1950 Republic of Hope

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1947-2008-India-Roundup

On January 26, India cut her last ties with Britain and became a republic. Rajendra Prasad became the first President. For the first time, he said, the country had been “brought together under the jurisdiction of one constitution and one union which takes over the responsibility for the welfare of more than 320 million men and women who inhabit it.”

ON SHAKY GROUND
On August 15, a massive earthquake shook Assam, its tremors felt even in Calcutta. Its magnitude was measured 8.6 on the Richter Scale with 1,526 deaths reported. Large landslides blocked the subansiri River and when the natural dam broke eight days later, it created a wave 23 feet high submerging many villages and killing 536 people.

FIRST CUT
• Anna Rajan George of Tamil Nadu cadre became the first woman officer of the Indian Administrative Service.
• India’s first destroyer squadron was formed after the country obtained three modern destroyers.
• Justice Hiralal J. Kania became the first Chief Justice of India.
• All 22 passengers killed in the first-ever air crash near Pathankot.

DIVINE LIGHT
Mother Teresa got permission from the Holy See to establish the order of the Missionaries of Charity. It began with only 12 runs

MAN OF LAW B.R. Ambedkar

In his 1949 speech before the Assembly, the chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly, Bhimrao Ambedkar, had said, “If things go wrong under the new constitution the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will heve to say is that man was vile.” He revived the Scheduled Caste Federation prior to the 1952 polls, describing the Congress as a dharamshala “open to fools and knaves, friends and foes”.

HELLO, HERO, HOW ARE YOU?”

Gyan Mukherjee’s Sangram did the unthinkable—showed the hero playing a bad police officer who murders a girl he loves, shoots a policeman and gambles. Banned by chief minister Morarji Desai in its 16^th week for being too violent, it solidified Ashok Kumar’s status as a leading man. Ashok kumar believed actors “belong to the lower strata of life”, and yet went on to become such a star that even Jawaharlal Nehru would ask him: “Hello, hero, kaise ho? (Hello, hero, how are you?)” He started at Rs 250 and was earning Rs 2.5 lakh by the time the studio system ended.

K.M. PANNIKAR Historian, after meeting Mao Zedong

He is pleasant and the look in his eyes kindly. There’s no cruelty or hardness in his eyes or in his expression.”

7 denominations in which coins were introduced. These included one rupee, half rupee, quarter rupee, two anna, one anna, half anna and pice.

49 lakh refugees assisted at the end of the year representing 98 per cent of the total displaced.

Iron Age Ends

Sardar Patel died in December 1950, In his tribute to the man who united India, Nehru called him, “an unmatched warrior in the cause of freedom, a lover of India, a great servant of the people and a statesman of genius and mighty achievement”.

ELSEWHERE…

• Author George Orwell, 46, died in London of tuberculosis.
• The FBI began its “10 Most Wanted” list after a reporter asked agents for names and descriptions of the “toughest guys” the FBI would like to capture.
• Jordan annexed the West Bank and offered citizenship to all Palestinians wishing to claim it.
• The Korean War (below) began as forces from the communist North invaded the South. It lasted till 1953.

Courtesy By India Today