In Rare Photographs: A Visual Journey Through India During The National Emergency

Remember, remember not the Fifth of November but our own gunpowder, treason and plot. We see of no reason why this censored out season should ever be forgot.

[25th June marks the 40th Anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s declaration of an internal Emergency.What happened at Turkman Gate? How many countless lives were lost and destroyed by forced sterilisation? Who ultimately was the figurehead running India then? The deeply censored and scarcely talked about event has been clouded under a veil. Until now.]

“The more you leave out, the more you highlight what you leave in.”

― Henry Green

Lensed imagery offers us a portal into other times that might have otherwise been wholly inaccessible to us. With the Indian National Emergency, documentation was scarce and photographs - especially those found to be incriminating - were kept under close tabs. We combed through the photos that successfully crossed over into the digital age to curate a selection that best conveyed the essence of the emergency - the urgency, the secrecy and, at the centre of it all, the towering personality who was behind its imposition: the iron lady of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

Come embark upon a visual journey through one of the most intriguing and devastating times in Indian history:

Indira Gandhi, India’s first female Prime Minister, was a force to reckon with. 

The National Emergency is declared: the front page of the Indian Herald on June 26th 1975. 

Ministers fold their hands before the ‘one man government’. 

Mrs. Gandhi declares Emergency from AIR studios on June 26, 1975.

 George Fernandes, then Union Minister for Industry, addresses railway employees in New Delhi in May, 1979. The Socialist labour leader sought funding from the CIA & the French government during the Emergency to organise sabotage activities. 

Men register their names for vasectomy at Dujana House Family Planning Clinic in Old Delhi, 6 Sep, 1976.

Sterilised men are given ghee and clocks as rewards for undergoing vasectomy. At Dujana House 6 Sept, 1976.

Press interview of Indira Gandhi arranged by the National Broadcasting Corporation, 20 August 1975.

Resistance cartoon by R.K. Laxman, December 1976. Reproduced from Satyavani, an underground newspaper published in New York and London during the Emergency.

Delhi for foreign dignitaries: Jagmohan, Vice Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority flanked by Margaret and Denis Thatcher, visiting a DDA housing project, 24 September 1976.

Janata Party Prime Minister Morarji Desai lays the foundation-stone of the new housing complex to be built at Turkman Gate, 19 Jan 1977.

Man behind the mess: Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency on the advice of Siddhartha Shankar Ray, the then West Bengal Chief Minister. 

Speech breach: Many Congress leaders slammed C. Subramaniam for taking a harsh stand against Indira while deposing before the Shah Commission.

Kamal Nath was the first person to tell Mukherjee that he might be made a cabinet minister.

Pranab Mukherjee (centre) with former president Neelam Sanjiva Reddy and Indira Gandhi.

[caption id=”attachment_29739” align=”aligncenter” width=”607”] Image & Caption Source: week.manoramaonline.com[/caption]

Total revolutionary: The police beat Jayaprakash Narayan, who - according to Mukherjee - was above petty politics.

Presiding, not deciding, officer: In March 1980, the opposition tried to pressure M. Hidayatullah, who was vice president from 1979 to 1984, to make the government yield to a discussion on a resolution. As the situation turned chaotic, Pranab Mukherjee, who was leader of the house, asserted that government business was priority.

President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who declared the Emergency.

Kasu Brahmananda Reddy (centre), the home minister who signed a letter seeking the president’s assent for imposing internal emergency, with Maharashtra Congress leaders in 1977.

It was Pranab Mukherjee who gave Bangla Congress founder Ajoy Mukherjee the idea to form a united front against the Congress in the 1960s.

Friend turned foe : Mukherjee says many Congress leaders such as Y.B. Chavan (featured in the image) had not dared to utter a word against Indira Gandhi when she was in power, and were the first to abuse her the moment she was out of office.

Want to read more riveting stories from the period? Check out our entire series on the Indian Emergency of ‘75 - ‘77 here.