EMERGENCY

BACKGROUND

The Indian economy had grown at a rate of 3-4 per cent per year that was
the result of growth in many sectors .These developments helped rural
producers as well as urban ones.But these aggregate improvements have
regional variations.The green revolution had touched less than one-tenth of
the districts in rural India.Thus ,despite the rise in industrial growth and
agricultural production,there was still widespread destitution in the country.
In 1970s ,just over 40 percent of the total population of about 530 million
were poor.

Another failure was education.While thousands of schools opened ,there had

been scarcely any attempt to bring literacy to the millions of adults who
could not read or write.

By 1972 the Congress was subject to creeping nepotism,and to galloping

corruption as well

On social front ,though, India had a women prime minister,it do not uplift the
status of women in society.In many ways,the process of modernization had
increased gender divide.For instance It was chiefly men who have taken
advantage of the improvement in health facilities.This led to sex ration stood
at 931 women for 1,000 men.Women were behind in industrial labour
force,Literacy and owning land compared to men. Social reform had an
impact only in the cities,among high caste , English -literate families.The
Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) Report that ‘what is
possible for women in theory,is seldom within their reach in fact’.

In March 1973 the government appointed a new chief justice of the Supreme
Court. In the past, once a chief justice retired, the most senior member of the
Bench took his place. This time, Justice A. N. Ray was elevated while three
Colleagues were ahead of him. The choice was politically motivated, a
manifestation of the government’s increasing desire to control the judiciary.

In recent years the Supreme Court had been critical of attempts to disturb
The basic structure of the Indian Constitution. Recent judgements in two
recent Cases concerning bank nationalization and the privy purse had been
unfavourable to the government, forcing it to use the power of Parliament to
amend the Constitution .In the first weeks of 1973 the Supreme Court heard
a petition challenging A new law which gave Parliament greater powers to
amend the constitution. A full bench heard the case – Among those voting on
the government’s side Was Justice A. N. Ray;

In its time as an independent nation, India had faced conflicts – conflicts

around land, language, region, religion. Of these the troubles in Kashmir and
Nagaland had perhaps been the most serious. Ever since 1947 there Had
been charismatic leaders in both places, seeking a free state of their own.
Their message had resonated widely among the people. Were they given the
Option, a majority of the inhabitants of the Naga hills as well as the Kashmir
Valley might very well have chosen independence rather than statehood
within India. In 1973–4, however, Sheikh Abdullah was preparing to rejoin the
system In Kashmir, and many rebel Nagas had come overground and taken
part in Elections. The once turbulent extremities were quiet.

The economic and political situation in India gave way to two major
movements in 1970s.

GUJRAT MOVEMENT

Background:

Severe Drought and failures of crops. Caused a rise of more than 100% in the
price of food grains and cooking oil in Gujarat during 1973. There was a
sharp cut in supplies to Russians shops. Even the food grains that were being
supplied were of poor quality and full of dust and small stones. The people, in
particular students. Whose? Hostel biz had increased by nearly 40%, blamed
the price rise and the scarcity of goods. On the collusion between traders,
black marketeers and the politicians in power. Chief Minister Chiman Bhai
Patel was in particular accused of having entered into a deal with traders in
groundnut oil by which they were allowed to increase oil prices in return for
donations of lack of rupees to Party funds.

BEGINNING

On 20 December 1973, students of the LD Engineering College protest

against increase in mess charges, set fire to the college canteen and
attacked the Raptors house. On 3 January 1974, they went on a strike and
destroyed college and hostel furniture. The police was brought in. A large
number of students were arrested. Other students of the university colleges
and high schools of Ahmedabad went on a strike demanding release of all
those arrested. Our reduction in mess charges. Resignation of the Minister of
Education and arrest of blackmarketeers responsible for rise in price of
essential goods. To appease the students, the government released all those
arrested.

On 10th January, Ahmedabad band was held Against police brutality and
price rise, it was supported by opposition parties, a large number of
Sarvodaya workers, the College and School Teachers Association, employees
of banks, insurance companies and the city and state governments and
middle class. In January. Soon, the protest is spread on other parts of Gujarat
like Baroda and Surat. Bandh and dharnas occurred on a large scale, with
burning, looting of shops and rioting by mobs on one hand and excessive use
of force by the authorities on the other.

NAVNIRMAN YUVAK SAMITI and SPREAD OF MOVEMENT

On 11 January. Students formed the NAV Nirman Yuvak Samiti. Youth

organization for regeneration.With the objective of waging are non violent
struggle for students demands and for purifying and rebuilding society. The
movement now took a new turn. Escalated its demand. It Now sought the
resignation of the government and dissolution of the State Assembly. The
movement had attracted not only the opposition parties but also large
number of Congress worker and as action of anti Chimanbhai Congress
faction.

