1949 A LINE IS DRAWN

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1947-2008-India-Roundup

India and Pakistan signed the Karachi Agreement establishing a ceasefire line to be supervised by UN observers. It was suggested that the Kashmir issue be solved through arbitration.

EXIT, SOUZA

Artist and founder of the Progressive Artists movement F.N. Souza (third from left) left India in July after the police raided his studio in search of obscene paintings. He lived in London where his art was exhibited all over Europe and bought by galleries like the Tate. He moved to New York in the ‘60s, but never returned to India.

FIRST CUT

• Muthamma Chohivia Beliappa became the first woman to clear the Indian Administrative Service examination and join the Indian Foreign Service.
• The Cinematographic Act, 1949, Created two categories of censorship certificates: ‘A’ for adults and ‘U’ for universal exhibition.
• China came to share border with India after its occupation of Tibet.

EXIT, FRANCE

The people of Chandernagore, a French Indian settlement, decided by plebiscite in favour of merging with India. The territory was transferred a year later.

DID YOU KNOW

Nehru and Patel had a major disagreement over who should become the first President of India. Nehru wanted Governor-General C. Rajagopalachari but Patel preferred Rajendra Prasad.

1949

INDIA AT 60

“I FELT INDIAN POLITICS IN THE ABSENCE OF GANDHI JI WOULD BE PRACTICAL AND ABLE TO RETALIATE.”

NATHURAM GODSE during his trial at Red Fort

On November 15, Nathuram Vinayak Godse and Narayan Dattatreya Apte were hanged. The accused in the case are seen are talking during the trial in a special court at the Red Fort in 1948.

1,00,000

People who prayed at the site of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on the first anniversary of his death. 4 new universities set up. This included the MS University in Baroda.

A POLITICAL WILL

K.M. Cariappa

Lieutenant-General Kodandera Madappa Cariappa (left) became the first Indian to become Chief of Army Staff and commander-in-chief of the Indian Army, succeeding General Sir Roy Bucher. He was also the first Field Marshal in the Army. Cariappa soon became a thorn on Nehru’s side. Moving away from military matters, in the early ‘50s, he started commenting on Indian economic issues, provoking Nehru into asking him in 1952 to reduce the number of press conferences he was addressing.

ELSEWHERE…

• Samuel Beckett (above) finished writing En Attendant Godot, which was translated into Waiting for Godot in 1953.
• Scientists at Mayo Clinic, US, announced the synthesizing of a hormone, later called cortisone, useful in treating rheumatoid arthritis.
• The North atlantic Treaty came into effect.
• South Africa established an apartheid programme.
• Soviet Union exploded its first A-bomb.

Courtesy By India Today