Timeline History

India History Timeline: 1951 - 2000



Year Rulers War and Politics Entertainment Literature Art and Architecture Science and Technology World Historic Events / Personalities
1951-1955 Prime Minister : Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964) First general election in India (1952)


Congress Party of India under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru won an outright victory. 18,000 candidates ran for 4,412 seats. Militant parties like the Hindu Mahasabha and the separatist Sikh Akali Party did badly.

Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) produces the first film in the Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali (1955)


At 1956 Cannes Film Festival won: OCIC Award - Special Mention; Best Human Document
At San Francisco International Film Festival 1957 won: Golden Gate Award for Best Director, Best Picture

The Indian government opens the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi (1954)   Edward Teller and team build the hydrogen bomb.(1952)

Mt Everest conquered for the first time by Tenzing and Hillary (May 29, 1953)


at 29,028 ft Mt Everest is the highest place on earth

Arco, Idaho becomes the first U.S. town to be powered by nuclear energy.

Historia De La India/the History Of India: De La Independencia De 1947 A Nuestros Dias/independence In 1947 To Today
Historia De La India/the History Of India: De La Independencia De 1947 A Nuestros Dias/independence In 1947 To Today
1956-1960 Prime Minister : Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964) The states are reorganized on a linguistic basis (1956) Doordarshan started telecast (1959)


The regular daily transmission started in 1965 as a part of All India Radio. Television services were separated from radio in 1976.

  The hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell.(1956)

U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik I and II, the first earth satellites (1957)

NASA established (1958)

The integrated circuit invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. (1958)
A New History of India
A New History of India
1961-1965 Prime Minister : Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964)
Gulzarilal Nanda(1964)
India-China War (1962)


War was declared on 10 October 1962 and was triggered by a dispute over the Himalayan border in Aksai Chin. The United States Air Force flew in massive supplies to India during the standoff. India's defeat led to an overhaul of the Indian Army and the resignation of Defense Minister Krishna Menon


India-Pakistan War (1965)


On Sep 6, the Indian Army crossed the international border at Wagah near Lahore in response to two Pakistani army offensives in Kashmir. Both sides later claimed to have won the war, though many claim it was a stalemate

    Nehru
Nehru
Yuri Gagarin from USSR orbits earth (1961)

The audio cassette invented. (1962)

John F. Kennedy is assassinated (1963)

The compact disk invented by James Russell. (1965)
Death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1964)
1966-1970 Prime Minister : Lal Bahadur Shastri (1964-1966)
Gulzarilal Nanda (1966)
Bollywood icon Madhuri (Shankar) Dixit born (May 15, 1967)


Madhuri Dixit has been the muse for the famous Indian painter M.F. Hussain who considers her the epitome of the Indian woman

M F Hussain awarded the Padma Shree by the Government of India (1966)

First human heart transplant operation(1967)

The first computer with integrated circuits made.(1968)

The arpanet (first internet) invented.(1969)

US astronauts land on the Moon (1969)


The first moon landing by a human was that of American Neil Armstrong

The floppy disk invented by Alan Shugart.(1970)
Lal Bahadur Shastri dies at Tashkent (1966)


He was the first person to be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna and a memorial "Vijay Ghat" was built for him in Delhi. The slogan Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan is attributed to Shastri.

1971-1975 Prime Minister : Indira Gandhi (1966-1977) India-Pakistan War (1971)


The war which started on the night of 3rd December 1971 was over when the Indian Army overrun erstwhile East Pakistan and took 93,000 POWs



Shimla agreement signed between India and Pakistan (July 2, 1972)


Indira Gandhi of India and Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto signing the Shimla Agreement

The History of History; Politics and Scholarship in Modern India
The History of History; Politics and Scholarship in Modern India
India's first atomic device Tested at Pokhran, becomes the world's sixth nuclear power (May 18, 1974)


Indira Gandhi visiting the site


First Indian satellite Aryabhatta is launched (1975)
The dot-matrix printer invented.(1971)

The microprocessor invented by Faggin, Hoff and Mazor.(1971)

Death of Picasso (1973)

The ethernet (local computer network) invented by Robert Metcalfe(1973)


The Guinness Book of Records names Picasso as the most prolific painter ever.

The laser printer invented.(1975)
Indira Gandhi found guilty by court of electoral malpractice; President declares state of emergency due to "internal disturbance threat" (1975)
1976-1980 Prime Minister : Morarji Desai (1977-1979)
Choudhary Charan Singh (1979-1980)
Emergency ends in sixth General elections; Janata Party comes to power (1977)

Janata Party splits; Seventh general elections held (1979)

Indira Gandhi returns to power (1980)
  The ink-jet printer invented.(1976)

The world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is born in London (1978)

Cellular phones invented.(1979)

The hepatitis-B vaccine invented.(1980)
Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979


The Albanian-born founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, was the daughter of an Albanian grocer. She went to Ireland in 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, sailing, only six weeks later, to India as a teacher

1981-1985 Prime Minister : Indira Gandhi (1980-1984)

Rajiv Gandhi (1984-1989)
Over 1,000 are killed when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sends troops to the Sikh Golden Temple (1984)


Sri Harmandir Sahib, also known as Sri Darbar Sahib or Golden Temple, is named after Hari(God) the temple of God

P.T Usha lost her bronze medal by 1/100th of a second (400m hurdles) in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics


P.T. Usha was the first Indian woman (and the fifth Indian) to reach the final of an Olympic event by winning her 400 m hurdles Semi-final.

