The JP Movement & Days of Emergency

J P Movement & Imposition of Emergency

The J P Movement was not an overnight movement against the government of the day. It had been simmering for long. Below were the causes for it –

Social Causes

  • People’s expectations remained unfulfilled from the Gandhi Government
  • There was no dent in urban or rural poverty as promised before the polls.

Economic Causes

  • There was deterioration in Economic Situation if the country
  • Three things plagued the economy – Recession, Unemployment and High Inflation
  • Then there was the scarcity of Food Grains due to drought as well as Bangladesh Migrants
  • The Bangladesh War had drained financial Resources of the country
Why was there scarcity of food?
The Government of Pakistan had been committing atrocities in Bangladesh. This had led to migration of 10 million refugees from Bangladesh in India. Indira Gandhi had promised all support and food grains to the refugees who migrated to West Bengal.

Political Causes

  • The decline of Congress as an organisation also had a role to play in the dissatisfaction of the masses. Congress was no more a party with a vision for social transformation. It was merely reduced to a party with the goal to capture political power. This was away from Nehru’s & Gandhi’s dream of Congress as a social force
  • Sanjay Gandhi was given the license to manufacture 50,000 Maruti cars/year which was seen as favouritism.
  • There was breakdown of law and order in several places. In Uttar Pradesh, there was mutiny in the Provincial Armed Constabulary, making the government weak day by day.

Geographical Reasons

  • Monsoons Rains had failed in the last 2 years ( 1972-1973)
  • There was drop in Power generation also because of it.

International Reasons

  • Crude Oil Prices had increased 4 times leading to increase in import bill for both petroleum and fertiliser.
  • The government was surrounded from all sides.

Events that led to Chaos in the Country

  1. There were food riots in the country due to the above reasons.
  2. There was Industrial unrest.
  3. All India Railway Strike took place in 1974 – which would paralyse the entire country’s movement.

The society as a whole does not revolt. It is usually seen that usually the most oppressed sections of the society start a movement. Movements are often controlled because some sections of the society who benefit from the ruling regime help in containing the movement.

But during the JP Movement, almost all sections of the society came together to support the unrest as below

Poor The Poor continued to support the Congress despite poverty
Middle Class This was the leader of the movement. Three reason were attributed to the rise of middle class against the government –

  1. High Unemployment
  2. Inflation
  3. Corruption
Rich Peasantry The threat of land reforms had antagonised the rich landowning class
Capitalist Class Threat of Socialism had driven away the Capitalist Class. Largely the Capitalist class backed Morarji Desai as the PM who was more supportive of free market economics.
Nationalisation of Banks, Coal and Mining were the biggest grievances of the Capitalist Class.
Opposition There was no coherency in the ideology or policy of the Opposition groups.

However, they decided to support the movement to dislodge a democratically elected government without waiting for elections.

Unrest in Gujarat & Bihar – The Beginning

Gujarat , in 1974, like other states was suffering from high prices. There was a student protest movement. The police was accused of using excessive force. This worsened the situation and anarchy prevailed. President’s Rule was imposed in Gujarat. Morarji Desai sat on fast unto death. The assembly was dissolved and fresh elections were announced. Thus a democratically elected government was forced to quit and mid term elections was forced on it.

Bihar, 1974 had a similar story with 2 new features. There was a call for Total Revolution ( Sampoorna Kranti ) against the system which had made everyone corrupt. There was gherao and MLAs were pressurised to resign.

However, despite the chaos, India Gandhi decided to stand steady. She refused to dissolve the Assembly.

The unrest spread to all of North India. The movement was supported by Students, Middle Class, Traders and Intelligentsia alike.

The Raj Narain Case,1975 – Justice A N Sinha’s Judgement – Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court had convicted Gandhi of corrupt practices and declared here election invalid. This meant

  1. She could not contest elections for 6 years
  2. She could not remain Prime Minister

Indira Gandhi got a stay order from the Supreme Court which said –

  1. Until appeal was decided by the full bench, she could stay in office. This meant she could stay Prime Minister.
  2. She could also attend Parliament and speak in the Parliament. But she could not vote.

