There have been many studies of the Emergency since the end of Mrs Gandhi's rule. But none of these studies have tried to come to grips with the basic issues involved. Once the entire blame for the Emergency is placed on Mrs Gandhi's shoulders, nothing, it appears, remains to be explained. This perhaps eases our conscience for our own acquiescence in it. It also frees us from self-searching to find whether at some level we too were accomplices in that dastardly development.
But Mrs Gandhi does not explain everything. If it was the sinister ambition of just one person then how was it that few if any in the administration or in her own party and cabinet opposed the move? How was it that the entire business class, intelligentsia and the Press (with rare exceptions) not only dumbly accepted the new order but soon set about discovering non-existent virtues in it? Unlike other dictators, Mrs Gandhi did not have an organised band of fanatics and a vast number among the masses mad after a vision of a future, or economic well-being, or national glory. Her entire strength was derived from the administrative system and an organisation whose only stock in trade had been the promotion in India of a democratic system, whose superiority it paraded over other governments of the third world. How could it be that these instruments fell in line with a dictatorship without demur? It is clear that Mrs Gandhi could not be a convenient peg to hang everything on. One would have to go a little beneath the surface to find the root of the malady.
Much is being said about dismantling the apparatus of dictatorship. But we hardly had an apparatus created. It was the same apparatus, forged over the quarter century of independence with a legacy of the imperial rule, which served Mrs Gandhi in the new role. How can we neglect to examine that apparatus and think of this grand dismantling effort?
The basic aim of the present study is to analyse the developments since independence to discover the sources of the weaknesses of our democratic framework. As much of the country's administration has evolved gradually from the British days, certain salient features of that development too have been touched upon. The main task of the study has been to delineate certain trends. But this task could not be divorced from the denouement of actual events culminating in the Emergency and what followed. So certain developments have been described. However, the study only seeks to sketch an outline of a process.
There is no attempt to go into the details of the excesses of the Emergency or into the resistance that developed against it. No attempt has also been made to go into the details of the underground movement. The author was too close to the under-ground to find anything heroic about it though certainly there were individuals who showed exceptional courage and dedication. The study of all that, though in great demand, lies beyond the scope of this book.
We have had enough of euphoria. The subject of this study is the thankless job of bringing our people back from that euphoric height to sober reflection on all that has happened. The picture that emerges may be irksome to some important people. But in their own interest and in the interest of us all someone has to hold the mirror. That is one way to prevent a backlash.
It is not just accidental that most of the countries of the third world have slipped into authoritarianism. We are perhaps the longest-surviving democracy in this group. But we too have been treading along the edge of the abyss, and had almost slipped into it.
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