The Emergency

(India)

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had President of

India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed proclaim a state of
national emergency on 25 June 1975.
In India, "The Emergency" refers to 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 Fakhruddin
Ali Ahmed under Article 352 of the
Constitution because of the prevailing
"internal disturbance", the Emergency was
in effect from 25 June 1975 until its
withdrawal on 21 March 1977. The order
bestowed upon the Prime Minister the
authority to rule by decree, allowing
elections to be suspended and civil
liberties to be curbed. For much of the
Emergency, most of Indira Gandhi's
political opponents were imprisoned and
the press was censored. Several other
human rights violations were reported
from the time, including a forced mass-
sterilization campaign spearheaded by
Sanjay Gandhi, the Prime Minister's son.
The Emergency is one of the most
controversial periods of independent
India's history.

The final decision to impose an emergency

was proposed by Indira Gandhi, agreed
upon by the president of India, and
thereafter ratified by the cabinet and the
parliament (from July to August 1975),
based on the rationale that there were
imminent internal and external threats to
the Indian state.[1][2]

Prelude

Rise of Indira Gandhi …

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Indira is India, India is Indira.

— Congress president D. K. Barooah, c. 1974[3]

Between 1967 and 1971, Prime Minister

Indira Gandhi came to obtain near-
absolute control over the government and
the Indian National Congress party, as well
as a huge majority in Parliament. The first
was achieved by concentrating the central
government's power within the Prime
Minister's Secretariat, rather than the
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 ruling
party of the day.
Within the Congress, Indira ruthlessly
outmanoeuvred her rivals, forcing the
party to split in 1969—into the Congress
(O) (comprising the old-guard known as
the "Syndicate") and her Congress (R). A
majority of 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 privy purse; these changes were
often done suddenly, via ordinance, to the
shock of her opponents. She had strong
support in the disadvantaged sections—
the poor, 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."[4]

In the 1971 general elections, the people

rallied behind Indira's populist slogan of
Garibi Hatao! (abolish poverty!) to award
her a huge majority (352 seats out of 518).
"By the margin of its victory," historian
Ramachandra Guha later wrote, Congress
(R) came to be known as the real
Congress, "requiring no qualifying suffix."[4]
In December 1971, under her proactive
war leadership, India routed arch-enemy
Pakistan in a war that led to the
independence of Bangladesh, formerly
East Pakistan. Awarded the Bharat Ratna
the next month, she was at her greatest
peak; for her biographer Inder Malhotra,
"The Economist's description of her as the
'Empress of India' seemed apt." Even
opposition leaders, who routinely accused
her of being a dictator and of fostering a
personality cult, referred to her as Durga, a
Hindu goddess.[5][6][7]

Increasing government control of

the judiciary
…
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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, 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 Indira Gandhi
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 Kesavananda
Bharati case, where the 24th Amendment
was called into question. With a water-thin
majority of 7 to 6, the bench of the
Supreme Court restricted Parliament's
amendment power by stating it could not
be used to alter the "basic structure" of the
Constitution. Subsequently, Prime Minister
Gandhi made A. N. Ray—the senior-most
judge amongst those in the minority in
Kesavananda Bharati—Chief 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 presidential
system emergency declaration with a
more powerful directly elected executive.
The most significant of the initial such
movement was the 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. After the re-elections in
June 1977, Gandhi's party was defeated by
the Janata alliance, formed by parties
opposed to the ruling Congress party.
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 Gandhian socialist
Jayaprakash Narayan, referred to as JP,
against the Bihar government. In April
1974, in Patna, JP called for "total
revolution," asking students, peasants, and
labour unions to non-violently transform
Indian society. He also demanded the
dissolution of the state government, but
this was not accepted by the Centre. A
month later, the railway-employees union,
the largest union in the country, went on a
nationwide railways strike. This strike
which 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. Indira Gandhi was also
cross-examined in the High Court which
was the first such instance for an Indian
Prime Minister.[9]
On 12 June 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal
Sinha of the Allahabad High Court found
the prime minister guilty on the charge of
misuse of government machinery for her
election campaign. The court declared her
election null and void and unseated her
from her seat in the Lok Sabha. The court
also banned her from contesting any
election for an additional six years.
Serious charges such as bribing voters
and election malpractices were dropped
and she was held responsible for misusing
government machinery and found guilty on
charges such as using the state police to
build a dais, availing herself of the services
of a government officer, Yashpal Kapoor,
during the elections before he had
resigned from his position, and use of
electricity from the state electricity
department.[10]

Because the court unseated her on

comparatively frivolous charges, while she
was acquitted on more serious charges,
The Times described it as "firing the Prime
Minister for a traffic ticket". 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.

