In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it. John F. Kennedy at his inaugural address, January 20, 1961 Men do not lose their rights; they simply give them away.
Democracy, Independence of the judiciary and fundamental rights are not in dangerPrime Minister Indira Gandhi in a letter to Jayaprakash Narayan on 9th June 1973. National Emergency imposed, fundamental rights suspended, Judiciary made subservientJune 25, 1975, to March 21, 1977, by same Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
The night of intervening June 25 and June 26 lives in infamy for ever for the Republic of Bharat because it was that night exactly 50 years ago when Mrs. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of Bharat declared a national Emergency and threw in prisons leaders of all opposition parties, volunteers of RSS and thousands of others who were deemed a threat to her hold on power.
Fundamental right to life and liberty was suspended and Media was silenced with draconian Censorship, judges who showed independent streak were transferred to remote places and Supreme Court and parliament became mere rubber stamps.
How could this happen so suddenly and so fast to a nation of 611 million people that had enjoyed democracy for 28 years?
While I will dwell into it briefly, my objective in authoring this article is to highlight contribution of NRIs from USA in fighting the Emergency Rule. Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister upon sudden death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1965. She was at odds with senior members of Congress Party as she was not a big fan of internal democracy.
Their friction came to a head in November 1969 when she was expelled from the party. She divided Congress and her faction, then known as Congress (R)- R for Ruling, was born. Later it was renamed as Congress (I)- I for Indira, reaffirming Indira’s cultish tendency. Those seeds of cult-personality have grown into a full-fledged tree in which Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka are treated like God by the Congress party not withstanding their disastrous performance from election to election for last eleven years. Blind followers of Congress Party hail their anti-national and anti-Hindu stand. We must thank Indira Gandhi for this gift to the nation.
Writers of Indira’s biographies and people close to her have described Indira Gandhi as an unsecure person. However, she was as cunning as they come. She outmaneuvered all opponents in the party over a period of time using her ability to create rift amongst her detractors. Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966 and won elections in 1967 and 1971. In 1971 the Congress Party won 352 out of 518 Lok Sabha seats, a 68% majority. Her popularity started fading fast as none of her poll promises were kept. There was uncontrolled inflation and her twenty-points program that included removal of poverty and Improvement in healthcare and education was a flop. Corruption and bribery had become a norm.
There was famous Nagarwala case where it was alleged that on May 24, 1971, Indira Gandhi had called up State Bank of India, Delhi and asked for Rs. Six million (Rs. 300 million in 2025) in cash to be given to her emissary for a national security project (presumably related to impending war to create Bangladesh). Though there was no clinching proof and one Rustom Nagarwala was convicted of impersonating Indira Gandhi’s voice and swindling the bank. However, case was prosecuted with ultra-high speed and chief investigating officer D. K. Kashyap died in a mysterious car accident. Nagarwala’s death in a hospital where Tihar jail authority had brought him for heart
ailment added to rumors. All these didn’t help Indira Gandhi politically.
Indira Gandhi’s political troubles worsened when her Railway Minister, Lalit Narayan Mishra, a popular leader from Bihar died in a bomb blast as he was participating in inauguration of a new railway line in Samastipur, Bihar on January 2, 1975. It was rumored that this was a political assassination which had connections with Russia’s KGB’s bribes to some politicians in Bharat. A students movement named Nav Nirman (new creation) in states of Bihar and Gujarat had started. It had blessings of Jayaprakash Narayan, leader of Janata Morcha, Students organized strikes and protests against Indira Gandhi and her government. The movement was also called “JP movement”
as Jayaprakash Narayan was popularly known as JP. The movement opposed poor governance and corruption, first at the state level and then the national.