Political Destabilisation of Congress Began

Janta Party , which was spearheading the movement came to power in the mid term polls in Gujarat. It fomrmed government with the same Chiman Bhai Patel, against whom the protests were happening and who had been accused of corruption.

Restart of the Movement

The Political blow to Congress was immediately grabbed upon by the Opposition. Jaiprakash Narayan now was a part of the movement who declared the goals of the movement. He said 3 things

  1. The Movement’s goal was to rid India of Corruption.
  2. Defence of democracy
  3. Gandhi is destroying all democratic institutions.

Indira Gandhi accused the opposition for violating peace and security and said that opposition was inciting the army for mutiny. This was a serious accusation.

No Solution to the impasse?
JP has asked for an early election. He thought that an early election would lead to defeat of Congress at the Center. Indira Gandhi said – no elections before 1976.

Critique of J P

Despite all accusations, Indira Gandhi was a democratically elected Prime Minister. He should have waited for the term to end and fought her off on election.

He was a socialist leader, selfless, with no love for Office and was committed to Civil Liberties.

But his ideology was vague. In 1950s he had been critical of Parliamentary democracy – the foundation of Political system in India. He had earlier called for Partyless democracy.

Total Revolution – a critique.

Total Revolution did not have a vision of India beyond what they opposed.

J P also took support of parties with whom he had nothing in common ideologically.

The means used were extra Constitutional.

Incitement to Army was a serious offence – which could have changed the history and Polity of India forever.


Reaction to Emergency
Early reaction Later
Emergency imposition came as a shock. The reaction slowly came down from shock to acceptance.
It had restored normalcy as the common man was fed up of protests and strikes.
Babus came to office on time. Trains ran on time.
The normalcy of poor administration crept in with time.
The 42nd Amendment was seen as changing the basic structure of the Constitution.
Extra Constitutional Authority under Sanjay Gandhi was resented – two things in particular(1) Family Planning (2) Beautification of Delhi by slum relocation.

Removal of Emergency and Holding of Elections

Indira Gandhi revoked Emergency after 21 months. Elections were conducted and Indira Gandhi lost elections.

There are three possible explanation for why she revoked emergency.

  1.  She wanted to retain her liberal democratic image.
  2. She was misinformed by sycophants + Intelligence agencies that she could win elections.
  3. She strongly believed in policies that she pursued during emergency and wanted to legitimise them through elections.

But the elections were a referendum on the Emergency. Indira Lost.

In 1977, Janta Party consolidated hold over states. Assembly elections were held in all Congress ruled states. And two states permanently saw the removal of Congress.

Tamil Nadu , AIADMK captured power. In West Bengal, CPM captured power.

Performance of the Janta Government

  • There was caste violence during the Janta rule. This was partially because Janta Pary support base was rich peasants and middle class.
  • There were wave of mutinies in Police & Paramiltary.
  • The Janta Party had refuted Nehruvian policy but failed to come up with alternate vision.
  • However, three steps were taken –
  • Labour Intensive Small Scale Industries were focussed on.
  • Decentralisation was highlighted instead of Centralised Planning
  • Rich peasant led agricultural growth .

Too many commissions were set up against Emergency and Gandhi. This would later backfire.

Evaluation of Indira Gandhi as a leader

Indira Gandhi was a complex personality. She was controversial and yet possessed leadership skills. She had political skills that matured with time.

She was fiercely courageous as seen in her pursuance of International Politics – the Bangladesh War, Treaty of Friendship with USSR, and Nuclear Test.

She responded quickly to situations – both domestic and international. She handled the refugee crisis and undertook the Operation Blue Star that uprooted militancy in Punjab.

She knew where India’s national interests lay and secured it. She refused to sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty though it was sponsored by both the powers – USA & USSR. She was a secular and progressive leader.

However, critics also argue that she achieved little in terms of administrative reforms and institution building.

Measured heralded by her were largely populist in nature. Her response was swift, but adhoc. She did not encourage the development of a second line of leadership, neither within the Congress nor within her Cabinet. During her time, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat emerged as an independent office.

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