INDIA SINCE

INDIA SINCE

1947

·         Kripalani, President of the Indian National Congress, presides over a very critical meeting of AICC (November). He insists on retaining the organizational wing of the party over the parliamentary wing. Rajendra Prasad succeeds Kripalani as Congress president.

 ·       Viajaylakshmi Pandit becomes the first woman ambassador of India when she is designated India'a ambassador to the USSR. In 1953, she is elected the president of the 8^th General Assembly session of United Nations.

·         Major Somanth Sharma, Kumaon regiment, displays exemplary gallantry during the Kashmir operations, safeguarding Srinagar aerodrome. He would become the first of the Param Vir Chakra in 1950.

·         The Industrial Disputes Act is passed.

·         Finance Minister R.K. Shanmukham Chetty presents independent India's first budget (26 November).

·         Independent India's first stamps are issued, with the inscription 'jai Hind' (21 November). One is vertical, of 1½ -anna denomination, and showing the Ashoka lion capital. The  second is horizontal, of 3½ -anna denomination, with the Indian flag. The third stamp has a 12-anna value and a modem aircraft incorporated in its design.

·         Prakash Nath becomes the first Indian on reach the final of the All-England Badminton Championships. He loses.

1948

·         Mahatma Gandhi was killed by an assassin's bullets shortly after 5 p.m. on 30 January. He was shot three times at point-blank range by Nathuram (Narayan) Vinayak Godse, believed to be the secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha, Poona. The weapon which Gandhiji's assailant used was a small. F. Beratta automatic pistol of French make. In a voice quivering with emotion, Pandit Nehru, in the prime minister's broadcast to the nation said, 'The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. The best prayer that we could offer Gandhiji and his memory is to take a pledge to dedicate ourselves to truth and to the cause for which this great countryman of ours lived and for which he has died.'

·         Lord Mountbatten leaves India (20 June). C. Rajagopalachari assumes charge as Governor General of India (21 June).

·         At its Jaipur session, the Congress forms a three-man committee to go into the matter of linguistic states. Its members are Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and P. Sitaramayya.

·         The Mahatama Gandhi murder case hearing starts at Red Fort, Delhi (8 November). Godse confesses to murder but denies conspiracy.

·         An agreement with Pakistan on minority communities is signed (15-18 April.).

·         The first Ashok Chakra is in 1950 to Naik Nar Bahadur Thapa of 5 Gorkha Rifles for bravery during the Hyderabad police action (15 September).

1949

·         Godse and his accomplice Apte are sentenced to death for murdering Gandhi (10 February). The Governor General rejects their mercy petition (7 November). Godse and Apte are executed at Ambala jail (7 November).

·         C.N. Annadurai founds Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam as successor to E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker's social equality movement.

·         Jawaharlal Nehru lays the foundation stone of the National Defence Academy at Khadakvasala on 6 October. The NDA is opened on 16 January 1955.

·         On 15 January, lieutenant General (later Field Marshal) K.M. Cariappa takes over as Chief of Army Staff and Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army. He becomes the first Indian in this post. He succeeds army General Sir Roy Bucher.     15 January becomes a red-letter day for the army and has since been observed annually as Army Day.

·         Muthamma Chohivia beliappa becomes the first woman to clear the Indian Administrative Service examination. She joins the Indian Foreign Service (IFS).

·         K. Shankar Pillai Association of Indian is formed.

1950

·         Sir Owen Dixon, UN mediator in the Kashmir dispute, arrives in Delhi (27 May). The Dixon mission in Kashmir fails.

·         Dr. S.P. Mukherjee (minister of industries of commerce) resign (15 April)―the first resignations from the cabinet.

·         Nehru and Liaqat Ali Khanm Prime Minister of Pakistan meet in Delhi (2 April). The Nehru-Liaqat Pact ensures minorities of both countries equality of citizenship (8 April). The monthly migration of over 10,000 persons from Pakistan to India declines as a result of the pact. (Migrations pick up in February―March 1956 to 50,000 persons a month as a result of increased tension in East Pakistan due to the US-Pakistan military agreement.) Nehru visits Pakistan (26 April).

