency

The Government cited threats to national security, as a war with Pakistan had recently been concluded. Due to the war and additional challenges of drought and the

Chief Minister of West Bengal, proposed to the prime minister to impose an "internal emergency". He drafted a letter for the President to issue the proclamation based on information Indira had received that "there is an imminent danger to the security of India being threatened by internal disturbances". He showed how democratic freedom could be suspended while remaining within the ambit of the Constitution.[16][17]

After resolving a procedural matter, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declared a state of internal emergency upon the prime minister's advice on the night of 25 June 1975, just a few minutes before the clock struck midnight.[18]

As the constitution requires, Mrs. Gandhi advised and President Ahmed approved the continuation of Emergency over every six months until she decided to hold elections in 1977. In 1976, Parliament voted to delay elections, something it could only do with the Constitution suspended by the Emergency.[19][20]

Administration

Indira Gandhi devised a '20-point' economic programme to increase agricultural and industrial production, improve public services and fight poverty and illiteracy, through "the discipline of the graveyard".[21] In addition to the official twenty points, Sanjay Gandhi declared his five-point programme promoting literacy, family planning, tree planting, the eradication of casteism and the abolition of dowry. Later during the Emergency, the two projects merged into a twenty-five-point programme.[22]

Arrests

Invoking articles 352 and 356 of the

Lal Krishna Advani, Arun Jaitley, Jai Kishan Gupta [23] Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Gayatri Devi, the dowager queen of Jaipur,[24] and other protest leaders were immediately arrested. Organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Jamaat-e-Islami, along with some political parties, were banned. CPI(M) leaders V.S. Achuthanandan and Jyotirmoy Basu were arrested along with many others involved with their party. Congress leaders who dissented against the Emergency declaration and amendment to the constitution, such as Mohan Dharia and Chandra Shekhar, resigned their government and party positions and were thereafter arrested and placed under detention.[25][26] Members of regional opposition parties such as DMK
also found themselves arrested.

Most of these arrests happened under laws such as MISA, DISIR, and COFEPOSA. During the emergency 34,988 people were arrested under MISA, and 75,818 people were arrested under DISIR. This included both political prisoners and ordinary criminals.[27] Most states classified those arrested under MISA into multiple categories. For instance in Andhra Pradesh they were classified into three categories- Class A, Class B, and Class C. Class A prisoners included prominent political leaders, members of parliament, and members of the legislative assembly. Class B prisoners included less prominent political prisoners. Class C included those detained for "economic offences" and other offences. Class A and B prisoners were treated better and received better amenities in prison than other categories of prisoners. Those arrested under COFEPOSA and DISR, depending on the state, found themselves detained with ordinary criminals, as Class C prisoners, or their own separate category.[28]

Cases like the Baroda dynamite case and the Rajan case became exceptional examples of atrocities committed against civilians in independent India.

Laws, human rights and elections

Elections for the Parliament and state governments were postponed. Gandhi and her parliamentary majorities could rewrite the nation's laws since her Congress party had the required mandate to do so – a two-thirds majority in the Parliament. And when she felt the existing laws were 'too slow', she got the President to issue 'Ordinances' – a law-making power in times of urgency, invoked sparingly – completely bypassing the Parliament, allowing her to

President's Rule in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, where anti-Indira parties ruled (state legislatures were thereby dissolved and suspended indefinitely), and jailing thousands of opponents. The 42nd Amendment
, which brought about extensive changes to the letter and spirit of the Constitution, is one of the lasting legacies of the Emergency. In the conclusion of his Making of India's Constitution, Justice Khanna writes:

If the Indian constitution is our heritage bequeathed to us by our founding fathers, no less are we, the people of India, the trustees, and custodians of the values which pulsate within its provisions! A constitution is not a parchment of paper, it is a way of life and has to be lived up to. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and in the final analysis, its only keepers are the people. The imbecility of men, history teaches us, always invites the impudence of power.[29]