While Indira was facing mounting problems of popular discontent, there was a bolt from the blue. Indira Gandhi’s electoral opponent in the 1971 election for the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh, Raj Narain had filed a case in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) High Court against Indira Gandhi alleging that she had used bribery and illegal means such as using government employees as her election agents to win the election. On June 12, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha found Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices and declared her election null and void. He also barred her from holding any elected office for six years. The court order gave the Congress (R) twenty days to make arrangements to replace Gandhi in her official posts.
The Supreme Court didn’t give her any relief. The Supreme Court allowed Mrs. Gandhi to continue as prime minister, but the privileges she received as a member of parliament would be discontinued, and she would not be allowed to vote. There were strident demands for Indira Gandhi to resign.
Congress supporters took to street demonstration against the high court’s verdict. Ever dutiful servant Times Of India termed court’s decision as firing the Prime Minister for a traffic ticket.
Indira Gandhi, true to Nehru-Gandhi family’s character, didn’t want to lose her hold on the seat of power. Constitutionally, cabinet of ministers has to discuss and approve a bill or a declaration which is then sent to the President of Bharat who may sign it or send it back to the cabinet for further deliberations. Indira Gandhi, who cared a hoot for the legal niceties didn’t consult her cabinet but forced President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to sign and declare a state of emergency throughout the country on the intervening night of June 25 and June 26, 1975. For Indira’s cabinet this was a fait accompli as it came to know of this declaration only next morning and meekly ratified it.
Jayaprakash Narayan, leader of the movement, was woken up and arrested in the middle of the night and arrested. He uttered prophetic words, वनाशकाले वप रत बुिध्घ , that is, “As (one’s) doom approaches, (the person’s) intellect works against (his/her) best interest. This was proven by subsequent events, including Indira’s and Rajiv Gandhi’s assassinations and her Congress party’s decimation in national and state elections.
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was party to several constitutional amendments and decrees during the emergency period to benefit Indira personally and snuff out democracy. He, president of the nation was lampooned as a “rubber stamp” president. He didn’t live to see end of the emergency and died in office in February 1977.
That the emergency was draconian is a known fact. In its 19 months duration, more than 100,000 people from all social classes were imprisoned. Some of them died in prison. A social activist and actress-producer Snehlata Reddy was imprisoned for eight months. She was a patient of asthma. She was not allowed treatment in prison and only when she was near death she was released on parole on January 15, 1977. She died five days later. My own brother-in-law (my wife’s sister’s husband), Jagdishchandra Dholakia, a doctor in Jamnagar, Gujarat and president of local Vishwa Hindu Parishad and his aged father, a doctor and RSS functionary were picked up and put behind bars. While his father was later released on health grounds, Jagdishchandra was moved to a prison in Amdavad which is about two hundred miles away from Jamnagar.
During Indira Gandhi’s dictatorship, there was an extra-constitutional power center in the name of her younger son, Sanjay Gandhi. Sanjay was known as a brass, rowdy person and had a reputation as a playboy. There are stories that Indira was in awe of him and her ministers took orders from Sanjay who had no official position in the government.
A story in the underground media reported that at a public function, the chief minister of Maharashtra Shankarrao Chauhan was speaking when Sanjay who was on the dais got bored and tugged at Mr. Chauhan’s dhoti. Mr. Chauhan was so nervous and afraid of Sanjay that he sat down mid-sentence.
While there was initial shock and numbness, it didn’t take long for opposition to take shape and find new ways to fight the emergency. With all national leaders and even local leaders behind bars, there was a vacuum that needed to be filled fast. While some of the RSS leaders were behind bars, many had gone underground. Current Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi, then just a Swayamsevak of RSS became a Sardarji, donning Sikh headgear and managed communication between those who were jailed and those who were underground. Those who can read Gujarati should get hold of his post-emergency book Sangahrsh Maa Gujarat (Gujarat during Struggle). My friends Ramesh and
Kirtida Mehta from Juhu, Mumbai, opened their home for several RSS and BJP leaders to stay incognito for extended periods.
