Politics, economics, social contracts: Why rerun of anger of ’75 is unlikely

The Emergency of 1975 stemmed from economic unrest and political turmoil under Indira Gandhi, unlike today's muted protests amid improved economic conditions.

“History does nothing, it possesses no immense wealth, it wages no battles. It is man, real, living man who does all that, who possesses and fights; history is not, as it were, a person apart, using man as a means to achieve its own aims; history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims,” Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote in their seminal 1845 book, The Holy Family.

Election campaign in east Delhi in March 1977. (HT Archives)

This is actually a good framework to look at the