1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
States and union territories of India
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India is a federal union comprising twenty-nine states and seven union territories. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and further into smaller administrative divisions, the Constitution of India distributes the sovereign executive and legislative powers exercisable with respect to the territory of any State between the Union and that State. The Indian subcontinent has been ruled by different ethnic groups throughout its history. Between 1947 and 1950, the territories of the states were politically integrated into the Indian Union. The new Constitution of India, which came into force on 26 January 1950, the new republic was also declared to be a Union of States. The nine Part A states were Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The eight Part B states were former princely states or groups of states, governed by a rajpramukh, who was usually the ruler of a constituent state. The rajpramukh was appointed by the President of India, the Part B states were Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Bharat, Mysore, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, Rajasthan, Saurashtra, and Travancore-Cochin. The ten Part C states included both the former chief commissioners provinces and some states, and each was governed by a chief commissioner appointed by the President of India. The Part C states were Ajmer, Bhopal, Bilaspur, Coorg, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Cutch, Manipur, Tripura, the only Part D state was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were administered by a lieutenant governor appointed by the central government. The Union Territory of Puducherry was created in 1954 comprising the previous French enclaves of Pondichéry, Karaikal, Yanam, Andhra State was created on 1 October 1953 from the Telugu-speaking northern districts of Madras State. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 reorganised the states based on linguistic lines resulting in the creation of the new states, as a result of this act, Madras State retained its name with Kanyakumari district added to from Travancore-Cochin. Andhra Pradesh was created with the merger of Andhra State with the Telugu-speaking districts of Hyderabad State in 1956, kerala was created with the merger of Malabar district and the Kasaragod taluk of South Canara districts of Madras State with Travancore-Cochin. The Laccadive Islands which were divided between South Canara and Malabar districts of Madras State were united and organised into the territory of Lakshadweep. Bombay State was enlarged by the addition of Saurashtra State and Kutch State, Rajasthan and Punjab gained territories from Ajmer and Patiala and East Punjab States Union respectively and certain territories of Bihar was transferred to West Bengal. Bombay State was split into the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra on 1 May 1960 by the Bombay Reorganisation Act. Nagaland was formed on 1 December 1963, the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 resulted in the creation of Haryana on 1 November and the transfer of the northern districts of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh. The act also designated Chandigarh as a territory and the shared capital of Punjab
3.
Maharashtra
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Four Maharashtra is a state in the western region of India and is Indias second-most populous state and third-largest state by area. It is the wealthiest Indian state and it is also the worlds second-most populous sub-national entity. It has over 112 million inhabitants and its capital, Mumbai, has a population of approximately 18 million, Nagpur is Maharashtras second capital as well as its winter capital. Maharashtras business opportunities along with its potential to offer a standard of living attract migrants from all over India. Ancient and medieval Maharashtra included the empires of the Satavahana dynasty, Rashtrakuta dynasty, Western Chalukyas, Mughals, the major rivers of the state are Godavari, and Krishna. The Narmada and Tapti Rivers flow near the border between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, Maharashtra is the second most urbanised state in India. The state has several popular Hindu places of pilgrimage including Pandharpur, Dehu and Alandi, other places that attract pilgrims from other parts of India and beyond include Hazur Sahib Gurudwara at Nanded, Sai Baba shrine at Shirdi and Dikshabhumi at Nagpur. Maharashtra is the wealthiest and one of the most developed states in India, as of 2011, the state had a per capita income of ₹1.0035 lakh, more than the national average of ₹0.73 lakh. Its GDP per capita crossed the ₹1.20 lakh threshold for the first time in 2013, however, as of 2014, the GDP per capita reduced to ₹1.03 lakh Agriculture and industries are the largest parts of the states economy. Major industries include chemical products, electrical and non-electrical machinery, textiles, petroleum, Jai Maharashtra The modern Marathi language developed from the Maharashtri Prakrit, and the word Mahratta is found in the Jain Maharashtri literature. The terms Maharashtra, Maharashtri, Marathi and Maratha may have derived from the same root, however, their exact etymology is uncertain. But the Marathas as a people do not seem to be mentioned before the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the most widely accepted theory among the linguistic scholars is that the words Maratha and Maharashtra ultimately derived from a combination of Maha and rashtrika. The word rashtrika is a Sanskritized form of Ratta, the name of a tribe or dynasty of petty chiefs ruling in the Deccan region. Another theory is that the term is derived from Maha and ratha / rathi, an alternative theory states that the term derives from the word Maha and Rashtra. However, this theory has not found acceptance among scholars who believe it to be the Sanskritised interpretation of later writers. Maharashtra was ruled by the Maurya Empire in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, around 230 BCE Maharashtra came under the rule of the Satavahana dynasty for 400 years. The greatest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni, in 90 CE Vedishri, son of the Satavahana king Satakarni, the Lord of Dakshinapatha, wielder of the unchecked wheel of Sovereignty, made Junnar, thirty miles north of Pune, the capital of his kingdom. The state was ruled by Western Satraps, Gupta Empire, Gurjara-Pratihara, Vakataka, Kadambas, Chalukya Empire, Rashtrakuta Dynasty, and Western Chalukya before finally
4.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
5.
