Emergency Revisited

The book follows the fortunes of the Naya Savera Band,a group of three young men who sing of revolution and change through those dark days in the mid-1970s and then find their voices strangled to a whisper. But this is no straight Maus-style narrative of Art Spiegelman,interspersed as it is with historical asides and surreal digressions. More than a comic,it’s Brecht-as-graphic novel,with its fragmented fable feel,its references to Marx and revolution,and the all-too-familiar

historical cast of characters referred to by sobriquets — Mother Moon and her sons Prince and Pilot— due to Ghosh’s impulse of “self-censorship”.

Mother Moon is the architect of the home-razing,press-muzzling Emergency,and Prince is best known for his part in forced-sterilization programmes. There are also surreal touches,like hot air balloons fired up by revolutionary zeal,and the Kafkaesque masked Smiling Saviour spies,who smother dissent and exhort citizens to be patriotic. Ghosh also uses the mode of subverting advertising of the time —“subvertising” — to lend a 1970s atmosphere and sardonically interrogate the past. A slogan for “Inquilaab” notes that it is “a private media initiative”,and we’re advised to buy “Ego-licks”,for “boss management” or procuring “government accommodation”.

“My influences are many,” explains Ghosh. “Aside from graphic novels,I also drew from writings on Emergency,films and the black-and-white Film Division documentaries they used to screen before films in theatres,” he says. This mixed bag of languages and references helps him eschew both Sacco-style straight reportage and what Ghosh calls “opinionated” accounts,like that of Kabul Disco author Nicolas Wild,which are refracted through the prism of the personal self. “What I like to explore,” says Ghosh,

“is how much you can extend the scope of the medium while

reporting,say through the use of the surreal,or the language of cinema.”

Delhi Calm ,in keeping with this spirit of inter-textuality,was inspired by a film project Ghosh saw around 10 years ago. “I didn’t really intend Delhi Calm as an Emergency-for-Dummies,” says Ghosh. “It just began as an exploration of the issue,and then I realized its visual possibility. I was three-years-old when Emergency was declared and I have vivid memories of how the daily dinnertime family fight between Congress supporters and non-supporters suddenly descended to a hush.”

State excesses are sadly,not the stuff of history books; they’re as ubiquitous as a front-page headline in your national daily. So why revisit the past?

“This was a turning point in history,” says Ghosh. “Today,despite a third of the country being out of governance,no one can ever impose Emergency again. Besides,” he adds,“As Cicero put it,‘Not to know what happened before we were born is to remain a child.’ I was a child when the Emergency happened; I guess I’m trying to grow up now!”