HT@100 | 1970-1979: Democracy vs. Democracy

Women in rural Maharashtra led the agitation against price hikes. In the north, in Raini, a small village in present-day Uttarakhand, Gaura Devi led other women to protect trees in their Alaknanda forest, commemorating the Chipko Movement, which completed 50 years in 2024.

In Gujarat, a mass movement for women’s self-employment led to the creation of SEWA, an institution that still exists today.

The decade began on a high note with Indira Gandhi calling elections 14 months early, seeking public support.

Her party, the Congress (R), produced a socialist manifesto that focused on the upliftment of minorities, small farmers and landless workers, under the slogan “Garibi Hatao” (eradicate poverty). In March 1971, it won the elections, winning 352 of the 531 seats. Gandhi demonstrated her strength as a military commander, a master of strategy and a defender of democracy after liberating East Pakistan and helping to create a new nation, Bangladesh, in 1971, winning the Third Indo-Pakistani War. Under the command of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, Indian forces forced Pakistani troops to withdraw and ensured that Chinese infiltrators would not open another war front in northeastern India.

On May 18, 1974, India conducted its first test of a nuclear device at Pokhran. A day later Hindustan Times edit read, “The explosion means that India has developed fissile material that is likely safe from safeguards and that its scientists possess the technology to trigger a nuclear explosion. The fact that this same technology offers a path to nuclear weapons does not detract from the country’s reiteration of its peaceful resolve.”

Yet beneath the surface, disappointment simmered.

Although India’s economy grew and the Green Revolution increased yields of grains and other crops, only a section of the population benefited.

The unrest quickly gathered momentum and grew into something bigger. In January 1974, a student movement in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, against Chimman Lal Patel, the prime minister accused of corruption, led to his resignation. This inspired students in Bihar to similar protests in their state. When violence broke out between the mob and the police, the noted Gandhian activist Jayaprakash Narayan, who was then 71, stepped into action. That was in March 1974. In May, a railway strike led by George Fernandes brought the country to a standstill.

JP, as he was called, became a lightning rod for the discontented—students, trade unionists, housewives, socialists, right-wing Hindu groups and left-wing communists all rallied to his side.

March 7, 1975 Hindustan Times carried a full page on the People’s March to Parliament, led by Narayan and attended by over 700,000 people, with the headline “JP seeks austerity regime”. The same day, the newspaper published an edition titled “Charter of Reforms” and stated that “All said and done, the charter is a package consisting of items to which the Congress can have no serious objections”.

Gandhi’s troubles began to mount from another angle when the Allahabad High Court delivered its verdict on a petition against her accusing her of winning the 1971 elections through corruption.

With the opposition demanding her resignation and some members of her own party suggesting that she step down, Gandhi declared a state of emergency, which was quickly approved by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad on June 25, 1975.

Hindustan Times and other newspapers were unable to publish their editions the next day because power was cut off to all newspaper offices.

On June 28, a six-page edition of the newspaper published the following statement: “The President declares a state of emergency.”

Narayan, Desai and other opposition leaders were arrested on the night of the Emergency, and the number of those arrested reached thousands when the Emergency ended two years later, including at least 253 journalists. HT, always attuned to the needs of the country, reported meticulously on what was happening, from detentions under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) to restrictions on fundamental rights.

KK Birla, who took over the board in 1970, wrote in his autobiography: “I have never been a fan of the Emergency. No one likes suppression of civil liberties and excessive restrictions on society. But given the deteriorating law and order situation in the country, Indira ji probably had no choice.”

He noted that while everything seemed fine at first, “…after a while, reports started coming in about abuses being committed in some areas. There were reports of forced vasectomies being performed to check population growth… I met Indira-ji several times and informed her about the abuses. Unfortunately, no action was taken to stop them.”

In 1977, the enormous differences between Gandhi and her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, became the subject of international headlines and harsh commentary, ultimately prompting Gandhi to lift the Emergency and call elections.

For the first time in the history of independence, India elected a non-Congress party to power, indicating that rival ideologies could put their differences aside—if only for a short while. The Janata Party consisted of the Hindu-Right Jana Sangh, the pro-farmer Bharatiya Lok Dal (led by farmer leader Charan Singh), the Socialist Party, and Morarji Desai’s breakaway faction, the Congress (O). They found support in Babu Jagjivan Ram’s newly formed party, the Congress for Democracy (CFD).

March 23, 1977 Hindustan Times published a full-page account of the landmark elections with the headline – “Mrs Indira Gandhi Resigns” – and on page 7 a hopeful edition on the dance of democracy entitled “A New Phase Begins” which read: “…out of the trauma of the Emergency and the heat and dust of the sessions, there emerged what many unhesitatingly regard as a national alternative to the Congress – the Janata Party in alliance with the Congress for Democracy. And with the two, for the first time, emerged the promise of a true two-party democracy in India.”

Unfortunately, the Center could not hold out.

The Janata Party was marked by factionalism and infighting among its heavyweights, and was ultimately torn apart by opposing ideologies. The disintegration of the Janata Party meant it could not even complete its term, and Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1980, all the abuses of the Emergency supposedly forgiven but not forgotten.