Marathi language
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Marathi is an Indian language spoken predominantly by the Marathi people of Maharashtra. It is the language and co-official language in the Maharashtra and Goa states of Western India, respectively. There were 73 million speakers in 2001, Marathi ranks 19th in the list of most spoken languages in the world, Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi, Bengali and Telugu in that order. Marathi has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indo-Aryan languages, the major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the Varhadi dialect. Malvani Konkani has been influenced by Marathi varieties. Marathi has several features that set it aside from most other Indian languages, Marathi distinguishes inclusive and exclusive forms of we and possesses a three-way gender system that features the neuter in addition to the masculine and the feminine. In its phonology it contrasts apico-alveolar with alveopalatal affricates and, in common with Gujarati, Marathi is primarily spoken in Maharashtra and parts of neighbouring states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, union-territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The cities of Baroda, Surat, and Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Karwar, Nipani, Indore, Gwalior, Adoni, Hyderabad, Marathi is also spoken by Maharashtrian emigrants worldwide, especially in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Mauritius, and Canada. Marathi is the language of Maharashtra and co-official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra. In Goa, Konkani is the official language, however. Marathi is included among the languages which stand a part of the Eight Schedule of the Constitution of India, the contemporary grammatical rules described by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra are supposed to take precedence in standard written Marathi. Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and the rules give special status to tatsamas. This special status expects the rules for tatsamas to be followed as in Sanskrit and this practice provides Marathi with a large treasure of Sanskrit words to cope with demands of new technical words whenever needed. Jawaharlal Nehru University has announced plans to establish a department for Marathi. Marathi Day is celebrated on 27 February, the birthday of poet Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar, Indian languages, including Marathi, that belong to the Indo-Aryan language family are derived from early forms of Prakrit. Marathi is one of languages that further descend from Maharashtri Prakrit. Marathi literature began and grew owing to the rise of the Seuna dynasty of Devgiri, further growth and usage of the language was because of two religious sects – the Mahanubhava and Varkari panthans – who adopted Marathi as the medium for preaching their doctrines of devotion. Marathi had attained a place in court life by the time of the Seuna kings
6.
Postal Index Number
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A Postal Index Number or PIN or Pincode is a code in the post office numbering or post code system used by India Post, the Indian postal administration. The code is six digits long, the PIN Code system was introduced on 15 August 1972 by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar, an additional secretary in the Union Ministry of Communications. The system was introduced to simplify the manual sorting and delivery of mail by eliminating confusion over incorrect addresses, similar place names, there are nine PIN zones in India, including eight regional zones and one functional zone. The first digit of the PIN code indicates the region, the second digit indicates the sub-region, and the third digit indicates the sorting district within the region. The final three digits are assigned to individual post offices, a state may have one or more sorting districts depending on the volumes of mail handled. The fourth digit represents the route on which a Delivery office is located in the sorting district and this is 0 for offices in the core area of the sorting district. The last two represent the delivery office within the sorting district starting from 01 which would be the GPO or HO. The numbering of the office is done chronologically with higher numbers assigned to newer delivery offices. If the volume of mails handled at an office is too large, a new delivery office is created. Thus two delivery offices situated next to each other only have the first four digits in common. Each PIN code is mapped to exactly one delivery post office which receives all the mail to be delivered to one or more lower offices within its jurisdiction, all of which share the same code. The delivery office can either be a General Post Office, a Head Office or Sub Office which are located in urban areas. The post from the office is sorted and routed to other delivery offices for a different PIN or to one of the relevant sub offices or branch offices for the same PIN. Branch offices are located in areas and have limited postal services
7.
