'Locked in to stay free' How JNU students outsmarted Emergency raids

New Delhi, Jun 24 (PTI) In an extraordinary act of resistance during the Emergency, students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) devised a plan to escape arrest by secretly locking themselves inside hostel rooms.
     The move proved vital during a massive police crackdown that saw paramilitary forces rounding up the entire campus.
     Historian Sohail Hashmi, who was then secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) at the JNU, in an interview with PTI recalled the dramatic night of July 8, 1975.
     “We knew the raid was coming. Some students, who were actually intelligence agents, had tipped us off. It could happen any time between July 6 and 8,” he said.
     Ahead of the raid, student leaders developed an internal network.
     “We kept rotating rooms. Those likely to be arrested were locked. The person who locked them would go to another room and be locked in too. The keys were passed quietly among a few of us,” Hashmi explained.
     “Only the person doing the locking knew where anyone actually was,” he said.
     When the raid began just after midnight, the JNU turned into a garrison.
     “There were about 30 to 40 trucks of police and paramilitary forces. Some say 500 officers, others say up to 1,500. Each of the three hostels was surrounded by gun-toting forces. On top of that, a second ring sealed off the entire campus.”
     Hashmi said the elaborate locking plan saved many.
     “They couldn’t find most of people they had come to arrest,” he said. But he was among the few detained. “The friend who was supposed to lock me in couldn’t reach the campus that night. I had to sleep in an unlocked room. When they knocked, I had no option but to open the door.”
     Hashmi, along with about a dozen others, was arrested under the Defence of India Rules (DIR), 1969, which allowed preventive detention without trial.
     “They took us to Tihar Jail. A few days later, we were produced in the court,” he said.
     The detainees were granted bail after the university's faculty came forward to testify. “My research guide, Prof Munish Raza, and registrar NVK Murthy stood by us. They told the magistrate that there had been no conspiracy or public meeting,” Hashmi said.
     The Emergency declared on June 25, 1975 by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lasted until March 21, 1977. It was marked by widespread press censorship, arrests without trial and the stifling of dissent in academia, politics and civil society.
     “JNU was the first institution in the country to face this level of crackdown,” Hashmi said. “We were students, but they treated us like insurgents.”

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)