Those darkest hours of Indian democracy

When I turn pages of Newspapers in the morning and read how Indian government is overlooking common man’s demand on Jan Lokpal Bill, those days of Emergency catch my attention. Although it happened before my physical existence, yet my mother’s memories with emergency keep those 21-months of Political unrest alive. 

The dark clouds were ready to surround Indian democracy when opponents made allegations that Congress leader, Indira Gandhi had practiced electoral fraud to win the 1971 elections. On 12 June 1975, the Allahabad High Court also found the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi guilty of charges, but she was cleared on more serious charges. Due to drought and 1973 oil crisis, economy was in bad shape. Bihar was standing up for a change in government through  strikes in labor, trade, student and government unions. The socialist J. P. Narayan and his supporters sought to transform Indian society. Protests led by Raj Narain and Morarji Desai flooded the streets of Delhi.

Fearing imminent danger to Congress's image, a letter for the president was drafted. India was preparing itself for a massive social and political changes when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Indira Gandhi on 26 June 1975, declared a state of emergency under Article 352 (Constitution of India), suspending elections and civil liberties. 

With official declaration, Ms. Gandhi brought democracy to a grinding halt. Elections for the state and Parliament governments were postponed. Invoking article 352 (Indian Constitution), she had extraordinary powers to smash the civil liberties and political opposition. The Government misused police forces across country to arrest thousands of protesters and strike leaders. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, along with some opposition political parties got barred.

News headlines proclaiming State of Emergency - Over 140,000 people had been arrested 

without trial during Emergency

In my mother’s words, Indian Emergency was a preplanned series of  rewriting the nation's laws. Indira Gandhi used the president to issue, "extraordinary laws", allowing her to rule by decree. Anti party ruling states like Gujrat and Tamil Nadu were hit hard with declaration of president's Rule, jailing thousands of opponents. The 42nd Amendment brought extensive changes to the spirit of Indian constitution. In face of massive political disorder, Indira had her younger son Sanjay Gandhi, a close political advisor who was concerned with issues of overpopulation. He initiated a birth control program, chiefly employing sterilization. Quotas were set up that eventually ended up with coercion of unwilling Indians. 

Large-scale illegal performance of laws shifted the country towards socialism. With destruction of the slum and low-income housing in Jama Masjid area, the entire country was in a state of shock. According to Amnesty International, 140,000 people had been arrested without trial during darkest hours of Emergency. Out of those, 40,000 had come from India's two percent Sikh minority. 

Any blackout doesn’t stand for so long. Networks were established between different political parties’ leaders in the jail for the coordination of the movement. Indira Gandhi called fresh elections, releasing all political prisoners and Emergency officially ended on March 23rd, 1977. A coalition of parties calling itself the Janata Party (People's Party), asked Indians to choose between “democracy and dictatorship.” The elections turned against Gandhi and with huge victory of Janata Party, Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India. 

Emergency rule lasted 21 months, but its legacy remains intensely controversial. Writer Rahi Masoom Raza and English novelist Sanjeev Tare shared in their literature what they went through during that politically turbulent time. Brutus, You!, a book by Chanakya Sen portrayed internal politics of Jawaharlal Nehru university, Delhi during Emergency. The 1985 Malayalam film Yathra showcased the human right violations during Emergency by the police. 

Even though it was endorsed by Vinoba Bhave, Mother Teresa, J. R. D. Tata and writer Khushwant Singh, but for entire nation Emergency was merely a nightmare, which left a long lasting scar on the face of Indian political system. 

Hitler - Dictator or exploded face of an Artist?

After Alexander, humanity did not witness existence of a man who could control almost entire world as per his wishes until Hitler came in picture. Interestingly, like Alexander, he influenced countless men with his magnetic leadership style, but unlike Hitler, Alexander would have never executed the mass murder of six million Jews for sure. How strange it seems that Hitler, whose political visions bought the world a war, once wanted to be an artist. 

