India, June 20 -- June 25, 1975. Bombay woke up to an announcement on All India Radio that Emergency had been clamped across India in view of "internal disturbances." Heavy rains darkened the city's bleak mood.

"There was a blanket of fear over Bombay in the first few weeks. No authentic information was available thanks to press censorship. I was 23 and scared as the future suddenly seemed grim and uncertain," said music critic and writer Amarendra Nandu Dhaneshwar, who would go on to spend two years in prison as a class 'A' detainee as political prisoners were then termed.

But initially, there were also some people, especially among the city's middle class, who were happy to see government officials with their noses to the desk and sub...