Most defining Moments of the decade 1947-1957

[theguyinallblue]

a special series of Posts to celebrate the 60 years our independence. ndia gets Independence. August 15, 1947 "Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge." At the stroke of midnight on August 14, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first PM, stood in the Constituent Assembly and cried freedom. But with freedom came partition: into India and Pakistan. Kashmir Joins India. October 27, 1947 Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir and governor-general Lord Louis Mountbatten signed the Instrument of Accession on October 27, 1947. Four wars have been waged over Kashmir since then. On 27th September 1947, just a month before the signing, Indian troops were airlifted to Kashmir to defend Srinagar from Pakistan. Mahatma Gandhi Assassinated. January 1948 At 5.03 p.m, Nathuram Godse, an RSS worker, shot the Father of the Nation dead, near Birla House in Delhi. Three shots at close range from an automatic 9 mm Beretta irrevocably changed India’s political and cultural future. The raging Hindu-Muslim riots stopped immediately after and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his deputy Vallabhbhai Patel were forced to make peace. Hyderabad liberated. September 12, 1948 Its Nizam was the richest man in the world, ruling over more than sixteen million people. It was larger than England and Scotland combined and had a domestic product greater than that of Belgium. But on September 12, 1948, the Indian Army surrounded and secured Hyderabad in just five days. It’s strategic location, the Nizam’s steady refusal to accede and finally, repeated raids by armed Hyderabadi militia on Indian trains and villages, all forced Sardar Patel into action. Other princely states were soon absorbed into India. Ambedkar presents the Constitution. November 26, 1949. Work on the constitution started in December 1946, with a 308-member constituent assembly. Dr. B R Ambedkar was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee. On November 26, 1949, the Constitution was finally passed. It was the longest written constitution in the world, with a total of 117,369 words in English. Speaking after the completion of his work, Ambedkar said: "I feel that the Constitution is workable; it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together. If things go wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that Man was vile." India becomes a Republic. January 26, 1950 President Dr Rajendra Prasad formally endorsed the Constitution, making India a sovereign democratic republic. He hoisted the national flag and took the salute that day at what would later become an annual fixture: the Republic Day Parade. Five-Year Plans begin. 1951 Within two months of India becoming a republic, the Planning Commission started making blueprints for India's future. In spite of its best intentions, regional imbalances widened and competitiveness and free enterprise took a back seat, defeating the very idea of planned development. But through wars, droughts and oil shocks of the 1960s and 1970s, the five-year plans did keep India’s growth steady. ndia’s first General Election. January 1952 Fresh out of the freedom struggle, India gave voting rights to the masses. The logistics were mind boggling - 4,500 seats to be decided by 176 million Indians, spread over more than a million square miles. Eighty five per cent of them were illiterate. To aid the unread, large pictorial party symbols and separate ballot boxes for each party were used. The West turned up its nose, calling it the biggest gamble in history. Yet, as an exercise in social organisation, and as a display of sheer political exuberance, the 1952 elections had no precedent. Hindu Code Bills passed. 1956 First introduced in the Legislative Assembly in April 1947, the Hindu Code Bill was shelved in 1951 by Jawaharlal Nehru, forcing Ambedkar to resign in anger. The Hindu Succession Act finally became law on 17th June 1956, after pressure by liberal and women's groups. It was a turning point for female rights, giving the widow, daughter and mother, equal right to a deceased man's property, along with his son, grandson and great-grandson. Earlier, the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 banned polygamy and increased the right of the divorced wife to maintenance or alimony. Reorganisation of states based on language. 1956 When Potti Sriramulu fasted to his death in 1952, demanding a state for Telugu speakers, he set the groundwork for dividing India on linguistic lines. People of the same language tended to share a cultural heritage and a will to work together - no matter what religion or ethnicity they belonged to. The State Reorganization Commission of 1956 ultimately redrew the map of India - coagulating people of the same language into separate autonomous states. It was the most practical way to hold the nation together.

[Predator_05]

Kashmir joins India ? India only annexed a part of it...one-third of that territory was seized by the filth across the border.