With this background, now let me come to the purpose of writing this article, contribution of nonresident Bharatiyas from USA in fighting Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. I had arrived in USA as an immigrant at the end of November 1970. I came in contact with Sw. Dr. Mahesh Mehta, founder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA) in April 1972 and my involvement with VHPA steadily increased. In those days VHPA was a small organization but an important one because there was no other Hindu organization that worked on the lines of VHPA. We
used to arrange yearly conferences that were generally attended by active workers of VHPA and those who had RSS background. One such conference was arranged in Washington, DC area either on the last weekend of June 1975 or during July 4 long weekend. On June 26th at some point, we heard the news but in those days tools for communication were primitive by today’s standards, so we didn’t know much about it. Anyhow, the moment we reached the conference venue there were murmurs, and we felt that something grave had happened.
Even Maheshbhai and other leaders had scant information. Dadasaheb Apte, then secretary general of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (Bharat) had
come to attend the conference and there were plans to arrange his lecture tour. I remember that he returned home immediately after the conference as his presence in Bharat to manage the evolving situation was critical.
At the same volunteers of RSS residing outside Bharat became active. They had started holding meetings and corresponding to work out contours of a resistance movement. There were four major groups with differing ideologies that came in the forefront in the USA. These
were supporters of Jansangh (now BJP), Old Congress, Socialists and Leftists. They were all under gun and since their numbers were small in the USA, they realized the need to pool their resources. It wasn’t easy. While a need was felt that being together would give momentum to our efforts to fight Mrs. Gandhi, there was mutual distrust, doubts about ulterior motives, one upmanship- all the baggage that came in the way of drawing up a common agenda. After several phone calls and meetings, consensus emerged. Name Indians For Democracy (IFD) was chosen and we started working under that name.
A meeting was held at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ on January 31, 1976, where all issues were thrashed out. Many participants were asked to talk about their views on democracy. I remember Maheshbhai Mehta’s poignant words. Among other things, he said that I may not be able to define what democracy is, but I can feel it. It is like a mother’s love. One may not be able to verbalize but can feel it. By saying this, he effectively made theoretical discussion on democracy irrelevant. We were about forty people- a modest number. One feature of this meeting was that for lunch we had simple bread and soup. It was termed a prisoner’s lunch in sympathy of our
countrymen who were locked up.
Indians For Democracy became a stronger organization after Hoboken meeting. Immediately, we started building chapters of active members in several places. Over the next several months, IFD established chapters in 17 states. We had active chapters or contacts in Rochester, Boston, Hartford, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC metropolitan area, Raleigh, Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, Madison (WI), Columbus, Louisville (KY), South Carolina, Miami, baton Rouge, Houston, Denver, San Diego, San Jose, Los Angeles, etc.
I used to live in Hartford, CT at that time and we had an extremely active chapter though we were hardly ten volunteers.
Since there was no information coming out in mainstream media (Indian Express under Mr. Goenka was an exception), it was felt that we should have our own publication. Shrikumar Poddar, who was in publishing business in Michigan, took responsibility of publishing a newsletter named Indian Opinion. It published news received from unofficial sources along with articles from prominent people opposed to the emergency. Later on, we produced Satyavani biweekly which was published both in the USA and UK. Satyavani had backing of Jansangh followers while Indian Opinion had socialistic bent. I will mention as many names as I recollect before I end this article, but it is necessary to mention some names now. Dr. Mahesh Mehta, Shrikumar Poddar, Dr. Mukund Mody, Ravi Chopra, Jitendra Kumar, Dr. Ram Gehani, S.R. Hiremath were few of the leaders who took charge.