Finally, on 9 Feb, the central government was forced to ask the state
government to resign and suspend, not dissolve the state assembly and
presidents rule was imposed. The students, however. With the active support
of Congress, O and Jansangh continued their agitation for another 5 weeks,
demanding the dissolution of the State Assembly and fresh elections.

It was this stage on 11th Feb that Jay Prakash visited Ahmedabad. He said
that he was inspired by their movement and it should be an example for the
youth in other parts of the country.

He advised students to give up studies for a year and work for a youth
revolution.
 The movement now enter its violent phase, Most violent phase to quote
Ghanshyam Shah. “Violence became widespread. Terror prevailed in the
state and nobody could oppose the agitators.”

FINAL CHAPTER

On 11th March, Morarji Desai Started fast unto death for dissolution of the
assembly and fresh election. Mrs Gandhi finally surrendered on 16 th March.
She dissolved the assembly and announced election would be held 6 month
later in September, when they were due in any case. This scene was
replayed on 6th April when Morarji Desai again went on an indefinite Hunger.
Mrs Gandhi again gave in and advanced the elections in Gujarat to June as
demanded by Morarji.

Thai students now went back to their studies and the NAV Nirman Yuvak
Samiti is soon disintegrated and broke up into warring groups.

SIGNIFICANT FEATURES OF GUJARAT MOVEMENT

1. For more than 10 weeks, most of Gujarat was in a state of near

anarchy. Despite the state governments supplementing its police force
by calling the contingents of BSF. CRPF. And in the end, even the army.
The agitation off fund turned violent, leading to strikes, burns, looting.
The state police retorted with excessive force. Large scale arrest and
frequent recourse. Lathi charge and firing in all. Over 100 persons were
killed. Over 3000 injured and over 8000 arrested.
2. It was confined to the disaffected urban middle classes and. Students
mainly. It was only after Chimanbhai Patel’s resignation as Chief
minister that the rich and middle peasants and business names and
industrialist extended it their support.
3. The Navnirman movement did not turn out to be an idealistic, not to
speak of an incorruptible,Revolutionary Movement.As Ghanshyam Shah
says It was essentially an urban middle class agitation. Being
unorganised and diffused in its interest, the middle class could not
direct the agitation.
The Navnirman movement was, however, became a model for similar
agitations in other parts of the country in which popular discontent was
to be harnessed by political. Opponents to demand dismissal of
ministries and dissolution of legislatures. The political significance of
the movement was even deeper. As Francine Frankel has put it.
“ The Gujarat uprising can be considered our political Watershed. It
marked the collapse of shared consensus on legitimate methods of
 conflict resolution between the government and opposition
groups……… Each side became convinced that the other would not
longer abide by the rules of democratic politics. Each side justified its
own excesses in the name of safeguarding democracy from the
assaults mounted on it by the other.”

BIHAR MOVEMENT

For years conditions were right for a mass movement in Bihar. Bihar was
economically more backword and politically far worse governed as compared
to Gujarat. There was absence of law and order and security for common
people. There was crime and corruption in the administration. People were
badly left affected by rise in price, shortages of essential commodities and
high employment, castism, corruption and nepotism. Bihar had 11 Congress
and opposition governments and 3 spells of Presidents rules in the 7 years
between March 1967 and March 19 74.

Ever since 1956, Bihar had a tradition of students protest. Over the usual
issues of reduction of fees, rights to organise this to the unions and judicial
inquiry into police accesses. A new wave of student agitation is started in
early December 1973 in Patna and then spread to other towns. On 21 Jan
1974 conference was held and organised by the Patna University Students
Union and presided over by Lalu Prasad Yadav set up on 18 th February the
Bihar. Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti. The objective of the samiti was to wage a
struggle for student demands which included the lowering of prices,
reduction in tuition fees and price of textbooks. Cinema tickets. Better hostel
accommodation. Employee. An action against profiteers and black
marketeers. It excluded the communist led student organization and was
from beginning dominated by the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad. The
leftist student refused to join the BCSA. And organise the Bihar Chhatra no
Jawan Sangharsh Morcha, which however, soon faded from the scene.

Widespread student agitations, led by BCSS and BCNSM often turning violent
and clashing with the police sometime Leading to lathi-charges and
firing.The BCSS now put forward twelve Demands, eight pertaining to
university affairs, and four of wider scope, Dealing with corruption, high
prices, unemployment,etc.. The Bihar students’ movement attracted All-India
attention when on 18 March, the BCSS organized a gherao of the Governor
and the assembly on its opening day for the failure of the Education minister
to reply to its memorandum of demands. The gherao, Resisted by the police,
led to large-scale violence and riots and arson in Patna. The police behaved
with extreme brutality, and five people died in Police firing. The events of the
day have been described by Ghanshyam Shah as follows: ‘Different groups
adopted different methods: one mob set Fire to government buildings,
another looted posh hotels and godowns of the Food Corporation, yet
another broke open six railway wagons and Looted mustard and vegetable
oil.By 20 March, Curfew had been imposed in eleven towns, where
administration had been Paralysed. The army and central police forces were
called out in Patna and Many other towns to contain violence and restore
order. In one week about Two dozen persons died, several hundred injured
and many more arrested. As in Gujarat, the opposition parties Quickly joined
forces with the students agitation and, in fact, took it over. They also added
the demand for the resignation or dismissal of the state Government and the
dissolution of the assembly.

