A Window Into the Indian Emergency | The Struggle Within

Told through the experiences of ‘Arjun’ – author Ashok Chakravarti’s alias during his time as part of an underground movement against the Emergency, The Struggle Within reveals Arjun’s own struggle about his identity, and how he realizes he can give his life meaning by contributing to the greater social good. Read an excerpt:

The decade of 1967 to 1977 was one of the most turbulent in the history of post-Independence India. During this period, the future of India’s democracy was on a knife-edge. Prior to the 1970s, the resilience of the political institutions established under the Constitution had never been tested. In all the elections held since Independence, the Congress Party had won comfortable majorities. Then, in 1969, the Congress Party split and Indira Gandhi was expelled from its ranks. Not to be deterred, Mrs Gandhi declared ‘Garibi Hatao’ (Eliminate Poverty) as her splinter group’s slogan, and won a landslide victory in the March 1971 elections. However, this was a pyrrhic win. The economy had been performing poorly for over a decade, and the situation was dire. Inflation was skyrocketing. Poverty and unemployment were rife, and the country was in a state of turmoil. Strikes, demonstrations and agrarian unrest were the order of the day. Inspired by the peasant revolt in Naxalbari in 1967, the landless and poor in West Bengal, Bihar and other states had begun attacking landlords and taking over their estates. In the urban areas, there were regular protests by students and workers, resulting in violence and police firings. In 1973, the Provincial Armed Constabulary of Uttar Pradesh revolted and the army had to be called to suppress this mutiny. It was in this environment that in early 1973, a group of idealistic left-wing political activists based in Delhi decided to form a group. Their objective was to participate in the ongoing struggles of workers and peasants in the country, and eventually bring about revolutionary change in India. Initially, they mobilized and participated in the workers’ movement in and around the capital city. This included strikes by textile workers; by the Harijan sweepers and cleaners or safai karamcharis of the municipal corporation, as they were called; and the all-India railway strike of 1974. The latter almost brought the whole country to a standstill. However, the state of Emergency declared on 26 June 1975, and the suspension of democratic rights guaranteed under the Constitution, deflected them from their purpose. The goal of a socialist revolution was set aside for the time being, and they redirected their energies towards the more immediate task of the restoration of democratic rights in the country. This book is an account of their struggle against the regime of Mrs Indira Gandhi, who tried to impose a dictatorship on the people of India. The story is told through the eyes of Arjun, one of the political activists. Arjun was my incognito name while I was part of the underground movement during this period. The Emergency lasted from June 1975 to March 1977. It was post-Independence India’s darkest hour. Over 150,000 people were arrested and kept in prison, without trial, for almost two years. The number of people killed in police firings or eliminated in prisons is unknown, but could well run into the thousands. Eleven million men and women were subjected to forcible family planning, including vasectomies, tubectomies and other forms of sterilization. The heroes of the Emergency were many – mostly unknown – who were beaten, tortured or killed in fake encounters, in prison cells, or elsewhere, fighting against the dictatorship. A few of them are part of this story. The villains and their henchmen are well known. Mrs Gandhi, her son Sanjay Gandhi, and their coterie, who were the forces behind the Emergency, were eventually defeated in the elections of March 1977 by a united front of the people of India led by Jayaprakash Narayan and a broad coalition of opposition political parties.