Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh: This year marks five decades since the imposition of the Emergency by the then Indira Gandhi government on June 25, 1975, a period that lasted until March 21, 1977. During this time, civil liberties were significantly curbed, and thousands, primarily politicians and students, were incarcerated across the country, including Uttar Pradesh. Suresh Trivedi, now 70, was one such individual who experienced the draconian measures firsthand. He recently recounted his activities and time in jail.
Trivedi is recognized as a Loktantra Senani—a term used to honor those arrested and detained under emergency laws like the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) or the Defence of India Rules (DIR) for their political activism and opposition.
“I was 21-years-old and it was September 7, 1975. I was at the English department of Allahabad University where I gave my BA first-year viva-voce for English,” Trivedi vividly recalls. “A PAC truck with a police vehicle in front came onto the campus. Before coming near the department, they had already scanned for me at the PC Banerjee Hostel. I had an inkling and a sense that they had come for me. But I was sure they might not recognise me by my face even if they had come for me. So I came out of the department and walked past the posse nonchalantly. One of the cops asked me if I knew Suresh Trivedi?, I said “no” and walked on.”
His attempt to evade arrest was short-lived. “I had passed just around 50 metres when they might have realised that I indeed was the one they were looking for. They caught up with me. Now, there was no point in bluffing anymore. They arrested and took me to Colonelganj police station in Allahabad where the police beat me before I was sent to the Naini jail,” he stated.
Before his arrest, Trivedi, originally from Unnao district, had already been involved in student activism at Allahabad University. He shared, “I am from Unnao district and from there went to pursue my BA from Allahabad University. There was already an atmosphere of a movement on the campus. But even before moving to the AU, I had joined the Tarun Shanti Sena that Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) had formed during the Bangladesh events of 1971. I was in class 11th in a school in Unnao. While I was in the first year of BA in Allahabad University, I joined the Chatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini that was formed by JP.”
He described the charged atmosphere preceding the Emergency: “Already, the Nav Nirman movement had begun in Gujarat, which was a regional movement against the then Congress government in Gujarat. JP went to participate in it. The sparks that flew from Nav Nirman movement set flames of movement in Bihar and then to UP and then the entire country.”
Trivedi continued, “Just like there was the agitation against Congress government led by Chimanbhai, JP wanted a movement in UP against the Congress government led by Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna and also against the Congress government in Bihar. JP came to UP for the movement, but things intensified in Bihar and he went back and concentrated in Bihar.”
The political climate escalated significantly with the Allahabad High Court’s decision on June 12, 1975, which cancelled Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership and barred her from elections. “And eventually, under the circumstances, Indira Gandhi declared Emergency. Arresting of several leaders had begun even before and once the Emergency was imposed, thousands of big leaders were held. Most of our teachers who were involved in Aandolan were also arrested,” he said.
Trivedi and his associates decided to go underground. “We mulled raising a big movement, secretly communicating with like-minded people not only in UP but also in Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. From Allahabad, we moved to Lucknow and planned our movement at a restaurant in Aminabad. I went to Indore for our secret campaign. Then we reassembled in Allahabad,” he recounted.
Their strategy involved clandestine communication: “We came up with this idea of writing secret letters and making many copies of them through a cyclostyle machine. We had been sending letters one after the other to our group members in different cities who were not yet arrested or were not on police radar. We camouflaged the envelopes as some official letters from some government departments. But one such letter sent by me was caught in Unnao. Police suspected something and they began checking the letters and came to know that they were “subversive” letters. They caught some of the addresses. Some of those addresses, under police pressure, divulged our names. And that’s when the police came after me.”
Despite his arrest, Trivedi’s academic pursuits continued. “I had appeared in my English exam and then three or four days after me being lodged in Naini jail, I had my Sanskrit exam. Some of the teachers who were also lodged in the Naini jail made a request to the jail authorities to let me take the exam in the jail itself. The jail authorities allowed it. My classmates bought books. I studied there. Question paper, answer sheets, examiner, invigilator all came to the jail. I passed in the first division,” he proudly stated.
However, his ordeal was far from over. “But the police had lodged three different cases under the DIR (Defence of India Rules) in Unnao for the letters were caught in Unnao. So, I was sent to Unnao district jail. MISA was invoked against me and I had spent two months in Naini jail and more than one year till the Emergency ended in Unnao district jail,” Trivedi recalled. Describing his time behind bars, he said, “Jail was not really strict. Rules and regulations there were such as I was allowed to meet only one direct family member once a month. We read a lot.”
After the Emergency ended with the defeat of the Congress government and the rise of the Janata Party, Trivedi completed his BA final year. He successfully cleared an all-UP exam for district information officers, joining as the District Information Officer in Farrukhabad. However, he became “disenchanted” after four years and left the job. He then attempted the Provincial Civil Services (PCS) exam twice but failed the interview both times. In 1983, he joined Aryavrat Bank in Farrukhabad, where he retired as a senior manager in 2014.
Trivedi also shared that he wrote political satire as a weekly column for a Hindi daily. Reflecting on the Emergency and the associated movement, Trivedi concluded, “It did satta parivartan (change of power), but could not do vyavastha parivartan (change of system).” Trivedi now resides in Farrukhabad and regularly visits his hometown, Unnao.