Highlight the dissent and resistance to …

Acts of dissent and resistance to the Emergency imposed in 1975:-

(i) Many political workers who were not arrested in the first wave, went ‘underground’ and organised protests against the government.

(ii) Newspapers like the Indian Express and the Statesman protested against censorship by leaving blank spaces where news items had been censored. Magazines like the Seminar and the Mainstream chose to close down rather than submit to censorship.

(iii)Many journalists were arrested for writing against the Emergency. Many
underground newsletters and leaflets were published to bypass censorship.

(iv)Kannada writer Shivarama Karanth, awarded with Padma Bhushan, and Hindi writer Fanishwarnath Renu, awarded with Padma Shri, returned their awards in protest against the suspension of democracy.

(v) The Parliament also brought in many new changes to the Constitution. In the background of the ruling of the Allahabad High Court in the Indira Gandhi case, an amendment was made declaring that elections of Prime Minister, President and Vice-President could not be challenged in the Court.

  Effects:-

(i) After the declaration of Emergency, the urban middle classes were generally happy over the fact that agitations came to an end and discipline was enforced on the government employees.

(ii) The poor and rural people also expected effective implementation of the welfare programmes that the government was promising.
Thus, different sections of society had different expectations from the emergency and also different viewpoints about it.