Though a few books exist on the emergency per se, this is the first attempt to critically analyse it in tandem with thw JP movement. Mapping the course of events in these years 1973-1977, Bipan Chandra finds that while both Jayaprakash Narayan and Indira Gandhi ostensibly sought to protect democracy, the manner in which their political efforts were played out went against the grain of it, adversely influencing and posing a dilemme for post 19977 politics in India.