The Diaspora’s Fight Against India’s Emergency

Welcome to Navigating India.

Indira Gandhi imposed the emergence in India from June 1975 to January 1977, a story many of us are already familiar with.

last year marked 50 years since the emergency was proclaimed, and there are already so many books on that period, popular histories, academic histories, examining it from every angle.

Indira Gandhi's emergency is also back to the center of the Indian politics today.

In 2024, union government announced its decision to observe 25th June, the day emergency was proclaimed, as Samvidhan Hathia Diwas, murder of constitution day.

This is in part to memorialize emergency in the public memory as a dark period of Indian history after independence.

But one story that's been almost completely forgotten is that of the story of resistance mounted against Indira Gandhi's emergency by a group of largely unknown individuals in the United States of America.

Individuals with no affiliation to any political party, those who are not part of powerful political families, not part of trade unions or any ideological formations, who nonetheless built a vibrant resistance to increase international pressure on Indira Gandhi's government.

These people are part of the small community of Indian diaspora who were less than a lakh in number in United States in 1970s, included people like Anand Kumar, Ravi Chopra, SR Hiramat, Srikumar Padar and also joined by few Americans like Mavis Sigwelt, Paula Bronstein and pacifist Horace Alexander.

These individuals came together and formed an organization called Indians for Democracy.

And they are the principal protagonists of the book, The Conscience Network, A Chronicle of Resistance to a Dictatorship, written by our guest today, a prominent journalist and author, Sugata Srinivas Raju.

Sugata brings together for the first time a story of these amazing individuals and their resistance against emergency.

The vision of these individuals was not to make any political gain, but a vision that reflected a deep concern for democracy, which they saw as crucial for realizing the goals of India's progress and development.

They had an Indian dream and their actions collectively show a constructive nationalist spirit with an international embrace.

Join me in this conversation with Sugata Srinivas Raju to know more.