India @ 64 - A visual chronology of post-Independence India
(Final Part)August 15, India completes 64 years of freedom. In this visual chronology of post-Independence India, we choose the moments that stood out in each year of the nation's triumphant, troubled history.
1990 - Caste inferno engulfs the nation
Rajiv Goswami's attempt at self-immolation to protest Prime Minister V P Singh's implementation of the Mandal Commission's recommendations, sent shock waves through a nation already cleaved by caste. His bravado fanned the flames of protest that had already been lit by Singh's attempt at raising the reservation quota of students in professional institutions and central universities to 49.5 per cent from 22 per cent. The riots stalled the recommendations in their tracks and were never implemented. Goswami died 14 years later due to liver and kidney related complications that could be traced back to his self-immolation bid.
1991 - The budget that opened up the world
In 1991, after the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE, a new Congress government headed by P V Narasimha Rao was voted in. India was smack dab in the middle of an extraordinary financial crisis. It had a huge problem with its balance of payments, and foreign exchange reserves had all but depleted. India had to literally pledge the family gold (airlifted to provide guarantee for an IMF loan) to make ends meet. Something had to give. Manmohan Singh, finance minister under Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, presented the interim budget of 1991-92, which rearranged the economic architecture of a nation and ushered in what is often referred to as economic liberalization. Foreign investment in many industries was allowed and peak duty reduced from 300 plus percent to around 50 percent. India shed its much-derided "Hindu rate of growth" and in the subsequent two decades its GDP grew between 6-10 per cent.
1992 - When the roof of secular India fell down
December 6 was one of the darkest days since India gained Independence. The nation's secular fabric was threatened by the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the contentious mosque located in Ayodhya, the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram. The mosque was demolished by Hindu karsevaks who believed that the mosque was built at the site of Ram's birth. What followed changed the course of a nation forever. The communal riots that followed between the Hindus and Muslims took the lives of over 2000 people.
1993 - Mumbai blasts scar the nation
Retribution for the destruction of the Babri Masjid was not swift, but that was because revenge had to be planned and plotted. Thirteen coordinated explosions ripped apart Mumbai and changed the psyche of the nation. In all, 257 people died and about 700 suffered injuries. Mumbai would never be the same again. Religious differences simmer and wounds of that fateful day have not healed. Since 1993 numerous other explosions have killed hundreds more in a city that has learned grudgingly to live with violence.
1994 - Queen of the universe
Beauty and brains were in the news again as Sushmita Sen (in picture) and Aishwarya Rai won the Miss Universe and Miss World titles respectively. Yes, there was Reita Faria in 1966, but not many would remember that. The timing of their victories proved beneficial for MNC cosmetic giants to advertise their products. Both Sen and Rai went on to successful careers in modeling and Bollywood.
1995 - Delhi Metro on the rails
The inauguration of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation demonstrated that India could not only boast of launching big projects, and but go ahead and delivering them on time and within the allocated budget. It was one of the biggest achievements of the Delhi government, which was trying very hard to ease pollution and traffic woes that had plagued the capital for long. The secret to its successful launch was its managing director E Sreedharan, who insisted on putting together his own team and demanded no bureaucratic intervention during the execution. The first metro trains would run in 2002.
1996 - India does the moonwalk
Michael Jackson was still near the height of his fame when he visited India in 1996 as part of his 'History' tour. He visited Mumbai, where he danced with street urchins, visited Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at his residence, and even autographed one of his walls!
1997 – Arundhati Roy brings home the Booker
An unknown Kerala-born Indian author won the Booker Prize for her debut novel The God of Small Things just a few months shy of her 36th birthday. Roy has not written another work of fiction since, instead focusing on writing a string of essays on environment and social and political issues. She remains a well-known activist and dissident.
1998 – A jewel for the Nightingale
Among M S Subbulakshmi's many fans included Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Nidu and Lata Mangeshkar. The doyenne of Carnatic music was awarded the Bharat Ratna (the first singer to receive India's highest civilian award) for her extraordinary contribution to music. By then Subbulakshmi had stopped all public performances after the death of her husband T Sadasivam.
