India, June 25 -- No other single event in Indian post-independence history has had more dramatic political consequences in the immediate term, and led to deeper structural political shifts in the long term, than the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi exactly fifty years ago.

The years between 1975 and 1977 altered the citizen-State relationship, created a new political culture, and triggered radically different political alignments.

The citizen-State dynamic

At a conceptual level, think of how the Indian State was seen for most part since 1950 after the Constitution was promulgated.

For citizens, the State was benign, an instrument of justice, a vehicle to protect fundamental rights, a structure for political self-expression of the c...