JRD Tata founded Tata Airlines in the year 1932 with two aircraft as a fleet. Tata Airlines won a contract to carry mail for Imperial Airways. Passionate about flying, JRD as he was fondly called, frequently flew a single-engine de Havilland Puss Moth, a British three-seater high-wing monoplane. Post-WWII, regular commercial service was restored in [...]
The first ever Lok Sabha election in independent India was held between October 25 ,1951, and February 21, 1952. Around 173 million people out of our population of around 360 million at the time were eligible voters. 1949 candidates contested for 489 seats in the Lok Sabha, the founding elections of the world's largest democracy. [...]
India’s economy post-British Rule was in shambles. By the end of the British Rule in India, official census’s stated that India’s literacy rate was only about 12% (According to Oxfam) and much of India’s economy relied primarily on revenue from agriculture; recognising the importance of building the primary sector of the economy, Jawaharlal Nehru initiated [...]
1950 was another significant year for India, with India becoming a republic during this time. India’s first Republic Day was celebrated on 26th January, starting a tradition that has continued ever since. On this day, the Indian constitution came into force, thereby nullifying the 1935 Government India Act which was a remnant of British Rule [...]
One of independent India’s most significant achievements post-1947 was the adoption of the constitution. The document was adopted on 26th November 1949, making India a sovereign, democratic republic on paper. Interestingly, most members in the constituent assembly who pioneered the creation of the constitution were from the Congress party. However, the intensity of the constituent [...]
1948: Gandhi’s assassinationOn January 30th 1948, darkness enveloped the nation. Just months after independence, Mahatma Gandhi, one of India’s foremost freedom fighters was assassinated by a member of the Hindu Mahasabha, Nathuram Godse. Once an ardent supporter of Gandhi’s philosophy, Godse’s decision to assassinate him stemmed from a dislike of Gandhi’s behaviour towards Muslims. Regardless [...]
India at Birth and its “Tryst with Destiny”:India became an independent nation on August 15th, 1947. Born on the same night as another country Pakistan, the two countries grew to see vastly divergent outcomes. At midnight, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his momentous “Tryst with Destiny” speech in the constituent assembly. The speech [...]
The Blood Telegram by Gary J. Bass is insightful, reflective and thoroughly well researched; the book offers a new perspective on the frequently chronicled 1971 India-Pakistan War, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. Outlining the turn of events in the leadup to the 14-day War in 1971, Bass also offers a scathing criticism of [...]
The significance of foreign intervention in influencing the outcome of the Spanish Civil War cannot be overstated enough by historians. Several have unanimously agreed that it considerably lengthened and intensified the war while ensuring that Spain's domestic issues were overtaken and submerged by the more significant ideological battles that were taking place in Europe. Of [...]
The infamous Spanish Civil War was a culmination of brewing political tensions between the Republicans and the Nationalists. Hostile public sentiment and drastic reform from one regime to the next, in the leadup to 1936, led to this brutal conflict. With an unprecedented death toll of nearly one million people as estimated by the Nationalist [...]
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