[Lurker]

Reorganisation of states based on language. 1956 When Potti Sriramulu fasted to his death in 1952, demanding a state for Telugu speakers, he set the groundwork for dividing India on linguistic lines. People of the same language tended to share a cultural heritage and a will to work together - no matter what religion or ethnicity they belonged to. The State Reorganization Commission of 1956 ultimately redrew the map of India - coagulating people of the same language into separate autonomous states. It was the most practical way to hold the nation together.

Yes and we have seen how that works haven't we? Almost a 100 years back England tried to break Hindu-Muslim harmony by dividing Bengal. At the time Bihar, Orrisa and parts of Assam were all part of Bengal. The reason given by English was Administrative, of course Indian revolutionaries saw it otherwise. 50 years to the day(1956) and now there were Bihar, Bengal, Orrissa, Assam. Tells a lot about us Indians right there, does it not? Landmark decision my a$$. This(linguistic) thingy is perhaps the single biggest bane of India. And this lives outside India too. If you are an IT guy you would know that the toughest interview you face comes at the hand of an Indian, but here is the catch - if the Indian happens to be of your state/lingo you can expect a much easier situation(my experience personally, may be different for others). In other words a Telugu would grill a Bihari but go soft on a Telugu(relatively speaking). Yeah sure that overture is holding India together! 20-30 years back Southern States were burning Hindi books to show how they wanted to "treasure" their language. A huge effort was undertaken to show why English,and not Hindi, was the language of choice. So much so that many Hindi knowing people refuse to speak Hindi..even today. And today the very same states are fighting battle to make sure English does not eat up their native language, be it Kannada or Telugu. Seems like the only thing we Indians are good at are fighting each other. Whoever came up with dividing India on liguistic lines did not do anything "landmarkish" if anything he did a very "l*ndmarkish" thing. xxxx

[CC1981]

utterly rubbish, lurks. Diversity in language is the basis of diversity in India.

[Lurker]

utterly rubbish' date=' lurks. Diversity in language is the basis of diversity in India.[/quote'] Thats your thought, and I disagree with it completely. Let me put it this way. A few decades back(I have started to hate using those words since I tend to use them quite a bit these days), many Biharis spoke Bengali. My parents still have a working language of Bengali. If I had to make a guess I would say about 15-20% Biharis(specially in Ranchi, Jamshedpur belt) spoke Bengali. And how many Biharis/Jharkhandis today know Bengali? None. So much so for languages "holding India together". xxx

[The Outsider]

I voted for the wrong option ie. independence because I did not see Gandhi's assasination while voting. Please subtract and add one vote from the respective categories.

[CC1981]

And how many Biharis/Jharkhandis today know Bengali? None. So much so for languages "holding India together".

It is holding India together in a lot more subliminal level than you are potraying it to be. Its a complicated cycle in my eyes- where the presence of different languages is the basis of diversity in India- the basis of diversity is the reason for having a much more open society in many aspects than even the west. Sorry but one-language society in a massive society is one of the best ways to kill-off a society or turn it into a cesspit of materialism over cultural development. Basic reason why North America is so culture deficient outside of Louisiana, California,Quebec, New York & Ontario- places where presence of a multitude of languages & different culture is profound. ( mostly immigrant driven or french cultural presence in Quebec/Louisiana) without existances of various cultural substrata in the cultural sphere of a particular culture, the growth of that culture is severely hindered. You might want to read Jared Diamond and his take on why language & linguistic development is the fundamental basis of culture and why presence of multitude of cultures under one ideological banner (eg India and to a lesser extent, ancient China) was the MAIN reason why ancient India and China were the two foremost civilizations in the world for thousands of years before reneissance Europe. Ultimately, Diamond proves why India/China will endure longer and has endured far worse than anything a western civilization or a hydraulic despotism model has. (where one language + one religion was state sponsored & actively propagated at the expense of others) Basically, India's biggest asset is its cultural diversity- which rests fundamentally on the existance of various linguistic streams in India. And incase you want to bring in the argument that ' this is irrelvant to ancient India- ancient India had Sanskrit & Tamil ( or so the Tamils claim) and the languages of India are middle period languages, comming into exixstance thousands of years after Indian culture started to flourish', it would be a good initial counter. But again, as JD illustrates, ancient India ( of which we know from written records) was NOT a one-language society. Even in the earliest days of sanskrit, there existed several different 'prakritik' languages, which though derived from Sanskritic words, were very much different in grammar, inflections & syntax - thus qualifying as different languages.

