Flattened homes, forced sterilisation: Turkman Gate residents recall horrors of the Emergency

Evictions, gunfire and exile—residents reflect on moment that changed their lives forever

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NEW DELHI: In Turkman Gate, the past still walks the narrow alleys. Fifty years after the Emergency, the memories live on — of their homes being razed, their families scattered overnight, and forced sterilisation drives carried out in the name of progress.

For many families in Old Delhi, the Emergency declared by then prime minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975 was not an abstract political moment but a violent rupture in everyday life. It was about fear, chaos and the heartbreak of losing everything, coming wrapped in an official order.

Mehru Nisha, now 74, still shudders remembering the day the demolition squad came.

"They did not give us any warning," she said, adding that her husband tried to stop them but he was shot in the leg. "He collapsed right in front of our house as they brought it down," Nisha recalled.

Even though her husband was injured, she and her children were taken to Nand Nagri.

"I had no idea how he was doing; he stayed in a mosque near Turkman Gate for 15 months, as he could not walk and had nowhere else to go. I sold my jewellery just to feed my children," Nisha said.

Nand Nagri, in those days, was little more than open land.