JAY PRAKASH NARAYAN and bihar movement

A new dimension was added to the Bihar movement by Jayaprakash Narayan

agreeing to take over the leadership of the student movement in April and
lend it credence.JP had retired from Politics and devoted himself to leading
the Bhoodan and Sarvodaya movements in Bihar. But with the disappointing
outcome of the movements In bringing about a non-violent social revolution,
JP started Looking for alternatives. he struggled all his life to Intervene
practically in the political process.’he actively Campaigned for Zakir Husain
as President. He also pleaded for the Formation of a national coalition
government. He intervened in the Hindi- English controversy he opposed
bank nationalization as ‘wrong and Unwarranted’.12 He also expressed
himself against the 1969-split in the Congress party.

In July 1972, in a press interview, JP expressed the fear that the danger of
Authoritarianism in the country was growing as power was getting
Concentrated in the prime minister’s hands .He also emphasized the need
for a fundamental change in the electoral System which had brought
Congress sweeping victories in 1971 and 1972. The journal, with JP as the
chairman of the editorial board, made its appearance in July 1973 As
Everyman’s Weekly. It was to become the chief vehicle for his political-
Ideological views during 1974-75. He vehemently Criticized Mrs Gandhi for
supercession of three Supreme Court judges While making the appointment
of the Chief Justice .He also set up ‘Citizens for Democracy’ for protecting
Citizens’ rights and democratic institutions.

YOUTH AND REVOLUTION

JP came To believe that the youth were to be the historical agents of social
change in The country. In early December 1973, he wrote an open letter to
the youth of The country urging them ‘to enter the national arena’, to bring
into action ‘Youth Power’ by launching a Youth for Democracy movement to
act as the Watchdogs of democracy .On 29 December 1973, in The inaugural
address to the all-India conference of the Radical Humanist Association, he
criticized ‘party democracy, that is democracy based on and Manipulated by
political parties’, for being a ‘most unsatisfactory and Defective system of
democracy.

JP was to stress the revolutionary role of students and youth throughout1974

and 1975 during his political campaign. For example, inaugurating the All
India Youth Conference at Allahabad on 23 June 1974, he compared the Bihar
struggle with the Bardoli struggle led by Sardar Patel, called upon the Youth
to be prepared to dedicate their lives .One of his major points of advice to
students, to give up studies for a Year to ‘save democracy’,

He came to believed that a revolutionary situation had arisen in Bihar And

was building up in India as a whole, that only a spark was needed to Ignite it,
and that the student movement in Bihar would provide this., he said: ‘The
country is fast heading towards a new Revolution. There is another 1942
movement in sight to change the course Of history’.

He talks about Social, economic, political, moral and cultural revolution. He

said ‘The struggle in Bihar is not just a flash in the pan of history but a
continuing process of revolutionary struggle’.

For several years JP had been talking about Total Revolution. He now
Believed that its moment had come, and the instruments for it were at hand.
‘Revolutions took Their own time to mature he (i.e. JP) believed; they could
not be created’.

On 6 April, the president of the Patna University Students’ Union and Some
other student leaders of the ABVP met JP and requested him to guide And
assume the leadership of the student movement. While accepting their
Pleas, JP made it clear that he would be in full command of the movement: ‘I
won’t agree to be a leader only in name. I will take the advice of all . But the
decisions will be mine and you will have to Accept them’. When the Chatra
Sangharsh Samiti asked him to lead their movement, JP agreed, on two
conditions – that it should be scrupulously nonviolent, and That it should not
be restricted to Bihar.He made it clear that He had no interest in changing
the government for that would be ‘like Replacing Tweedledum with
Tweedledee’,He wanted to fight for real people ‘s democracy.His entry gave
the struggle a great boost, and also Changed its name; what was till then the
‘Bihar movement’ now became the ‘JP movement’. He asked students to
boycott classes, to leave their studies for A year and work at raising the
consciousness of the people. All across Bihar There were clashes between
students seeking to shut down schools and colleges, and policemen called in
by the authorities to keep them open. In the Towns, at least, the support for
the struggle was widespread. In Gaya, for example, the courts and offices
were closed as a consequence of ‘housewives of Respectable families of the
town who were rarely seen out of [purdah] sitting On [picket lines] with small
boys’. The authorities tried to clear the streets,But this provoked violence,
with students raining bottles and sticks on the police and being answered by
bullets. The riot left three people dead and twenty Grievously injured.The
Gaya incident took place in the middle of April 1974.

