P. N. Haksar and Indira’s India: A Glimpse of the Domestic Sphere, 1967–1976
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| Author | Rakesh Ankit |
| DOI | 10.1177/2321023019838640 |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
P. N. Haksar and Indira’s India:
A Glimpse of the Domestic
Sphere, 1967–1976
Rakesh Ankit1
Abstract
This article presents four episodes from the political period 1969 to 1976 in India, focusing on the views
and actions of P. N. Haksar, Principal Secretary and Advisor to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (1967–
1973). Unlike the ‘national/international politics’ hitherto under focus from then, that is, the Congress
split (1969), birth of Bangladesh (1971) and the JP Movement/Emergency (1974–1975), the aspects
under consideration in this article are of subterranean existence. First of these aspects is the provincial
reverberations of the Congress split, the case considered here being that of the Bombay Pradesh
Congress Committee. Second is the attitude of the Congress Party towards left opposition, the Communist
Party of India Marxist (CPI [M]) in West Bengal, as revealed through the anxieties of Governor Shanti
Dhavan. The third aspect under consideration is a glimpse of centre–states relations, as shown through
New Delhi’s interactions with the EMS Namboodiripad-led and CPI (M)-dominated United Front
Government of Kerala. Finally, the article looks at Haksar’s attempts at planning and development for
the state of Bihar. Each of these four themes was among the ‘wider range of functions’ that Mrs Gandhi
wished to be performed by her Secretariat and to allow us to test how successful each of it was. Each
of these provides a context for contemporary issues.
Keywords
P. N. Haksar, Prime Minister’s Office, Indira Gandhi, Congress Party
Introduction
Parmeshwar Narain (P. N.) Haksar has been called ‘probably the most influential and powerful person’
in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government from 1967 to 1973 (Frank, 2001, p. 314). A student at the
LSE in the 1930s and a lawyer at Allahabad in the 1940s, he was inducted in the Indian Foreign Service
by Jawaharlal Nehru and served in the UK, Austria, and Nigeria, before joining the Prime Minister’s
Studies in Indian Politics
7(1) 1–15, 2019
© 2019 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
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DOI: 10.1177/2321023019838640
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1 Department of Politics and International Studies, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, England.
Corresponding author:
Rakesh Ankit, Lecturer in History, Department of Politics and International Studies, Loughborough University,
Leicestershire, England.
E-mail: rakesh.ankit@gmail.com
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