Emergency and Final Years

From 1975 to 1977 Gandhi governed under a national Emergency: opposition leaders were jailed, press freedom was restricted, and coercive programs including forced sterilization and demolition campaigns produced widespread abuse. Voters removed her in 1977, but she returned in 1980. In 1984 she ordered the army into the Golden Temple during a violent Punjab conflict; Sikh bodyguards assassinated her months later, followed by anti-Sikh massacres.