Testimony to the enduring spirit of Indian democracy
The Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1976 led to widespread detentions. While initially seen as a period of order, it was marked by oppression and violence, culminating in Indira's loss in the 1977 elections and a resilience in India's democratic spirit.
On a summer evening in 1976, a group of people were enjoying a friendly chat at the bungalow of a prominent figure in Mainpuri city, when a frail man approached the host and prostrated at his feet. The man, a washerman from a village nearby, had a harrowing tale to tell.
His ordeal started with an altercation—the person with whom he had tangled, turned out to be a relative of a police sub-inspector. This, the washerman learnt when, a few days after the incident, a police team raided his house to apprehend him for “conspiring to uproot railway tracks with the aim of bringing about armed revolution".
Fortunately for him, he was away visiting a distant relative when the raid was conducted. Else he would have landed in prison on charges framed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (Misa).
Though the group initially doubted the story, they found it to be true and got district authorities to resolve the matter. The washerman’s case was not an aberration. Nationwide, about 35,000 people were detained under Misa (Maintenance of Internal Security Act), and more than 75,000 under the equally notorious Defence of India Rules (DIR) during the Emergency. Millions more, ranging from as young as nine to over 90 years of age, were arrested under various other laws. Politicians of all hues, barring those of the Congress and Left parties, were among the detainees.
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What nurtured such extremes during the Emergency? The bureaucracy had turned alarmingly autocratic working hand in glove with the government.
Paradoxically, the initial days of the Emergency had brought a sense of order that many welcomed. Trains began running on time. Buses adhered to schedule. Crime rates plummeted. Government employees were punctual, and the insidious practice of “bribes" to expedite files seemed to vanish. Classes in schools ran regularly, and street hooliganism largely disappeared.
Vinoba Bhave, a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, even lauded the Emergency as an anushasan parv (festival of discipline). Middle-aged and elderly people then said it felt as if the time of the British bahadur had returned, an era where sher aur bakri ek hi ghat se paani peete the (the lion and the goat used to drink water from the same source), implying a return to strict but fair governance. It might seem astonishing to read this in 2025, but many at the time indeed considered such actions necessary.
This week marks 50 years since the beginning of the anushasan parv, and the memories of those days continue to stir me.
Apparently, Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency after the Allahabad high court annulled her election. However, other darker forces were at play. In the 1971 general elections she coined the slogan garibi hatao (remove poverty), fielded 442 Lok Sabha candidates and won 352 seats. But she failed to eradicate poverty and unemployment, and a disillusioned student community and labourers took to streets in protest. A woman who was called Durga during the victorious Bangladesh campaign was now a failed ruler and the Emergency was the last gambit of a terrified ruler.
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Tragedies such as the Turkman Gate incident unfolded in New Delhi. The government machinery, armed with 10 bulldozers and a large police contingent, descended upon the Turkman Gate area in the name of “beautification". When residents resisted, they were fired at, resulting in an undisclosed number of deaths and injuries. The government never released the exact figures, and a muzzled media could not effectively report on it.
Those were truly dark days for India.
Pupul Jayakar, Indira’s friend, later wrote in her book how even Indira was disturbed by these aberrations. She sought counsel from the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, and it was only after this spiritual reflection that she decided to lift the Emergency and call for elections. The Congress lost the general elections in 1977, and the Janata Party came to power. How Indira later returned to power is another story for another day, but 50 years on, while there is regret in remembering those days, there is also immense pride that despite such a tremendous stumble, we Indians stood up, brushed the dirt and went on to not only preserve our democracy but also to achieve new milestones of development over the following decades.
We can all be proud of this enduring democratic and never-say-die spirit of our countrymen.
Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. Views are personal.
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