On June 25, 1975, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared the “Emergency,” which proved to be a 21-month dictatorship. She censored newspapers, inaugurated mass sterilization to curb India’s population and imprisoned more than 100,000 people — opposition leaders, journalists and civil society activists.
Fair Observer presents a timeline of events that led to and marked the Emergency.
The government of the northwestern border state of Punjab introduces legislation that imposes a ceiling on the amount of land that an individual can own. No individual can now own more than 30 “standard acres.” The government comes up with this land reform legislation to redistribute land more equitably. The Golaknath family challenges this legislation in court on the grounds that it violates constitutional rights to acquire and hold property.
The southwestern state of Kerala emulates Punjab and passes land reform legislation as well. In 1957, Kerala became the first place in the world to elect a communist government. Like Punjab, Kerala limits the quantity of land an individual can own to create a more equitable society. Land seized from landowners is to be given to the landless and the poor. Later, in 1970, the Kerala government extends this land ceiling to religious institutions.
In a landmark case, the Supreme Court of India rules that Punjab’s 1953 land reform legislation is unconstitutional. In a controversial 6:5 judgment, the case of I.C. Golaknath and Ors. v. State of Punjab and Anrs establishes that legislatures, including both state assemblies and the national parliament, cannot amend the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution. Note that the right to property is a fundamental right.
India holds elections to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, every five years. In the 1971 elections, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi contests from the Rae Bareli constituency in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Opposition politician Raj Narain contests against the prime minister and loses. Indira’s Congress Party wins a landslide 352 out of 518 seats, forming the government. Gandhi is the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, and is no relation to Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation.
Narain files petition in Allahabad High Court, accusing Indira of election malpractices, including the use of state machinery during campaigning.
The Parliament of India passes the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). This law grants Gandhi’s administration and law enforcement agencies a vast swath of powers to crush civil and political disorder in India, as well as national security threats. Some of these powers include wiretapping, indefinite preventive detention of individuals and warrantless search and seizure of property. Expectedly, MISA sparks controversy for enabling the government to infringe on fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution of India.
The 24th Constitutional Amendment enables the parliament to amend the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights through constitutional amendments, abrogating the 1967 Supreme Court ruling in Golaknath v. State of Punjab. With its overwhelming parliamentary majority, the Indira Gandhi government amends article 268 of the constitution, expressly stating that parliament could amend any provision of the constitution. Furthermore, the amendment makes it obligatory for the president to give assent to any amendment passed by the legislative.
The 25th Constitutional Amendment curtails the fundamental right to property. The government can now acquire private property for public use by paying compensation determined by the parliament. Also, legislation implementing the constitution’s directive principles, which enjoin the state to create a more equitable society, now override the individual’s fundamental rights. Such law is not subject to judicial review. The Indian state now acquires dangerous new powers at the expense of the citizens.
India goes to war with Pakistan for the liberation of East Pakistan where the Pakistani military has imposed a draconian dictatorship, conducting genocide and perpetrating mass rape. In a short and swift military campaign, India achieves a spectacular victory, liberating Bangladesh. Indira Gandhi imposes a state of emergency in India for prosecuting war.
The 29th Constitutional Amendment upholds Kerala’s land reforms and permits the government to seize land from religious institutions. Both the communists and Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party want to end the British-established feudal zamindari system of land ownership where landless peasants till land for rich landlords. To extinguish what they see as de facto serfdom, they target both landowning individuals and religious institutions.
Kesavananda Bharati, head of a religious organization in Kerala, challenges the validity of the 24th, 25th and 29th Amendments, arguing that they violate the “basic structure” of the Constitution of India. The Supreme Court of India backs this basic structure doctrine in a 7:6 judgment. By a majority of just one, the court holds that parliament cannot alter certain features of the constitution such as democracy, the rule of law and the power of judicial review. This puts guardrails on parliament’s ability to amend the constitution.