Shri Makarand Desai, a minister from Gujarat’s suspended Janta government had been able to leave country, and he had made Maheshbhai’s Old Bridge, NJ home base. He and Madhukant Upadhyaya (who passed away last month in California) would put together material for Satyavani every week in Maheshbhai’s basement. Sw. Anjleebahen Pandya, a recently widowed lady of age 25
who later became general secretary of VHPA and a dominant force in its International liaison would relentlessly type manuscripts and lay them out. This was grunt work done with a sense of duty to matrubhumi. Satyavani was sent to contacts in Bharat using clandestine channels so that people there could know what was really happening in various parts of the country. It also lifted their morale to know that several groups of people within and outside Bharat were fighting for the restoration of democracy.
Another immediate need was to provide financial support to families of imprisoned political prisoners. Some of us ventured to collect funds for this purpose. We made appeals to well-meaning people who were otherwise not active with IFD to contribute and had a good response. The program was called Adopt A Prisoner. The difficulty was that this was not a one-time collection. Month in, month out we had to send funds not knowing how long this struggle was going to go on. I remember that I took responsibility for three such families.
I had taken upon myself the task of disseminating information to my colleagues here in USA and to my friends and relatives in Bharat. I subscribed to Indian Express for Airmail delivery so that I used to receive the newspaper in 24 to 48 hours after its publication. I would read it cover to cover as every nook and corner of the paper contained vital information. Some of the news items were cryptic to avoid censor’s ire and you had to read between lines.
I used to work for a small manufacturing company so there were no stringent rules and policies that we see in the corporate world. I would stay after hours and xerox all the pages of the newspaper. Xeroxing was an experience in those days. Dry copiers were rare in small outfits. Copier that we had used two different bottles of liquid toners. So, when a copy came out, it was like a wet papadam, and you had to let it dry. In those copiers the platen on which the original was placed would move horizontally unlike today’s machines, where original remains stationery. I would then cut all news items as individual pieces and lay them out on 81/2×11” or 81/2×14” sheets. There were no glue sticks
around, so I had to use messy process of dipping a brush in a glue bottle. Once master copies of all news items were prepared, I would make 40-50 copies for distribution. At home I would stuff them in envelopes to mail them out the next day. For copies that I sent to Bharat I used the fictitious name and address of the sender and kept changing them as we knew that all of us were on the radar of the government of Bharat through consulate offices’ resources. We had no way to know if our mails reached their destinations or were intercepted by the censors. However, I used to get coded letters from my sister-in-law whose husband was in jail, so I knew that at least she was receiving my mailings. When I travelled to Bharat after the fall of Indira Gandhi, another dear friend whom I used to send this material told me that he had received my mails, but they were all scared to receive those mails. The rest of the copies were mailed to key volunteers here in the USA.
I also became a frequent writer of Letter to Editor of India Abroad which was the only ethnic newspaper with nationwide reach. India Abroad had no love lost for Jansangh, RSS and VHP and in our opinion, its news coverage and stories were biased. Some readers wrote letters praising Mrs. Gandhi’s actions or finding faults with the opposition and IFD. I made it a point to rebut every such article and letter. It is to credit of India Abroad that they always printed my letters and that too without editing them. I also ended up writing many letters to editor to Indian Express.
This struggle also forced me to read voraciously. As it is I was known to be a bookworm. But here, while under the gun, I had to unlearn what I had been fed and I believed in, that is, how Nehru and Congress were the only true freedom fighters and saviors of Bharat, etc. I had to read up on ideologies of the left, Socialists, and some subsects of these movements.
I came across two very revealing, interesting, and fairly accurate historical books. One was India from Curzon to Nehru and After by Durga Das by reputed journalist Durga Das (Rupa Publications, 1970, available on Amazon) and Freedom At Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominic Lapierre (Simon and Schuster, 1975, available on Amazon.) There are some questions about accuracy and ethical breach about Freedom At Midnight but overall that book also gives fascinating facts of the Independence movement. Of course, Durga Das’s book has a neutral stance and can be called a classic.
