Democracy under strain

The first principle

A democracy is tested not when one party wins easily but when power is contested, when popular leaders face the limits of law, and when institutions must say no. For its first two decades India's democracy worked inside a single dominant party, so conflict was settled within the Congress. From 1967 that arrangement broke down, politics became a direct contest between a popular leader and her opponents, and in 1975 the Constitution's own emergency powers were used to suspend democratic rights. The return to democracy in 1977 and the safeguards of 1978 showed that the system could correct itself, but only because voters, courts and later Parliament acted.

The core

One party dominance and the Congress system

Political scientist Rajni Kothari (1964) described a "Congress system" in which the Congress was a party of consensus that held many interests, regions and ideologies within itself, while opposition parties acted as parties of pressure that influenced factions inside it. Competition took place within the dominant party, which is why Congress rule from 1952 to 1967 coexisted with real democracy.

The 1967 shock

• Nehru's death in 1964, the war of 1965, droughts and the devaluation of 1966 hurt the Congress. In the fourth general election of 1967 its Lok Sabha tally fell to 283, and it lost power in nine States, from Punjab to Kerala, through defeat or later defections.
• Ram Manohar Lohia's strategy of non Congressism brought ideologically opposed parties together in Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD) coalitions. Many were unstable, and floor crossing grew so common that a Haryana legislator's repeated switches gave the phrase "Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram".

From the split to Garibi Hatao

• The conflict between Indira Gandhi and the senior party bosses, the Syndicate, came to a head in the presidential election of 1969, when she backed V V Giri against the official candidate N Sanjiva Reddy. The party split into the Congress (O) and the Congress (R).
• Indira Gandhi gave the split an ideological meaning by nationalising 14 major banks in July 1969 and moving to end privy purses. With the slogan Garibi Hatao she won 352 seats in the early election of 1971, and the victory in the Bangladesh war added to her authority.

The road to the Emergency

• Inflation after the oil shock, unemployment and charges of corruption fed student protest. The Nav Nirman movement in Gujarat (early 1974) forced the State government to resign, and the Bihar movement from March 1974 drew Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) into leadership, with his call for "total revolution".
• On 12 June 1975 the Allahabad High Court, on a petition by Raj Narain, set aside Indira Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha for electoral malpractice. The Supreme Court granted only a conditional stay, and on 25 June JP called for nationwide protest at a rally in Delhi.
• That night the President proclaimed an Emergency under Article 352 on the ground of "internal disturbance". It lasted until March 1977.

Dimensions

• Rights. Orders under Article 359 suspended the right to move courts for enforcement of Fundamental Rights, including Article 21. Over a lakh people were detained, many under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).
• Press. Pre censorship was imposed, and newspapers that resisted faced pressure; some protested by leaving editorial columns blank.
• Social. Slum clearance and a coercive sterilisation drive, particularly in north India, caused deep anger, as the Shah Commission later documented.
• Judicial. In ADM Jabalpur v Shivkant Shukla (1976) the Supreme Court held by four to one that detainees could not seek habeas corpus while the suspension lasted; Justice H R Khanna's lone dissent became the most celebrated in its history.
• Constitutional. The 42nd Amendment (1976) extended the Lok Sabha's term to six years, barred courts from reviewing constitutional amendments, added Fundamental Duties and inserted "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" in the Preamble.

In practice

The 1977 verdict and the Janata government

Indira Gandhi called elections in January 1977. The opposition parties merged into the Janata Party, which won 295 seats; the Congress fell to 154, won no seat in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, and Indira Gandhi lost Raebareli. Morarji Desai became the first non Congress Prime Minister in March 1977. The government appointed the Shah Commission to inquire into Emergency excesses, but internal rivalries brought it down in 1979, and the Congress returned in 1980.

The 44th Amendment, 1978

• "Armed rebellion" replaced "internal disturbance" as a ground for a national emergency, and the President may proclaim one only on the written decision of the Union Cabinet.
• The enforcement of Articles 20 and 21 can no longer be suspended during an Emergency.
• The right to property was removed from the Fundamental Rights and made a legal right under Article 300A, and the Lok Sabha term returned to five years.

Judgements

• Indira Nehru Gandhi v Raj Narain (1975): struck down the clause of the 39th Amendment that put the Prime Minister's election beyond judicial scrutiny, holding free and fair elections part of the basic structure.
• Minerva Mills v Union of India (1980): struck down the 42nd Amendment's bar on judicial review of amendments.
• K S Puttaswamy v Union of India (2017): a nine judge bench expressly overruled ADM Jabalpur, holding that life and liberty are inherent and not a gift of the Constitution.

Issues and way forward

• Why did democracy bend? One view stresses personal power and a ruling party without internal democracy; another stresses real disorder and a movement that called on the police and army not to obey illegal orders. Both agree that emergency powers were too loosely written, which the 44th Amendment addressed.
• Why did it recover? Elections were held, voters punished the government, the press and the judiciary regained their voice, and Parliament itself wrote safeguards. This resilience is the strongest evidence that Indian democracy had taken root.
• The coalition era. The 1977 experiment foreshadowed later coalitions, from the National Front of 1989 to the United Front, the National Democratic Alliance and the United Progressive Alliance. Coalitions widened representation for regions and backward classes but sometimes weakened stability, which the Tenth Schedule (1985) on defections tried to address.
• Lessons for today. Institutions need independence by design, not by goodwill; the Sarkaria Commission (1988) and the S R Bommai judgement (1994) carried this lesson to the misuse of President's rule in States.

Common confusions

• Emergency of 1975 and 1971. An external emergency proclaimed during the 1971 war was still in force; the 1975 proclamation added internal disturbance as a ground.
• Article 352 and Article 359. Article 352 proclaims the emergency; Article 359 lets the President suspend the right to move courts for enforcing Fundamental Rights.
• 42nd and 44th Amendments. The 42nd (1976) centralised power during the Emergency; the 44th (1978) reversed much of it.
• Congress (O) and Congress (R). The Congress (O) was the Syndicate's organisation; the Congress (R) was Indira Gandhi's party after 1969.

For the exam

• Keyword bank: Congress system, non Congressism, Samyukta Vidhayak Dal, Syndicate, bank nationalisation, Garibi Hatao, total revolution, internal disturbance, Article 352, Article 359, press censorship, ADM Jabalpur, 42nd Amendment, Shah Commission, 44th Amendment, coalition politics.
• Previous year questions: Practise the previous year questions on this topic →
• Use in an answer:
  • Introduction (data): The Congress won 352 Lok Sabha seats in 1971 and only 154 in 1977, the voters' verdict on the Emergency.
  • Introduction (judgement, quote or report): In 2017 the Supreme Court overruled ADM Jabalpur, accepting Justice H R Khanna's 1976 dissent that life and liberty do not depend on the state's permission.
  • Conclusion: The Emergency showed how constitutional powers can be turned against democracy, and the 1977 election and the 44th Amendment showed how a democracy can correct itself.
  • Conclusion: India's democracy survived strain because elections, courts, a free press and Parliament each recovered their role, and safeguarding all four remains the lesson of 1975.