Echoes of 1975: Indira Gandhi Centre for Arts launches year-long events to mark 50 years of Emergency; invites youth to revisit dark chapter in Indian democracy

NEW DELHI: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, under the Union ministry of culture, has launched a year long programme to sensitise the younger generation to the loss of civil liberties and national resilience.

The agenda commemorates 50 years since the Emergency, imposed by then PM Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975.The nationwide exhibitions begin in Delhi on Wednesday.The displays will present documented evidence and visual narratives from the turbulent period that tested India's democratic foundations. The physical exhibition will be inaugurated at Ambedkar International Centre on June 26 and later, mobile exhibition units will visit various parts of the city.

The exhibition brings together not only memories and lived experiences, but also pages from rare publications and books on the Emergency. It weaves narratives of "suffering and resistance from prisons across the country". It also includes the verses against the Emergency written by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in prison.

Emergency: Presentations aim to stimulate public discussion The mobile exhibition units will visit prominent city locations, beginning at Thyagaraj Stadium on June 25.

The exhibition will then roll into IGNCA (Janpath), Delhi University (North Campus), Lodhi Road, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Connaught Place, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and other venues. These presentations aim to stimulate public discussion and collective memory.The exhibition highlights historical records, but, more importantly, also the resistance to the Emergency in the form of voices of those who rose against it.

'Atal Gallery' will showcase Vajpayee's powerful poetry against authoritarianism. The exhibition also includes Vajpayee's famous post-emergency words: "Bade muddat baad mile hain deewane; kehne-sunne ko bahut hain afsane; khuli hawa me zara saans to le lein; kab tak rahegi azaadi bhala kaun jaane (We have met after ages.

Let us breathe the fresh air. No one knows how long this freedom will last)."

Officials said the exhibition was not just a walk through history, but an invitation to reflect, remember, and remain vigilant.

It is a reminder to the younger generation of how fragile democracy can be, and how the most powerful weapons to safeguard it were civic awareness and vigilance.By illuminating the stories of resistance, IGNCA seeks to create an enduring dialogue and sensitise the youth to the "atrocities committed during the Emergency", thus inspiring them to uphold the values of freedom and democracy. A selection from the Shah Commission enquiry report, penned by Justice JC Shah, will also be exhibited.

It starkly reminds how over 36,000 people were arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).

Of these, 29,000 were arrested under the draconian law without assigning any reason. Besides MISA, about 1.1 lakh people were also arrested for other offences under the National Security Act.Union culture minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, "In the times we live in, where all of us have a platform at our fingertips to express ourselves, we don't really realise what it is to have voices silenced the way they were during the Emergency. To know the immensity of the freedom of expression, it is important to revisit that era when all these were strangled." The national commemoration welcomes participation from artists across disciplines to present their interpretations of this historical event through various artistic mediums.