8 Historic Facts From Emergency 1975 That Every Indian Must Know

The emergency imposed in 1975 by the then PM Indira Gandhi was an incident that was recorded in the history of India. Here are 8 must-know facts about it.

1. The Emergency, lasted for 21 months, was imposed on June 25, 1975. It was revoked on 21 March 1977.

2. This was the third Emergency in the history of independent India. The first Emergency was called during an India-China war. The second Emergency was during an Indo-Pakistan war.

3. This third time, censorship was imposed on the press and various political leaders got arrested.

4. Many familiar faces in today’s political arena, like Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, first spring boarded their career on the Emergency. It was Lalu Prasad who persuaded the Gandhian leader Jay Prakash Narayan to come out of retirement and lead the country to bring about “total revolution” against the government of the time.

5. Indira Gandhi introduced a 20-point economic programme to improve industrial and agricultural production and fight poverty and illiteracy.

6. Sanjay Gandhi initiated a widespread compulsory sterilisation programme, which primarily involved getting males to undergo vasectomy, to control population growth. Allegations of coercion in this campaign was several. This has forced every government since 1977 to stress that family planning is entirely voluntary.

7. Organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Jamaat-e-Islami, along with some political parties, were banned.

8. Indira Gandhi was extremely criticized for her actions. And post the emergency, the first Lok Sabha Elections that took place in 1997 resulted in Janata Party's win, though that government was short-lived before Indira was re-elected.