On 8 April JP led a silent Procession in Patna to protest against the police

excesses of the previous Three weeks. To demonstrate its non-violent
character, those participating Bound their mouths with strips of cloth. This
was followed by a five-week long Programme of dharnas, more silent
processions, observation of black days And so on. Also the demands of the
protest movements were widened to Include the dissolution of the elected
Bihar assembly .

Of course, The ultimate objective of the movement was to bring in Total

Revolution. As JP was to put it on 5 June: ‘Friends, this is a revolution, a total
revolution. This is not a movement merely for the dissolution of the
Assembly.Addressing himself to the students in the crowd, he warned that
the road Ahead would be a rocky one: ‘Yet, He was convinced that, in the
end, the struggle would be worth it: ‘Gandhiji Spoke of Swaraj [freedom] in
one year. I speak today of real people’s government in one year. In one year
the right form of education will emerge. Give One year to build a new
country, a new Bihar

He Asked the students to put moral pressure on the existing legislators,

through Measures such as peaceful demonstrations, gheraos of their houses,
to Resign.In order to paralyse the Government, in July, JP asked the people
not to pay land revenue and other Taxes.As organs of struggle, Chhatra
Sangharsh Samitis (CSS) (Students Struggle Committees) were to be formed
in every college and high school, And Jana Sangharsh Samitis (JSS) (People’s
Struggle Committees) in every Village and town from the panchayat to the
district level. They were in turn To set up Janata Sarkars (People’s
Governments) from village to the bloc And district level.

In between the Gaya firings and JP’s Patna speech, the country was
paralysed by a railway strike. Led by the socialist George Fernandes, the
strike lasted three weeks, bringing the movement of people and goods to a
halt. As Many as a million railway men participated. Western Railways, which
serviced the country’s industrial hub, was worst hit. There were militant
demonstrations in many towns and cities – in several places, the army was
called out To maintain the peace.

At least one opposition party was already present in the JP movement – The
Jana Sangh. Its student wing, the ABVP, had been there from the beginning,
and older cadres were now moving into key roles. On 1 November 1974 Mrs
Gandhi and JP had a long meeting in New Delhi. The prime minister agreed to
dismiss the Bihar ministry on condition That the movement drop its demand
for the dissolution of other state assemblies. The compromise was rejected.
The meeting was acrimonious.

JP’s movement was strongly rooted in the northern states. He had supporters
in the west, in Gujarat particularly, but the south was territory so far Mostly
untouched. So he now commenced a long tour of the states south of the
Vindhyas, drawing decent but by no means massive crowds.

FURTHER CHALLENGES

While the JP movement was gaining ground, the prime minister was facing
Another kind of challenge,Indian politics witnessed an unexpected turn when
on 12 June 1975 Mrs Gandhi’s moral and political authority received a hard
blow at the hands of Justice Jagmohan Sinha of the Allahabad High Court.
Giving a judgement On an election petition filed by Raj Narain, the candidate
she had defeated In the 1971 election to the Lok Sabha, he convicted her of
having indulged In corrupt campaign practices and declared her election
invalid. The Conviction also meant that she could not seek election to
Parliament or hold An elective public office for a period of six years and,
therefore, continue as Prime minister. She was, however, allowed to appeal
to the Supreme Court And granted a stay of the court’s order for twenty days
so that the Congress Parliamentary party could choose a new leader and
prime minister.

Mrs Gandhi suffered another political setback when the results of Gujarat
Assembly elections, held on 10 June, also were declared on 12 June. Despite
Her vigorous campaign in Gujarat, the Janata Front, an alliance of the
Congress (O), Jan Sangh and BLD, led by Morarji Desai and backed by
Jayaprakash, won 87 seats as against 75 by the Congress in a house of 182.

ROAD TO EMERGENCY

The opposition movement’s strategy now took another radical turn. The
Opposition parties were no longer willing to wait for the result of Mrs
Gandhi’s possible appeal to the Supreme Court and for the general elections
Due in eight months, especially as they were insecure about the electoral
Outcome. They decided to strike while the iron was hot and make a bid for
Power.

To start with, they started a series of protest Rallies in Delhi and a dharna
outside the President’s house. The leadership of the five opposition parties—
the Jan Sangh, Congress (O), BLD, SSP and Akali Dal—formed on 22 June a
Janata Front or Jan Morcha and a ten-member National Programme
Committee to organize a Mass movement and draw up the plan of a
campaign to secure Mrs Gandhi’s resignation. The movement’s programme
was drafted by Nanaji Deshmukh, a top-ranking leader of the RSS and Jan
Sangh. The programme Included the organization of a Delhi bandh, an
indefinite dharna outside the Prime minister’s house and a series of
processions, demonstrations and Gheraos in Delhi.