A fallout of the Emergency era was the Supreme Court laid down that, although the Constitution is amenable to amendments (as abused by Indira Gandhi), changes that tinker with its basic structure[30] cannot be made by the Parliament. (see Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala)[31]

In the Rajan case, P. Rajan of the Regional Engineering College, Calicut, was arrested by the police in Kerala on 1 March 1976,[32] tortured in custody until he died and then his body was disposed of and was never recovered. The facts of this incident came out owing to a habeas corpus suit filed in the Kerala High Court.[33][34]

Many cases where teens were arrested and imprisoned have come to light, one such example is of Dilip Sharma who aged 16 was arrested and imprisoned for over 11 months. He was released based on Patna High Court's judgment on 29 July 1976.[35]

Economics

Christophe Jaffrelot considers the economic policy of the emergency regime to be corporatist, five programs in the 20 point program were aimed at benefiting the middle classes and industrialists, these included- liberalising investment procedures, introducing new schemes for workers' associations in the industry, implementing a national permit scheme for road transport, tax breaks to the middle class by exempting anyone earning under Rs. 8,000 from income taxes, and an austerity program to reduce public spending.[14]

Trade unions and worker's rights

The emergency regime cracked down on trade unionism, banned strikes, imposed wage freezes, and phased out wage bonuses.[36] The largest trade unions in the country at the time such as the Congress' INTUC, CPI's AITUC, and Socialist affiliated HMS were made to comply with the new regime, while the CPI(M)'s CITU continued its opposition for which it had 20 of its leaders arrested. State governments were asked to form bipartite councils composed of representatives of the workers and the management for firms having more than 500 employees, similar apex bipartite committees were formed by the centre for major public sector industries, while a National Apex Board was set up for the private industries. These were meant to give a veneer of worker participation in decision making but were in reality stacked in favour of the management, and tasked with increasing "productivity" by cutting holidays (including Sundays), bonuses, agreeing to wage freeze, and allowing layoffs.[14][36]

Worker demonstrations during the emergency were subject to heavy state repression, such as when the AITUC organised a one-day strike to protest the slashing of bonuses in January 1976, to which the state responded by arresting 30,000-40,000 workers. In another such instance, the 8,000 workers of the Indian Telephone Industries (a Bangalore-based state-owned company) took part in a peaceful sit-in protest in response to the management reneging its promise of a 20% bonus to just 8%, they found themselves lathi-charged by the police who also arrested a few hundred of them.[14]

Coal miners were forced to work in abysmal conditions with irregular pay, collieries were made to run for all seven days a week, and complaints of workers and unions about the abysmal and dangerous working conditions were ignored and met with state repression. These terrible workplace conditions led to the deadliest mining disaster in Indian history on 27 December 1975, at Chasnala coal mine near Dhanbad which claimed the lives of 375 miners due to more than 100 million gallons of water flooding the mine. This was the 222nd such accident that year, the previous incidents having claimed 288 lives.[14]

Inflation and price control

The emergency government enjoyed a degree of popular support due to lower prices of goods and services at least during 1975. This was due to many reasons such as RBI's policy of putting in place a 6 per cent ceiling on annual money supply growth months before the emergency, record monsoon in the year of 1975 leading to record harvest of foodgrains which led to food prices declining, increased import of grains, and reduced demand due to cutting of worker's wages and bonuses. In addition to this half of the dearness allowance of workers was withheld as part of the Wage Freeze act as compulsory deposits to combat inflation. However, these reduced prices only lasted till March 1976 when the prices of commodities started to go up again, on account of foodgrain production declining by 7.9%. Between 1 April and 6 October 1976 the wholesale price index rose by 10%, in which the price of rice rose by 8.3%, groundnut oil rose by 48%, while the prices of industrial raw materials as a group rose by 29.3%.[14][37]

