Violent repression by the State is no new feature in India; the Emergency only meant an intensification of this repression. Fo instance, the people of Nagaland in the North-East of India have been fighting for independence since 1948.
The Indian Government has used the most brutal tactics in order to deny the righ of self-determination to the Naga people, such as the removal of whole villages to selected areas and the dropping of napalm on villages known to be sympathetic to the gueras. ur is meresting to compare uk Indian State's role in Nagaland with its supposedly anti-imperialist position on liberation struggles in other parts of the world Although the increase in repression which accompanica tne emergency was imital directed more against the extreme right (partly because the left had already been heavily repressed), it is now clear that the Emergency is being used mainly against the jeft. and the working class. •avaorakasi Narayan and a number of leaders of rightwing parties have been freed, while trade union militants and activists in left parties - such as George Fernandes, leader of the Socialist Party and the railwavmen's unior — are still being arrested and tortured.