NCERT Book Class 12 Political Science (Politics In India Since Independence) Chapter 6 The Crisis of Democratic Order

In this chapter…
We have seen in the last chapter that the Congress recovered after
1971, but was not the same kind of party. The difference became
clear in a series of events between 1973 and 1975 that brought new
challenges to India’s democratic politics and the institutional balance
sought by the Constitution. These developments led to the imposition of
‘emergency’ in June 1975. Normally, we would associate ‘emergency’
with war and aggression or with natural disaster. But this ‘emergency’
was imposed because of the perceived threat of internal disturbance.
The editorial page of The Emergency ended as dramatically as it had begun, resulting in a
‘Nai Dunia’ of 27 June defeat of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections of 1977.
1975 was like any other
day, except that the In this chapter we focus on this crucial phase in the history of democracy
space for editorial was in India and ask some questions that have remained controversial after
left blank. The editorial all these years.
was “censored” using
emergency powers. • Why was Emergency imposed? Was it necessary?
Many other newspapers
also carried such blank • What did the imposition of Emergency mean in practice?
spaces–sometimes
to protest against
• What were the consequences of Emergency on party politics?
emergency. Later, leaving • What are the lessons of Emergency for Indian democracy?
blank space was also
banned.