The emergency gave birth to sycophants of all varieties. On top of the list is then Congress President D. K. Barooah who said Indira in India and India is Indira. During Emergency, Indira’s propaganda machine was running in overdrive and not only a lot of made-up stories of how the emergency was welcomed by masses, how economy was also growing, how crimes were down, etc., were floated but booklets disparaging all opposing political ideology and inconvenient groups and organizations were printed and distributed.
Thus, I read Anand Marg- the truth, Anand Marg – Soiling the Saffron Robe, and a few others. But then, we were not silent either. Friends of India Society, IFD’s UK counterpart published Anatomy of Fascism- Who is Fascist We, or They? , What Killed Democracy in India, Spotlight on RSS to present our side of story. Free JP Campaign in UK published Indira’s India Anatomy of a Dictatorship while from Washington, DC Truth About RSS was printed and distributed. I also read two insightful books- Towards Fair and Free Elections which comprise of writings of Jayaprakash Narayan and a few other eminent thinkers (Published by Lok Niti parishad, New Delhi, 1973) and JP’s Crusade for Revolution by Vasant Nargolkar (Published by S. Chand & Co., New Delhi, 1975.)
All these books helped me expand my horizon and better prepare me for the battle in which we were all engaged. On one hand repression under Emergency was increasing day by day. There were forced sterilization of young and sometimes unmarried men; there were demolitions of hutments without making alternative arrangements for this very poor people, torture of prisoners and overall
highhandedness of police force that had gone out of control. On the other, nonresident Bharatiyas in USA, UK, Canada, Germany, Kenya, were redoubling their efforts to make lawmakers in respective countries aware of ugly ground reality of Indira’s emergency which was dressed up as a peaceful and disciplined society where people were happy to live under curtailed freedom.
To instill fear in the hearts of Bharatiya citizens abroad who were fighting the emergency rule, in July 1976, Indira’s government impounded passports of four active IFD volunteers. They were Dr. Ram Gehani, Shrikumar Poddar, S. R. Hiremath and Sharan Nandi. Additionally, police in Bharat went to homes of many activists here claiming they were there to check the veracity of address given in one’s passport. Since I had given my uncle’s address for my passport he was visited too.
I came to know only after Bharat regained its freedom. We had several high-profile leaders of opposition who were able to escape to the USA or had camouflaged their visit under one or the other pretext. Dr. Subramanyam Swamy, N.G. Gore (Socialist party), Mrs. George Fernandes (Leila Kabir), Eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani, ex Gujarat Minister Makarand Desai, socialist thinker Prof. Rajani Kothari are some of the names I remember. We gained immensely by having personal conversations with all these leaders.
We arranged their public meetings, meetings with local lawmakers, senators, and congressmen, with the media and arranged their radio interviews at several locations. Dr. Swamy was in USA for two months and in that period, he addressed close to one hundred meetings.
When Dr. swamy came to Hartford, it was my responsibility to receive him at the airport and be his “driver.” Then, he was a strapping 37-year-old young man. When he opened his briefcase, I noticed that he had two passports. When I asked him about that, his answer was cryptic. At his public meeting in Hartford, someone mentioned that back home trains were running on time because of the emergency rule. His answer was that anything achieved through fear or coercion will last only so long as that fear is there. Moment that fear was removed, it would bounce back like a compressed spring. Someone else made a remark that politics was the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Dr. Swamy said that as long as you believe in that notion, only scoundrels will be your elected representatives! He stressed the need for all thinking people to get involved in politics. Dr. Swamy gave example of Shree Krishna as a master politician/statesman. He emphasized that there are times when it becomes a dharmic duty to get involved in politics. We had excellent writers among ourselves and two names that I can recall are Girish Chokshi and Amit Mitra.
In April 1976, then Secretary of State Francis R. Valeo submitted a report on Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan to the Majority Leader of Committee on Foreign Relations. This report absolved Mrs. Gandhi of any wrongdoing. Girish Gandhi wrote a well analyzed rejoinder to this report. Amit Mitra was pursuing his Ph.D. studies and authored incisive articles on the state of economy in Bharat debunking government propaganda. Amit Mitra later on became Minister of Finance in West Bengal government and is currently Special Advisor to the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, He is also a Padma Shree recipient.
