A list of books documenting Emergency in India — its excesses and consequences

The Hindu

25-06-2025

On June 25, 1975, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon the request by the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a National Emergency under Article 352 citing 'internal disturbance.' The Emergency, which ended on March 21, 1977, made significant changes to India's social and political fabric. Since then, historians, politicians, authors, and journalists alike have documented life during this 21-month period and its consequences.
We have compiled a list of books that will help you understand the developments of the period and how it continues to make its impact felt in the current political climate:
'The Dramatic Decade: Declaration of the Emergency' by Pranab Mukherjee
This is an insider account of the turbulent months by former President Pranab Mukherjee. Mukherjee recounts how he was informed about the declaration of Emergency the morning of his Rajya Sabha election and how there were rumours rife about Prime Minister Indira Gandhi abrogating the Constitution. He notes his role in putting the conspiracies to rest and in the process reveals a widely held belief in the political circles that Siddhartha Shankar Ray, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, played an important role in the decision to declare the Emergency.
He also mentions an instance when Indira Gandhi, after the declaration told him that she was not even aware of the constitutional provisions allowing for the declaration of a state of Emergency on grounds of internal disturbance.
An extract from the book can be read here.
'An Education for Rita: A Memoir — 1975-1985' by Brinda Karat
There are many reasons why Brinda Karat's memoir, An Education for Rita, is an eye opener: it sets chronology in place, couched in stories of the people, mill workers, in the slums of Delhi, in its crooked bylanes, at the factory gates, in conspiracies and union victories, small and big. The memoir that spans only 10 years becomes infinitely more interesting as it is set in August 1975, merely two months after Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency.
Read Ramya Kannan's review of the book here.
'Emergency Chronicles — Indira Gandhi and Democracy's Turning Point' by Gyan Prakash
Straying away from typical historical retellings, historian Gyan Prakash, in this seminal and vivid inquiry, explores the question: how dead was democracy during the 21-month-long Emergency? Nothing in Emergency Chronicles is unconnected to the larger drift of history. Prakash weaves in cinema, novels, urban planning, law-making, and political biographies of before and after the Emergency to locate these 21 months in the longer story of the nation.
Mini Kapoor's review of the book can be accessed here.
'The Paradox of Populism: The Indira Gandhi Years, 1966-1977' by Suhit K. Sen
Historian Suhit K. Sen traces the downfall of the hegemony that the Congress party system had maintained in the decade after the formation of the Indian Republic. Emergency, Sen argues, was a much more radical departure from the playbook of Gandhi's politics than is often assumed. In this sense, Sen seeks to highlight process above personality. His use of extensive archival material and intricate analysis is an important contribution to the study of modern political processes, a foundational work on the Indira Gandhi years, in particular.
Refer to Janam Mukherjee's review here.
'Emergency, Constitution and Democracy: An Indian Experience' by N.M. Ghatate
This book scrutinises the nature of the constitutional power that enables the executive to declare a state of national emergency. It gives a detailed account of the Emergency provisions in the Constitution and other features that permit arbitrary use of discretionary powers. It also touches on legislations that arm the executive with sweeping powers of detention without trial.
The book is mainly of academic interest and in the absence of any trend that indicates that governments are inclined towards invoking the Emergency provisions. Here is the review of the book.
'Shah Commission Report — Lost, and Regained' compiled and edited by Era Sezhiyan
The Shah Commission, set up to go into the various kinds of 'excesses' committed during the Emergency, submitted its report in three parts, the last one on August 6, 1978. The report, with 26 chapters and three appendices, ran to over 530 pages and was reportedly 'lost' after Indira Gandhi's return to power in 1980, indicating that the old totalitarian instinct was still in place.
In 'regaining' the report and publishing it, Era Sezhiyan has ensured that an important document related to one of the aberrant phases of Indian democracy is not lost to posterity, especially to the students of the Indian political system, writes B. Surendra Rao in his review.