Remembering May 1974: The Historic Railway Workers' Strike

In May 1974, railway workers went on a strike in what was perhaps the most intense working class action in independent India. In what— in retrospect— seems like a dress rehearsal for the Emergency, the government clamped down in a draconian manner. Curiously, however, many political forces and personalities who were to play a major role in the anti-Emergency movement distanced themselves from the strike.