Vehicle registration plate
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A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate or a license plate, is metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the owner within the issuing regions database. The first two letters indicate the state to which the vehicle is registered, the next two digit numbers are the sequential number of a district. Due to heavy volume of vehicle registration, the numbers were given to the RTO offices of registration as well, the third part indicates the year of registration of the vehicle and is a 4 digit number unique to each plate. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. In the vast majority of jurisdictions, the government holds a monopoly on the manufacturing of vehicle registration plates for that jurisdiction. Thus, it is illegal for private citizens to make and affix their own plates. Alternately, the government will merely assign plate numbers, and it is the owners responsibility to find an approved private supplier to make a plate with that number. In some jurisdictions, plates will be assigned to that particular vehicle for its lifetime. If the vehicle is destroyed or exported to a different country. Other jurisdictions follow a policy, meaning that when a vehicle is sold the seller removes the current plate from the vehicle. Buyers must either obtain new plates or attach plates they already hold, as well as register their vehicles under the buyers name, a person who sells a car and then purchases a new one can apply to have the old plates put onto the new car. One who sells a car and does not buy a new one may, depending on the laws involved, have to turn the old plates in or destroy them. Some jurisdictions permit the registration of the vehicle with personal plates, in some jurisdictions, plates require periodic replacement, often associated with a design change of the plate itself. Vehicle owners may or may not have the option to keep their original plate number, alternately, or additionally, vehicle owners have to replace a small decal on the plate or use a decal on the windshield to indicate the expiration date of the vehicle registration. Plates are usually fixed directly to a vehicle or to a frame that is fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes, the plate frames contain advertisements inserted by the service centre or the dealership from which the vehicle was purchased. Vehicle owners can also purchase customized frames to replace the original frames, in some jurisdictions licence plate frames are illegal
8.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation
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The BMCs annual budget is more than that of some of the small states of India. Established under the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act 1888, it is responsible for the infrastructure and administration of the city. In 2014, Trishna Vishwasrao became the first female corporator to be leader of the Corporations house, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is headed by a Municipal Commissioner, an IAS officer. The commissioner wields the power of the house. A quinquennial election is held to elect corporators to power, the corporators are responsible for overseeing that their constituencies have the basic civic infrastructure in place, and that there is no lacuna on the part of the authorities. The Mayor is the head of the house, who is usually from the majority party, as of June 2008, all administrative business in the BMC is conducted in Marathi. As of 2009, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations legislature, also known as the Corporation Council, consists of 227 members
9.
Lok Sabha
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The Lok Sabha is the Lower house of Indias bicameral Parliament, with the Upper house being the Rajya Sabha. The house meets in the Lok Sabha Chambers of the Sansad Bhavan in New Delhi, under the current laws, the strength of Lok Sabha is 545, including the two seats reserved for members of the Anglo-Indian community. The total elective membership is distributed among the states in proportion to their population, a total of 131 seats are reserved for representatives of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The quorum for the House is 10% of the total membership, term of the House The Lok Sabha, unless sooner dissolved, continues to operate for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and the expiration of the period of five years. An exercise to redraw Lok Sabha constituencies boundaries has been carried out by the Delimitation Commission based on the Indian census of 2001, the 16th Lok Sabha was elected in May 2014 and is the latest to date. The Lok Sabha has its own channel, Lok Sabha TV. A major portion of the Indian subcontinent was under British rule from 1858 to 1947, the Indian Councils Act 1861 provided for a Legislative Council consisting of the members of the Executive Council and non-official members. The Indian Councils Act 1892 established legislatures in each of the provinces of British India, although these Acts increased the representation of Indians in the government, their power still remained limited, and the electorate very small. The Indian Councils Act 1909 and the Government of India Act 1919 further expanded the participation of Indians in the administration, the Constituent Assembly was divided into two for the separate nations, with each new Assembly having sovereign powers transferred to it for the respective dominion. The Constitution of India was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into effect on 26 January 1950, proclaiming India to be a sovereign, democratic republic. This contained the principles of the law of the land which would govern India in its new form. The Lok Sabha was duly constituted for the first time on 17 April 1952 after the first General Elections held from 25 October 1951 to 21 February 1952 and he / She should not be less than 25 years of age. He / She possesses such other qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament, a seat in the Lok Sabha will become vacant in the following circumstances, When the holder of the seat, by writing to the speaker, resigns. When the holder of the seat is absent from 60 consecutive days of proceedings of the House, when the holder of the seat is subject to any disqualifications mentioned in the Constitution or any law enacted by Parliament. A seat may also be vacated when the holder stands disqualified under the Anti-Defection Law, a member both of Parliament and of a House of the Legislature of a State. System of elections in Lok Sabha Members of the Lok Sabha are directly elected by the people of India, for the purpose of holding direct elections to Lok Sabha, each state is divided into territorial constituencies. This provision does not apply for states having a population of less than 6 million, note, The expression population here refers to the population ascertained at the preceding census of which relevant figure have been published. Lok Sabha has certain powers that make it more powerful than the Rajya Sabha, motions of no confidence against the government can be introduced and passed in the Lok Sabha
10.
