New Delhi, Jan. 7 -- Tensions broke out in the Turkman Gate area of Delhi early on Wednesday, with at least five police personnel sustaining injuries after stone pelting during a demolition drive near a century-old mosque.

Wednesday's violence, though contained for the time being, harked back to a dark chapter in Indian history, when, during the Emergency, hundreds of protesters were killed in the area and thousands injured.

The year was 1976 and Sanjay Gandhi's family planning campaign in Delhi had begun to intensify, and soon, it was combined with a so-called beautification drive for the national capital, according to economist Ashok Chakravarti's book The Struggle Within: A Memoir of the Emergency.

Around this time, Sanjay Gandhi vi...