Read: "‘Voices of Emergency’: How an anthology of protest poetry spoke out against constitutional injustice"

[Vivek Pinto]

By: R. Raja Rao [R Raj Rao has written more than 25 books. He is the former head of the English department at Savitribai Phule Pune University, previously known as the University of Pune.]
Published in: The Wire
Date: June 19, 2026
Source: https://scroll.in/article/1093291/voices-of-emergency-how-an-anthology-of-protest-poetry-spoke-out-against-constitutional-injustice
Note: Please access the source to read the entire article

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared Emergency on June 25, 1975. This anthology comprises 280 poems in 15 languages against it.

"Indian-English poets are generally believed to be insular, untouched and unaffected by the political goings-on in the country. Yet, several canonical Indian-English poets have written on the Emergency. They include Nissim Ezekiel, Jayanta Mahapatra, Kamala Das, Dilip Chitre, Eunice de Souza, Pritish Nandy, Melanie Silgardo and EV Ramakrishnan."

"Voices of Emergency, though shoddily brought out, is that rare collector’s item that needs to be reissued. It is amazing that a mere 19 months of the Emergency motivated so many poets to write against it in protest. If an official Emergency were to be declared in India today, can we expect a similar reaction? Or have our writers and poets grown so cynical and such victims of cancel culture that they would prefer not to open their mouths and speak out?

One of the most moving poems in the anthology is EV Ramakrishnan’s “Where Were You When.” It shows how the Emergency emasculated poets beyond repair:

“I had once asked my                                                                                  
father, ‘Where were you when                                                                       
they fought for freedom?’                                                                             
He said, ‘I did not particularly                                                                     
hate the British. Then there was                                                                     
your mother sick                                                                                      
and dying. And I had my work                                                                          
in the temple that kept                                                                     
me busy.’ He was       

                                                                                                       
the local priest for fifty years.                                                                            
I might as well keep the answer                                                                      
ready for my son’s ‘Where                                                                                   
were you when…’ ‘It felt                                                                               
good when the price of edible                                                                  
oils came down because I had                                                                          
too many mouths to feed.                                                                                   
Then, you see, I had my work                                                                  
in the college that kept                                                                             
me busy.’ And he will   

                                                                                               
know I was one of those                                                                                      
who was simply frightened.