Re election Trial and State of Emergency

In 1972, Indira Gandhis party swept to victory in national parliamentary elections based on the defeat of Pakistan and the slogan of Garibi Hatao, or Eradicate Poverty. Her opponent, Raj Narain of the Socialist Party, charged her with corruption and electoral malpractice. In June of 1975, the High Court in Allahabad ruled for Narain, Indira should have been stripped of her seat in Parliament and barred from elected office for six years.However, Indira Gandhi refused to step down from the prime ministership, despite wide spread unrest following the verdict. Instead, she had the president declare a state of emergency in India.

During the state of emergency, Indira initiated a series of authoritarian changes. She purged the national and state governments of her political opponents, arresting and jailing political activists. To control population growth, she instituted a policy of forced sterilization, under which impoverished men were subjected to involuntary vasectomies (often under appallingly unsanitary conditions). Indiras younger son Sanjay led a move to clear the slums around Delhi, hundreds of people were killed and thousands left homeless when their homes were destroyed.