The Indira Gandhi government controversially appoints Ajit Nath Ray as the chief justice of India, superseding three seniormost judges. Ray wrote a dissenting opinion in the Kesavananda Bharati case and is related to Siddartha Shankar Ray (S.S. Ray), the chief minister of West Bengal, who is Indira Gandhi’s close confidant. S.S. Ray goes on to emerge as a key architect of the Emergency. Gandhi chooses Ray for the top judicial job as she fears the Allahabad High Court might rule in favor of opposition leader Narain.
In the western state of Gujarat, a Navnirman Agitation protest erupts against the state government’s corruption. Agitators ask the national government of Indira Gandhi for the government’s dismissal. Socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP and renowned as a great follower of Mahatma Gandhi, supports this movement.
The Indian government agrees to three of the agitators’ demands: the resignation of the chief minister, the dissolution of the state assembly and the holding of fresh elections in Gujarat.
In the eastern state of Bihar, Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti (“Student Struggle Committee”) starts a protest against unemployment, rising prices and corruption. As in Gujarat, these students of Bihar ask Indira Gandhi’s national government for the state government’s dismissal.
Clashes break out between police and students in Bihar. The police open fire, killing several students. Protesters invite JP to lead this movement. Given the stature of this aging Gandhian, the student movement now comes to be called the “JP movement.” The aging leader calls for “total revolution” and all opposition parties join this movement.
A corruption scandal engulfs the Indira Gandhi government. The opposition demands an inquiry into the dealings of Lalit Narayan Mishra. This Maithil Brahmin politician from Bihar is in charge of the Ministry of Railways — the Indian Railways is the biggest employer in the world, and the ministry controls a huge budget — and allegedly manages the Congress Party’s financial dealings.
The opposition demands for an inquiry into Mishra’s corruption unnerve Indira Gandhi. She pressures Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, the speaker of the Lok Sabha, to obstruct the opposition. Dhillon initially resists Gandhi’s demands. She threatens to resign, saying either there will be a new speaker or a new prime minister. Dhillon capitulates and resigns.
Tarnished by corruption allegations, Railway Minister Mishra is killed in a bomb blast in Bihar. The case drags on for decades before some of the accused get convicted. The mystery of Mishra’s death still evokes much speculation.
West Bengal Chief Minister S.S. Ray, whose relative is now conveniently the chief justice of India, advises Indira Gandhi to impose a state of emergency on India. Note that at this time, the state of emergency declared in 1971 is still in effect.
In the “Revoke Emergency” seminar, authoritarian suggestions emerge. The revocation of Article 83(2) of the Constitution of India comes up. This would extend the term of the Lok Sabha from five years, postponing elections to beyond 1976. A suggestion to create a one-party system also emerges.
Two members of Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha, a spiritual organization, try to assassinate Chief Justice of India Ajit Nath Ray. Anand Marga literally means “path of bliss,” and the followers of the organization are known as Anand Margis. The attempt on Ray’s life shakes up the Indira Gandhi government. The trial of the two Anand Margis goes on for four decades.
More than a year after Indira Gandhi’s national government dismissed the Gujarat state government, no elections have yet been held. Morarji Desai, the former Congress leader who is now in the opposition, emulates Mahatma Gandhi and begins a fast unto death. He demands elections in Gujarat, revocation of the still persisting state of emergency imposed in 1971 and assurance that the dreaded MISA will not be used against Indira’s political opponents.
Amrit Nahata, a film producer and a Congress member of parliament (MP) submits his film, Kissa Kursi Ka (“The Tale of the Chair of Power”) to the censors. They ban this dark satire. Indira Gandhi’s younger son, Sanjay, joins forces with his close associate, Vidya Charan Shukla, to burn the prints and master-print of the film. Nahata receives death threats, goes on to join the opposition and remakes this film in 1977.
Law and Justice Minister H.R. Gokhale discusses Raj Narain’s case challenging Indira Gandhi’s 1971 election victory with Ajit Nath Ray. India’s top judge reassures Gokhale, stating, “if Allahabad High Court gives adverse ruling, there should be no difficulty in getting absolute stay” on it in the Supreme Court of India.