Indira Gandhi challenged the High Court's

decision in the Supreme Court. Justice V.
R. Krishna Iyer, on 24 June 1975, upheld
the High Court judgement and ordered all
privileges Gandhi received as an MP be
stopped, and that she be debarred from
voting. However, she was allowed to
continue as Prime Minister pending the
resolution of her appeal. JP Narayan and
Morarji Desai called for daily anti-
government protests. The next day, JP
organised a large rally in Delhi, where he
said that a police officer must reject the
orders of government if the order is
immoral and unethical as this was
Mahatma Gandhi's motto during the
freedom struggle. Such a statement was
taken as a sign of inciting rebellion in the
country. Later that day, Indira Gandhi
requested a compliant President
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to proclaim a 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]

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 1973 oil crisis, the economy was in
poor condition. The Government claimed
that the strikes and protests had paralysed
the government and hurt the economy of
the country greatly. In the face of massive
political opposition, desertion and disorder
across the country and the party, Gandhi
stuck to the advice of a few loyalists and
her younger son Sanjay Gandhi, whose
own power had grown considerably over
the last few years to become an "extra-
constitutional authority". Siddhartha
Shankar Ray, 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.[14][15]

After a quick question regarding 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.

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.

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".[16] 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.[17]

Arrests …

Invoking article 352 of the Indian

Constitution, Gandhi granted herself
extraordinary powers and launched a
massive crackdown on civil liberties and
political opposition. The Government used
police forces across the country to place
thousands of protestors and strike leaders
under preventive detention. Vijayaraje
Scindia, Jayaprakash Narayan, Raj Narain,
Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jivatram
Kripalani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna
Advani, Arun Jaitley,[18] Satyendra Narayan
Sinha, Gayatri Devi, the dowager queen of
Jaipur,[19] 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. Numerous
Communist leaders 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.[20][21]

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 rule by decree. Also, she
had little trouble amending the
Constitution that exonerated her from any
culpability in her election-fraud case,
imposing 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.[22]

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[23] cannot be made by the
Parliament. (see Kesavananda Bharati v.
State of Kerala)[24]

In the Rajan case, P. Rajan of the Regional

Engineering College, Calicut, was arrested
by the police in Kerala on 1 March 1976,[25]
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.[26][27]

Forced sterilisation …
In September 1976, Sanjay Gandhi
initiated a widespread compulsory
sterilisation programme to limit population
growth. The exact extent of Sanjay
Gandhi's role in the implementation of the
programme is disputed, with some
writers[28][29][30][31] holding Gandhi directly
responsible for his authoritarianism, and
other writers[32] blaming the officials who
implemented the programme rather than
Gandhi himself. Rukhsana Sultana was a
socialite known for being one of Sanjay
Gandhi's close associates[33] and she
gained a lot of notoriety in leading Sanjay
Gandhi's sterilisation campaign in Muslim
areas of old Delhi.[34][35][36] 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.[37] In
1976–1977, the programme led to 8.3
million sterilisations, most of them forced,
up from 2.7 million the previous year. The
bad publicity led every government since
1977 to stress that family planning is
entirely voluntary.[38]

Kartar, a cobbler, was taken to a Block

Development Officer (BDO) 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 the 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.[39]
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.[39]
Hawa Singh, a young widower, from Pipli
was taken from the bus against his will
and sterilised. The ensuing infection
took his life.[39]
Harijan, a 70-year-old with no teeth and
bad eyesight, was sterilised
forcefully.[39]
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.[39]
In Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, on 18
October 1976, police picked up 17
people, nine Hindus, and eight Muslims,
 of which two were over 75 and two
under 18. Hundreds of Hindus and
Muslims 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.[39]

