The Story of the Emergency: Explained

On June 25, India marked fifty years since the start of the Emergency, a significant 21-month period from 1975 to 1977. During this time, civil liberties were suspended, press freedom was restricted, many were arrested, elections were canceled, and the government ruled by decree. The Indian Express strongly opposed the Emergency, which is remembered as a dark period in India’s modern history with lasting effects on its politics.

The Emergency lasted from June 25, 1975, to March 21, 1977. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government used special constitutional provisions to enforce extensive executive and legislative measures across the country.

Most opposition leaders were jailed, and fundamental rights, including freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a), were restricted, leading to press censorship.

The declaration of Emergency effectively turned India’s federal structure into a unitary one, with the central government gaining control over state governments. Parliament could extend the Lok Sabha’s term by a year, make laws on state subjects, and extend the Union’s executive powers to the states. The President could also modify constitutional provisions regarding financial resource allocation between the Union and states with parliamentary approval.

Legal and Constitutional Basis for the Emergency

Under Article 352 of the Constitution, the President can declare an emergency on the Prime Minister’s advice if India’s security is threatened by war, external aggression, or armed rebellion. In 1975, the government used the ground of “internal disturbance” to declare the Emergency, citing that certain individuals were inciting the police and armed forces to disobey orders, referring to Jayaprakash Narayan’s call to the police to ignore “immoral” orders.

This was the only time an emergency was declared due to “internal disturbance.” Previous emergencies in 1962 and 1971 were due to war. The Janata government, which came to power after the Emergency, removed “internal disturbance” as a ground for declaring an emergency through the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978.

Article 358 removes all limitations imposed by Article 19 (“Right to freedom”) during an emergency. Article 359 allows the President to suspend the right to move court for enforcing rights during an emergency.

Political and Social Circumstances Leading to the Emergency

In early 1974, a student movement called Navnirman began in Gujarat against the Congress government of Chimanbhai Patel, seen as corrupt. The protests turned violent, leading to Patel’s resignation and the imposition of President’s Rule.

Navnirman inspired a similar movement in Bihar against corruption and poor governance. The ABVP and socialist organizations formed the Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti. On March 18, 1974, students marched to the state Assembly, resulting in arson and the death of three students in police action. They asked Jayaprakash Narayan, a Gandhian and Quit India Movement hero, to lead them. He agreed on the conditions that the movement would be non-violent, pan-Indian, and aimed at eradicating corruption and misgovernance. This movement became known as the “JP movement.”

In May 1974, socialist leader George Fernandes led a massive railway workers’ strike, paralyzing the Indian Railways for three weeks.

On June 5, during a speech in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, JP called for “Sampoorna Kranti” or total revolution. He toured Bihar in August and was injured in a police lathicharge in November. By the end of the year, he had received support letters from across India and convened a meeting of opposition parties in Delhi.

In early 1975, JP traveled across the country, addressing large rallies. On March 6, he spoke at a massive rally at Boat Club in Delhi, and on March 18, he held another rally in Patna. His rallies invoked the power of the people with the slogan, “Sinhasan khaali karo, ke janata aati hai” (Vacate the throne, for the people are coming).

The Declaration of Emergency

On June 12, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of Allahabad High Court convicted Indira Gandhi of electoral malpractice and invalidated her election from Rae Bareli. The Supreme Court partially relieved her, allowing her to attend Parliament but not vote.

As demands for her resignation grew, JP urged the police to ignore immoral orders. Late on June 25, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signed the Emergency proclamation. Power was cut off to Delhi’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, where most newspapers had their offices. The Cabinet was informed the next morning, and people learned about the Emergency from Indira’s address on All India Radio.

Impact on Opposition Leaders, Media, and Political Dissenters

Almost all opposition leaders, including JP, were detained. About 36,000 people were jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).

Newspapers faced pre-censorship. UNI and PTI were merged into a state-controlled agency called Samachar, and the Press Council was abolished. Over 250 journalists, including Kuldip Nayar of The Indian Express, were jailed. While most newspapers complied, some, like The Indian Express, resisted, fought the regulations in court, and printed blank spaces when their stories were censored. The Indian Express proprietor Ramnath Goenka led the resistance of the Fourth Estate.

Indira’s son Sanjay Gandhi pushed a “five-point programme” that included forced family planning and slum clearance. In April 1976, bulldozers cleared slums near Turkman Gate in Delhi, leading to police firing and many deaths. Sanjay set family planning targets, resulting in forced sterilizations. On October 18, 1976, police fired on protesters against forced sterilizations in Muzaffarnagar, UP, killing 50.

Legal Changes During the Emergency

With the opposition in jail, Parliament passed the Constitution (Thirty-eighth Amendment) Act, barring judicial review of the Emergency, and the Constitution (Thirty-ninth Amendment) Act, making the Prime Minister’s election unchallengeable in the Supreme Court.

The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act made extensive changes, removing the judiciary’s right to hear election petitions, expanding the Union’s authority over state subjects, giving Parliament unchecked power to amend the Constitution without judicial review, and making laws to implement directive principles immune to judicial review.

In the ADM Jabalpur vs Shivkant Shukla case of 1976, a five-judge Supreme Court Bench ruled that detention without trial was legal during an emergency, with Justice H R Khanna as the sole dissenter.

Lifting the Emergency and Its Aftermath

For reasons not entirely clear, Indira decided to lift the Emergency early in 1977. Historian Ramachandra Guha suggested various theories: IB reports convinced her she would win the elections, she wanted to match similar actions by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan, or she missed connecting with the common people.

The 1977 elections resulted in a significant defeat for Indira. The Janata Party, formed by merging the Jana Sangh, Congress (O), socialists, and Bharatiya Lok Dal, emerged as a strong force, and Morarji Desai became India’s first non-Congress Prime Minister.

Efforts to Undo the Emergency’s Damage

The Janata government reversed many constitutional changes made by the 42nd Amendment Act of 1976. It did not eliminate the emergency provision but made it difficult to impose in the future. Judicial review of an emergency proclamation was reinstated, and every proclamation had to be approved by both Houses of Parliament within a month by a special majority.

The 44th Amendment removed “internal disturbance” as a ground for declaring an emergency, leaving only armed rebellion, war, and external aggression as valid grounds. However, the 44th Amendment retained the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ in the Preamble, added by the 42nd Amendment.

The Shah Commission, set up by the Janata government to investigate the Emergency’s imposition and its adverse effects, submitted a damning report, finding the decision unilateral and harmful to civil liberties.

The Emergency’s Impact on Indian Politics

The Janata experiment gave India its first non-Congress government, but its collapse showed the limits of anti-Congressism. The Emergency produced a generation of young leaders who would dominate politics for decades, including Lalu Prasad Yadav, George Fernandes, Arun Jaitley, and Ram Vilas Paswan.

The post-Emergency Parliament saw the convergence of social forces behind the Jana Sangh and socialists, increasing OBC representation in Parliament. The Janata government appointed the Mandal Commission to examine OBC quotas, leading to the irreversible rise of OBCs in North India.

The Emergency became a lesson in how not to conduct democratic politics. It damaged the Congress’ reputation as a champion of civil liberties. The term “Emergency mindset” remains in political discourse, with critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi sometimes referring to his government as an “undeclared Emergency.”