The Indira Gandhi government finally holds elections in Gujarat. Four opposition parties join forces to contest as Jan Morcha (“Public Front”) and the Congress Party wins only 75 out of 168 seats in the state assembly. In the previous elections, the Congress won 140 seats. Winning 65 fewer assembly seats in Gujarat is a serious setback for Congress and Gandhi.
Justice Jagmohan Sinha of Uttar Pradesh’s Allahabad High Court disqualifies Indira Gandhi’s 1971 election victory over Raj Narain. He holds Gandhi guilty of dishonest electoral practices, misusing the state machinery as well as government officials and excessive expenditure.
The Indira Gandhi government assesses newspapers to gauge their “loyalty” and divides them into three categories: friendly, neutral and hostile papers. In India, government advertisements are a major revenue source for newspapers even today. In Gandhi’s socialist India, this is even more so. Her government now doles out advertisements as patronage for loyalty.
Congress MPs meet and pledge total loyalty to Indira Gandhi’s continued leadership. Congress Party President Dev Kant Barooah utters the slogan: “Indira is India and India is Indira.” This bears ominous similarity to Nazi Party leader Rudolf Hess’s declaration at the 1934 Nuremberg Party Rally: “Hitler is Germany; Germany is Hitler.”
Supreme Court Justice Krishna Iyer grants only partial stay to Indira Gandhi over her disqualification as an MP. His judgment permits Gandhi to participate in the Lok Sabha as prime minister but she cannot vote or draw remuneration as an MP until the Supreme Court decides upon her appeal against the Allahabad High Court judgment.
JP and other opposition leaders address a mammoth gathering at the Ramlila Maidan, the public grounds where the story of the Hindu god Lord Rama is enacted every year, in Delhi. JP calls the army, police and government officials to defy orders from the Indira Gandhi government that they deem “illegal and immoral.” The venerable Gandhian recites Jantantra ka Janm (“The Birth of Democracy”) by poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and famously thunders the line, “Sinhasan khali karo ki janta aati hai” (“Vacate the throne, for the people are coming”).
At 8:30 PM, Indira Gandhi with henchman S.S. Ray drives to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the president’s official residence known as Viceroy’s House during British Imperial Rule, to convey her decision to impose a state of emergency. Indian President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed proves to be a pushover and rubberstamps Gandhi’s decision. The Emergency severely curtails the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights of Indian citizens.
At 10:00 PM, Gandhi informs Sharada Prasad, her principal information officer, Prithvi Nath Dhar, the head of her secretariat, Dev Kant Barooah, the sycophantic president of the Congress Party, and S.S. Ray about the imposition of the Emergency.
At 10:15 PM, Home Minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy reaches his boss Indira Gandhi’s residence. India’s home minister is in charge of internal security and various police forces. Gandhi informs Reddy of her earlier meeting with President Ahmed. Reddy takes 15 minutes to draft minutes of this meeting in which he was not present. He appends a draft proclamation for the president imposing a state of internal emergency on the nation.
A few minutes before midnight, the doormat President Ahmed signs the proclamation drafted by the servile Home Minister Reddy imposing the Emergency on the nation. From now on, the constitution is suspended and so are the rights of citizens. The darkest period in India’s post-independence history begins.
Late that night, the government cuts off power to the areas where major newspapers are located to prevent them from publishing the next morning. For the next two days, newspapers have no power supply.
After midnight, the police begin arresting prominent opposition politicians and important journalists. These “midnight knocks” send chills down the country’s spine.
The Indira Gandhi government emulates totalitarian regimes and locks up prominent journalists. At 1:00 AM, the police raid the Gandhian — the term used to describe those who follow the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, not Indira Gandhi — daily The Motherland that played a historic role in the independence movement. They arrest its editor, Kewalram Ratanmal Malkani (K.R. Malkani). They also raid legendary Gandhian JP’s weekly Everyman. Indira kills the spirit of the Mahatma and tarnishes independent India’s soul.
At 6:00 AM, Indira Gandhi informs her cabinet about the imposition of the Emergency. Now, Gandhi is the de facto dictator of India.