[Lurker]

^^ I believe you are un-neccesarily complicating a rather simple argument. My argument is against creating states based on language. Why do you have to spin it as a language/culture/history etc etc?? I have alreay given an example of how Bengal broke up along linguistic lines. Now I would have no problems if someone makes an argument that erstwhile Bengal was so huge that it should be broken down into smaller states for better Administration. But I definitely do not like the state broken down based on who speaks Hindi, Oriya, Bangla, Assamiya etc. You often mention culture etc, so do tell me how exactly did Bengali culture benefit from new states? Earlier Bengali was spoken by non-Bengalis, Biharis and Oriyas being prime examples. Now how many Biharis speak Bangla? In my children days Bangla movies would be shown in Gaya once a week, in Dhanbad, Ranchi etc it was lot more pronounced. Today no Bengali movies are shown here? Why? Noone speaks the language. Every town of Bihar had a small Bengali temple that was called "Durga-baari". During Dushera this was often the most happening town in the city. Today a handful of left-behind Bengalis come together on Durga Puja, all the verve is long gone. In Patna, the key Bihari town, the greatest celebratrion was Durga Puja and 9 days Classical music fest that went with it. It was one of the best in the country and every top classic performer showed up there and enthralled the Patnaites. Today that celebration has long faded into oblivion. Check out web for info on that. Subhas Bose was born in Cuttack, a non-Bengali town, Ashok Kumar was born in Bihar. Which famous Bengali was born in these two states in past 40 years(after creation)? Bengali was language of people of the region, NOT a language of "Bengalis". Today it is just that, language of a select group. So much so for keeping the culture/lingo alive. xxx

[Guest dada_rocks]

Yes and we have seen how that works haven't we? Almost a 100 years back England tried to break Hindu-Muslim harmony by dividing Bengal. At the time Bihar, Orrisa and parts of Assam were all part of Bengal. The reason given by English was Administrative, of course Indian revolutionaries saw it otherwise. 50 years to the day(1956) and now there were Bihar, Bengal, Orrissa, Assam. Tells a lot about us Indians right there, does it not? Landmark decision my a$$. This(linguistic) thingy is perhaps the single biggest bane of India. And this lives outside India too. If you are an IT guy you would know that the toughest interview you face comes at the hand of an Indian, but here is the catch - if the Indian happens to be of your state/lingo you can expect a much easier situation(my experience personally, may be different for others). In other words a Telugu would grill a Bihari but go soft on a Telugu(relatively speaking). Yeah sure that overture is holding India together! 20-30 years back Southern States were burning Hindi books to show how they wanted to "treasure" their language. A huge effort was undertaken to show why English,and not Hindi, was the language of choice. So much so that many Hindi knowing people refuse to speak Hindi..even today. And today the very same states are fighting battle to make sure English does not eat up their native language, be it Kannada or Telugu. Seems like the only thing we Indians are good at are fighting each other. Whoever came up with dividing India on liguistic lines did not do anything "landmarkish" if anything he did a very "l*ndmarkish" thing. xxxx

With only one excpetion a Bihari will over-grill a Bihari.. :haha: I agree this language based boundary sketch is worth $hit..

[Guest dada_rocks]

BTW another hot topic so who are the worst language fanatic in India.. U know the kind who will insist on conversing in their respective lanaguage and do chest-thumping. IN my view (1) tamil (2) Bengali AA bail mujhe maar ( oopsi no hindi... come ox hit me):giggle:

[Dhondy]

^^ I believe you are un-neccesarily complicating a rather simple argument. My argument is against creating states based on language. Why do you have to spin it as a language/culture/history etc etc?? I have alreay given an example of how Bengal broke up along linguistic lines. Now I would have no problems if someone makes an argument that erstwhile Bengal was so huge that it should be broken down into smaller states for better Administration. But I definitely do not like the state broken down based on who speaks Hindi, Oriya, Bangla, Assamiya etc. You often mention culture etc, so do tell me how exactly did Bengali culture benefit from new states? Earlier Bengali was spoken by non-Bengalis, Biharis and Oriyas being prime examples. Now how many Biharis speak Bangla? In my children days Bangla movies would be shown in Gaya once a week, in Dhanbad, Ranchi etc it was lot more pronounced. Today no Bengali movies are shown here? Why? Noone speaks the language. Every town of Bihar had a small Bengali temple that was called "Durga-baari". During Dushera this was often the most happening town in the city. Today a handful of left-behind Bengalis come together on Durga Puja, all the verve is long gone. In Patna, the key Bihari town, the greatest celebratrion was Durga Puja and 9 days Classical music fest that went with it. It was one of the best in the country and every top classic performer showed up there and enthralled the Patnaites. Today that celebration has long faded into oblivion. Check out web for info on that. Subhas Bose was born in Cuttack, a non-Bengali town, Ashok Kumar was born in Bihar. Which famous Bengali was born in these two states in past 40 years(after creation)? Bengali was language of people of the region, NOT a language of "Bengalis". Today it is just that, language of a select group. So much so for keeping the culture/lingo alive. xxx