·         Justice Harilal J. Kania becomes the first Chief justice of Indian on 26 January. (His tenure ends in November 1951.)

·         Sukumar Sen is appointed the country's first Chief Election Commissioner, (He holds office until December 1958.)

·         Anna Rajan George of the Tamil Nadu cadre is the first woman to become an Indian Administrative Service officer.

1951

·         President's rule is imposed in Punjab following he resignation of the Congress ministry headed by Gopi Chand Bhargava (20 July). President's Rule lasts for a year. First State to impose President rule.

·         A new political party, Bharatiaya Jan Sangh, is inaugurated by Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (2 October). Designed as an opposition to the Congress, the party's objective is to rebuild India in accordance with Hindu religious precepts.

·         B.N. Rau is elected judge of the International Court at the Hague (6 December).

·         Prem Mathur becomes the world's first commercial airline woman pilot when she joints Deccan Airways and flies the DC-3 as a co-pilot.

·         The first Asian Games were held in Delhi from 4-11 March. 489 athletes participated from eleven countries (India, Japan, Indonesia, Burma, Iran, Afghanistan, the Philipines, Thailand, Singapore, Ceylon and Nepal) in six (athletics, basketball, cycling, football, swimming and weightlifting) sporting disciplines. Women competed in athletics only. Japan took top position with twenty-three golds. India was second with fifteen golds.

1952

·         Potti Sriramula, who fasts for fifty-eight days for the creation of Andhra Pradesh, dies (16 December).

·         Khashaba Dadasaheb jadhav won the only indivual Olympic medal by an Indian at the 1952 Olympics; He did so in the 57 kg bantam weight freestyle wrestling at the Helsinki games. He had to get his own funding, like most athletes those days, and so friends and neighbours pitched in to help. His biggest support came from a Mr Khardekar who sold his house to raise funds. He was able later to buy back his house after a special wrestling tournament was held to raise funds for the same. K.D. jadhav's window Kusumtai jadhav collected his much-belated posthumous Arjuna Award on his behalf in 2001.

·         India wins its first-ever-cricket test when it defeats England at Madras (10 February).

·         K.D. Jadhav wins a bronze in the bantam weight freestyle wrestling event (57 kg) at the Helsinki Olympics.

1953

·         Vijaylakshmi Pandit is elected presedent of the eighth session of the Un General Assembly (15 September).

·         Kaka Kalelkar is made chairman of the Backward Classes Commission (29 January).

·         Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing become the first persons in the world to triumph on Mt Everest (29 May).

1955

·          The Government of Indian decides to recognize the Saka Era with Chaitra as its first month in addition to the Gregorian calendar for certain official purposes. The uniform national calendar is to be used in conjunction with the Gregorian calendar from 22 March 1957, corresponding to 1^st Chaitra 1879, Saka Era.

·         The Imperial Bank is nationalized and named State Bank of India. It starts operating on 1 July.

·         A bronze statue of Chandragupta Maurya installed in one of the inner lawns of Parliament House. The statue is made by Hilda Seligman, a well-known London sculptor.

1956

·         Lal Bahadur Shastri, Union railway minister, tenders his resignation following the Ariyalur train disaster (25 November).

·         Nehru, Nasser and Tito issue a joint declaration form Brioni in Yugoslavia (19 July). This is the beginning of the Non-Aligned Movement.

·         In Bombay, Sulochana Modi becomes mayor, a first for any woman in India, Her tenure is, however, only of three months. A year later Tara Chairman is appointed mayor or Madras.

·         The life Insurance Corporation is nationalized.

·         Ashoka Hotal, Delhi, becomes the country's first five-star deluxe hotel.

·         India 's first newsprint factory is opened by the prime minister at Nepanagar in Madhya Pradesh (26 April).

·         India becomes the first Asian country to reach the semi-finals of the Olympic football tournament.

1957

·         The first Democratic Communist government in the world to be elected to office comes to power in Kerala under Chief Minister E.M.S. Namboodripad (5 April).