Notes for students
Topic: Unexplored Dimensions of the 1975 Emergency: Domestic Turmoil and Foreign Triggers, News Source: Indian Express | Opinion | Manish Tewari | Dated: June 27, 2025
Context of the Article:
Reflecting on 50 years of the Emergency, the article questions whether foreign and strategic triggers during 1971–75 were overlooked in conventional narratives.
Relevant UPSC Paper: GS Paper I – Modern Indian History, GS Paper II – Governance, Polity & International Relations, GS Paper III – Internal Security, Geopolitics, and Strategic Developments
Dimensions of the Article:
- US-China-Pakistan strategic coordination
- India’s regional assertion post-1971
- Indo-Soviet Treaty and Cold War alignments
- Bangladesh Liberation War and global response
Current Context:
Marking 50 years since the declaration of Emergency in 1975, Congress MP Manish Tewari raises concerns over the incomplete understanding of the global and domestic events that shaped that period. He argues that the era from December 1971 to June 1975 — encompassing India’s military victory in Bangladesh, rising US-China-Pakistan alignment, and India’s nuclear and territorial assertiveness — demands clinical, dispassionate analysis to grasp the roots of the Emergency. While not defending the Emergency, he stresses that both external pressures and internal instability played significant roles, which remain inadequately studied.
Features of the News:
- Statement by Indira Gandhi (1978):
- Acknowledged lapse of judgement over the Emergency
- Took full responsibility, claimed it was necessary to avoid national disintegration
- Compared India’s situation to Bangladesh’s pre-1971 chaos
- Backdrop of National Pride (1971):
- India’s decisive victory in the Bangladesh Liberation War
- Over 90,000 Pakistani troops surrendered
- Disintegration of Pakistan and collapse of the two-nation theory
- International Realignments:
- US-China rapprochement brokered by Kissinger with help from Pakistan
- India-USSR Friendship Treaty (Aug 1971) deepened Cold War allegiances
- CIA-KGB covert operations active globally, including Chile
- Nuclear and Strategic Assertion by India:
- May 1974 – Pokhran nuclear test (“Smiling Buddha”) signaled India’s entry into nuclear club
- May 1975 – Sikkim’s integration into India altered South Asian geography again
- Superpower Intervention in 1971 War:
- Task Force 74 (USS Enterprise) sent by US to deter India
- British naval mobilisation (HMS Eagle) on India’s west coast
- Soviet 10th Operative Battle Group deployed to counter Western naval forces
- Averted escalation through strategic diplomacy
- Domestic Crisis Brewing Post-War:
- Economic fallout: inflation, food shortages, public discontent
- Opposition began mobilising against Indira Gandhi
- Internal disturbances intensified through 1974–75
- Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Assassination (Aug 15, 1975):
- Major strategic and emotional setback for India
- Raised fears of regional instability and influence reversal
Explainer:
- Foreign Threats and Internal Siege:
- Tewari reconstructs a scenario where India’s external security was under siege between 1971 and 1975, and its strategic assertiveness made it a target for global powers seeking to contain Soviet-aligned nations.
- Geopolitical Pushback to India’s Rise:
- The formation of Bangladesh, India’s nuclear test, and Sikkim’s merger upset global balance. Western efforts to diplomatically and militarily isolate India possibly contributed to internal destabilisation.
- Emergency in a Strategic Lens:
- While the Emergency was fundamentally a domestic authoritarian response, Tewari highlights the need to explore whether external actors had any role in the intensifying internal unrest — a line Indira Gandhi also echoed in public speeches.
- Neglect in Scholarship:
- Indian historiography and political science have not sufficiently studied the intersection of geopolitics and domestic authoritarianism in the run-up to the Emergency. Tewari calls for archival, non-partisan research on the 1971–75 phase.
- Revisiting Responsibility and Alternatives:
- Raises a rhetorical question: Could the Emergency have been avoided?
- Compares Indira Gandhi’s post-war decline to Churchill’s electoral defeat post-WWII, noting that wartime victories don’t guarantee political stability.
Conclusion:
Fifty years after the Emergency, Manish Tewari’s account urges a rethinking of the standard domestic-only narratives by integrating global strategic dimensions and external disruptions that shaped India’s political trajectory during 1971–75. It reinforces the argument that India’s assertion in South Asia, nuclear posturing, and ideological position in the Cold War may have triggered covert responses and internal pressures, complicating the context of the Emergency. A clinical, non-partisan study of this volatile period is essential not to justify the Emergency, but to understand its full causes and prevent similar episodes in future democratic transitions.