That is such a wonderful post. It rings true in my own experience and nobody could have put it better. Lurks, do you think it has as much to do with the decline of Bengal's pre-eminence as a land of culture and literature, as with the rise of provincialism? After all, the advent of the Bollywood era in the form of vacuous songs, films and chat-shows on TV has coincided with a decreasing appetite of the common man for traditional forms of entertainment such as theatre, "jatra" and books of both prose and poetry. It's no exaggeration to say that Bengal was the home for some of the best examples of all three.

[Guest dada_rocks]

^^ I believe you are un-neccesarily complicating a rather simple argument. My argument is against creating states based on language. Why do you have to spin it as a language/culture/history etc etc?? I have alreay given an example of how Bengal broke up along linguistic lines. Now I would have no problems if someone makes an argument that erstwhile Bengal was so huge that it should be broken down into smaller states for better Administration. But I definitely do not like the state broken down based on who speaks Hindi, Oriya, Bangla, Assamiya etc. You often mention culture etc, so do tell me how exactly did Bengali culture benefit from new states? Earlier Bengali was spoken by non-Bengalis, Biharis and Oriyas being prime examples. Now how many Biharis speak Bangla? In my children days Bangla movies would be shown in Gaya once a week, in Dhanbad, Ranchi etc it was lot more pronounced. Today no Bengali movies are shown here? Why? Noone speaks the language. Every town of Bihar had a small Bengali temple that was called "Durga-baari". During Dushera this was often the most happening town in the city. Today a handful of left-behind Bengalis come together on Durga Puja, all the verve is long gone. In Patna, the key Bihari town, the greatest celebratrion was Durga Puja and 9 days Classical music fest that went with it. It was one of the best in the country and every top classic performer showed up there and enthralled the Patnaites. Today that celebration has long faded into oblivion. Check out web for info on that. Subhas Bose was born in Cuttack, a non-Bengali town, Ashok Kumar was born in Bihar. Which famous Bengali was born in these two states in past 40 years(after creation)? Bengali was language of people of the region, NOT a language of "Bengalis". Today it is just that, language of a select group. So much so for keeping the culture/lingo alive. xxx

I will beg to differ on durga pooja part.. even today each nook and corner of at least muzaffarpur sees a big durga statue , for last four days of dusshera whole city resebles a big fair.. exactly same holds for patna....

[Lurker]

Lurks, do you think it has as much to do with the decline of Bengal's pre-eminence as a land of culture and literature, as with the rise of provincialism? After all, the advent of the Bollywood era in the form of vacuous songs, films and chat-shows on TV has coincided with a decreasing appetite of the common man for traditional forms of entertainment such as theatre, "jatra" and books of both prose and poetry. It's no exaggeration to say that Bengal was the home for some of the best examples of all three.

Dhondy. The demise of Bengal's influence on the region is manifold in my opinion. For starters the provincialism certainly ensured that Bengalis were now limited to West Bengal only. I will give an example to illustrate this. Some of the best selling Hindi novels were the Hindi translation of the works of Sharat Chandra, Bankim Chandra etc. You would often see them lieing in a non-Bengali home with housewives reading them during afternoon siesta. I have seen that and today I see Bengali authors thought of as "different" in non-Bengali household. It is like people indirectly telling you, "Why should we read the works of a different culture?". Decline of West Bengal as an economic center played its own part. Specially the complete degradation of Jute Industry. No matter how cultural you are, if you do not have money people don't listen to you. Then there is a decline in Indian culture by itself. Most Indian habits, deep rooted are now fading slowly. Paan for example. As India as you can get, from Calcutta to Hyderabad, it was what would signify a good deal, a good omen or a good feast. Today people hate it with a passion and proudly say, "I have never had a paan.." yes of course most of them do not have a problem drinking beer and smoking cigarette of course. I think a language/culture survives when it cuts across its "owners". Punjabi is a classical example. It survives because Hindu, Muslim, Sikhs everyone speaks it. Even though Pakistani Govt made Urdu the National language Punjabi is most widely used. On the other hand the mistake was made to think of Urdu as "language of Muslims". Today it is dead in India and perhaps dies a slow death in Pakistan too. xxx

