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1947-2008-India-Roundup
India was being re-ordered on linguistic lines. Resentment in western India—which wasn’t covered by the States Re-organization Commission in 1956—was finally assuaged when the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were formed. In the north, Master Tara Singh and Fateh Singh faster “unto death” while their Akali Dal supporters courted arrests, demanding a state for Punjabis. After years of agitation by rebel leader A.Z. Phizo, who charged the Indian Army with genocide, Jawaharlal Nehru announced that a state of Nagaland would be carved out of Assam.
AN ACCIDENT
The Indian Air Force’s first Indian Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, choked to death while having a meal with friends in Tokyo, Japan. He had flown there aboard Air India’s first flight to Tokyo. He was also the first Indian to command a flight and a squadron in the Indian Air Force.
FIRST CUT
- Air India went international with its maiden flight from Delhi to New York.
- The first Hindi Encyclopaedia released by Nagari Pracharini Sabha came out on October 16.
REBEL FACE Angami Zapu Phizo
The firebrand leader of the Naga National Council went to Switzerland on a forged Ei Salvadorean passport. David Astor, the owner of the Observer newspaper, made Angami Zapu Phizo a hero, supporting a series of press conferences where he painted the Indian government as anti-Christian and charged the Indian Army with genocide while demanding and independent Nagaland. Phizo had declared Nagaland independent way back in 1947, a day before India became independent. Nehru declared Nagaland a separate state in 1960, but the insurgency and demands for independence continued, with the “father of the Nagas” remaining a rebel till his death in 1992.
“I WAS BEING BUFFETED BY THE ICY WINDS OF THE COLD WAR.”
That’s how Jawaharlal Nehru began his speech in the United Nations General Assembly. He is seen here wit Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon. The 1960 session was an astounding collection of leaders—US President Dwight Eisenhower; prime ministers Harold Macmillan of the United Kingdom and India’s Nehru; the Soviet Union’s shoe-thumping Nikita Khrushchev and Cuba’s Fidel Castro.
WATER WAY
The Indus Waters Treaty was signed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan President Mohammad Ayub Khan on September 19, after mediation by the World Bank, in a rare display of cooperation from the traditional rivals.
PYAR KIYA TO DARNA KYA?
K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam finally hit the screens. It took 500 shooting days over 15 years to make, cost Rs 1.5 crore and mirrored a real-life love affair between Dilip Kumar and Madhubala, which began when she got her make-up woman to take a rose to him. It bore the message: “If you want me, please order this rose; if not, send it back.” Indeed, pyar kiya to darna kya?
ELSEWHERE…
- Existentialist writer Albert Camus died.
- The building of Aswan dam in Egypt began.
- France exploded its first atomic bomb.
- The Beatles gave their first public performance at Kaiser Keller in Hamburg.
- Cassius Clay a.k.a. Mohammad Ali (below) lifted the Olympic light heavyweight gold medal.
- The first debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nizon for the US presidential polls was televised.
58 lakh kwh of power is what India produced in 1960, compared to 2.3 lakh kwh in 1950, and 63,060 crore kwh today. India’s increase in electricity consumption is among the highest for any major country.
Courtesy By India Today