From childhood, Hitler had strong desires to be an artist. Eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons and even entertained thoughts of becoming a priest. It may sound hard to believe, but Hitler was once very emotional kid who often had to face opposition of his father against his artistic wishes. Being sensitive, death of his younger brother deeply affected him and he drastically changed from being confident student to a detached boy who often fought with his father and teachers. 

From 1905, Hitler lived in Vienna (Austria), worked as a casual laborer to eventually become a painter. Very few of us know that Hitler produced and sold hundreds of his paintings in streets of Vienna to earn living. In between all this, his attempts to get into Academy of Fine Arts (Vienna) were persistent. When Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna rejected his piece of work over and over, failure of an artist probably met notorious and murderous instincts.

A painting by Hitler - he produced and sold hundreds of paintings to earn living during 1908–1913.

We all know how World War I left Germany starving with Treaty of Versailles, which imposed heavy taxes on country. After joining Nazi Party, Hitler soon gained notoriety for his speeches against the Treaty of Versailles and Jews. Hitler’s hatred for Jews always remained unreasonable to me knowing that he had many close Jewish friends, during his stay in Austria.

It is interesting that he might even had a Jewish grandfather. Hitler’s grandmother was housekeeper in a Jewish family. She had no social contact with anybody, except family's 19-year-old son, Leopold Frankenberger, who possibly brought Hitler’s father to existence. Throughout his life, Hitler acted like a the most weird person in political senses. He always praised Christian culture, but in person, he criticized Christianity. He once even called it, fit for slaves only. 

Perhaps Hitler, who defined new altitude of dictatorship, was never fit for it. Deep down inside, he was an artist whose military judgment became increasingly erratic at the end of WW II. In simple words, Hitler may sound like a dictator of Nazi Germany, but possibly his persona was far smipler than that. Certainly, Hitler was ultimately responsible for deaths of 21 million civilians in war, however,  he remained as an untold artist in history pages. 

Remembering the Night unsinkable Titanic sank

When Titanic was launched in the presence of 100,000 onlookers, nobody could imagine how this ship of wonder would give the world scar of 1,514 deaths. The last word in comfort and luxury, Titanic carried 2,223 people, wealthiest and those who were seeking a new life in America. It’s been 100 years since RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on her way to New York City, but her memory kept alive in countless books, songs, films and memorials. James Cameron's Titanic (1997), portraying the sinking of ship gave new dimension to works of art. 

Titanic was born with manufacturer White Star Line‘s vague vision of commissioning a new class of luxury. Titanic was built 269 meter long with breadth of 28.19 meter and height of 32 meter. Adding 900 to crew, ship could accommodate 3,339 people, 739 passengers in First-Class, 674 in Second Classes and 1,026 in Third Class. With an onboard gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, squash court, Turkish bath and high-class restaurants, first-class passengers were to enjoy a floating hotel rather than a ship. 

On 10 April 1912, with 885 crew members and the most senior of the White Star Line's captains, the Titanic's maiden voyage began from Southampton, UK. The weather was windy, when Titanic weighed anchor for the last time. The first three days of the voyage passed without incident, yet Titanic received a series of warnings from other ships about drifting ice in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland area. Nonetheless, the ship continued to steam at full speed. 

On April 14th, at 11:40 pm, she spotted an iceberg. First Officer ordered the ship to be steered around, but the starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline. It soon became clear that the ship was doomed with its watertight compartments getting breached. Earlier regarded unsinkable, Titanic began sinking bow-first, with water spilling from compartment to compartment. Titanic was ill-prepared for such disaster. Due to outdated maritime safety regulations, she carried lifeboats for 1,178 people – one-third of total capacity. Inadequately trained crew and officers launched many lifeboats barely half-full.

Third-class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves in the ship filled with water. Over 90% men in Second Class were stayed aboard due to a women and children first protocol. Just before 2:20 am ship broke up and sank with over a thousand people still on board, breaking loose from the bow section. The remaining passengers and crew were plunged into lethally cold water with a temperature of only −2 °C. Many of those died within minutes from hypothermia, caused by Freezing Ocean.