Gandhi claims there is “a deep and widespread conspiracy” against her government. She has exercised indirect control over the press before but now introduces new censorship rules. These are “by far the most stringent in the country’s history, exceeding the measures imposed in any of India’s wars or during the days of British rule.”
Indira and Sanjay Gandhi decide that Inder Kumar Gujral is too “soft” and appoint Vidya Charan Shukla as the minister of information and broadcasting. Note that Sanjay and Shukla had burnt the prints of an inconvenient film earlier. Tall, handsome, arrogant, unctuous and toadyish, Shukla is known as raat ka raja (“king of the night”) for his sexual depravity. He deserves his nicknames: “Indira’s Goebbels” and “Sanjay’s Beria.”
Sanjay’s Beria — Lavrentiy Beria was Soviet Prime Minister Joseph Stalin’s secret police chief who conducted purges, killed thousands of innocents, tortured hundreds and raped innumerable young women — orders the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to spy on politicians, journalists and civil society leaders. The British created IB to keep imperial control of India and Sanjay’s Beria uses IB to enthrone the Nehru–Gandhi dynasty.
All content published by Indian and foreign publications is to be approved by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Vidya Charan Shukla. Indira’s Goebbels decides newspeak, bringing George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, to life in India. Shukla expels legendary BBC journalist Sir Mark Tully from India for refusing to agree to censorship and bars him from entering the country. Shukla gives Tully just 24 hours’ notice.
The government suspends its constitutional obligation to furnish those arrested under the draconian 1971 MISA legislation with the grounds of their detention. Anyone detained under MISA cannot be released on bail or bond. Socialist India now turns Stalinist.
Indira Gandhi launches her 20-Point Program to increase agricultural and industrial production, improve public services and fight poverty and illiteracy, through “the discipline of the graveyard.” A few days later, Sanjay Gandhi launches a Five-Point Program promoting literacy, family planning, tree planting, the eradication of casteism and the abolition of dowry. The family planning initiative becomes notorious for forced sterilization of thousands. Later, the programs of mother and son are combined into a 25-Point Program.
During the early days of the Emergency, some newspapers and magazines publish dailies, weeklies and monthlies with blank spaces to protest censorship. Shukla warns them against doing so. Indira’s wily Goebbels bends India’s press to his will.
Shukla also censors parliamentary proceedings. India’s Goebbels only allows the media to publish government statements. Freedom of speech and the press are suppressed across the country. Autocracy replaces democracy.
Censors ban Aandhi, a film loosely based on Indira Gandhi’s life. Stringent censorship is now a way of life in India. Like the Soviet Union and Communist China, artists must keep one eye on the censors to get past them.
The police arrest Kuldip Nayar, an eminent editor of The Indian Express, a prestigious English newspaper owned by Ramnath Goenka known for its opposition to the Emergency. Goenka is one of India’s most prominent businessmen who is also an MP in the Lok Sabha for Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Nayar is a Gandhian who served as press secretary to Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Nehru’s successor. Shastri died under mysterious circumstances in the Soviet Union immediately after the 1965 India–Pakistan War.
The police arrest Maharani (“Great Queen”) Gayatri Devi when she visits Delhi to attend parliament. This glamorous queen of Jaipur’s royal family is an MP for the Swatantra Party, a center-right pro-free market party started by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Mahatma Gandhi’s comrade-in-arms. Jaipur was one of 562 princely states to accede to independent democratic India in 1947.
The Indira Gandhi government tries to take over the Indian Express Group by appointing government-friendly directors to the board, including industrialist Krishna Kumar Birla. Owner Ramnath Goenka successfully resists this attempt. The government launches investigations against him and threatens to arrest both Goenka’s son and daughter-in-law under MISA.
The Indira Gandhi government retroactively redefines candidacy, government assistance and corruption in elections. This legislation removes the legal grounds for the Raj Narain case. On June 12, 1975, the Allahabad High Court had overturned Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha in this very case.
