Emergency. In Teenage.

Emergency. In Teenage. 

The year of 1974 is unforgettable for most in India. A lot happened that year leading upto the Total Revolution, or Sampoorna Kranti.

As a teen in a remote town Dhanbad, I remember several changes that occured within just a year.

A few very aggressive policies by Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister then, had shifted the economic power from the top industrialists to a range of public sector organisations. That had rather swiftly changed the demographics of India. Liberating Bangladesh by winning a direct war with Pakistan shifted Hindu loyalties to Indira Gandhi. The Jan Sangh leader and the most prominent opposition leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee described Indira Gandhi as the modern day Durga.

The common public saw the change. The banks were located in your vicinity, being Government managed, their goal was to reach more people than build profits. Among the many industries, steel and mines were now managed by Government institutions. As Dhanbad was a hub of the coal, steel and other mining activities, we felt the pulse more.

Family owned mining gave in to more organisationally managed industries led by officers (a term that reflects better the educated, more discerning professionals). That drove people from across the nation to Dhanbad to take managerial positions. The labour were jubilant as they were now looked after as citizen with rights to housing and health than being limited to just wages. More housing and better townships were developed to accomodate people. As a result, hospitals, marketplace, eateries and other avenues got better.

Yet the Rangdari tax net continued, or perhaps got more lucrative with a sizeable increase in the paying capacities of people. For the unaquainted, Rangdari tax was a token that you paid the local mafia for your protection. The bloke who did not make much money was not in the net as the local mafia found them unworthy. The doctors who practised privately despite being on Government's payroll attracted the mafia, as it was illegal. The Income tax officers paid the Rangdari tax as they would make pots of black money stacked up in their homes that required security. The shop keepers paid as they were considered to be tax offenders. The officers who were extraordinarily rich paid.

As the economic system changed rather rapidly, Rangdari tax evolved out of its undercover to become more visible. Yet a disquiet prevailed. The disquiet was more among those who considered it a privilege to be honest earners and work more towards professional accomplishment than bend for the temptations of cash for work or its other various kinds.

The Rangdari tax mafia for its own ends would also use means to tempt more people. It was a battle of minds, wills and wits for most.

There was another temptation of a kind: the Indian middle class temptation, as I call it, to spend less. As the economy of India grew, so did the prices of essential commodities. Quite honestly I would not say they were unbearable, but they impinged upon the money budgeted for savings.

Jayaprakash Narayan, better known as JP, a socialist leader was on the rise, engaging the less privileged youth to seek the streets so that they got a better pie of a growing economy. Many of the officers community were not appreciative as they believed that the less privileged must take the route of merit, no matter how long it took them to earn it. But a whole new people that were part of the more organised industry sectors at the lower levels saw in it a faster opportunity to move into the officers class.

The natural feudal structure of India transferred a very natural right to the officers class: they were meant to be looked upon, heard and guided. To an extent I remember, very distinctly, that the less privileged people would ask the closest officer they knew whom they should vote for the nation's prosperity. And the officers were divided between the Congress, based on a perception that it was more worldly, and the Jan Sangh (now BJP), as the more culturally Hindu. So the less privileged tossed between the two based on the choice of officers they knew.

JP brought together the youth wanting to be officers through the movement Sampoorna Kranti, or the Total Revolution. Strikes, Rail Roko (stop the train) and several other such public outcry on the roads brought the public support systems to a halt. Every time the Government used the Police force to check the chaos, stories would run across papers highlighting the injured or the wounded.

JP also managed to introduce the Janata Khana (poor man's food packet) avaialable for Re 1 across train or Bus stations. And stationery in form of Janata notebooks that costed a fourth of the regular.
I don't know how the economics of such damn cheap offerings worked. The people wanting to stretch the savings budget, however, saw the possibility of commodities sell cheaper, and, therefore doubted the current system for profiteering.

Although JP was an uncle of mine, Phuphaji, he was a very quiet family man. I had met or visited him, therefore, I felt proud that he was a new generation's Hero. Indians began to see the new age Mahatma in him. And politicians of all order, shapes and sizes became his new found soldiers. George Fernandes, Ram Vilas Paswan, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Chandrasekhar took the centrestage. As a student from the officer class family, boys and girls like us would be guarded against the emerging revolution. We were however deeply influenced that a lot can change for the better with a new practice.

Jan Sangh saw an opportunity to boost up their popularity and joined the movement forsaking their core Hindutva goals. That was a big support as the well organised ground level workers of the RSS could make the movement stronger. Jan Sangh to be a socialist was a big surprise, and, suppoorted the argument that the crisis in India caused by industrialised economy was dangerously favourable towards the rich and the officers. A reason why even a rather fundamentalist party such as the Jan Sangh was willing to support socialism for the sake of saving the nation.

The Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, could not do any more than appeal and act against the agitation that had changed the expectations of an entire generation of Indians.

As a teenager we read much and heard more on the radio. We did not, however, see much in our daily lives, except for the unusually higher number of school holidays on account of calls to halt the system.

Everyone knew that Indira Gandhi will get tougher than take another course. After all it was not a call to introduce a Bill or an amendment, or even wanting a legislation. It was as simple a call as Indira Gandhi and her ways of governance must end.

June 25, 1975.

Indira Gandhi declared a state of Emergency. We heard that the media was censored. The Executive was asked to make things work more efficiently. Officers and workers were expected to attend their work more strictly. The top leaders put under house arrest while the Intelligence Bureau chased the miscreants or the possible miscreants.

All I remember is that the trains ran on time, and the stations were a lot cleaner.

Stories of how Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's son, had turned into a dictator of sorts continued to build. One heard of how he introduced compulsory sterilisation to check the excessive growth in the population. The story that became a nightmare was that despite Islam condemning sterilisation, Muslim neighbourhoods were driven to the sterilisation camps. Scandals of Maruti, Haryana Tourism among several others helped plots take shape in the movies and in the media. Not much of that hit the streets until the elections that helped Janta Party come to power in 1977.

As I look back, the year 1974 gave a stronger reason for India to accomodate the less privileged more lest the trouble shoots again. And the politics of India turned more regional.


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