Historian Recalls Emergency Horror: “Prof Sondhi's Cook Arrested by Mistake, Shivered in Fear”

By A Staff Reporter

New Delhi: As India marks the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, historian and academic Sohail Hashmi shared a deeply personal anecdote that captures the climate of fear and arbitrary state power that defined the period. Recalling an incident from 1975, Hashmi narrated how the police mistakenly arrested the cook of former MP Prof ML Sondhi, simply because he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Anticipating arrest, Prof ML Sondhi, a former MP from New Delhi, had already left the city,” Hashmi said. “But his middle-aged cook, unaware of the political storm brewing, remained at his residence. He was just doing his job when police picked him up. He had no idea why.”

Hashmi recounted visiting the local police station and seeing the cook “shivering with fear.” When he questioned the officers about the arrest, they realised they had made a mistake. “I asked the officer, ‘Why did you arrest his cook?’ That’s when they realised they had made a blunder,” he said, adding that many such innocent people were picked up in the early days of the Emergency, only to be released quietly later.

The incident underscores how indiscriminate and chaotic the early crackdown was, when thousands were jailed without due process. Declared on June 25, 1975, by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Emergency led to the suspension of civil liberties, press censorship, and the arrest of over 1,00,000 political opponents, activists, and ordinary citizens.