Both houses of parliament pass the 39th Amendment of the Constitution of India in a single day. It excludes the elections of the president, the vice-president, the prime minister and the speaker of the Lok Sabha from judicial scrutiny. These elections cannot be challenged in court. The amendment also renders pending court proceedings in respect of such elections null and void, securing Indira Gandhi’s position and preventing her removal from office.
The 39th Amendment of the Constitution of India passes all of India’s state legislatures. Certain amendments require an additional ratification from at least half of the state legislatures. By getting all 22 states to approve this amendment, Indira Gandhi demonstrates her complete dominance of Indian politics. Her rubber stamp president gives assent to the hasty amendment, making it the law of the land.
The Supreme Court of India is supposed to begin hearing the Raj Narain case, which disqualified Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha. The speedy 39th Amendment is a nimble political chesspiece that revokes the court’s powers to pronounce on Gandhi’s election.
Rajmata (“Queen Mother”) Vijaya Raje Scindia of the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior telephones the police from her palace to arrest her. Up to this point, Scindia has been traveling and has eluded arrest. She is an opposition leader who has won many terms as a Lok Sabha MP, initially representing the Swatantra Party and now the Bharatiya Jan Sangh.
The police arrest people for celebrating Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday and prevent his grandson, Rajmohan, from entering Raj Ghat, Gandhi’s memorial in Delhi. Gandhi Jayanti (“Gandhi Birth Anniversary”) becomes another dark day for Indian democracy. Among the imprisoned is 86-year-old Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani, popularly known as Acharya Kripalani, one of Gandhi’s closest confidantes. His detention demonstrates that Nehru’s daughter has now buried Gandhi’s legacy six feet under.
The Indira Gandhi government tries to get the Supreme Court of India to overrule the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati judgment. Gandhi’s lackey Ajit Nath Ray constitutes a full bench to review the judgment, which Nani Palkhiwala, one of India’s most eminent jurists, challenges. The jurist convinces all the judges except Ray to uphold the court’s 1973 judgment. Ray resorts to damage control and dissolves the bench.
Ajit Nath Ray leads the Supreme Court of India to validate Indira Gandhi’s election. Led by Gandhi’s lackey, the highest court of the land overrules the Allahabad High Court June 12, 1975 judgment that disqualified the prime minister’s election to the Lok Sabha.
The Indira Gandhi government arrives at a compromise with Ramnath Goenka regarding its appointees on the Indian Express Group. However, authorities are dissatisfied with the newspaper’s cooperation with the government. Harassment of Goenka and his group continues.
The government tries to pack the board of The Statesman, one of India’s most iconic newspapers that strenuously opposes the Emergency. It also attempts to forcibly buy the newspaper. Sudhi Ranjan Das, a retired chief justice of the Supreme Court of India, is the chairman of the board and shepherds the newspaper through this trying time.
After suffering serious illnesses in prison and fearing that she would be poisoned, Gayatri Devi writes to Indira Gandhi, promising to leave politics and to support the prime minister’s 20-Point Program. After this letter, the government releases the queen on parole.
Indira’s Goebbels forces filmstars to promote his leader’s 20-Point Program on state-owned radio and television channels, which enjoy a monopoly in socialist India. The legendary singer and actor Kishore Kumar refuses to cooperate with the government. The government bans his songs from airing on radio or television, and prohibits sales of gramophone records containing his songs. The government also targets Kumar’s films, making public screenings difficult.
The government serves the Opinion, a small independent four-page newsletter, the dreaded “show cause” notice. Rooted in colonial times, this notice asks recipients to provide a satisfactory explanation for their conduct or actions. The government prohibits the press from printing Opinion and the postal department refuses to deliver the newsletter. Opinion shuts down, as do many smaller publications.
Like Gayatri Devi, Kishore Kumar caves and agrees to cooperate with the Indira Gandhi government. Vidya Charan Shukla’s ministry lifts its ban on Kumar even as the Indian Goebbels’s henchmen monitor Kumar’s cooperation.