In a mammoth rally held in Delhi on 25 June, under the auspices of

JanMorcha, the opposition leaders declared that Mrs Gandhi having lost
theMoral right to rule, they would not let her function as prime minister, and
That to dislodge her from office and to force her to resign they would
Organize a nation-wide one week-long campaign of mass mobilization,
Demonstrations and civil disobedience throughout the country. The
Campaign was to be organized by a new body, the Lok Sangharsh
Samiti(People’s Struggle Committee), set up on 25 June by the five-party
Morcha And JP, and headed by Morarji Desai with Nanaji Deshmukh as its
general Secretary. In his speech at the rally, JP denounced Mrs Gandhi’s
continuation in Office as illegal and unconstitutional. Mrs Gandhi and her
government had, He declared, ‘no moral, legal or constitutional right to
govern’. He gave an Ultimatum to Mrs Gandhi to resign within four days.

On 23 June the Supreme Court began hearing Mrs Gandhi’s petition. The
Next day Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer issued a conditional stay on the Allahabad
Judgement: the prime minister could attend Parliament, he said, but could
not Vote there until her appeal was fully heard and pronounced upon. By
now, at least some senior figures in the Congress Party thought that
Resignation would also be in the party’s interests.

Urging Mrs Gandhi not to resign were her son Sanjay and the chief minister
of West Bengal, Siddhartha Shankar Ray, a well-trained barrister who Had
come from Calcutta to be at hand. Their advice was readily accepted. Once
the decision was taken, it was executed with remarkable swiftness. On the
25th, S. S. Ray helped draft an ordinance declaring a state of internal
Emergency, which a pliant president, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad, signed as soon
As it was put in front of him. That night the power supply to all of Delhi’s
Newspaper offices was switched off, so that there were no editions on the
26th.

Police swooped down on the opposition leaders, taking JP, Morarji Desai and
Many others off to jail.

EMERGENCY IMPOSED

AT 6 A.M. ON 26 JUNE 1975, a meeting of the Union Cabinet was convened.

The ministers, unthinking and bleary-eyed, were informed of the state of
emergency, in effect since midnight. Their formal consent was obtained
before Mrs Gandhi proceeded to the studios of All-India Radio (AIR) to convey
the news To an equally unsuspecting nation. ‘The President has proclaimed
Emergency’, She announced: ‘There is nothing to panic about.’ This, she
said, was a necessary response to ‘the deep and widespread conspiracy
which has been brewing Ever since I began to introduce certain progressive
measures of benefit to the Common man and woman of India.’ ‘Forces of
disintegration’ and ‘communal Passions’ were threatening the unity of India

On the 27th Mrs Gandhi sent Mrs Jayakar along note, explaining that The
action was taken in response to the ‘increasing violence’ caused by a
‘campaign of hate and calumny’. The number of arrests, she claimed, were a
mere 900, most detainees kept not in jail but ‘comfortably, in houses’. The
‘general Public reaction’ was ‘good’, and there was ‘tranquillity all over the
country’. The emergency, the prime minister told her friend, was ‘intended to
enable are Turn to normal democratic functioning’

Across India people were being picked up and put into jails. These included
leaders and legislators of parties other than the Congress, student activists,
trade unionists, indeed, anyone with the slightest connection to the Jana
Sangh, the Congress (O), the Socialists, or other groups opposed to the ruling
Party. Some of the detainees, such as Jayaprakash Narayan and Morarji
Desai, Were placed in government rest houses in the state of Haryana, not
far from Delhi. However, the majority were sent to already overcrowded jails.

Thousands Were arrested under MISA – the Maintenance of Internal Security

Act, known By its victims as the Maintenance of Indira and Sanjay Act.In the
first few months of the emergency, the prime minister gave a flurry Of
interviews defending its proclamation. These too displayed a deep
defensiveness.

These were the signs of a creeping dictatorship. Like military men who Seize
power via a coup, Mrs Gandhi claimed to have acted to save the country
From itself. And, like them, she went on to say that, while she had denied Her
people freedom, she would give them bread in exchange. Within a week Of
the emergency she was offering a ‘Twenty Point Programme for Economic
Progress’. This promised a reduction in prices of essential commodities, The
speedy implementation of land reforms, the abolition of indebtedness and of
bonded labour, higher wages for workers and lower taxes for the middle
Class.

FREEDOM OF PRESS

Among the casualties of the emergency was the freedom of the press. Within
Its first week the government had instituted a system of ‘pre-censorship’,
Whereby editors had to submit, for scrutiny and approval, material deemed
to Be critical of the government or its functionaries. Guidelines were issued
on What did and did not constitute ‘news’. There could be no reports on
processions or strikes, or of political opposition, or of conditions in the jails.
Reports Of open dissidence were naturally verboten, but in fact even stories
mildly critical of the administration were not permitted.

