Political and economic roots of the Emergency

Not just political hubris but also economic mismanagement contributed to the making of this dark chapter in India's history

- Pramit Bhattacharya

June 25, 2025, will mark the 50th anniversary of one of the darkest chapters in India's history. A 21-month-long Emergency began that day, under which civil liberties were suspended, elections were cancelled, and the press was censored.

The immediate provocation was a high court judgment on June 12, 1975, that held then Prime Minister (PM) Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractice. It set aside her election to the Lok Sabha in 1971. The judgment came at a time when a wide swathe of India's Opposition parties and civil society groups were agitating against the Indira-led Congress regime.

Slowing industrial growth, growing joblessness, and sky-high prices bred resentment against the ruling regime in the mid-1970s. The Opposition sought to harvest that resentment by rallying behind the charismatic figure of Jayaprakash Narayan. JP, as he was popularly known, gave a call for sampoorn kranti (total revolution) in 1974 to cleanse Indian politics of corruption, and to bring an end to inflation.

Indira Gandhi's refusal to resign immediately after the high court judgment put her in JP's crosshairs. At a rally of Opposition parties held at the Ramlila Maidan on June 25, 1975, JP declared that the time had come for a new civil disobedience movement against the Indira-led regime. He asked the Army, police, and government officials not to obey orders that they considered wrong, and dared the government to try him for treason.