Tax policy

The emergency regime exempted those earning between Rs 6,000-8,000 from taxation, provided tax breaks for those earning between Rs 8,000-15,000 in the range of Rs 45-264. There were only 3.8 million (38 lakh) taxpayers in the country at the time. Wealth taxes were also cut from 8% to 2.5% while the income taxes on those earning more than Rs 100,000 were reduced from 77% to 66%. This was expected to lower the government's revenue by Rs 3.08-3.25 billion. To compensate for this indirect taxes grew, the ratio of indirect taxes to direct taxes was at 5.31 in 1976. Despite this there was a loss in revenue of Rs 400 million (40 crores), to compensate for this the Indira Gandhi government decided to cut spending in education and social welfare.[14]

Forced sterilisation

In September 1976,

compulsory sterilisation program to limit population growth. The exact extent of Sanjay Gandhi's role in the implementation of the program is disputed, with some writers[38][39][40][41] holding Gandhi directly responsible for his authoritarianism, and other writers[42] blaming the officials who implemented the programme rather than Gandhi himself. It is clear that international pressure from the United States, United Nations, and World Bank played a role in the implementation of these population control measures.[43] Rukhsana Sultana was a socialite known for being one of Sanjay Gandhi's close associates[44] and she gained a lot of notoriety in leading Sanjay Gandhi's sterilisation campaign in Muslim areas of old Delhi.[45][46][47]
The campaign primarily involved getting males to undergo vasectomy. Quotas were set up that enthusiastic supporters and government officials worked hard to achieve. There were allegations of coercion of unwilling candidates too.[48] In 1976–1977, the program led to 8.3 million sterilisations, most of them forced, up from 2.7 million the previous year. The bad publicity led many 1977 governments to stress that family planning is entirely voluntary.[49]

  • Kartar, a cobbler, was taken to a block development office by six policemen, where he was asked how many children he had. He was forcefully taken for sterilisation in a jeep. En route, the police forced a man on a bicycle into the jeep because he was not sterilised. Kartar had an infection and pain because of the procedure and could not work for months.[50]
  • Shahu Ghalake, a peasant from Barsi in Maharashtra, was taken for sterilisation. After mentioning that he was already sterilised, he was beaten. A sterilisation procedure was undertaken on him for a second time.[50]
  • Hawa Singh, a young widower, from Pipli was taken from the bus against his will and sterilised. The ensuing infection took his life.[50]
  • Harijan, a 70-year-old with no teeth and bad eyesight, was sterilised forcefully.[50]
  • Ottawa, a village 80 kilometres south of Delhi, woke up to the police loudspeakers at 03:00. Police gathered 400 men at the bus stop. In the process of finding more villagers, police broke into homes and looted. A total of 800 forced sterilisations were done.[50]
  • In Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, on 18 October 1976, police picked up 17 people, of which two were over 75 and two under 18. Hundreds of people surrounded the police station demanding they free captives. The police refused to release them and used tear gas shells. The crowd retaliated by throwing stones and to control the situation, the police fired on the crowd. 30 people died as a result.[50]

Demolitions

Demolitions in Delhi

Delhi served as the epicenter of Sanjay Gandhi's "urban renewal" program, aided in large part by DDA vice-president Jagmohan Malhotra who himself had a desire to "beautify" the city. During the emergency Jagmohan emerged as the single most powerful person in the DDA, and went to extraordinary lengths to do the bidding of Sanjay Gandhi, as the Shah commission notes

Shri Jagmohan during the emergency, became a law unto himself and went about doing the biddings of Shri Sanjay Gandhi without care or concern for the miseries of the people affected thereby[51]

In total, 700,000 people in Delhi were displaced due to the demolitions carried out in Delhi.