Vidhan Sabha
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The Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly is the lower house or the sole house of the state legislature in the different States of India. The same name is used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the Union Territories, Delhi and Puducherry. The upper house in the seven states with a legislature is called the Legislative Council. Members of a Vidhan Sabha are direct representatives of the people of the state as they are directly elected by an electorate consisting of all citizens above the age of 18 of that state. Its maximum size as outlined in the Constitution of India is not more than 500 members and not less than 60 members. However, the size of the Vidhan Sabha can be less than 59 members through an Act of Parliament, such is the case in the states of Goa, Sikkim, Mizoram and the Union Territory of Puducherry. In some states Governor may appoint 1 member to represent minorities, e. g. the Anglo-Indian community, if he finds that minority inadequately represented in the House. Those elected or nominated to Vidhan Sabha are referred to as Members of Legislative Assembly or MLAsEach Vidhan Sabha assembles for a five-year term, during a State of Emergency, its term may be extended past five years or it may be dissolved. The term of the Legislative Assembly is five years, but it may be dissolved even earlier than five years by the Governor on the request of the Chief Minister. The term of a Legislative Assembly may be extended during an Emergency, a Vidhan Sabha can also be dissolved if a motion of no confidence is passed within it against the majority party or coalition. To become a member of a Vidhan Sabha, a person must be a citizen of India and he or she should be mentally sound and should not be bankrupt. He or she should also state an affidavit that there are no criminal procedures against him or her, Speaker of Vidhan Sabha who is responsible for the conduct of business of the body, and also a Deputy Speaker to preside during the Speakers absence. The Speaker acts as a judge and manages all debates. A motion of no confidence against the government in the state can only be introduced in the Vidhan Sabha, if it is passed by a majority vote, then the Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers must collectively resign. A money bill can only be introduced in Vidhan Sabha, in bicameral jurisdictions, after it is passed in the Vidhan Sabha, it is sent to the Vidhan Parishad, where it can be kept for a maximum time of 14 days. Unless by the Finance Minister of the state in the name of the Governor of that state, in matters related to ordinary bills, the will of Legislative Assembly prevails and there is no provision of joint sitting. In such cases, Legislative council can delay the legislation by maximum 4 months
11.
Mumbai
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Mumbai is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India and the ninth most populous agglomeration in the world, Mumbai lies on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2008, Mumbai was named a world city. It is also the wealthiest city in India, and has the highest GDP of any city in South, West, Mumbai has the highest number of billionaires and millionaires among all cities in India. The seven islands that came to constitute Mumbai were home to communities of fishing colonies, during the mid-18th century, Bombay was reshaped by the Hornby Vellard project, which undertook reclamation of the area between the seven islands from the sea. Along with construction of roads and railways, the reclamation project, completed in 1845. Bombay in the 19th century was characterised by economic and educational development, during the early 20th century it became a strong base for the Indian independence movement. Upon Indias independence in 1947 the city was incorporated into Bombay State, in 1960, following the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, a new state of Maharashtra was created with Bombay as the capital. Mumbai is the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India and it is also home to some of Indias premier scientific and nuclear institutes like BARC, NPCL, IREL, TIFR, AERB, AECI, and the Department of Atomic Energy. The city also houses Indias Hindi and Marathi film and television industry, Mumbais business opportunities, as well as its potential to offer a higher standard of living, attract migrants from all over India, making the city a melting pot of many communities and cultures. The oldest known names for the city are Kakamuchee and Galajunkja, in 1508, Portuguese writer Gaspar Correia used the name Bombaim, in his Lendas da Índia. This name possibly originated as the Old Portuguese phrase bom baim, meaning good little bay, in 1516, Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa used the name Tana-Maiambu, Tana appears to refer to the adjoining town of Thane and Maiambu to Mumbadevi. Other variations recorded in the 16th and the 17th centuries include, Mombayn, Bombay, Bombain, Bombaym, Monbaym, Mombaim, Mombaym, Bambaye, Bombaiim, Bombeye, Boon Bay, and Bon Bahia. After the English gained possession of the city in the 17th century, Ali Muhammad Khan, imperial diwan or revenue minister of the Gujarat province, in the Mirat-i-Ahmedi referred to the city as Manbai. By the late 20th century, the city was referred to as Mumbai or Mambai in the Indian statewise official languages of Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Kannada and Sindhi, the Government of India officially changed the English name to Mumbai in November 1995. According to Slate magazine, they argued that Bombay was a corrupted English version of Mumbai, Slate also said The push to rename Bombay was part of a larger movement to strengthen Marathi identity in the Maharashtra region. A resident of Mumbai is called mumbaikar in the Marathi language, the term has been in use for quite some time but it gained popularity after the official name change to Mumbai. Mumbai is built on what was once an archipelago of seven islands, Bombay Island, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli and it is not exactly known when these islands were first inhabited
12.
