The Conscience Network: Fighting the emergency and the US battlefront

The Conscience Network: A Chronicle of Resistance to a Dictatorship

By Sugata Srinivasaraju

Published by Penguin

553 pages ₹1,299

 

There can be no debate on the Emergency in India. It was a dark time in Indian democracy and politics for which even the Congress has offered an explanation and a qualified apology. But 50 years after the event, the mystifying demand of top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary Dattatreya Hosabale that the words “socialist” and “secular” be removed from India’s preamble does make you wonder. The 42nd Amendment that introduced the words during the Emergency didn’t just amend the Preamble which is non-justiciable and unalterable. It changed the concept of judicial review, the relationship between the arms of the government and even the relationship between the government and the state. And now, the very people who fought the Emergency from prison and the underground, apparently want to change it again? 

The element of equivalence between then and now is probed delicately but bravely by this book which revisits the Emergency and the resistance to it from a new angle — those who fought it in the United States (US). These were the Indians who went to the US for further studies from the IITs and Indian universities, some who stayed on to pursue business or a profession, some who returned. Many were apolitical in the sense that they had no interest in power politics. But what they had in common was a strong sense of morality and justice. They couldn’t tolerate events back home, the suspension of free speech, fundamental rights and civil liberties, and resolved to fight against it by sensitising Indians and foreign governments alike. In this, they were moved by the ideas of American liberals as well as Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan. 

The book discusses the background of some of the protagonists and without judgement and with complete honesty, gently describes how they navigated political and personal contradictions. S R Hiremath and Mavis, who would later become his wife, fought for the freedom of Indians to live and love unfettered but felt compelled to devise many strategies to ensure their relationship got social sanction. The story of Shrikumar Poddar, son of a Calcutta-based businessman who drolly confessed that he came to the US motivated by the idea that you could date women freely, unhindered by caste or family, and became a millionaire through a small side hustle that he started, is enthralling. His subscription business paid not just for the platform they formed, Indians For Democracy (IFD) but also to fund Indians who came for work and lost their jobs, in the best tradition of Marwari social responsibility. 

One of the central figures of the IFD was Anand Kumar, a well-known figure in Jawaharlal Nehru University, who served as the president of the Students Union and then travelled to the US for fur­ther studies. He won a scholarship that was later withdrawn, and his efforts to organise Indians came at considerable personal cost because there was no money. 

IFD eventually became a swarm of hornets, stinging the Indian establishment in the US mercilessly, making itself heard through probing questions from reporters in the US media, articles published in American newspapers and public debates, including one between one of US’s most respected voices on Indian politics, Paul Brass, and Ambassador TN Kaul, who was convincingly and comprehensively bested by Brass. But it is worth asking if the response in the US would have been the same today. In the 1970s, the US was going through a profound crisis after Vietnam, Chile, and Salvador. Watergate had shaken public confidence in institutions. American society was receptive to enquiry, protest, and rage. The book analyses domestic politics in the US and discusses its response. 

Where there was IFD, another parallel organisation, Friends of India Society International (FISI) was also formed, motivated by Hindu groups. Subramaniam Swamy was one of the leading lights. The two groups coexisted driven towards the same goal but were uncomfortable with each other on some issues, including a view on Pakistan. 

The book ends with the trajectories of those who were in the IFD after the Emergency was lifted and the Janata Party government was formed. Many of the leaders returned home. More recently Anand Kumar even contesting the Lok Sabha polls from the Aam Aadmi Party platform. 

The loss of idealism in the Janata regime and small compromises that later became big ones is, again, a story narrated without judgement. The book is meticulously researched, nuanced, and written with restrained elegance. There are one or two things that need to be corrected, maybe in a reprint. The Hindi word for gate is fatak  not  pathak (page 26). A photo caption says: “Ravi Chopra arrives in India to cover the general elections in February 1977”. But no Indian airport had a walkalator in 1977 (Palam airport was basically a shed) and a sign in the picture says “Welcome to Britain”. So Ravi Chopra may have been travelling somewhere else. But for anyone who wants to understand the issues of democracy and dictatorship in India, this is a seminal book.