Demolitions carried out in Delhi[52]
Period Structures Demolished by
Pre-Emergency DDA MCD NDMC Total
1973 50 320 5 375
1974 680 354 25 1,059
1975 (up to June) 190 149 27 366
Total 920 823 57 1,800
Emergency
1975 35,767 4,589 796 41,252
1976 94,652 4,013 408 99,073
1977 (up to 23 March) 7,545 96 7,641
Year unspecified but
during the emergency
1,962 177 2,139
Total 137,964 10,760 1,381 150,105

Demolitions outside Delhi

During the Emergency, various state governments also carried out demolitions to clear "encroachments", undertaken to please Sanjay Gandhi. In many of these cases, residents were given very short notices, state governments like those of Bihar and Haryana avoided giving official notices to the residents of "encroachments" to avoid a case in a civil court, instead, they notified them through public channels, or in the case of Haryana through drum beats, and in some cases gave no prior information. States passed various laws to aid them in this process such as Maharashtra Vacant Land Act 1975, Bihar Public Encroachment Act 1975, and Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code (Amendment) Act. These demolitions were often accompanied by the police to threaten the residents with arrest under MISA or DIR. In Maharashtra, Mumbai alone saw demolitions of 12,000 huts, while Pune saw demolitions of 1285 huts and 29 shops.[53]

Criticism

Criticism and accusations from the Emergency era may be grouped as:

  1. Detention of people by police without charge or notification of families.
  2. Abuse and torture of detainees and political prisoners.
  3. Use of public and private media institutions, like the national television network Doordarshan, for government propaganda.
  4. During the Emergency, Sanjay Gandhi asked the popular singer Kishore Kumar to sing for a Congress party rally in Bombay, but he refused.[54] As a result, Information and broadcasting minister Vidya Charan Shukla put an unofficial ban on playing Kishore Kumar songs on state broadcasters All India Radio and Doordarshan from 4 May 1976 till the end of Emergency.[55][56]
  5. Forced sterilisation.
  6. Destruction of the slum and low-income housing in the Turkmen Gate and Jama Masjid area of Old Delhi.
  7. Large-scale and illegal enactment of new laws (including modifications to the Constitution).

Resistance movements

Democracy Bachao Morcha

Shortly after the declaration of the Emergency, the

Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) leaders.[citation needed
]

The question before us is not whether Indira Gandhi should continue to be prime minister or not. The point is whether democracy in this country is to survive or not.[59]

Damdami Taksal and its head at the time, Sant Kartar Singh Bhindranwale, held many protests and marches against the emergency He also held 37 processions which defied the rules of the emergency.[60][61]

They protested for two years fighting against policemen and curfew was declared in the entire Malwa region. During Emergency SGPC offices used to be flooded with Anti-Emergency activists from RSS and BJP who had taken shelter to escape the government.[62] According to Amnesty International, 140,000 people had been arrested without trial during the twenty months of Gandhi's Emergency. Jasjit Singh Grewal estimates that 43,000 of them came from India's two per cent Sikh minority.[63][64]

RSS Resistance

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which was seen close to opposition leaders, was also banned.[65] Police clamped down on the organisation and thousands of its workers were imprisoned.[66] The RSS defied the ban and thousands participated in Satyagraha (peaceful protests) against the ban and the curtailment of fundamental rights. Literature that was censored in the media was clandestinely published and distributed on a large scale and funds were collected for the movement. Networks were established between leaders of different political parties in the jail and outside for the coordination of the movement.[67]

The attitude of senior RSS leaders about the Emergency was divided: several opposed it staunchly, others apologised and were released, and several senior leaders, notably

Balasaheb Deoras sought an accommodation with Sanjay and Indira Gandhi.[68][69] Nanaji Deshmukh and Madan Lal Khurana managed to escape the police and led the RSS resistance to the Emergency, as did Subramanian Swamy and the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.[70][71]

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was in poor health, quickly reached an agreement with Indira Gandhi, and spent most of the Emergency under parole at his residence.[70] Zonal RSS leaders also authorised Eknath Ramakrishna Ranade to quietly enter into a dialogue with Indira Gandhi.[70]