The space had to be filled; and it was, by the words of the prime minister or
By stories in praise of her government ‘Our newspapers, of course, give
world news all right’, wrote a reader in Shimla to an English friend, ‘but
hardly any other news pertaining to the Country itself, except the speeches
of the PM . . . I have decided to forgo the Pleasures of reading a newspaper’.
In truth, the disgust was shared by the Journalists themselves. Jokes tinged
with satire were especially forbidden. The Tamil humorist Cho Ramaswamy
failed to sneak in a cartoon showing the prime minister And her son Sanjay
talking above the caption: ‘A national debate on the Constitutional
Amendments’. This, too, Was cut. The censors were vigilant, but the odd joke
or two escaped their eye anonymous democrat was Able to place an ad in
the Times of India announcing the ‘death of D. E. M. O’Cracy, mourned by his
wife T. Ruth, his son L. I. Bertie, and his daughters Faith, Hope, and Justice.

As the emergency proceeded, the government tightened its hold over The
dissemination of information .The Press Council, an autonomous watchdog
body, was abolished. A law granting immunity to journalists covering
Parliament was repealed. And as many as 253 journalists were placed under
arrest. These included Kuldip Nayar of the Indian Express, K. R. Sunder Rajan
of the Times of India And K. R. Malkani of the Motherland.

Some freedom-loving journalists resisted, but their newspapers’ owners Were

mostly compliant, fearing the government might shut down their presses Or
seize their properties. They feared the stick, but were happy to bit eat the
Carrot. This took the shape of government announcements paid for by the
Directorate of Audio-Visual Publicity (DAVP). While ‘liberally granting
advertisements to so-called “friendly” periodicals’, the DAVP withdrew their
favours from those deemed critical of the government. Among the major
newspapers that willingly complied with the new regulations were the Hindu,
the Times of India and, especially, the Hindustan Times. The editor of the
last-named newspaper, the hugely respected B. G. Verghese, was sacked by
its owner, the industrialist K. K. Birla, merely to Please Mrs Gandhi.

Among the newspapers that struggled nobly to maintain their independence

were the Indian Express and the Statesman. Both refused to toe the
government line, resisting Threats and blandishments alike. When their
power was cut they got the courts To restore it. When their own stories were
censored, they chose to leave white Spaces rather than fill them with
propaganda material.

The mass-circulation newspapers were hardest hit, but the government Did
not spare the high-quality and slow-selling journals of opinion either. Two
Esteemed Delhi journals, the weekly Mainstream and the monthly Seminar,
Closed rather than submit to the censor’s scrutiny. The Bombay weekly
Himmat fought the censor doggedly, but finally shut down when asked to
pay Aprohibitively high deposit as a guarantee of good behaviour .

In some ways the government feared the little magazines even more. Their
owners could not be bought; so they had to be coerced or bankrupted
instead. Among the chosen targets was Opinion, a four-page newsletter
brought Out in Bombay by the former ICS officer A. D. Gorwala. He had also
fought a long battle against corruption. A year into the Emergency, Opinion
was ordered to shut down.
PEOPLE’S RESPONSE TO EMERGENCY

The day after the emergency was declared, a British reporter found the
streets Of Delhi to be ‘uncannily normal’.

This calm was in sharp contrast to the strife-filled decade that preceded It;
one reason why the emergency was widely welcomed by the middle class.
The crime rate had come down and the trains ran on time. A good monsoon
in 1975 meant that prices also fell. A visiting American journalist was told by
an Official in Delhi that it was only foreigners who cared for such things as
the Freedom of expression.

The journalist found that the business community were especially Pleased
with the emergency. A Delhi hotel owner told him that life now was ‘just
wonderful. We used to have terrible problems with the unions. Now When
they give us any troubles, the government just put them in jail.’ In Bombay,
the journalist met J. R. D. Tata, arguably India’s most respected industrialist.
Tata too felt that ‘things had gone too far. You can’t imagine what we’ve
Been through here.

One fact is conclusive proof of the quiescence of the middle class – That
hardly any officials resigned in protest against the emergency. Now, the
abrogation of democracy was protested by only a handful of people In state
employment. These included Fali Nariman, who resigned as additional
solicitor general, M. L. Dantwala, who declined to continue as an adviser To
the Reserve Bank, and Bagaram Tulpule, who left his high position in a
Public-sector undertaking. There was, however, some resistance offered in
the Indian Parliament.On 23 July the House met to ratify the emergency. The
Congress commanded A comfortable majority; and 34 MPs were in jail. Those
opposition MPs at liberty to attend made speeches of protest before walking
out. A Jana Sangh MP accused Mrs Gandhi of betraying the Mother land for
‘the sake of personal ends’. The opposition MPs later boycotted the House (or
were jailed).