Criticism of the Government …

Criticism and accusations from the

Emergency era may be grouped as:

Detention of people by police without

charge or notification of families
Abuse and torture of detainees and
political prisoners
Use of public and private media
institutions, like the national television
network Doordarshan, for government
propaganda
During the Emergency, Sanjay Gandhi
asked the popular singer Kishore Kumar
to sing for a Congress party rally in
Bombay, but he refused.[40] 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.[41][42]
Forced sterilisation.
Destruction of the slum and low-income
housing in the Turkmen Gate and Jama
Masjid area of old Delhi.
Large-scale and illegal enactment of
new laws (including modifications to the
Constitution).

Resistance movements

The role of RSS …

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which was

seen close to opposition leaders, and with
its large organisational base was seen as
having the potential of organising protests
against the Government, was also
banned.[43] Police clamped down on the
organisation and thousands of its workers
were imprisoned.[44] The RSS defied the
ban and thousands participated in
Satyagraha (peaceful protests) against the
ban and the curtailment of fundamental
rights. Later, when there was no letup, the
volunteers of the RSS formed underground
movements for the restoration of
democracy. 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 co-ordination of the
movement.[45]

The Economist described the movement

as "the only non-left revolutionary force in
the world". It said that the movement was
"dominated by tens of thousands of RSS
cadres, though more and more young
recruits are coming". Talking about its
objectives it said "its platform at the
moment has only one plank: to bring
democracy back to India".[46]

Sikh opposition …
Shortly after the declaration of the
Emergency, the Sikh leadership convened
meetings in Amritsar where they resolved
to oppose the "fascist tendency of the
Congress".[47] The first mass protest in the
country, known as the "Campaign to Save
Democracy" was organised by the Akali
Dal and launched in Amritsar, 9 July. A
statement to the press recalled the historic
Sikh struggle for freedom under the
Mughals, then under the British, and
voiced concern that what had been fought
for and achieved was being lost. The
police were out in force for the
demonstration and arrested the
protestors, including the Shiromani Akali
Dal and Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak
Committee (SGPC) leaders.

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.[48]

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 40,000 of them came from India's two
per cent Sikh minority.[49]

Elections of 1977
On 18 January 1977, Gandhi called fresh
elections for March and released all
political prisoners, though the Emergency
officially ended on 23 March 1977. The
opposition Janata movement's campaign
warned Indians that the elections might be
their last chance to choose between
"democracy and dictatorship."

In the Lok Sabha elections, held in March,

Mrs Gandhi and Sanjay both lost their Lok
Sabha seats, as did all the Congress
candidates in northern states such as
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Many Congress
Party loyalists deserted Mrs Gandhi. The
Congress was reduced to just 153 seats,
92 of which were from four of the southern
states. The Janata Party's 298 seats and
its allies' 47 seats (of a total 542) gave it a
massive majority. 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 as the
'nasbandi' (vasectomy) campaign in rural
areas. The middle classes also
emphasised the curbing of freedom
throughout the state and India.[50]
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.[51] Opponents emphasised the
issues of corruption in Congress and
appealed to a deep desire by the voters for
fresh leadership.[52]

The tribunal
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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.[53][54]
A few days later censorship was imposed
on newspapers. The Delhi edition of the
Indian Express on 28 June, carried a blank
editorial , while the Financial Express
reproduced in large type Rabindranath
Tagore's poem "Where the mind is without
fear".[55]

However, the Emergency also received

support from several sections. 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 Orissa Chief Minister
Nandini Satpathy. However, Tata and
Satpathy later regretted that they spoke in
favour of the Emergency.[56][57] Others
have argued that Gandhi's Twenty Point
Programme increased agricultural
production, manufacturing activity,
exports, and foreign reserves. Communal
Hindu–Muslim riots, which had resurfaced
in the 1960s and 1970s, also reduced in
intensity.

