Review: A Comprehensive Look Back at the Emergency Which Holds Important Lessons for Today A new book by Christophe Jaffrelot and Pratinav Anil examines Indira Gandhi's authoritarianism, Jayaprakash Narayan's muddled politics and how the RSS craftily gained respectability. Indira Gandhi, circa 1973. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Rights10 hours ago Indians woke up on June 26, 1975, to learn that a national emergency had been declared. Opposition leaders and others were jailed, habeas corpus was suspended and newspapers would be censored. Today marks the 46th year of that announcement. For an event so seminal in the history of Independent India, which changed the political history of the country, the Emergency of 1975-77 has not received the attention it deserves.