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The Emergency as Prehistory of the New Indian Middle Class*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2011

ARVIND RAJAGOPAL
ARVIND RAJAGOPAL*
Affiliation:
Department of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University, New York NY 10012, USA Email: ar67@nyu.edu
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Abstract

Recent accounts of the National Emergency of 1975–1977 concur that the deviations it represented, while genuine, did not represent any fundamental change on the part of the Indian state, and that the period offers little distinct insight on the post-independence period as a whole. This paper seeks to argue, to the contrary, that the Emergency was a watershed in post-independence history. With its ban on dissent and suspension of constitutional rights, the Emergency sought to suppress all political disturbances to governance. By doing so, it forefronted the problems of postcolonial politics in at least three respects. First, the Emergency demonstrated that coercion was inextricably combined with consent in state-led development. Second, this led to a heavy reliance on practices of communication to redefine coercion and to stage popular consent. Third, in the process, the boundaries of the political were reinforced, emphasizing the friend/enemy difference fundamental to politics. Governance in the aftermath of the Emergency placed an overt reliance on consent over coercion, but in ways that are themselves significant. Categories of culture and community, and related forms of social distinction, gained in importance over earlier developmental distinctions premised on an authoritarian relationship between state and the people. The change meant a shift away from the Nehruvian focus on the economy as the crucial arena of nation-building, involving labour as the key modality of citizenship. Instead, culture and community became the categories that gained political salience in the period of economic liberalization. The mass media were central to this redefinition of the political, multiplying in size and reach, and acquiring market-sensitive forms of address couched in the rhetoric of individual choice. These events, I suggest, are critical to understanding the formation of the new middle class in India, as a category that increasingly defines itself through cultural and consumerist forms of identity, and is less identified with the state.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 5 , September 2011 , pp. 1003 - 1049
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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2 See discussion below.

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26 It was symptomatic that while Justice Shah sought to express shock and indignation at the testimonials of erring officials, the courtroom audience responded with laughter and mockery.

27 Guha, Ramachandra. ‘The Emergency: Dictators’ Defence’, India Today, 3 July, 2000. http://india-today.com/itoday/20000703/view.html. Accessed 21 July, 2010. For discussion, see Chatterjee 1997, p. 62.

28 The information and publicity budget, excluding radio and television, for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry rose from Rs. 11.9 cr. in 1974–1975 to Rs 14.55 cr. in 1975–1976 to Rs 18.7 cr. in 1976–1977, or by 58 per cent in two years. The major rise was due to expenditure in the Directorate of Audio-Visual Publicity, from Rs. 2.66 cr. to Rs. 3.51 cr. to Rs. 5.15 cr., or by 93 per cent across the same years. Government of India, Publications Division, ‘Mass Media in India’, White Paper on Misuse of Mass Media, 1977, p. 60.

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33 A crucial development in this context was the decision taken by the Hindu nationalist the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh to enter the larger political process, and forsake mere ‘character-building’, which had been its chief focus since 1925. See Rajagopal, Arvind, Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 30–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. pp. 51–63.

34 Sharma, Mukul. ‘Media and Governance’, Seminar No. 514, 2002. http://www.india-seminar.com/2002/514/514%20mukul%20sharma.htm. Accessed 21 July, 2010.

35 For example, the circulation of all newspapers and periodicals increased from 34.08 millions in 1976 to 50.92 millions in 1980, to 64.05 millions in 1986, reflecting growth of 49 per cent in four years and nearly 100 per cent in ten years. In the case of television, it was more dramatic. There were 0.479 million sets in 1976, growing to 1.55 millions by 1980 and to 11 millions by 1986, tripling in four years and then increasing by nearly 22 times in ten years. Television at this time was entirely state-controlled; its revenues increased from Rs. 7.7 millions in 1976–1977 to Rs 80.8 millions in 1980–1981, to Rs. 602 millions in 1986, i.e., growing by more than ten times in four years, and nearly eighty times in ten years. Government of India. Publications Division. Mass Media in India, 1977, 1981, 1987. Also see http://www.ddindia.gov.in/About+DD/Commercial+Service. Accessed 21 July, 2010. For discussion on ‘political excitement’ see Jeffrey, Robin. India's Newspaper Revolution, Oxford, 2000, p. 51Google Scholar.

36 Owner-editors constitute crucial nodes of influence in this process. More than three-quarters of newspapers are owned by individuals rather than by joint stock companies. See Sharma, 2002, ibid., for discussion.

37 The exceptions are of course significant, e.g., Nehru's decision not to present Ambedkar's Hindu Code Bill in toto before Parliament. He introduced the legislation piecemeal in anticipation of conservative objections to it. See e.g., Ambedkar, B.R. Statement of Resignation as Law Minister, 10 October, 1951, in Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches, Vol. 14, Part Two, Section IV. Vasant Moon (ed.). Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1995, pp. 1322–1326.

38 Pai, 1975, p. 25.

39 Government of India. Planning Commission. Annual Plan 1976–1977. New Delhi, 1976–1977, pp. 1–2.

40 The positive influence of the monsoon was acknowledged by the Planning Commission during the period. Annual Plan 1976–1977 ibid., p. 1. For discussion, see Toye, J.F.J. ‘Economic Trends and Policies in India During the Emergency’, World Development vol. 5, no. 4, 1977, pp. 303–316CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. p. 304.

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45 Economic Survey 1975–1976, pp. 12–13.

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49 Force was abundantly actuated: over 100,000 detainees, at least 43 dead in jail or while in police custody, 700,000 rendered homeless due to demolitions, perhaps 400 killed in police firing against those resisting demolitions, over 8 millions sterilized in a single year under the family planning programme, over 1600 deaths due to sterilization. Again it should be stressed, the Emergency is continuous rather than exceptional in relation to post-independence history as a whole. The availability of these figures is a result of a set of conjunctional political developments that sought to bestow an exceptional status on the Emergency as an undemocratic phase. The importance of those efforts, and their implications for subsequent politics, are beyond the scope of this paper. Government of India. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Family Welfare Programme in India, Yearbook 1978–1979, New Delhi, 1980, p. 66.

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51 Fernandes, in 1974 presented a picture of militancy when he told railwaymen that they could make the country starve if they chose to strike work for a period of fifteen days, and later was implicated in the Baroda Dynamite Case; he went on to become Union Minister of Industries in the Janata Government. For Fernandes’ speech to railwaymen, see The Hindu, 30 March 1974. Cited in P.N. Dhar, Indira Gandhi, p. 242. My discussion here on industrial conflict owes an enormous debt to Gautam Mody of the National Trades Unions Initiative (NTUI), New Delhi; the usual disclaimers apply.

52 See E.A. Ramaswamy, Worker Consciousness and Trade Union Response. The government's favouring millowners in the textile strike, as the textile industry experienced technological shifts, amid a broader wave of de-industrialization, signalled the change most immediately, pp. 18–57. See also Van Wersch, H.The Bombay Textile Strike, 1982–83. Bombay, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, esp. pp. 8–65Google Scholar.

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