There was also resistance in the streets. On 14 November 1975 – a body

styling itself the Lok Sangharsh Samiti (People’s Struggle Committee) began
a satyagraha in Bombay. Every day a Group of protesters would stand at a
busy intersection and shout slogans such As ‘Down with Dictatorship’ and ‘JP
Zindabad’. Within a month 1,359 people Had been arrested – including 146
women.One report claimed that in the First three months of the satyagraha
as many as 80,000 people had been put Behind bars.
On 15 August 1976 (Independence Day) another satyagraha commenced In
Ahmedabad. It was led by Manibhen Patel, daughter of India’s first home
Minister, Vallabhbhai Patel. Raising slogans such as ‘Remove Emergency’ And
‘Release Political Prisoners’,

One of those arrested in the Bombay satyagraha was the distinguished

Marathi writer Durga Bhagwat. Other members of her fraternity protested in
Ways more congenial to their profession. A group of Kannada writers
circulated, in samizdat form, poems satirizing the emergency and its prime
mover.

Other writers expressed their dissent in other ways. Bengali essayist Annada
Sankar Ray announced that he would ‘stop writing altogether in A fit of non-
Cooperative pique’. He refused to ‘put pen to paper so long as the state of
Emergency continues’. The cartoonist K. Shankar Pillai, who had once
sarcastically compared the loquacious Nehru to the Niagara Falls (and been
Cheered by his victim for it), now closed down his magazine before the state
Did so. ‘Dictatorships cannot afford laughter’, he remarked mournful .The
Hindi novelist Phanishwaranath Renu returned the Padma Shri bestowed
upon him by the government of India,And the Kannada polymath Shivarama
Karanth gave back an even higher Honour, the Padma Bhushan.

Finally, there was resistance that was carried on underground. The key Figure
here was George Fernandes, the firebrand socialist who had led the rail-Way
strike of 1974.When the emergency was declared Fernandes was in the
Orissa town of Gopalpur-on-Sea. He lay low for a few weeks, in which time He
had grown a beard and come to disguise himself as a Sikh. Then he travelled
from town to town, meeting comrades and planning the sabotage of state
Installations. Dynamite was collected and stored, and young men trained in
The act of blowing up bridges and railway tracks. From his ever-shifting
hiding place, Fernandes sent out letters attacking ‘the dictator’, ‘that
woman’, and The ‘Nehru dynasty’, and urging the people to rise against the
regime.

No dynamite was actually detonated” yet the government of India was

Visibly angry that it could not capture Fernandes. His brother Lawrence was
Picked up from his home in Bangalore and brutally beaten and tortured. His
Friend, the actress Snehalata Reddy, was also imprisoned. Placed in a damp
Cell and denied proper food, her asthma was seriously aggravated; released
on Parole, she died a few weeks later. George Fernandes’s wife and child fled
the Country, fearing persecution if they stayed behind. Fernandes himself
was finally arrested in Calcutta on 10 June 1976, nearly a year into the
emergency.

Sanjay was given Charge of the Congress’s youth wing. (He was in theory
merely a member of The Executive Council, but in practice the Youth
Congress’s president took orders from him.) And just as sons of Mughal
emperors were once given a suba (province) to run before taking over the
kingdom itself, Sanjay was asked to Look after affairs in India’s capital city.
Within a few months of the emergency, The word had got around: ‘the PM
herself wanted all matters pertaining to Delhi to be handled by her son’.

By now, Sanjay Gandhi had formulated a five-point programme to

complement his mother’s twenty-point one. These dealt with, respectively,
family Planning, afforestation, abolition of dowry, the removal of illiteracy
and slum Clearance. Of these the focus was on the first, nationally, and on
the fifth, When it came to Delhi. The capital was dotted with slums that had
spontaneously arisen to house the migrants who did the low-paying jobs in
residential Colonies and government offices. There were almost a hundred
Such settlements in the city, housing close to half a million people.Sanjay
Gandhi wanted these slums demolished and their inhabitants Settled in
farmland across the river Jumna. Here, his ideas coincided with Those of
Jagmohan, the ambitious vice-chairman of the Delhi Development Authority
(DDA) Jagmohan was a key member of a coterie that had sprung up around
SanJay Gandhi. Others included Naveen Chawla, who was secretary to the
lieuTenant governor, and the senior police officer P. S. Bhinder. Among the
women who worked with Sanjay were the president of the Youth Congress,
Ambika Soni, and a socialite-cum-social worker, Ruksana Sultana, who was
seen As his unofficial representative to the slum dwellers. Every morning the
group Met in Sanjay’s office to take orders and provide reports.

The names of this coterie became known In the city, their doings discussed
in hushed whispers. It was said that the surest way to have the government
act in your favour was to speak to (and please) one of the above.Jagmohan’s
operations focused on the old city, where Mughal monuments and mosques
nested cheek-by-jowl with damp houses and dark streets. On the morning of
13 April 1976 a bulldozer moved into the Turkman Gate Area, behind Asaf Ali
Road, the street that divides Old Delhi from New. In two Days it had
demolished a slum of recent origin, housing forty families. Then It moved
towards a set of pucca houses of uncertain antiquity.