Girish Chokshi and I took up a suggestion from IFD’s steering committee and wrote letters to the vice chancellors of several universities in Bharat appealing to them to come out in support of movement to repeal the emergency. We employed novel ways to make our voices heard. India Association of Greater Hartford (IAOGH) was celebrating Independence Day as was its custom. I wrote to its president requesting not to celebrate the day as there was no freedom and no independence. IAOGH’s committee voted to continue with the planned program. I put a masking tape on my mouth, carried a placard saying My countrymen have lost their freedom and independence and I oppose this celebration and stood at the entrance to the building.
In New York, there were vigils in front of Air India Building, Bharatiya Consulate and United Nation’s building. In Chicago home minister Y. B. Chavan was greeted with black flags. There were peaceful walks too. I remember taking part in an “awareness” walk from Princeton, NJ to Piscataway, NJ, a distant of twenty miles. We distributed leaflets to people whom we met on the road and carried placards. I had an interesting experience when we held a small demonstration in downtown Hartford. A Black lady came to us and asked us what we were doing. I gave her a simple answer that we wanted Mrs. Gandhi to release prisoners. She said, ‘my son is in jail, can you help me have him released?’ It was a lighter moment for us but at the same time we could feel the pain of a mother.
During this 19-month period there were emotional ups and downs. There was so much negative news coming in- suspension of right to life, suspension of habeas Corpus (challenging detention), indiscriminate use of MISA (maintenance of Internal Security Act) to detain anyone who opposed Indira’s regime or even to set personal score, beating of political prisoners in Tihar jail by hardened criminals who were let loose by a warden with belts, bats, etc., wholesale changes to the constitution giving legislature disproportionate power and making judiciary subservient by a rubber stamp parliament, out of turn appointment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to suit Indira’s
legal needs, Sanjay Gandhi’s acquisition of illegal power and his coterie of Bansi Lal, V. C. Shukla, Ambika Soni, Rukshana Sultana and other minions o youth Congress playing havoc with ordinary citizens’ lives that at times it brought down our morale and we felt that all was lost.
But then, news filtered in of passive and active resistance from various parts of Bharat, sympathetic police officers and bureaucrats, people looking out for each other and we would feel elated. We attended so many meetings during this struggle that it was not possible to keep a count. There were some meetings in NJ and NY where we were not given location. We would be asked to stand at a particular street junction from where we would be picked up. The same car will pick up other volunteers from other street corners and then take us to a secret meeting location. This was necessary because at times we had observed obscure government staff taking photos and videos when we were in a group.
Besides the January 1976 meeting in Hoboken IFD had two national conferences, one in Chicago and one in Hartford. They were roller coaster rides because of bruised egos of some leaders and putting self ahead of the cause. All the same, these meetings were essential to take stock of where we were, where we wanted to go and the roadmap for it. All throughout we stayed connected with volunteers in Europe and Africa. Friends of India Society International (FISI) was a joint venture of volunteers in UK and USA. This organization continued to
work even after the emergency was over. I remember Dhirajbhai Shah, Hasmukhbhai Shah, Devi Prasad from U.K. and Gyaneshwar Dayal from Germany as the leaders from those countries. Though this battle was a Bhagirath effort, we received limited support from Bharatiyas living in USA. There were reasons for that. Unlike now, most immigrants were new and getting settled with their families and careers. They had limited resources. Also, many were worried about repercussions on their families in Bharat, the effect on their Bharatiya Passport, etc. Besides, there was ignorance of political process.