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
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The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai, presently,288 members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected from the single-seat constituencies and one member is nominated. The members of the house, the Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad are indirectly elected through an electoral college. But in 1975 because of election were in season, monsoon session was convened in Nagpur
13.
Girangaon
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Girangaon was a name commonly used to refer to an area now part of central Mumbai, India, which at one time had almost 130 textile mills, with the majority being cotton mills. The mills of Girangaon contributed significantly to the prosperity and growth of Mumbai during the nineteenth century. Girangaon covered an area of 600 acres, not including the workers housing, the mill workers lived in a community, and they fostered a unique culture which shaped Mumbai at the turn of the twentieth century. The Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company was the first cotton mill to be set up in Tardeo, Mumbai, a boom in the textile industry followed, with 10 cotton mills set up in Mumbai by 1865, employing over 6,500 workers. A gradual increase led to a total of 136 mills being set up by 1900, the textile industry was offered added government incentives in the form of long term leases, as mills stimulated the economic growth and employment. These mills were owned by former traders like the Tatas, Petits, Wadias, Currimbhoys, Thakerseys, Sassoons, Khataus, Goculdas, Cottons, most of the mill workers came from areas around Mumbai - Kolis were particularly represented. The mill owners housed their workers in chawls built in the areas of Tardeo, Byculla, Mazgaon, Reay Road, Lalbaug, Parel, Naigaum, Sewri, Worli and these areas gradually came to be known collectively as Girangaon. Both men and women worked in the mills and they would start working there at a young age, and worked 12 hours a day until the passing of the Factories Act of 1847 restricted the working day to 10 hours. When the Great Bombay Textile Strike was declared in 1982 by Datta Samant, 90% of the population who worked at the mills lived within a 15-minute walking distance of them. Most of the buildings were chawls, a survey conducted in Parel in 1921 determined that 27% of the population in Parel lived in rooms with six or more people. These chawls were built by both the government and the owners, but neither paid much attention to the quality of the housing. In 1929, one chawl in Dadar was described as being a dark, unwholesome den into which the light of day does not penetrate, often the rooms did not have adequate ventilation, and the lack of lavatory and washing facilities distressed the women in particular. The windows were closed to keep out the stench of the gutters. Due to this overcrowding, the distinction between home and street was blurred, Girangaon residents spent more of their time on the street than in the home, there was great participation in communal festivals like Moharram, Ganesh Chaturthi and Gokulashtami. Local shop keepers and mill owners were often coerced into contributing to such festivals, the local liquor shop or gymnasium was a common meeting place. The workers of Girangaon patronized arts like poetry, theatre and dance, several notable actors first found fame here. At their peak in 1980, the mills employed 300,000 workers, indian cinema of the 1980s and 1990s frequently drew themes from the life of the mill workers. By 2007, only 25,000 people worked in the few remaining mills, in recent years, the mills have been extensively redeveloped, many becoming malls and discothèques
14.
Shilahara
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The Shilahara Dynasty was a royal clan that established itself in northern and southern Konkan, present-day Mumbai and southern Maharashtra during the Rashtrakuta period. The dynasty originally began as vassals of the Rashtrakuta dynasty which ruled the Deccan plateau between the 8th and 10th centuries, govinda II, a Rashtrakuta king, conferred the kingdom of North Konkan on Kapardin I, founder of the Northern Silhara family, around 800. Since then North Konkan came to be known as Kapardi-dvipa or Kavadidvipa, the capital of this branch was Puri, now known as Rajapur in the Raigad District. The dynasty bore the title of Tagara-puradhishvara, which indicates that they hailed from Tagara. Around 1343 the island of Salsette, and eventually the whole archipelago, Shilaharas of Southern Maharashtra at Kolhapur was the latest of the three and was founded about the time of downfall of the Rashtrakuta Empire. All the branches of this family traced their descent from the mythical Vidyadhara prince Jimutavahana, the family-name Shilahara