The Crisis of Democratic Order

This chapter follows the gravest test of Indian democracy after Independence: the economic distress and mass protests of 1973 to 1975, the Emergency declared in June 1975, and the 1977 elections that removed the Congress from power at the centre for the first time.

The chapter has three parts. Background to Emergency explains how rising prices, unemployment and drought fed the Gujarat and Bihar movements and the 1974 Railway Strike, while the government clashed with the judiciary, ending with the Allahabad High Court judgment of June 1975 against Indira Gandhi's election. Declaration of Emergency describes the proclamation of 25 June 1975 under Article 352, its consequences for civil liberties, the press and the courts, and the lessons India drew from it. Politics after Emergency covers the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, the short-lived Janata Government, and the lasting legacy of the period for Indian democracy.

The Crisis of Democratic Order: What the Chapter Covers

The chapter studies a period when India's democratic institutions came under severe strain and then recovered. Its lessons move in time order, from the causes of the crisis to the Emergency itself and on to its political aftermath.

6.1 Background to Emergency

After its sweeping victory of 1971 on the slogan of garibi hatao, the Congress government under Indira Gandhi faced mounting discontent. This part has four lessons.

• Economic context: The Bangladesh crisis and the 1971 war strained the economy, oil prices rose sharply in 1973, and prices increased by 23 per cent in 1973 and 30 per cent in 1974. Industrial growth was low, unemployment grew, especially in rural areas, and failed monsoons hit food production.
• Gujarat and Bihar movements: Students in Gujarat began an agitation in January 1974 against rising prices and corruption, which led to President's rule and, in June 1975, to assembly elections that the Congress lost. In Bihar, students began protesting in March 1974 and invited Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) to lead them; he called for a Total Revolution and led a huge march to Parliament in 1975.
• Railway Strike of 1974: A nationwide strike by railway employees, led by George Fernandes, over bonus and service conditions was declared illegal and was called off after twenty days without a settlement.
• Conflict with Judiciary: Parliament and the courts disagreed over Parliament's power to amend fundamental rights. In 1973 the Kesavananda Bharati case held that the basic structure of the Constitution cannot be amended, and the government appointed A.N. Ray Chief Justice by setting aside three senior judges. On 12 June 1975, Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court declared Indira Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha invalid, on a petition filed by Raj Narain.

6.2 Declaration of Emergency

• Crisis and response: On 24 June 1975 the Supreme Court gave only a partial stay of the High Court order. On 25 June, JP called for nationwide protests demanding her resignation. That night the government declared a threat of internal disturbance and invoked Article 352. Opposition leaders were arrested, and the Cabinet was informed only the next morning.
• Consequences: Protests and strikes were banned, fundamental rights were suspended, the press faced censorship, and organisations such as the RSS and Jamaat-e-Islami were banned. Thousands were held under preventive detention, and in April 1976 the Supreme Court accepted the government's position that citizens could not approach the courts to protect their right to life and liberty during the Emergency. The 42nd Amendment, among many changes, extended the term of the legislatures from five to six years. There were also reports of excesses such as forced sterilisation and slum demolitions, later examined by the Shah Commission.
• Lessons of the Emergency: The period showed both how easily rights can be suspended and how hard it is to end democracy in India. The 44th Amendment later allowed an internal emergency only on grounds of armed rebellion and only on the written advice of the Union Cabinet, and citizens and courts became far more alert to civil liberties.

6.3 Politics after Emergency

• Lok Sabha Elections, 1977: Elections were announced in January 1977. The opposition united as the Janata Party, which with its allies won 330 of 542 seats, while the Congress fell to 154 seats and less than 35 per cent of the vote. For the first time, a non-Congress government took office at the centre.
• Janata Government: Morarji Desai became Prime Minister, but rivalry among leaders such as Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram, and the lack of a common programme, broke the government apart. Charan Singh's government that followed also fell, and in the January 1980 elections the Congress under Indira Gandhi returned with 353 seats.
• Legacy: The period ended the idea that the Congress could not be defeated at the centre, made civil liberties a lasting public concern, and showed that Indian voters would punish the suspension of democracy and also an unstable alternative.