The Long Emergency

The Long Emergency

The 'Long Emergency: Oral Histories of Indian Journalism' is an archive built around an initial core of some 50 interviews with Indian journalists who were active in the late 1970s. This is a period associated with the disruptions of the now infamous Indian Emergency of 1975-77, a phase in which many political and civil liberties—among them most norms of press freedom—were abrogated by the Indian state under the leadership of prime minister Indira Gandhi and the incumbent Congress Party. The interviews present a frank retelling of the Emergency years and their impact on the national media (particularly the print media) at the time and beyond it. As an oral history archive this collection offers researchers access to the memories and narratives of some of the more significant protagonists in Indian journalism of the late 20th century. Their accounts are valuable for the granular detail of a past closely remembered and perhaps more importantly for the reflections and analysis on the enduring matrix of political influence, business interests and journalistic practice in India. The ‘Long Emergency’ that emerges from this prism of memory highlights the genealogy of and the continuing dynamics of influence, control and independence of the Indian media. Materials are in English and Hindi.