is supposed to have been derived from this incident. Even single inscriptions have more than one form of the name, the Shilaharas of South Konkan were the vassals of Rashtrakutas and ruled from 765 to 1020. After Rashtrakuta power became weak the last known ruler of this family, Rattaraja, but Chalukya Jayasimha, the younger brother of Vikramaditya, overthrew him and appropriated his possessions. North Konkan was conquered by the Rashtrakuta king Dantidurga sometime in the quarter of the eighth century. As per R Narasimhacharya, names like Vappuvanna, Lasthiyavva, etc. betrayed the Kannada origin of Silaharas of Thana, Rattaraja was the last ruler of this dynasty. The document is extremely important as it not only gives the genealogy of the ten ancestors of Rattaraja, the founder, Sanaphulla, was vassal of the Rastrakuta emperor Krisna I who had established his power over Konkan by 765 and probably handed it to Sanaphulla. The Kharepatan plates declare that Sanaphulla obtained lordship over the territory between Sahya mountain and the sea through the favour of Krisnaraja, sana-phullas son Dhammayira is known to have built a fort at Vallipattana on the Western Coast. Aiyaparaja secured victory at Chandrapuri in Goa, the reign of Avasara I proved to be uneventful. At this time Laghu Kapardi, the ruler of the Thane branch, was just a boy, Avasara II continued the policy of his father. Indrarajas son Bhima is styled as Rahuvadgrasta Chandramandala because he overthrew the petty ruler of Chandor, at this time the Kadamba ruler Sasthadeva and his son Chaturbhuja were trying to overthrow the Rastrakuta rule. This explains Bhimas opposition to Chandrapuri or Chandor, Avasara III, no doubt, ruled in troubled times, but had no contribution of his to make. Finally, Rattaraja, loyal to the Rastrakutas, was compelled to transfer his allegiance to Taila II, soon after the issue of the plates in 1008, the rule of Konkan passed over to the later Chalukyas. They ruled over southern Maharashtra, the districts of Satara, Kolhapur
15.
Kurla
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Kurla is a suburb of Mumbai, India. It is the headquarters of the Kurla taluka of Mumbai Suburban District, the suburb is named after the eponymous East Indian village that the suburb grew out of. It falls under Zone 5, Ward L of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, the village of Kurla came under Portuguese rule when the Treaty of Bassein was signed by Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat and the Kingdom of Portugal on 23 December 1534. In 1548, the village of Kurla and six villages were given by the Governor of Portuguese India to Antonio Pessoa as a reward for his military services. Kurla remained under Portuguese rule until the British occupied Salsette Island in 1774, the island was formally ceded to the East India Company in the 1782 Treaty of Salbai. In 1805, Kurla was connected to Sion on Bombay Island by the Sion Causeway and his Son, Mr. Ardeshir Hormasji Wadia, after whom the A. H. Wadia Road was named, paid for them a yearly Quit-rent of £358. Kurla had two mills, one of them, the Dharamsi Punjabhai, being the largest cotton spinning and weaving mill in the Bombay Presidency. The other was the Kurla Spinning and Weaving Mill, Kurla village had a population of 9,715 at that time. About half of them worked in the mills, while the rest were fishermen, husbandmen, the Holy Cross Church at Kurla, built during the Portuguese rule and rebuilt in 1848, is one of the oldest churches in Mumbai. The Mithibai Hormasji Wadia Dispensary was built by Mr. Bamanji Hormasji Wadia in 1855 and it was in charge of an assistant surgeon, and, in 1880–81, had an attendance of 7367 out-patients. The salt pans covered an area of about 66 acres and yielded a revenue of £3418. There was also a considerable manufacture of shell lime, the beginning of the twentieth century saw Kurla develop as an important centre of the mill industry. In 1910, there were reported to be mills in Kurla, engaged in the manufacturing of cotton cloth. Kurla, however, was an old textile industrial core, an outlier to the cotton mill zone. The Central Railway began its Harbour Line services from Kurla to Reay Road station on 12 December 1910 and this service was extended to Victoria Terminus in 1925. The Kurla Railway Car-shed was constructed in 1925 when electrification of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Harbour line was undertaken, the first electric train in Asia that ran between CST and Coorla on February 3,1925 was maintained at this car shed. The Salsette-Trombay Railway, also known as the Central Salsette Tramway, the 13 kilometre line, a project of the Bombay Improvement Trust run by the GIPR, ran from Trombay to Andheri via Kurla and lasted only a few years. During the late fifties and sixties, the old Kurla neighbourhood developed into an industrial zone
16.
