1975 Emergency

Derailment of Democracy

Swapan Dasgupta

The declaration of Emergency by Indira Gandhi on June 26, 1975

Remains of the Darkness

The Emergency was a black chapter in India’s post-Independence history which has mercifully not been repeated. The curtailment of Article 352 and the proactive role of the constitutional courts in protecting the ‘basic structure' of the Constitution have prevented political overreach

“Democracy Was Placed Under Arrest”

Open

Marking the 50th anniversary of the imposition of Emergency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described it as a “dark chapter” (1975-1977) when “the spirit of the Constitution was completely violated.”

A childhood memory of Emergency in our ancestral home in Kannur

Ullekh NP

My earliest idea of Emergency was this: that my father, who had an arrest warrant under MISA, must not be seen eating lunch in the bedroom

Indira’s India

Siddharth Singh

Understanding the volatility of her prime ministership

Abu Abraham: Drawing the Line

Ullekh NP

The cartoons of Abu Abraham savaged the pieties and pretences of politics. An exhibition brings back the originality with which he captured an era

Framing India

Neelabh Raj

Raghu Rai’s pre-digital photographs capture the everyday and the extraordinary

12 June 1975: The Day That Changed India, Shook Indira

Ravi Visvesvaraya Sharada Prasad

How the events of 12 June 1975 launched a political revolution

Why Did Indira Gandhi Call for Elections in January 1977?

Ravi Visvesvaraya Sharada Prasad

The author, whose father HY Sharada Prasad was Information advisor to Indira Gandhi, examines the likely reasons why she relaxed the Emergency and called for elections