THE EMERGENCY OF 1975 – India’s Darkest Era

The President has proclaimed Emergency. There is nothing to panic about.

Indira Gandhi’s announcement on 26th July, 1975, on AIR

These words of Indira Gandhi rang in the ears of the unsuspecting Indian public, as the Prime Minister announced a state of emergency in the country, in the early hours of 26^th June, 1975. Before the public could even digest the news, Mrs. Gandhi went on to say that this 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 the woman of India.

Mrs. Gandhi’s justification behind taking such a drastic step

Her voice rang in the studio of All-India Radio (AIR) as she claimed that the reason why she was compelled to take such a drastic step was because ‘forces of disintegration’ and ‘communal passions’ were threatening the unity of India.

(Left) – President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed ; (Right) – Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

This is not a personal matter. It does not matter whether I remain Prime Minister or not. Still I hope that conditions will speedily improve to enable us to dispense with this Proclamation as soon as possible.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s words

What followed this announcement was a 21-month period, which ended on 21st March 1977, wherein civil liberties were contained, elections were suspended, Indira Gandhi’s political opponents were arrested and imprisoned, the press was censored and a mass forced sterilization campaign was executed under the leadership of Sanjay Gandhi, the Prime Minister’s younger son. All of this begs the question, ‘Why was the Emergency proclaimed? What or rather who, were these ‘forces of disintegration’ who threatened the very integrity of the Republic of India?’ Through this article, I will try to answer all of these questions to the best of my ability.

A newspaper announcing the declaration of Emergency

But, before we get into the crux of the topic, we need to understand what happened before the emergency was declared in 1975. Raj Narain, one of Mrs. Gandhi’s many political opponents, had been defeated by her in the general elections of 1971. He then lodged a case of election fraud and misuse of state machinery for election purposes, against her. On the 12^th of June 1975, the Allahabad High Court found Mrs. Gandhi guilty on the charge of misuse of government machinery for her election campaign. Her election was declared null and void by the court and she was unseated from her seat in the Lok Sabha. The court also banned her from contesting in any election for an additional six years. Indira Gandhi challenged the High Court’s decision in the Supreme Court. It upheld the verdict passed by the High Court on 24^th June 1975, a day before the Emergency was declared. The Supreme Court also ordered that all the privileges that Mrs. Gandhi received as a Member of the Parliament be stopped and that she be debarred from voting. However, she was allowed to continue as the Prime Minister for the remaining term.

Raj Narain who filed a case against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; now known as the ‘Raj Narain verdict’

The very next day opposition leader, JP Narayan during an anti-government rally in Delhi said that a police officer must reject all the orders of the government if they are ‘immoral’ and ‘unethical’. This was taken as a sign of ‘inciting rebellion in the country’, and it was all the ammunition that Indira Gandhi needed to request the then-President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to proclaim an emergency in the country. What followed this came as a huge shock to the public. An ordinance declaring a state of internal emergency was drafted and signed by a rather compliant President, as soon as it was put in front of him. A few hours later that night, power supply to all of the Delhi newspaper offices was cut off, and as a result there was no edition published on the 26^th. The Delhi police descended upon the streets of the national capital and arrested the opposition leaders like – Morarji Desai, JP Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Arun Jaitley and many others. The very next day on the 26^th of June, the Indian Prime Minister declared a State of Emergency in the county, to an equally unsuspecting public.

(Left) – JP Narayan ; (Right) – Morarji Desai

In fact, attempts were made to reconcile the differences between the Prime Minister and the opposition leader JP Narayan, by Mrs. Gandhi’s principal secretary P.N. Dhar. JP was willing to do whatever it would take to end the Emergency and so he readily agreed. His only condition was that his old friend Sheikh Abdullah, who by now was the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, be the mediator between the two. So, JP wrote a letter to Abdullah, offering his ‘full cooperation’ in any move that might help resolve the differences between him and Mrs. Gandhi. What is interesting is how JP Narayan concludes the letter. He writes –

The first test of [the prime minister’s] keenness [to end the emergency] will be whether this letter is allowed to be delivered to you and whether you are permitted to see me.

An extract from, Opposition Leader, JP Narayan’s letter to Sheikh Abdullah

As fate would have it, Indira Gandhi failed the test. The letter was not delivered and with it died any hope of a reconciliation between the two leaders.

