The Emergency emerges from the dusty files...

The Emergency emerges from the dusty files…


The voice of the voiceless, the immense discomfort and the gurgling rage gets restricted in the silent stutter of the constrained souls. They grunt, they gripe, their eyeballs almost pop out of their sockets in a lame attempt to get their voice heard. But there is vacuum everywhere. They cannot listen to their own shrieks; they can only look at their throbbing veins and the futile tears leaving an evaporating coolness-the only consolation-the possession of personal tragedy. For centuries, people, to whom injustice has been meted out, have been concealing this self of theirs. They come out in sudden snatches of idiosyncrasies when they question their own existence…what is the purpose of this life? Why has it happened?

The Indian Emergency [25th June 1975–21st March 1977] was a 21-month period, when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties. This is one of the most controversial periods of Indian history. The opponents, mainly the Janata Dal, under the leadership of Jaiprakash narayan, rubbished the Congress victory of the 1971 elections,as being won by fraudulent practices. Jaiprakash Narayan started an agitation in Bihar protesting against the Central government through satyagrahas. Under his initiative, people ceased to cooperate with the government directives and revolted against the government. This minor agitation was attempted to be quelled by the iron grip of the emergency period, so as not to take the shape of a nationwide movement.

Emma Tarlo’s “Narratives of Emergency” spotlights on the long lost and the blood smeared history of the period as she steals a look behind the rusty cupboards where the unheard and uncared for voices are dugged in dusty files.They haver been silenced by long years of negligence and concealment by the authorities. The unsettling memories can be comprehended once the accounts are read through. The book is a document of the terrible insecurity of the victims of the emergency, muted and blinded by the Government who tried and succeded in shoving the incidents under the realm of insignificance. The actual scene was not projected to the world. The state ensured the regulation of the public memory and many a witnesses were gagged and strangled by the fear of worse consequences.
The book holds up the true picture of the injustice and the wickedness of pseudo-democracy prevailing in that period. The government tried its best to underplay and pass off the incidents as brief “moments of madness”.

Under the veneer of a grand 20-point plan which had its share of discrepancies, attrocities were rampant. Ms. Gandhi started dislocation and relocation of slums in order to “beautify” the capital. Under the sword of her mother’s dictatorship, Sanjay gandhi also started compulsory vasectomy against the will of the people. Those who revolted were mercilessly beaten up.Terror ruled everywhere. Women were raped, shops were looted.All these mayhem caused much discomfort and disturbance to the common people who were shaken beyond their belief. Violence took the shape of a necessary ritual and upheld the alibi of its cause to move forward a society. This shattered the image of India being an essentially non-violent country.The much propagated “clean up” drive was more aimed at sweeping the poor to the outskirts of the capital so as to “beautify” it. This enforced localisation was a serious constraint for the people.

The state took a backseat during the procedings.. Corruption was rampant ; bribery and red-tapism prevailed everywhere. It is alleged the Indian “Hitler” even put the corrupt officials to high posts.Emma Tarlo, as an anthropologist, pierces through the documents as “evidences” and not mere “paper truths”. She stumbles upon the recorded monstrosity of facts from where emanates the soft silent sad music of human existence and thread between the individuals who share the common sentiments of pain. Emma records how the resettlement colony of “Welcome” soon turned into a den of criminals and all sorts of unsocial activities began to take place following the lack of adequate attention.The dearth of human kindness was felt everywhere.

Indira Gandhi, in her public speech, sounded artificially grandiose in stating that she was arresting people for the betterment of the country.and termed it as “necessary”. She pledged to reprimand the groups wedded to terror and murder. Press censorship was implemented and it invited the ire of journalists and eminent thinkers all over. It sent waves of protest as the press was gagged from voicing out any anti-government opinions. Journalists were jailed and seriously threatened. There are records of journalists killed during the emergency. The police was perceived everywhere as the mafia of the country, chucking tear gas shells everywhere and beating up protestors mercilessly. When asked, the uniformed figures had only one thing to say- they were only following orders.

Thus, the period of Emergency is a serious blot on India’s democratic record. The government fed on the carcasses of innocent thousands to maintain power and dominance. The story of people’s suffering is brought forward poignantly by the book and it opens the dam of the sorrow and lays bare the inhuman treatment by the government and the irreparable damages made to the people. Emma Tarlo embarks on a nostalgic journey to the past and discovers a whole new space of suffering souls, till now silenced by oppression and negligence. The book opens up a tunnel of soulless existence and portrays the picture of a helpless present looking back at a terrible past and staring at a bleak future.