The Crisis of Democratic Order
The Emergency of 1975 to 1977 remains the most testing moment of Indian democracy, examined in NCERT Politics in India Since Independence, Chapter 6. The chapter traces the build-up through the Bangladesh war, economic strain, the Gujarat and Bihar student movements led by Jayaprakash Narayan, the Allahabad High Court verdict against Indira Gandhi, and the midnight declaration of Emergency. It studies press censorship, arrests, the Shah Commission findings, the 1977 election that voted Congress out, and the lessons the crisis taught about constitutional safeguards.
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