Then, all of a sudden, on 18th January 1977 Indira Gandhi called for general elections and released several opposition leaders from jail, but many remained in prison until she was ousted from office and a new prime minister took over. The Emergency was not lifted then; it was officially lifted on March 21, 1977, 18 months and 26 days after it was declared only when it became clear that Indira Gandhi and her Congress Party had been ousted from power. Why Indira Gandhi decided to declare elections has been a matter of speculation and one of them making rounds was that she had intelligence reports of a victory in the election which would have legitimized her excesses under the emergency and make her Emergency declaration permanent. Perhaps, she thought that since the opposition was decimated and in disarray because of its leaders being in prison for 18 months, it would not be in a position to mount effective challenge to her party in the election.
On 20th January, four opposition parties, the Indian National Congress (Organisation), the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the Bharatiya Lok Dal and the Praja Socialist Party, decided to fight the elections under a single banner called the Janata Alliance. While we were relieved that many political leaders were freed, we had apprehension about their chances at the hustings. We were able to write openly to our contacts in Bharat to vote for Janata Morcha (alliance). There was no facility of receiving news and video clips from several sources as we have today but every night, we eagerly watched BBC broadcast that gave good coverage of election rallies and tremendous outpouring of support for the Janata Alliance.
Indian Express that I still used to get gave indication of a close contest which boosted our spirits. The elections for 542 Lok Sabha seats took place between March 16 and 20, 1977. On March 21, 1977, results were declared. Janta Alliance secured 295 seats while Congress Party won only 154 seats, a loss of 198 seats. Mrs. Indira Gandhi lost her family seat of Rae Bareli and Sanjay Gandhi lost from Amethi (U.P.)
Thus ended the darkest chapter in the history of independent Bharat. There were celebrations in several states of the USA. We had a celebration in Hartford where Dr. Mahesh Mehta and Dr. Seenu Srinivasan were leading speakers amongst others. Anjleebahen Pandya who had worked day and night during the emergency had given up eating rice and rice products as a protest against the emergency and vowed not to partake of it until the emergency ended. So, at that function I personally fed her a spoonful of cooked rice.
I have been able to narrate the struggle against emergency rule in detail and with dates because fortunately, I have maintained an archive of all the material related to IFD. During this 19-month period, I was pursuing MBA taking evening courses. I used to drive seventy miles round trip three nights a week after attending my full-time job. Sometimes, I wonder how I maintained my sanity balancing work, studies, IFD commitments and Family affairs (most neglected.) But I realize that I was young, 31-32 years old and I was driven by passion; in fact, this was my first exposure to a national movement, and I was shaken to the core when I saw that democracy and fundamental rights that we took for granted could so easily be trampled upon. It could also be called an Agni Pariksha (test by fire.) I firmly believe that it was Ishwar’s Anugraha (blessings) that propelled me to do this work.
The latter half of this article has too many ‘I’s and ‘me’s. There was no other way to express my recollection and experiences of this epoch-making event in my lifetime. I was but one of many volunteers who worked very hard. Let me recollect as many names as possible. I ask for forgiveness of names that I am sure are omitted because of elapsed time. Dinesh Agrawal (PA), Dr. Ahmed, Prof. Kalika Bannerjee, Ramesh Bhutada(TX), Aneek Chakrabarty (SC), Girish Chokshi (CT), Ravi Chopra (NJ), Satyen De, Ashok Dhingra (TX), Brij Bhushan Garg (NH),
Ranjan Guha, Sangayya R. Hiremath (IL), Anand Kumar (IL), Jitendra Kumar (MD), Anil Mehta (CT), P. K. Mehta (CA), Ved Mehta, Amit Mitra (NC), Purnima Modi (CT), Prof. Nariboli, Sharan Nandi (MD), Jyotish Parekh (CT), Ramesh Patel (CT), Shrikumar Poddar (MI), Vinod Prakash (MD), Faruk Presswala (NY), Abid Qureshi, K. S. S. Raju, Dami Rambhia (CT), Dilip Shah (MD),Hasmukh Shah (NJ), Mahesh Shah (NC), Ramesh Shah (TX), Manohar Shinde (KS), Raminder Singh (NY), Daljit Singh Sodhi (MD), G. V. Swamy (SC), Dr. Tambe, Shekhar Tiwari (NJ), Gaurang Vaishnav (CT).