Indira Gandhi had helped Ranade, who had been second to Golwalkar in the RSS hierarchy, in numerous projects to commemorate Vivekananda. She had nominated Ranade to the governing council of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and the two used ICCR as a facade to conduct secret one-on-one negotiations.[70] Arun Jaitley, Student leader and head of the RSS affiliated ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) in Delhi, was among the first to be arrested, and he spent the entire Emergency in jail. However, other ABVP leaders such as Balbir Punj and Prabhu Chawla pledged allegiance to Indira Gandhi's Twenty Point Programme and Sanjay Gandhi's Five Point Programme, in return for staying out of jail.[70]

On 10 August 1976,

Rajya Sabha Chairman had not included it in recent list of deaths.[72][73][74] As a result, Swamy was expelled from parliament.[72] In November 1976, over 30 leaders of the RSS, led by Madhavrao Muley, Dattopant Thengadi, and Moropant Pingle, wrote to Indira Gandhi, promising support to the Emergency if all RSS workers were released from prison. Their "Document of Surrender", to take effect from January 1977, was processed by H. Y. Sharada Prasad.[70]

On his return from his meeting with Om Mehta, Vajpayee ordered the cadres of the ABVP to apologise unconditionally to Indira Gandhi. The ABVP students refused.[70][75] The RSS "Document of Surrender" was also confirmed by Subramanian Swamy in his article: "I must add that not all in the RSS were in a surrender mode ... But a tearful Muley told me in early November 1976 and I had better escape abroad again since the RSS had finalized the Document of Surrender to be signed in end of January 1977, and that on Mr. Vajpayee's insistence I would be sacrificed to appease an irate Indira and a fulminating Sanjay."[70]

Role of CPI(M)

Members of Communist Party of India (Marxist) were identified and arrested all over India. Raids were conducted in houses suspected to be sympathetic to the CPI(M) or the opposition to the emergency.

Those jailed during the Emergency include the current general secretary of the CPI(M), Sitaram Yechury, and his predecessor, Prakash Karat. Both were then leaders of the Students Federation of India, the party's student wing.

Other CPI(M) members to be jailed included the current

Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, then a young MLA. He was taken into custody during the Emergency and subjected to third-degree methods. On his release, Pinarayi reached the Assembly and made an impassionate speech holding up the blood-stained shirt he wore when in police custody, causing serious embarrassment to the then C. Achutha Menon government.[76]

Hundreds of Communists, whether from the CPI(M), other Marxist parties, or the Naxalites, were arrested during the Emergency.[77] Some were tortured or, as in the case of the Kerala student P. Rajan, killed.

Elections of 1977

On 18 January 1977, Gandhi called fresh elections for March and released several opposition leaders; however, many others remained in prison even after she left office, despite the Emergency officially ending on 21 March 1977.[78][79] The opposition Janata movement's campaign warned Indians that the elections might be their last chance to choose between "democracy and dictatorship".[80]

The

Rae Bareli constituency, losing to electoral rival Raj Narain by a margin of over 55,000 votes.[82] INC candidates failed to win a single seat in the constituencies of several northern states, such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.[81]: 23 [83] The Janata Party's 298 seats were further augmented by an additional 47 seats won by its various political allies, thereby giving them a two-thirds supermajority. Morarji Desai
became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.

