Consequences

The Emergency was imposed with the claim that it would restore order. What it actually did was silence every form of dissent, dismantle democratic safeguards, and concentrate power in the hands of the executive. The consequences were immediate, sweeping, and deeply damaging to India's constitutional fabric.

The first wave of actions was swift and brutal. Strikes were banned outright. Thousands of opposition leaders were arrested and jailed. The political atmosphere became eerily quiet, but it was a quiet born of fear, not consent. The government then invoked its special powers under the Emergency provisions to suspend the freedom of the Press. Newspapers were required to get prior approval for everything they published — this was press censorship. Publications like the Indian Express and The Statesman protested by leaving blank spaces where censored news items would have appeared. Magazines such as Seminar and Mainstream chose to shut down rather than submit. Many journalists were arrested for writing against the government. Underground newsletters and leaflets were circulated to bypass the censorship.

Apprehending social and communal disharmony, the government banned two major organisations: the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Jamait-e-Islami. Public protests, strikes, and agitations of any kind were disallowed.

Most critically, the government suspended the Fundamental Rights of citizens. This included the right to move the Supreme Court or High Courts for the restoration of those rights. The government made extensive use of preventive detention — a provision under which people are arrested and detained not because they have committed any offence, but because the authorities apprehend that they may commit one. Using this, the government made large-scale arrests. Arrested political workers could not challenge their detention through habeas corpus petitions.

Several High Courts ruled that even during an Emergency, courts could entertain a writ of habeas corpus challenging a person's detention. But in April 1976, a constitution bench of the Supreme Court overruled those High Courts and accepted the government's plea. This meant that during the Emergency, the government could take away a citizen's right to life and liberty. This judgment is regarded as one of the most controversial in the Supreme Court's history — it effectively closed the doors of the judiciary for citizens.

Acts of dissent and resistance did occur, but they were rare. Many political workers who escaped the first wave of arrests went 'underground' and organised protests. Kannada writer Shivarama Karanth (awarded Padma Bhushan) and Hindi writer Fanishwarnath Renu (awarded Padma Shri) returned their awards in protest against the suspension of democracy. By and large, however, open defiance was uncommon. …