Sheikh Abdullah, Chief Minister of J&K; a close friend of JP Narayan

During this time, Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi’s younger son was given charge of the Congress’s youth wing. He himself came up with a five-point programme to complement his mother’s twenty-one-point programme. Two out of these were given utmost importance – slum clearance in reference to Delhi and family planning. The DDA (Delhi Development Authority) executed the orders of Sanjay Gandhi. Within two days, it demolished a recent slum which housed around 40 families. When their bulldozers had demolished around 100 houses, a group of men and women squatted on the road, blocking the path of the bulldozer, in act of extreme desperation. Soon, a mob developed around the vicinity and as the numbers grew, the police progressed from the usage of tear gas to bullets. Estimates of the number of people who died there, range from 10-200. Even though the country was in a state of emergency, a curfew had to be imposed in the Old City, for a full month.

Sanjay Gandhi with his mother, the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

The second of the two – family planning, is probably the most highlighted ‘programme’ of the Emergency. Very cleverly, Sanjay Gandhi provided incentives to the government officials to conduct widespread sterilizations. A particular target was passed down to the district officials, and if they met these numbers or exceeded them, they were rewarded. If not, then they would be transferred. An example of this – Sanjay Gandhi would tell one of the chief ministers of what another had claimed to have done – ‘60,000 operations in 2 weeks’, and challenge him to exceed it. Lower government officials would have to get a vasectomy first before their arrears of pay were cleared. Similarly, truck drivers would not have their licenses renewed, until they gave into the demands of the government and slum dwellers wouldn’t be allotted a plot for resettlement. The ‘eligible men’ included those who already had 3 or more children.

A vasectomy in progress at a family planning camp held in a government hospital in New Delhi in May 1976; Photo courtesy: Hindustan Times

On 18^th October, 1976, a riot broke out in the town of Muzaffarnagar. The victims unleashed their pent-up anger against the government officials promoting sterilization. They torched the health clinics, threw stones and bottles, till the police was called in. The police quickly resorted to firing during which, more than 50 people died. Another ‘victim’ of Sanjay Gandhi’s sterilization or rather ‘family planning’ drive was the popular singer Kishore Kumar. Except him, all other actors and musicians had agreed to perform in a programme to raise money for sterilization. As a result, Sanjay Gandhi had all the movies where Kishore Kumar had either sung or acted in, held up right before their release. He also had an unofficial ban put on Kishore Kumar’s songs, meaning they couldn’t be played on state broadcasters All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Bulldozers demolishing the slums, as a part of Sanjay Gandhi’s five-year programme.

During this unfortunate time, the freedom of the press too was curbed. Eminent journalists like Kuldip Nayar, K.R Malkani and around 253 more were arrested. The press wasn’t allowed to publish anything that was even remotely anti-government. Even cartoons and jokes tinged with satire were forbidden. Those who agreed to the government’s demands either published news concerning only other countries, sang praises of the government or left parts of their papers completely blank. Those who didn’t, were eventually shut down.

Abu Abraham’s popular cartoon in Indian Express, circa 10th December, 1975

Finally, 21 months later, the Emergency was lifted on 21^st March, 1977. An important thing to be noted here is that the 21-month period was also witness to a series of constitutional amendments that further increased Indira Gandhi’s rule. The 38^th Amendment barred judicial review of the emergency. The 39^th Amendment stated that Indira Gandhi’s 1971 elections could not be challenged by the Supreme Court, but only by a Parliamentary body. The right of Habeas Corpus (detention without trial) was taken away. Lastly, the 42^nd Amendment gave ‘unfettered power’ to the Parliament to ‘preserve or destroy the Constitution’, and alongside also allowed them to extend its own term which it immediately did.

Another cartoon published during the Emergency

The period between 1975-1977 is hailed as the ‘Darkest period in Indian History’, and rightly so. Indira Gandhi’s regime during this time was compared to those of Hitler and Mussolini, by prominent politicians and journalists. Why she ended the emergency is not yet clearly known. However, her decision came as a shock to not only the opposition leaders, still in jail, but also to her own son Sanjay Gandhi, who wasn’t informed of this before-hand. An anonymous democrat was able to place an ad in the Times of India, and it ‘announced’ –

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.

An AD placed by an anonymous person in the Times of India

Sources:

India After Gandhi – Ramachandra Guha

The Emergency (India) – Wikipedia