In the book JP Movement and the

Emergency, historian, Bipan Chandra
wrote, "Sanjay Gandhi and his cronies like
Bansi Lal, Minister of Defence at the time,
were keen on postponing elections and
prolonging the emergency by several
years. In October – November 1976, an
effort was made to change the basic civil
libertarian structure of the Indian
Constitution through the 42nd amendment
to it. ... The most important changes were
designed to strengthen the executive at
the cost of the judiciary, and thus disturb
the carefully crafted system of
Constitutional checks and balance
between the three organs of the
government."[58]

In culture

Literature …
Writer Rahi Masoom Raza criticised the
Emergency through his novel Qatar bi
Aarzoo.[59]
Shashi Tharoor portrays the Emergency
allegorically in his The Great Indian Novel
(1989), describing it as "The Siege". He
also authored a satirical play on the
Emergency, Twenty-Two Months in the
Life of a Dog, that was published in his
The Five-Dollar Smile and Other Stories.
A Fine Balance and Such a Long Journey
by Rohinton Mistry take place during the
Emergency and highlight many of the
abuses that occurred during that period,
largely through the lens of India's small
but culturally influential Parsi minority.
Booker Prize-winner Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie, has the protagonist,
Saleem Sinai, in India during the
Emergency. His home in a low-income
area, called the "magician's ghetto", is
destroyed as part of the national
beautification program. He is forcibly
sterilised as part of the vasectomy
program. The principal antagonist of the
book is "the Widow" (a likeness that
Indira Gandhi successfully sued Rushdie
for). There was one line in the book that
repeated an old Indian rumour that
Indira Gandhi's son didn't like his mother
because he suspected her of causing
the death of his father. As this was a
rumour; there was no substantiation to
be found.[60]
India: A Wounded Civilization, a book by
V. S. Naipaul is also oriented around The
Emergency.[61]
The Plunge, an English-language novel
by Sanjeev Tare, is the story told by four
youths studying at Kalidas College in
Nagpur. They tell the reader what they
went through during those politically
turbulent times.
The Malayalam-language novel Delhi
Gadhakal (Tales from Delhi) by M.
Mukundan highlights many waves of
abuse that occurred during the
Emergency including forced sterilisation
of men and the destruction of houses
and shops owned by Muslims in
Turkmen Gate.
Brutus, You!, a book by Chanakya Sen, is
based on internal politics of Jawaharlal
Nehru University, Delhi during the period
of Emergency.
Vasansi Jirnani, a play by Torit Mitra, is
inspired by Ariel Dorfman's Death and
the Maiden and effects of the
Emergency.
The Tamil-language novel
Marukkozhunthu Mangai (Girl with
Fragrant Chinese Mugwort ) by Ra. Su.
Nallaperumal which is based on the
history of Pallavas Dynasty and a
popular uprising in Kanchi during 725
A.D. It explains how the widowed Queen
and the Princess kill the freedom of the
people. Most of the incidents described
in the novel resemble the Emergency
period. Even the name of the characters
in the novel is similar to Mrs Gandhi and
her family.
The Malayalam-language
autobiographical diary by political
activist R. C. Unnithan, penned while the
author was imprisoned as a political
prisoner during the Emergency under
MISA for sixteen months at Poojappura
state prison in Thiruvananthapuram,
Kerala, gives a personal account of his
travails during the dark days of Indian
democracy.
The Tamil-language novel Karisal'' (Black
Soil) by Ponneelan deals with the socio-
political changes during the period.
The Tamil-language novel Ashwamedam
by Ramachandra Vaidhanath deals with
the political movements during the
period.
 In 2001's Life of Pi, Pi's father decides to
sell the zoo and move his family to
Canada, around the same time of the
Emergency.

