Dissent for a brighter future

The book compares the strategies of state overreach used during the Emergency with those of the current government

India's Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance

Author: Arvind Narrain

Publisher: Context 

Pages: 340

Price: Rs 699

The Indian state today is more damaging than the national Emergency of 1975. Then an authoritarian state, India now is becoming a totalitarian one. This is the case Arvind Narrain, a jurist, makes in his book India’s Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance.

This comparison might have been obvious to many public intellectuals who gave early warning signals when the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government cemented its feet in Parliament. Yet, bringing out this comparison is hard. The horrors of the Emergency are a