1999 – The story of a hijacking
Perhaps India needed to learn something from the Israelis: don't negotiate with terrorists. India, unfortunately, did. And the ghosts of that episode came back to haunt us. On December 24, armed gunmen hijacked Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 just as it entered Indian airspace on its way from Nepal. The plane was force-landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan and after seven days of parleys with the terrorists mediated by the Taliban, India was coerced into releasing militants Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Maulana Masood Azhar in exchange for the passengers. This proved a costly mistake. Azhar went on to found Jaish-e-Muhammed, the organization suspected to be behind the 2001 Indian Parliament attack. Sheikh went on to abduct and kill American journalist Daniel Pearl, and there are also strong suspicions about his alleged role in planning the September, 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
2000 – We are the champions
Entering the new millennium, India was pulled in many directions. From the frenzy of the Y2K bug to the formation of the 26th state, from the brigand Veerappan's kidnap of south Indian megastar Rajkumar to Priyanka Chopra's win in the international beauty arena, 2000 hinted at a decade that would by no means be uneventful. Worthy of highlight, however, is India's chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand who beat Lithuanian Alexei Shirov in Tehran to become the FIDE World Chess Champion.
2001 – A nation shaken
On Republic Day, 2001, India awoke to the most catastrophic natural calamity in 50 years. At 8:46 am, Gujarat was hit by an earthquake that lasted two minutes with aftershocks that continued for a month. About 20,000 people were killed, 167,000 injured and 600,000 left homeless. The shockwaves affected an area of 700 kilometers, paralyzing the province. NGOs and charities swung into action, providing essential medical supplies and deploying search and rescue teams. International support poured in and the money was used to rebuild homes, assemble kitchens and provide safe drinking water. It took Gujarat nearly three years to recover from the consequences of the quake, but some losses can never be reclaimed.
2002 – Communal violence tears Gujarat apart
2003 – Lost in space
On February 1, the NASA space shuttle Columbia carrying among six others Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian astronaut, met its tragic end as it disintegrated upon reentering the Earth's atmosphere. Chawla, born in Karnal, Haryana, studied Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh. From humble origins, Kalpana came to represent the success of the middle-class Indian woman. India has named a satellite in her honor while the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur established the Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell in her honor.
2004 - The ocean rises
The Indian Ocean earthquake on December 26 caused a tsunami considered to be one of the deadliest in history. The underwater earthquake displaced a great volume of water, creating waves as high as 15 metres, which travelled distances of 5000 kilometres to wreak havoc across 11 nations. In India alone, over 8,800 people were confirmed dead with thousands more still missing. Fishing communities were destroyed and very little is known of the effects of the tsunami on the indigenous tribes of the Andaman islands that date back more than 30,000 years. The tsunami cost India an estimated $1.6 billion, not counting the government's promise of investment in developing a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.
2005 - Aam aadmi ka mobile
The mobile phone was still a few steps away from the ever-present device it is today. As users paid for incoming calls and high mobile tariffs and instrument costs kept handsets out of reach of the common man, TRAI's slashing of tariffs came as good news to mobile phone subscribers in 2005.
2006 - The mountain pass reopens
Nathu La, a mountain pass in the Himalayas connecting the Indian state of Sikkim with China, was sealed after the Sino-India War in 1962. After extensive discussions and numerous bilateral trade agreements, the pass was reopened in 2006, symbolizing the resurrection of relations between the two nations and the hope of bolstering either country's economy through the revival of trade.
2007 - India's First Lady
Pratibha Devisingh Patil, the 12th President of India and the first woman to hold the office, was sworn in on July 25. With a degree in Law, and Political Science and Economics, she began her political career at age 27. Patil has represented India in several international forums and has actively worked for the welfare of women, children and underprivileged sections of society.
2008 - Terror in Mumbai
2008 saw several significant events including India's triumph at the Beijing Olympics, Sachin Tendulkar, Asha Bhonsle and Pranab Mukherjee were awarded the Padma Vibhushan, and Arvind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize. However, in retrospect, the violence of 2008 eclipsed everything else that year. Gujjar unrest in Rajasthan, blasts in Jaipur and Bangalore, and the terror attacks in Mumbai left the country bruised and nearly broken, with wounds that have still not healed.
2009 - Queer Pride
In a landmark move, the Delhi High Court decriminalized homosexuality in India. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was declared as violating the fundamental right to life and liberty, and the right to equality, as guaranteed by the Constitution of India. It marked a day of triumph and celebration for every organization in the country that fought for tolerance and social equality for the LGBT community. For the first time, India participated in the celebration of Queer Pride with events and pride marches planned across the big metros in the country.
2010 - The massacre in Dantewada
In April of 2010, 80 men from the Central Reserve Police Force were brutally ambushed by Maoist rebels near the village of Chintalnar in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. Seventy-five police personnel were killed before reinforcements arrived in what is regarded as one of the most vicious attacks by the Naxals.
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