Governor of Bombay
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Until the 18th century, Bombay consisted of seven islands separated by shallow sea. These seven islands were part of an archipelago in the Arabian sea. The islands provided the British with a harbour for trade. Over the next two centuries, the British dominated the region, first securing the archipelago from the Portuguese, Bombay Presidency was one of the three Presidencies of British India, the other two being Madras Presidency, and Bengal Presidency. It was in the centre-west of the Indian subcontinent on the Arabian Sea, the Presidency was established in the late 17th century and named after Bombay, the capital city and the island on which it was built. During British rule, a Governor was the administrative and political officer of Bombay. The executive Government of the Presidency was administered by the Governor and he had the same power and right in the Presidency as the Governor-General of India, and observed the same order and course in their proceedings. Governors of Bombay and Madras Presidencies, who were appointed by the British Crown, were the most important officials after the Viceroy. Bombay Castle was the residence of the Governor of Bombay until the 1770s, when it was moved to Parel. Abraham Shipman was appointed the first Royal Governor of Bombay in 1662, beginning in 1668, Charles II leased the islands to the British East India Company—George Oxeden was appointed the first Company Governor of Bombay on 23 September 1668. In 1687, the Company relocated its headquarters from Surat to Bombay, in 1862, the British Crown took formal repossession of the territory after the Company was disbanded. After Indias independence in 1947, the territory was restructured into Bombay State, the area of Bombay State increased, after several erstwhile princely states that joined the Indian union were integrated into Bombay State. Raja Maharaj Singh was the first Indian Governor of Bombay after independence, the last person to hold the title of Governor of Bombay was Sri Prakasa in 1960. The marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza that concluded on 8 May 1661 placed Bombay under British rule—the territory was part of Catherines dowry. On 19 March 1662, Abraham Shipman was appointed the first Governor and General of the city, the Portuguese Viceroy declined to interfere and Shipman was prevented from landing in Bombay. He was forced to retire to the island of Anjediva in North Canara, in November 1664, Shipmans successor Humphrey Cooke agreed to accept Bombay Island without its dependencies. The first four governors held Bombay for the Crown, the islands were handed over to the Company on 23 September 1668. Upon the transfer, Bombay was made subordinate to the Companys settlement in Surat, during 1668–87, the Governors of Bombay, who were also presidents of Surat Council, spent most of their time in Surat
17.
Tanning (leather)
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Tanning is the process of treating skins and hides of animals to produce leather. A tannery is the place where the skins are processed, Tanning hide into leather involves a process which permanently alters the protein structure of skin, making it more durable and less susceptible to decomposition, and also possibly coloring it. Before tanning, the skins are unhaired, degreased, desalted and soaked in water over a period of 6 hours to 2 days, historically this process was considered a noxious or odoriferous trade and relegated to the outskirts of town. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, a chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name. The use of a solution was adopted by tanners in the Industrial Revolution. The English word for tanning is from medieval Latin tannāre, deriv. of tannum and this refers to use of the bark of oaks in some kinds of hide preservation. Ancient civilizations used leather for waterskins, bags, harnesses and tack, boats, armour, quivers, scabbards, boots, Tanning was being carried out by the inhabitants of Mehrgarh in India between 7000 and 3300 BC. Around 2500 BC, the Sumerians began using leather, affixed by copper studs, formerly, tanning was considered a noxious or odoriferous trade and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling, tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used, Skins typically arrived at the tannery dried stiff and dirty with soil and gore. First, the ancient tanners would soak the skins in water to clean, then they would pound and scour the skin to remove any remaining flesh and fat. Next, the tanner needed to remove the hair from the skin and this was done by either soaking the skin in urine, painting it with an alkaline lime mixture, or simply allowing the skin to putrefy for several months then dipping it in a salt solution. After the hairs were loosened, the tanners scraped them off with a knife, once the hair was removed, the tanners would bate the material by pounding dung into the skin, or soaking the skin in a solution of animal brains. Bating was a process which relied on enzymes produced by bacteria found in the dung. Among the kinds of dung commonly used were those of dogs or pigeons, sometimes, the dung was mixed with water in a large vat, and the prepared skins were kneaded in the dung water until they became supple from bacterial enzyme action, but not too soft. The ancient tanner might use his feet to knead the skins in the dung water. This combination of urine, animal feces, and decaying flesh made ancient tanneries malodorous, children employed as dung gatherers were a common sight in ancient cities. Also common were piss-pots located on street corners, where human urine could be collected for use in tanneries or by washerwomen, historically the actual tanning process used vegetable tanning. In some variations of the process, cedar oil, alum, as the skin was stretched, it would lose moisture and absorb the agent
18.