These volunteers are no longer with us:
Manahar Bhanshali (CT), Ranchhoddas Chokshi (CT), Ram Gehani (MD), Mahesh Mehta (NJ), Subhash Mehta (NY), Chandrahas Mishra (TX), Mukund Mody(NY), Ved Prakash Nanda (CO), Anjlee Pandya (NJ), Kaumudi Parikh (CT), Ram Suchdev (NY), Jitendra Sukhadia (NY). It needs to be mentioned that behind each volunteer stood his/her spouse extending full support and sacrificing their own pleasures and family time. Though I have lost touch with many of them in these 50 years, I remember them fondly.
It was an individual spark in each of these volunteers that became a powerful flame when those sparks came together. On this 50th anniversary of The Emergency, I salute each of my colleagues. As I look back today, I am satisfied that a group of nonresident Bharatiyas rose to the occasion when fate threw a challenge to them. They didn’t flinch, they put IFD work at the top of their priorities, they persevered in face of immense difficulties, and they became victorious even though their contribution to the cause was like that of a squirrel bringing grains of sand to help build Ram Setu. Experience of working together with different mindsets, finding shared principles and
interests, building lasting relationships, etc. has helped many of these volunteers to build successful non-profit organizations in the service of Bharatmata. Their efforts are more noteworthy when we consider that they didn’t have luxury of WhatsApp, Facebook, or other social media platforms, they had no emails or fax service, neither do they have cell phones.
Writing letters was their main mode of communication. In conclusion, it cannot be overstated that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. We must guard our freedoms zealously no matter where we live. If this article makes a few young people reflect upon their role in safeguarding their fundamental rights and democracy and encourages them to be ready to stand up when circumstances demand, whichever country they reside in, I will consider my effort well worth it.
(1) It is possible that some dates are wrong, and some events and names of people associated with them are inaccurate. This is only because of 50 years span since the Emergency was declared and the lack of facility to preserve records electronically. Corrections are always
welcome.
(2) I have included some pictures after reference links.
(3) If any reader is interested in any files in my archives, I will be happy to share a soft copy.
– Gaurang Vaishnav
References:
(1) Gaurang Vaishnav’s Archives
(2) The Scam That shook Nation- The Nagarwala Scandal by Prakash Patra and Rasheed Kidwai
(by Harper Collins, India, 2024)
(3) https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/inauguraladdress-19610120
(4) https://www.opindia.com/2021/11/12-november-1969-indira-gandhi-expelled-fromcongress-details/
(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Uttar_Pradesh_v._Raj_Narain
(6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_general_elections
(7) https://www.britannica.com/event/the-Emergency-India
(8) https://esaharyana.gov.in/20-point-programme/
(9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fakhruddin_Ali_Ahmed
(10) https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-English-translation-of-the-sentence-
%E2%80%98vinash-kale-vipreet-buddhi%E2%80%99
(11) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snehalata_Reddy
(12) https://archive.org/details/indiafromcurzont00dasd
(13) https://www.amazon.com/India-Curzon-Nehru-AfterDurga/dp/8171675913
(14) https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/freedom-at-midnight_larry-collins
(15) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Indian_general_election
(16) https://scroll.in/article/735576/what-drove-sanjay-gandhi-and-his-coterieduring-the-emergency
(17) https://www.inflationtool.com/indian-rupee/1971-to-presentvalue?amount=1000&year2=2025&frequency=yearly
(18) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalit_Narayan_Mishra
(19) https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/decode-politics-l-nmishra-assassination-union-minister-50-years-10042337/
(20) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amit_Mitra
(21) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarwala_case