Braj Kumar Nehru, Indira Gandhi’s uncle, proposes replacing India’s parliamentary democracy with a presidential system. Abdul Rahman Antulay, a notoriously corrupt Congress politician from the western state of Maharashtra, comes up with a formal proposal. Sanjay Gandhi pressures chief ministers of various states to support Antulay’s proposal. State assemblies of the northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab pass resolutions in its favor. Ultimately, the Communist Party of India convinces Indira Gandhi not to proceed further.
The Indira Gandhi government puts into effect the 42nd Amendment, the most significant change to the Constitution of India. It curtails both citizens’ fundamental rights and the power of the courts. Parliament now has unrestrained power to amend any part of the constitution and the Prime Minister’s Office emerges as all-powerful. The amendment changes the preamble and declares India is no longer a “sovereign, democratic republic,” but a “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic.”
Indira Gandhi unexpectedly announces an end to the 21-month-long Emergency, although it officially ends on March 21, 1977. She calls for new parliamentary elections and starts releasing political prisoners.
Rumors and theories still swirl around why Gandhi ended the Emergency. Some believe it was external pressure, others think she genuinely believed she would win the elections after making the notoriously late Indian trains run on time and a few even credit shadowy astrologers. The real reason remains unclear.
Opposition leaders organize a political rally this Sunday evening. The government releases a cult film on Doordarhshan, the state-owned television, to keep people from attending the rally. The government hopes that the 1973 vintage Bobby would prove more interesting than aging leaders giving speeches. Remember, there are no private channels at this time; Doordarshan is the only game in town.
President Ahmed cuts short his official trip to Malaysia because of ill health, canceling his engagements on the last day. Indira Gandhi tries to reach him late at night via telephone, and he reportedly suggests they speak in the morning. Over the next few days, rumors spread in Delhi about Gandhi wanting Ahmed to cancel the elections. Many political observers also fear she might get Ahmed to sign a decree barring anyone arrested under the draconian MISA legislation from contesting the elections.
At 6:00 AM, Abida Ahmed, President Ahmed’s wife, finds him unconscious on the bathroom floor. The staff at the presidential palace rush Ahmed to the hospital, where he is declared dead from a heart attack. Vice President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy succeeds Ahmed to the presidency.
Prominent Bollywood actors such as Dev Anand, Pran, Shatrughan Sinha and Danny Denzongpa participate in a rally supporting JP. Dev Anand’s brother Vijay also participates. Vidya Charan Shukla threatens to arrest them, living up to his “Indira’s Goebbels” nickname.
The government holds elections to the Lok Sabha which, to the surprise of many, are largely free and fair.
The election results arrive. Both Indira and Sanjay Gandhi lose their parliamentary elections to the Lok Sabha. Fortunately for India, Indira Gandhi accepts the results of the elections. The Emergency now officially ends. For the first time, the Congress Party loses power at the national level.
JP and Acharya Kripalani, two venerable Gandhians and veterans of the freedom struggle against the British, lead newly elected MPs to Raj Ghat, the place where the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi were laid. They administer a pledge to these MPs to continue the work of the father of the Indian nation and honestly serve the people.
A new government takes charge. Led by Morarji Desai, this is a Janata Party (“People’s Party”) government, which is a ragtag coalition of different opposition parties pulling in different directions. This coalition implodes within three years and fails to last the full parliamentary five-year term. In January 1980, Indira Gandhi wins the elections and returns to the prime ministerial office.
During the Emergency, the Indira Gandhi government arrested approximately 110,000 people. During this 21-month period, India became an autocracy, rule of law was suspended and civil liberties ceased. Sanjay Gandhi, who held no constitutional position, ordered government officials to conduct over ten million sterilizations to control India’s fast-growing population. The Emergency remains the darkest time in independent India’s history.
Credits
Researched and written by Vikram M. Malkani, Atul Singh and Lee Thompson-Kolar
Produced by Khemraj Singh and Netleon Technologies Team
Sources: PMO Diary - I: Prelude to the Emergency (2003), B.N. Tandon
The Emergency - A Personal History (2015), Coomi Kapoor
My Country My Life (2008), L.K. Advani
The Hindu, The Indian Express, Oxford University Research Archive, Business Standard, The New York Times and various credible websites
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Creative Commons