Indira: The Life Of Indira Nehru Gandhi
Indira: The Life Of Indira Nehru Gandhi
MS-DOS invented.(1981)

The first IBM-PC invented.(1981)

Assassination attempts on President Reagan and Pope John Paul II (1981)

US Embassy in Beirut bombed (1983)

The CD-ROM invented.(1984)

Windows program invented by Microsoft.(1985)
India Won the Prudential Cricket World Cup (1983)

Indira Gandhi assassinated (October 31, 1984)


Two of Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh assassinated her in the garden of the Prime Minister's Residence at No. 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi


In Bhopal, Union Carbide gas leak kills over 2,200 (1984)
1986-1990 Prime Minister : Rajiv Gandhi (1984-1989)

Vishwanath Pratap Singh (1989-1990)
Rajiv Gandhi's Congress defeated in ninth general elections; minority government led by Janata Dal's V.P Singh comes to power (1989) Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Film Mathilukal won the FIPRESCI and UNICEF awards. (1990)


The Nation honoured Adoor for his valuable contributions to Indian cinema by awarding him the highest cinema award of India, the Dabasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2004.

  A high-temperature super-conductor invented by J. Georg Bednorz and Karl A. Muller.(1986)

Berlin Wall is demolished (1989)

Nelson Mandela released from South African prison (1990)

The Gulf War Begins (1990-1991)
India And South Asia
India And South Asia
1991-1995 Prime Minister : Chandra Shekhar (1990-1991)

P. V. Narasimha Rao (1991-1996)
V.P Singh's government falls (1991)

After Rajiv's assassination during the Tenth general elections, Congress government returns to power with P.V. Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister (1991)

Hindu nationalists demolish the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya (December 6, 1992)


The Babri Mosque was constructed by the first Mughal emperor of India, Babur, and it was alleged that his commander-in-chief Mir Baki destroyed an existing temple at the site, which Hindus believe was the temple built to commemorate the birthplace of Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu and ruler of Ayodhya

Satyajit Ray received an Academy Award for lifetime achievement (1991)

Romantic musicals become popular again following the success of such films as Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)
Rajiv Gandhi and Ramas Kingdom
Rajiv Gandhi and Ramas Kingdom
The digital answering machine invented.(1991)

The Cold War is over (1991)

The pentium processor invented.(1993)

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) invented.(1995)
Rajiv Gandhi assassinated by LTTE (May 21, 1991)


Rajiv, the eldest son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi, was the 6th Prime Minister of India


Sivarasan, Subha and five other LTTE leaders commit suicide as SIT corners them (August 20, 1991)


Moments before the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Under the dress the Black Tiger woman assassin (wearing glasses) wore the suicide kit as Shivarasan, the mastermind looked on

1996-2000 Prime Minister : P. V. Narasimha Rao (1991-1996)

Atal Behari Vajpayee (1996)

H. D. Deve Gowda (1996-1997)

Inder Kumar Gujral (1997-1998)

Atal Behari Vajpayee (1998-2004)
Eleventh general elections (the largest democratic exercise on the planet) sees fall of P.V. Narasimha Rao and the Congress government. The Bharatiya Janata Party comes to power and falls after 13 days; United Front Coalition forms government under Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda (1996)

Congress withdraws support to coalition government; Deve Gowda resigns, I.K. Gujral becomes India's 12th Prime Minister (1997)

Kargil War (1999)


First, Pakistan captured several strategic high points in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir. India responded by first capturing strategic transportation routes, then militarily pushing Pakistani forces back across the Line of Control.

Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize for her first novel The God of Small Things. (1997)


In 2002, Roy was convicted of contempt of court by the Supreme Court in New Delhi for accusing the court of attempting to silence protests against the Narmada Dam Project.

India tests nuclear bomb and missile delivery system (1998)

Dr Amartya Kumar Sen awarded the "Nobel Prize for Economics" for his contributions to welfare economics (1998)


Amartya was born in Santiniketan on November 2, 1933, in the family of a Sanskrit scholar, Acharya Kshiti Mohan Sen. He was christened Amartya by Rabindranath Tagore

Web TV invented.(1996)

Titanic becomes the highest-grossing film of all time, raking in more than $580 million domestically in USA (1997-98)

Scientists measure the fastest wind speed ever recorded on earth, 509 km/h(318 mph).(1999)
The Bjp and the Compulsions of Politics in India
The Bjp and the Compulsions of Politics in India
Year Rulers War and Politics Entertainment Literature Art and Architecture Science and Technology World Historic Events / Personalities


India History Timeline : 1901 - 1950

India History Timeline : 2001 - Present

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