Film …

Gulzar's Aandhi (1975) was banned,

because the film was supposedly based
on Indira Gandhi.[62]
Amrit Nahata's film Kissa Kursi Ka
(1977) a bold spoof on the Emergency,
where Shabana Azmi plays 'Janata' (the
public) a mute, dumb protagonist, was
subsequently banned and reportedly, all
its prints were burned by Sanjay Gandhi
and his associates at his Maruti factory
in Gurgaon.[63]
Yamagola a 1977 Telugu film (Hindi re-
make Lok Parlok) spoofs the emergency
issues.
I. S. Johar's 1978 Bollywood Film
Nasbandi is sarcasm on the sterilisation
drive of the Government of India, where
each one of the characters is trying to
find sterilisation cases. The film was
banned after its release due to its
portrayal of the Indira Gandhi
government.
Although Satyajit Ray's 1980 film Hirak
Rajar Deshe was a children's comedy, it
was a satire on the Emergency.
The 1985 Malayalam film Yathra
directed by Balu Mahendra has the
human rights violations by the police
during the Emergency as its main
plotline.
1988 Malayalam film Piravi is about a
father searching for his son Rajan, who
had been arrested by the police (and
allegedly killed in custody).
The 2005 Hindi film Hazaaron
Khwaishein Aisi is set against the
backdrop of the Emergency. The film,
directed by Sudhir Mishra, also tries to
portray the growth of the Naxalite
movement during the Emergency era.
The movie tells the story of three
youngsters in the 1970s when India was
undergoing massive social and political
changes.
The 2012 Marathi film Shala discusses
the issues related to the Emergency.
The critically acclaimed 2012 film
adaptation, Life of Pi, uses the
Emergency as the backdrop of which
Pi's father decides to sell the zoo and
move his family to Canada.
Midnight's Children, a 2012 adaptation of
Rushdie's novel, created widespread
controversy due to the negative
 portrayal of Indira Gandhi and other
leaders. The film was not shown at the
International Film Festival of India and
was banned from further screening at
the International Film Festival of Kerala
where it was premièred in India.
Indu Sarkar, 2017 Hindi political thriller
film about the emergency, directed by
Madhur Bhandarkar.
21 Months of Hell, documentary film
about the torture methods performed by
the police.

See also
Baroda dynamite case
 Rajan case

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Further reading
Advani, L. K. (2002). A prisoner's
scrapbook. New Delhi: Ocean Books.
Anderson, Edward, and Patrick Clibbens.
"‘Smugglers of Truth’: The Indian
diaspora, Hindu nationalism, and the
Emergency (1975–77)." Modern Asian
Studies 52.5 (2018): 1729-1773.
Kuldip Nayar. The Judgement: Inside
Story of the Emergency in India. 1977.
Vikas Publishing House. ISBN 0-7069-
0557-1.
Chandra, Bipan. In the name of
Democracy: JP movement and the
Emergency (Penguin UK, 2017).
P. N. Dhar. Indira Gandhi, the
"Emergency", and Indian Democracy
(2000), 424pp
Jinks, Derek P. "The Anatomy of an
Institutionalized Emergency: Preventive
Detention and Personal Liberty in India."
Michigan Journal of International Law 22
(2000): 311+ online free
Klieman, Aaron S. "Indira's India:
Democracy and Crisis Government",
Political Science Quarterly (1981) 96#2
pp. 241–259 in JSTOR
Malkani, K. R. (1978). The midnight
knock. New Delhi: Vikas Pub. House.
Mathur, Om Prakash. Indira Gandhi and
the emergency as viewed in the Indian
novel (Sarup & Sons, 2004).
Paul, Subin. "When India Was Indira”
Indian Express's Coverage of the
Emergency (1975–77)." Journalism
History 42.4 (2017): 201-211.
Prakash, Gyan. Emergency Chronicles:
Indira Gandhi and Democracy’s Turning
Point (Princeton UP, 2019).
ISBN 9780691186726 online review .
Ramashray Roy and D. L. Sheth. "The
1977 Lok Sabha Election Outcome: The
Salience of Changing Voter Alignments
 Since 1969," Political Science Review
(1978), Vol. 17 Issue 3/4, pp. 51–63
Shourie, Arun (1984). Mrs Gandhi's
second reign. New Delhi: Vikas.
Shourie, Arun (1978). Symptoms of
fascism. New Delhi: Vikas.
Sahasrabuddhe, P. G., & Vājapeyī, M.
(1991). The people versus emergency: A
saga of struggle. New Delhi: Suruchi
Prakashan.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to:

The Emergency (India)
 Telegram 8557 from the United States
Embassy in India to the Department of
State, 27 June 1975
A. Z. Huq Democratic Norms, Human
Rights and the States of Emergency:
Lessons from the Experience of Four
Countries
"Memories of a Father," a book by
Eachara Varier, father of a student killed
in police custody during the emergency

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