Indira Gandhi declared a nationwide Emergency at midnight on 25 June 1975

At midnight on 25 June 1975, India - a young democracy and the world’s largest - froze.

Then prime minister Indira Gandhi had just declared a nationwide Emergency. Civil liberties were suspended, opposition leaders jailed, the press gagged and the constitution turned into a tool of absolute executive power. 

In an interview with journalist Paul Saltzman in September 1975, Gandhi defended her decision to impose the Emergency, claiming it was necessary to safeguard the “country’s unity and integrity”.

“I have not taken any powers whatsoever. We are functioning absolutely within the constitution,” she said. 

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