Voters in the electorally largest state of Uttar Pradesh, historically a Congress stronghold, turned against Gandhi and her party failed to win a single seat in the state. Dhanagare says the structural reasons behind the discontent against the Government included the emergence of the strong and united opposition, disunity and weariness inside Congress, an effective underground opposition, and the ineffectiveness of Gandhi's control of the mass media, which had lost much credibility. The structural factors allowed voters to express their grievances, notably their resentment of the emergency and its authoritarian and repressive policies. One grievance often mentioned was the 'nasbandi' (vasectomy) campaign in rural areas. The middle classes also emphasised the curbing of freedom throughout the state and India.[84] Meanwhile, Congress hit an all-time low in West Bengal because of the poor discipline and factionalism among Congress activists as well as the numerous defections that weakened the party.[85] Opponents emphasised the issues of corruption in Congress and appealed to a deep desire by the voters for fresh leadership.[86]

The tribunal

The efforts of the Janata administration to get government officials and Congress politicians tried for Emergency-era abuses and crimes were largely unsuccessful due to a disorganised, over-complex, and politically motivated process of litigation. The Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of India, put in place shortly after the outset of the Emergency and which among other things prohibited judicial reviews of states of emergencies and actions taken during them, also likely played a role in this lack of success. Although special tribunals were organised and scores of senior Congress Party and government officials arrested and charged, including Mrs. Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, police were unable to submit sufficient evidence for most cases, and only a few low-level officials were convicted of any abuses.

Legacy

The Emergency lasted 21 months, and its legacy remains intensely controversial. A few days after the Emergency was imposed, the Bombay edition of The Times of India carried an obituary that read

Democracy, beloved husband of Truth, loving father of Liberty, brother of Faith, Hope and Justice, expired on June 26.[87][88]

A few days later

Where the mind is without fear".[90]

However, the Emergency also received support from several sections.[citation needed] It was endorsed by social reformer Vinoba Bhave (who called it Anushasan Parva, a time for discipline), industrialist J. R. D. Tata, writer Khushwant Singh, and Indira Gandhi's close friend and Odisha Chief Minister Nandini Satpathy. However, Tata and Satpathy later regretted that they spoke in favour of the Emergency.[91][92][full citation needed]

In the book JP Movement and the Emergency, historian,

checks and balance between the three organs of the government."[93]