[Lurker]

I will beg to differ on durga pooja part.. even today each nook and corner of at least muzaffarpur sees a big durga statue ' date=' for last four days of dusshera whole city resebles a big fair.. exactly same holds for patna....[/quote'] Yes Durga Puja is pretty popular in Gaya as well. But it has become completely devoid of Bengali influence. I gave an example of Durga Baari that used to be pretty packed in most towns. Here is another one. This is a typical Bengali Durga pratima. The key thing to note is the big circular arc behind the statue and all the god/godesse - Ganesha, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Karthick alongside. Now this is more like a Patna/Gaya/Muzzaffarpur photo(sorry couldnt get a better one) See the background difference as also the statues are seperate. Now while this in itself is not wrong, Biharis and Bengalis do not have to celebrate the festival same way, the point remains that while it was not a big deal to see the former kinda statue before in Bihar it has slowly become less and less common. All this Durga Puja is making me nostalgic now. :sad_smile: xxx

[CC1981]

I think Bengal's decline of influence has not created a void- its place has been taken by bihari/hindi/assamaiya cultural influences. ofcourse, biggest demise of bengali influence has been 70% of Bengal going to Pakistan- that cannot be discounted. In essence, the 'one language/one state' policy i think is not a permanent one but good for now- Indian culture has never been under the same threat as it is today,especially from the western cultural influences. The threat is in a sense of western culture supplanting INdian cultures rather than intermingling and creating an uniquely indian blend (our culture's hallmark). In situation like this, it does make sense to regionalise the cultural spheres. Its detrimental effect is its limited range as you point out Lurker, but its positive effect is the survival of the culture in the long run because of a more concentrated/regionalised appeal. It is better to try and get each indivdual culture to preserve & manage itself than having a diffused cultural sphere which is much less influencable directly. When India stops its SKC mentality and aping the west, the need for cultural preservation will end.

[CC1981]

Lurks - the 'pratima' style is by no means the universal sign of bengali durga-puja. Last time i saw Durga Puja in Kolkata was in 2002 and there is a very dynamic and creative scene in the Durga Puja.Gone are the days of standard pratima & green-chador pandals. Its more like a free-for-all arts contest with the old school 'pratima' style losing its prominence in many 'iconic' durga puja pandals in Kolkata (such as College street). Btw Lurks, i didnt know you too are a Bong here, apart from me and Dhondy. Who else is a bong here ?

[Dhondy]

I think that style is called the Durgabari style, Lurks. Isn't it beautiful? I am going to be in India this year for the Pujas, yay!

[CC1981]

I expect pictures Dhondy...many many pictures. Durga Puja in Kolkata is the biggest outdoors arts-festival on the planet- we need lots and lots of pictures- of the idols, of the pandals, of people , etc etc!

[Dhondy]

With pleasure, CC. Not going to Cal though.:embaressed_smile: It's the green green grass of Jharkhand for me!:teeth_smile:

[Guest dada_rocks]

Lurker u will find bengali style statues too in fact in muzaffarpur u will find every variety and we have even a competetion informal one where one of the statue is corronoted as winner.... Forget muzaffarpur in my village consortium of 3-4 nearby villages are putting durga statuse with quite a fanfare these days.. mind u we are talkin about people here who unfortunately still look for change for five rupee notes .. they still spare donation for durga-pooja so rest assured DP is not going anywhere irrespectve of bengali presence there...... I too am getting nostalgic wo chandni raat returning from durga mela perched on dadaji's shoulder and next day babuji ki dant and in turn dadajee ka babuji ko dantana ki ak din mela hi ghum liya to kya ho gaya..:haha: