June 25, 2019 will be observed as ‘Black Day’, marking the 44th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. After a midnight proclamation signed by president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Gandhi ruled virtually by decree, bypassing Parliament. She suspended civil liberties, habeas corpus, and freedom of the press. Most opposition leaders were thrown into prison, including octogenarian Morarji Desai and ‘Loknayak’ Jayaprakash Narayan or JP. The latter was ailing and suffered kidney failure.

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JP, a lifelong Gandhian Socialist, became the rallying point in a struggle to overthrow Mrs. Gandhi. Socialists, we should remember, were also allergic to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Mrs. Gandhi had of course banned RSS during the Emergency. However, it was the RSS, with its thousands of karyakartas (workers), swayamsevaks (self-helpers), and pracharaks (activists), that was leading the fight against Emergency on behalf of civil society. JP was forced to change his mind; he became an ardent supporter of the RSS. 

We may recall that during the Partition, the RSS had sheltered leaders of all political stripes and colours, as well as protected their families from murderous criminals and killers in West Punjab, soon to become Pakistan. If there was one organisation that offered succour and safe passage to Hindu refugees streaming into India across the border, it was the RSS. Once again during the Emergency, the RSS, though banned, helped protect many underground leaders, regardless of political affiliation. Indeed, in or out of jail, most non-Congress politicians suddenly discovered that the RSS workers were not ‘untouchable’. Soft spoken, disciplined, and ever-willing to sacrifice their own comforts and conveniences to serve others, they earned widespread affection and respect. After the Emergency was lifted, these humble RSS workers returned home to their normal lives without any fuss or seeking of favours. This despite the fact that many of them, not to mention their families, had suffered tremendous hardship and privation. 

I was not yet fifteen when the Emergency was declared, but I remember those dark days vividly. My own relatives, including my Mama-ji, Sanjeevan Gajanan Deodhar, were in jail. My uncle, a Math teacher, was a gentle, learned soul. I asked my mother why he was in prison. She replied with one word and one tear, “Deshaasathi”— for the sake of the nation. Actually, his only “crime” was that he belonged to the RSS. I was struck by how, for the first time since India attained independence, lakhs of political prisoners were incarcerated in their own country. During his sojourn at Vadodara Central Jail, Sanjeevan Mama taught Yoga and the Bhagawad Gita to his fellow political prisoners. When I asked him how he had endured those 21 months, he made light of his trauma: “They were among the best in my life; we learned so much from one another.”

The contribution of RSS to the struggle against Emergency was soon forgotten. The newly forged Janata Party, which won a massive mandate in the 1977 general elections, formed the government with Morarji Desai as PM. The spirit of 1977, however, was short-lived. Raj Narayan, the ‘giant slayer’, who had defeated Mrs Gandhi in her own stronghold of Rae Bareli, turned into the sinister joker in the pack. He raised the bogey of dual membership, objecting to former members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh continuing to be members of the RSS. But RSS workers had always been seconded or assigned to other organisations. The Jana Sangh, founded by Syama Prasad Mukherjee on Vijayadashami, October 21, 1951 was no exception. Even today some of the top leaders, not to speak of rank and file of BJP, come from the RSS. Party breaker Charan Singh, forgetting RSS sacrifices during the Emergency, made it the scapegoat. The Janata Party, a motley patchwork of all kinds of parties and ideologies —in today’s parlance, a mahamilavat —fell apart in 1988. Whatever remained of it merged into Charan Singh’s Janata Dal. Charan Singh grabbed the PM’s gaddi displacing Morarji Desai. The euphoria was over.

The RSS and the erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh formed a new political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, on April 6, 1980, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani as its leaders. That is how the lotus first bloomed in the stinking sludge of the failed Janata Party experiment. Today, people talk about how the idea of India has changed under Modi 2.0. Actually, if ever it was seriously threatened, it was during the gloomy interregnum of the Emergency. On “Black Day”, June 25, 2019, let us remember how the RSS fought tooth-and-nail to restore our democracy and freedom, both of which remain central to the enduring idea of India. On my part, I’m glad to write this account on the 79th death anniversary of “Doctorji” Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of RSS, which also happens to be the 5th international yoga day.

The author is Director, IIAS, Shimla