Culture

Literature

Film

See also

References

  1. ^ "Interview with Indira Gandhi". Interview relecast through India times. TV Eye. 18 December 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  2. ^ "Recalling the Emergency years". The Indian Express. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  3. ^ a b Guha, p. 439
  4. ^ Malhotra, p. 141
  5. . Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  6. .
  7. ^ "I. C. Golaknath & Ors vs State Of Punjab & Anrs. (27 February 1967)". Indiankanoon.org. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  8. ^ Doshi, Vidhi (9 March 2017). "Indira Jaising: "In India, you can't even dream of equal justice. Not at all"". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  9. ^ "Justice Sinha, who set aside Indira Gandhi's election, dies at 87". The Indian Express. 22 March 2008. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
  10. ^ Kuldip Singh (11 April 1995). "OBITUARY: Morarji Desai". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
  11. .
  12. ^ "Indian Emergency of 1975-77". Mount Holyoke College. Archived from the original on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
  13. ^ "The Rise of Indira Gandhi". Library of Congress Country Studies. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
  14. ^
    OCLC 1242023968.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  15. ^ Mussells, Premila Menon (1980). Democracy and Emergency rule in India (Thesis thesis).
  16. ^ NAYAR, KULDIP (25 June 2000). Yes, Prime Minister Archived 11 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine. The Indian Express.
  17. ^ "[Explained] Why Did Indira Gandhi Impose Emergency In 1975?". thehansindia.
  18. ^ "Proclamation of Emergency". Emergency- Proclamation of Emergency in the Country by the President of India on the 25th June, 1975; and Extension of Emergency to J & K. New Delhi: Ministry of Home Affairs. 1975. p. 11. Retrieved 13 September 2022 – via National Archives of India.
  19. ^ Malhotra, Inder (4 August 2014). "The abrupt end of Emergency". The Indian Express. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  20. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 June 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  21. ^ Jaitely, Arun (5 November 2007) – "A tale of three Emergencies: real reason always different", The Indian Express
  22. . Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  23. ^ Today, India. "Arun Jaitley: From Prison to Parliament".
  24. .
  25. .
  26. ^ Narasimha Rao, the Best Prime Minister? by Janak Raj Jai - 1996 - Page 101
  27. ^ Shah Commission Of Inquiry 3rd Final Report. p. 134.
  28. ^ Shah Commission Of Inquiry 3rd Final Report. pp. 135–152.
  29. .
  30. ^ V. Venkatesan, Revisiting a verdict Archived 3 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine Frontline (vol. 29 – Issue 01 :: 14–27 Jan 2012)
  31. ^ "The case that saved Indian democracy". The Hindu (24 April 2013). Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  32. ^ "PUCL Archives, Oct 1981, Rajan". Pucl.org. Archived from the original on 28 December 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  33. ^ "rediff.com: Emergency: 'Rajan's mother died asking for him'". News.rediff.com. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  34. ^ "Fresh probe in Rajan case sought ". The Hindu, 25 January 2011.
  35. ^ "PALPAL INDIA January 2017". Issuu.com. 14 January 2017.
  36. ^
    JSTOR 2643401
    .
  37. .
  38. ^ Vinay Lal. "Indira Gandhi". Archived from the original on 4 July 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2013. Sanjay Gandhi, started to run the country as though it were his fiefdom and earned the fierce hatred of many whom his policies had victimized. He ordered the removal of slum dwellings, and in an attempt to curb India's growing population, initiated a highly resented program of forced sterilization.
  39. ^ Subodh Ghildiyal (29 December 2010). "Cong blames Sanjay Gandhi for Emergency 'excesses'". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 28 August 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2013. Sanjay Gandhi's rash promotion of sterilization and forcible clearance of slums ... sparked popular anger
  40. ^ Kumkum Chadha (4 January 2011). "Sanjay's men and women". Archived from the original on 4 February 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2013. The Congress, on the other hand, charges Sanjay Gandhi of "over-enthusiasm" in dealing with certain programmes and I quote yet again: "Unfortunately, in certain spheres, over-enthusiasm led to compulsion in the enforcement of certain programmes like compulsory sterilisation and clearance of slums. Sanjay Gandhi had by then emerged as a leader of great significance.".
  41. ^ "Sanjay Gandhi worked in an authoritarian manner: Congress book". 28 December 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  42. .
  43. ^ Green, Hannah Harris (6 October 2018). "The legacy of India's quest to sterilize millions of men". Quartz India. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  44. ^ "Tragedy at Turkman Gate: Witnesses recount horror of Emergency". 28 June 2015.
