When the Wind Blows

Summary

The rendered pages are promotional and biographical front matter for When the Wind Blows: India’s Ballot-Box Revolution, a 1978 English-language study by S. P. Aiyar and S. V. Raju. The publisher describes the book as an account of the March 1977 General Election, set against the twenty-month Emergency, with emphasis on the people involved in what it calls India’s “Ballot-Box Revolution” and on previously unpublished material concerning underground activity.

The visible contents list indicates a chronological and analytical treatment of Indira Gandhi’s India, the Emergency, resistance, the Janata Party’s campaign and alliances, electoral fairness and financing, the popular vote, and the election’s broader significance. The promotional description also says that the book traces the Janata Party’s origins and success, examines the Congress split and Mrs Gandhi’s role, discusses post-election political tensions, evaluates the Emergency’s effect on Indian politics, and projects the future of Indian democracy. The supplied scan contains no chapter text or substantive argument beyond this front matter.

Key points

• The book studies the March 1977 General Election against the background of the twenty-month Emergency.
• Its promotional copy presents the election as a decisive turning point in Indian politics.
• The book claims to include previously unpublished material about underground activities during the Emergency.
• The advertised analysis traces the origin and growth of the Janata Party and its electoral success.
• The contents foreground resistance, legitimacy, attacks and counter-attacks, alliances, election fairness, campaign money, and the popular vote.
• The book is advertised as examining the Congress split and Indira Gandhi’s role in it.
• The authors are presented as a political scientist/public-administration scholar and a former Swatantra Party executive secretary.
• The volume was advertised as a 496-page hardbound book released on 11 February 1978 by Himalaya Publishing House in Bombay.