Distress signals were sent by wireless, rockets and lamp, but none of the ships responded until Carpathia arrived on the scene at 4 am. Only 710 people survived the disaster while 1,514 people lost their lives. Carpathia on 18 April arrived at New York, greeted by 40,000 people waiting in heavy rain. Crowds gathered outside newspaper offices to see the latest reports on casualties, which took four next days to be compiled and released. For anybody, who heard about it, pain was irritable. Thomas Hardy's poem The Convergence of the Twain (1912) emerged from the disaster. Saved from the Titanic was released only 29 days after the ship sank, having actual survivor –Dorothy Gibson, the silent film actress. 

The largest ship at a time, as long as four city blocks, was believed to be too strong to sink. The unsinkable ship stayed beneath the Atlantic Ocean for 71 years till National Geographic helped an explorer go look for her in 1985. Many sad reminders of Titanic's passengers were found with suitcases, cups, and countless shoes. Over years, Titanic has been symbolizing the sad glory, perhaps we can collect piece of it from 12,415 feet sea depth, but reviving the smiling faces of people who drowned with Titanic is surely not achievable.

The Jews - lost in migrations and massacre

Jews, being minority in every country (except Israel) have experienced harassment throughout the history. A community that got doubled within the confines of the Roman Empire witnessed the social discrimination, assimilation, migration and massacre, persistently. 

Jews repeatedly have been expelled from their homeland and settled wherever they could practice their religion. Their harassment started under the Roman Empire, where Jews were driven from land to land followed by destruction of Solomon’s Temple by Babylonians. During Christian Roman era, they were officially announced second-class citizens. In the middle Ages in Europe, 16,000 Jews were expelled from England, 100,000 from France, 200,000 from Spain and 37,000 from Portugal. Many of these Jews settled in Poland where they unfortunately had to witness mass murder of six million of them, during Second World War (Known as The Holocaust).

After the founding of Israel, methodical persecution caused almost all of Jews to flee to Israel, Europe and North America in the 1950s. The Islamic Revolution of Iran caused many Iranian Jews to flee Iran to the US and Israel. When the Soviet Union collapsed, community got affected by wave of migration to Israel in the early 1990s, yet suffering from Israeli- Arab conflicts. Prior to this, around 227,258 immigrants arrived in Israel, back from Western Europe, Latin America, and the United States, between 1974 and 1979. 

Posters of ' Schindler's List' and 'The Pianist' , Both movies depict measurable life of Jews, 
during 'The Holocaust' (WW - 2)

Their maltreatment reached to peak in Nazi Germany, slaughtering roughly 6 million Jews. The Holocaust — a systematic persecution of European Jews during World War II, led by Adolf Hitler remains the most horrible persecution of Jews. They were forced to be in Concentration camps where they were used as slave until they died of exhaustion or disease. They were transported hundreds of miles by freight train to be killed in gas chambers. Out of the nine million of them, approximately two-thirds perished since over one million Jewish children, two million Jewish women and three million Jewish men were killed during mass shootings. Jews accounted for 10% of the total population of the Roman Empire. By that ratio, if they were not murdered time by time, they would have been 200 million in numbers today, rather than 13 million (0.2 % of world population). 

Since the time of the Ancient Greeks, Jews were surrounded by wider non-Jewish society and either by choice or force, ceasing to practice Judaism and losing their Jewish identity. Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations or sought to eliminate them entirely like the Kaifeng Jews of China, disappeared completely after continuous assimilation. 

A community that notably surprised the world with Physics invention with Albert Einstein and gave new dimensions to art of cinema through Adrian Brody and Winona rider has suffered the irresistible pain, over centuries. Hopefully in days to come, a Jews won’t have to face more inexplicable hatred since a woman (Jesus Christ's mother) who gave birth to Christianity was a Jew.