  45. ^ "Rukhsana Sultana: The chief glamour girl of the Emergency". India Today. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  46. ^ "Rukhsana Sultana: diehearted follower of Sanjay Gandhi". India Today. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  47. ^ "THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES". Telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  48. ^ Gwatkin, Davidson R. 'Political Will, and Family Planning: The Implications of India's Emergency Experience', in: Population and Development Review, 5/1, 29–59;
  49. ^ Carl Haub and O. P. Sharma, "India's Population Reality: Reconciling Change and Tradition," Population Bulletin (2006) 61#3 pp 3+. online
  50. ^ a b c d e f Mehta, Vinod (1978). The Sanjay Story. Harper Collins Publishers India.
  51. ^ Shah Commission of Inquiry Interim Report II. p. 118.
  52. ^ Shah Commission of Inquiry Interim Report II. p. 78.
  53. ^ Shah Commission Of Inquiry 3rd Final Report. pp. 208–217.
  54. ^ Vinay Kumar (19 August 2005). "The spark that he was". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 7 January 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
  55. ^ "A Star's Real Stripes". The Times of India. 25 March 2012. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  56. ^ Sharma, Dhirendra (1997). The Janata (people's) Struggle. Philosophy and Social Action. p. 76.
  57. ^ J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of Punjab,(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990) 213
  58. .
  59. ^ Gurmit Singh, A History of Sikh Struggles, New Delhi, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 1991, 2:39
  60. .
  61. .
  62. ^ "Narendra Modi: Sardar Narendra 'Singh' Modi: When PM disguised himself as a Sikh to escape arrest". m.economictimes.com. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  63. ^ J. S. Grewal (1990), The Sikhs of Punjab, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 214.
  64. ^ Inder Malhotra (1989), Indira Gandhi: A Personal and Political Biography, London/Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, p. 178.
  65. .
  66. .
  67. ^ a b c d e f g h "The story of how RSS leaders deserted Jayaprakash and the resistance during Indira's Emergency". ThePrint. 25 June 2020.
  68. ^ "Sardar Narendra 'Singh' Modi: When PM disguised as a Sikh to escape arrest". The Economic Times.
  69. ^ .
  70. ^ Swamy, Subramanian (22 June 2015). "Between sessions, democracy has also died". mint. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  71. ^ Virk, Aviral (25 June 2015). "The Masters of Disguise During Emergency". TheQuint. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  72. ^ "Did Vajpayee ask ABVP to apologise for arson attacks during Emergency in return for democracy?". The News Minute. 6 January 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  73. ^ "പിണറായിയുടെ 1977 മാര്‍ച്ച് 30 ലെ നിയമസഭ പ്രസംഗം".
  74. ^ Nair, C. Gouridasan (21 May 2016). "Pinarayi Vijayan: Steeled by a life of relentless adversities". The Hindu.
  75. ^ "Mrs. Gandhi, Easing Crisis Rule, Decides on March Election". The New York Times. 19 January 1977. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  76. ^ "Proclamation". Emergency – Revocation of Emergency Proclaimed on 25.6.1975. Connected matters. New Delhi: Ministry of Home Affairs. 1977. p. 14. Retrieved 13 September 2022 – via National Archives of India.
  77. ^ Borders, William (24 January 1977). "Opposition Accuses Mrs. Gandhi Of 'Murdering' India's Democracy". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  78. ^
    JSTOR 41403886
    . Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  79. ^ "March 21, 1977, Forty Years Ago: Mrs Gandhi Loses". The Indian Express. 21 March 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  80. ^ Icanevi, Henry (22 March 1977). "Mrs. Gandhi's Party Is Defeated After 30-Year Rule". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  81. ^ D. N. Dhanagare, "Sixth Lok Sabha Election in Uttar Pradesh – 1977: The End of the Congress Hegemony", Political Science Review (1979) 18#1 pp 28–51
  82. ^ Mira Ganguly and Bangendu Ganguly, "Lok Sabha Election, 1977: The West Bengal Scene", Political Science Review (1979) 18#3 pp 28–53
  83. ^ M. R. Masani, "India's Second Revolution", Asian Affairs (1977) 5#1 pp 19–38.
  84. ^ Joseph, Manu (20 May 2007). "How Indians Protest". The Times of India. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
  85. .
  86. Indian Express
    . 25 June 2021 [25 June 2018]. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
  87. ^ Arputham, Avneesh (27 June 2009). "Emergency: The Darkest Period in Indian Democracy". The Viewspaper. Archived from the original on 13 September 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  88. ^ R. M. Lala. Beyond the Last Blue Mountain: A Life of J. R. D. Tata.
  89. ^ Ashish Ranjan Mohapatra. Nandini Satpathy (in Oriya).
  90. IBN Live News. 30 May 2011. Archived from the original
    on 23 November 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  91. .
  92. ^ Hassan, Nigeenah; Sharma, Mukesh (2017). "India Under Emergency: Rich Like us Nayantara Sahgal" (PDF). International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology. 2, 6.
  93. Watson Institute
    , Brown University. 17 February 2010.
  94. .
  95. ^ "Delhi Calm".
  96. .
  97. ^ Farzand Ahmed (24 December 2009). "1978 – Kissa Kursi Ka: Celluloid chutzpah". India Today.

Sources

Further reading

External links