Three bulldozers were at work, acting, they said, on Jagmohan’s orders. They
had demolished more than a hundred houses when, Acting in desperation, a
group of women and children squatted on the road and Defied the bulldozers
to run over them. When they refused to move, the DDA Called for the police.
In sympathy with the protesters, shops in the vicinity Began to close. The
police tried to shift the squatters with sticks and, when that failed, With tear-
gas. The retaliation came in the form of stones. The fighting escalated and
spread into the narrow lanes. The numbers of the mob grew; the police
progressed from using tear-gas to using bullets. It took the better part of a
Day before order was restored. Estimates of the number who died in the
fighting range from 10 to 200. Curfew was imposed in the Old City; it was a
full Month before it was lifted.

In June1976 the underground newspaper Satya Samachar reported that the

Sheikh had told a group of Congress MPs that ‘the whole trouble began when
young, old and even invalid people Were dragged off to the sterilization
camps. Nobody has any quarrel with the Economic policies of the Prime
Minister, but the way in which they are being Implemented, I am sure, will
lead to an explosion.

EMERGENCY AND FAMILY PLANNING

The debates on India’s population size dated from the earliest days of
Independence. Social workers had set up a Family Planning Association of
India in 1949. The Planning Commission had spoken of the importance of
family planning since its inception in 1950–1In 1901 the population of India
stood at about 240 million; by 1971 it had Reached close to 550 million.
Advances in medical care and more nutritious food allowed All Indians,
including infants previously liable to early death, to live longer. But Since the
birth rate and average family size did not decline at a comparable rate, The
population continued to rise. In 1976,the Illustrated Weekly of India was
speaking of how ‘SanJay has given a big impetus to the Family Planning
Programme throughout the Country’. He claimed that if his programme was
implemented, ’50 per cent of Our problems will be solved’. He expressed
himself in favour of compulsory Sterilization, for which facilities should be
provided ‘right down to the village Level’ ‘family planning became the
lynchpin of Sanjay Gandhi’s Emergency activities’

In his tours around India, Sanjay Gandhi catalysed a competitive process

Between the states of the Union. Sanjay would tell one chief minister of what
Another had claimed to have done – ’60,000 operations in two weeks’ – and
Encourage him to exceed it. These targets were passed down to district
officials, who were rewarded if they met or exceeded them and transferred
otherwise. The process led to widespread coercion. Lower government
officials Had to submit to the surgeon’s knife before arrears of pay were
cleared. Truck Drivers would not have their licences renewed if they could
not produce a sterilization certificate. Slum dwellers would not be allotted a
plot for resettlement unless they did likewise.

The hand of the state fell heavily in the towns, but the villagers were not
Spared either. In September 1976 – shortly After Sanjay Gandhi’s visit to the
state – a campaign for compulsory sterilization began in the villages. Local
officials prepared lists of ‘eligible men’, that Is, of those who already had
three or more children. Police vans would come And take them off to the
nearest health centre. Some men fled into the hills to Escape the marauders.
Those who had undergone a vasectomy were too embarrassed to talk about
it.

As with slum demolition, here too there was resistance. In September 1976
an underground newspaper reported a ‘wave of protests’ against family
Planning in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. There were clashes between health
officials and shopkeepers refusing to be sterilized. Resistance was reported
from Many towns in UP – Sultanpur, Kanpur, Bareilly. There was great
resentment Among school teachers, who had been asked to conduct house-
to-house surveys in pursuance of the sterilization campaign. As many as 150
teachers were Arrested for defying orders. The worst incident, the Turkman
Gate of family planning so to speak, Took place in the town of Muzaffarnagar,
seventy miles northwest of E

EMERGENCY REVOKED

In as sudden and dramatic a manner as she had declared the Emergency,

Mrs Gandhi, sprung another surprise and announced on 18 January 1977
That the existing Lok Sabha stood dissolved and fresh general elections
Would be held in March.

In her speech announcing the elections, Mrs Gandhi indicated that she Had
done so because ‘our system rests on the belief that Governments Derive
their power from the people and that the people give expression to Their
sovereign will every few years, freely and without hindrance, by Choosing
the Government they want and by indicating their preferences for Policies.’
She had also declared that it was ‘because of this unshakeable Faith in the
power of the people’ that she had advised ‘the President to Dissolve the
present Lok Sabha and order fresh elections.’

The government simultaneously released political prisoners, lifted press

Censorship and removed other restrictions on political activity such as
Holding of public meetings. The opposition parties could now function
Normally and freely undertake electioneering. The Emergency was not lifted
but that was a mere formality for the steps taken to relax it amounted to
That; in reality, the Emergency had ended.