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Agriculture was the highest priority for the first Five Year Plan that was expected to “bring the whole of India—agricultural, industrial, social and economic—into one framework of thinking”. With a total expenditure of Rs 2,069 crore, the Plan allotted 44.6 per cent of it to agriculture, including irrigation and power projects. It was during this Plan—from 1951-1956—that the mega dam projects of Bhakra-Nangal, Hirakud and Mettur dam were initiated. The Plan allocated Rs 173 crore to industry. A little over four-fifths of the Rs 497 crore earmarked for the development of transport and communications was set aside for railways. By the end of the Plan, in 1956, five Indians Institutes of Technology were also started.
FIRST CUT
- The first Indian Institute of Technology was built on the site of a former British prison camp in Kharagpur, West Bengal.
- The villagers of Chini in Himachal Pradesh became the first Indians to cast votes in India’s first general elections that began in 1951.
DID YOU KNOW
Japan was barred from the 1948 Olympic Games but was allowed to compete in the inaugural Asian Games held in Delhi.
A MATTER OF RELIGION
When President Rajendra Pradad inaugurated the newly restored Somnath Temple in Gujarat, Jawaharlal Nehru was horrified and asked him to reconsider. When he did not, it added to the growing belief among critics that the Congress under P.D. Tandon had become deeply conservative.
COUPLE SIZZLE
Elaborate sets and memorable songs made Awara an instant hit. Nargis’ bathing suit caused a stir. Starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis, the film was released in Russia as Brodigaya two years later where orchestras played tunes from the film for the actors visiting the country.
ETERNAL PADAYATRI Vinobha Bhave
He covered over 50,000 miles and collected more than 36 lakh acres from landlords all over India. But the birth of the voluntary land gift movement popularly known as Bhoodan began while Gandhian leader Vinoba Bhave was on a walking tour of Telangana. In pochempelli village, landless peasants told him they needed 100 acres of land. Bhave asked the landlord Ramchandra Reddi to donate 100 acres and met with success.
“IT HITS YOU ON THE HEAD AND MAKES YOU THINK.”
Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier (left) goes over the design for Chandigarh in 1950, which Nehru asked him to construct as a new city “symbolic of the freedom of India, unfettered by traditions of the past… an expression of the nation’s faith in the future.” Later, he said, “It hits you on the head, and makes you think.”
ELSEWHERE…
- Chinese Communists forced the Dalai Lama to surrender his army to Beijing.
- Jack Kerouac (below) wrote On the Road on a 120-foot-long scroll.
- J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, published.
- Liaquat Ali Khan, prime minister of Pakistan, was shot dead.
- Shah Ali Razmara of Iran was assassinated.
- Jordan’s King Abdullah Ibn Hussein was assassinated.
2 million tones was the amount of food grain India received to tackle the drought crisis.
200 the number of aircraft movements handled in a single day at Dum Dum airport in Calcutta.
Courtesy By India Today