Cotton mill
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Although some were driven by animal power, most early mills were built in rural locations near to fast-flowing rivers and streams and had water wheels to power them. The mechanisation of the process in the early factories was instrumental in the growth of the machine tool industry. Limited companies were developed to construct mills, and the floors of the cotton exchange in Manchester. Mills generated employment, drawing workers from rural areas and expanding urban populations. They provided incomes for girls and women, child labour was used in the mills, and the factory system led to organised labour. Poor conditions became the subject of exposés, and in England, the cotton mill, originally a Lancashire phenomenon, was copied in New England and later in the southern states of America. In the 20th century, North West England lost its supremacy to the United States, then to India, in the mid-16th century Manchester was an important manufacturing centre for woollens and linen and market for textiles made elsewhere. The fustian district of Lancashire, from Blackburn to Bolton, west to Wigan and Leigh and south towards Manchester, used flax and raw cotton imported along the Mersey and Irwell Navigation. During the Industrial Revolution cotton manufacture changed from a domestic to an industry, made possible by inventions. The weaving process was the first to be mechanised by the invention of John Kays flying shuttle in 1733, the manually-operated spinning jenny was developed by James Hargreaves in about 1764 speeded up the spinning process. The roller spinning principle of Paul and Bourne became the basis of Richard Arkwrights spinning frame and water frame, the principles of the spinning jenny and water frame were combined by Samuel Crompton in his spinning mule of 1779, but water power was not applied to it until 1792. Many mills were built after Arkwrights patent expired in 1783 and by 1788, the development of cotton mills was linked to the development of the machinery they contained. By 1774,30,000 people in Manchester were employed using the system in cotton manufacture. The first cotton mills were established in the 1740s to house roller spinning machinery invented by Lewis Paul, the machines were the first to spin cotton mechanically without the intervention of human fingers. They were driven by a single power source which allowed the use of larger machinery. The Paul-Wyatt mills spun cotton for several decades but were not very profitable, Richard Arkwright obtained a patent for his water frame spinning machinery in 1769. Arkwrights first mill – powered by horses in Nottingham in 1768 – was similar to Paul and Wyatts first Birmingham mill although by 1772 it had expanded to four storeys and employed 300 workers. Arkwright recruited large, highly disciplined workforces for his mills, managed credit and supplies, by 1782 his annual profits exceeded £40,000, and by 1784 he had opened 10 more mills
19.
West
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West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the direction from east. The word West is a Germanic word passed into some Romance languages, as is apparent in the Gothic term vasi, it stems from the same Indo-European root that gave the Sanskrit vas-ati and vesper in Latin. To go west using a compass for navigation, one needs to set a bearing or azimuth of 270°, West is the direction opposite that of the Earths rotation on its axis, and is therefore the general direction towards which the Sun appears to constantly progress and eventually set. Moving continuously west is following a circle of latitude, the phrase the West is often spoken in reference to the Western world, which includes the European Union, the Americas, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in the Western Roman Empire, during the Cold War the West was often used to refer to the NATO camp as opposed to the Warsaw Pact and non-aligned nations. The expression survives, with an ambiguous meaning. In Chinese Buddhism, the West represents movement toward the Buddha or enlightenment, the ancient Aztecs believed that the West was the realm of the great goddess of water, mist, and maize. In Ancient Egypt, the West was considered to be the portal to the netherworld, Ancient Egyptians also believed that the Goddess Amunet was a personification of the West. The Celts believed that beyond the sea off the edges of all maps lay the Otherworld. According to the Bible, the Israelites crossed the Jordan River westward into the Promised Land, in Islam, while in India, people pray facing towards the west as in respect to India, Mecca is in the West-ward direction. In American literature moving West has sometimes symbolized gaining freedom, perhaps as an association with the settling of the Old West, the dictionary definition of west at Wiktionary
20.
Malabar Hill
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Notable residents include Adi Godrej, the Birla family, Shashi Ruia & family, Pallonji Mistry, Mahesh Jethmalani, the Jindal family, the Lal family, the Thakkar family among many more. The seafarers from Konkan used to land at the south end of the hill for a pilgrimage to the Walkeshwar Temple. Many of them were part of the Maratha Navy were wrongly designated as Pirates from Malabar, hence the landing point became Malabar Point and eventually the hill became Malabar Hill. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, has proposed to change the name of Malabar Hill, arguably the citys most exclusive residential enclave, to Ramnagari, Malabar Hill is the location of the Walkeshwar Temple, founded by the Silhara kings. The original temple was destroyed by the Portuguese, but rebuilt again in 1715 by Rama Kamath, mountstuart Elphinstone built the first bungalow in Malabar Hill while he was Governor of Bombay, between 1819 and 1827. Following his example, the place became a posh locality. Houses here are amongst the most expensive in the world, in January 2012 Maheshwari House was sold to industrialist Sajjan Jindal of Jindal Steel for 400 crores or > Rs.92,000 per square foot. This makes it the most expensive ever sold in India. Buses only started serving this area during World War II, the former residence of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan is also present here, but is closed to public due to property disputes. Also of note in the Malabar Hill district, there is a ground that sits near the sea which is home to the samadhi shrines of several famous Indian saints. Notably among them is the shrine of the guru of Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj
21.
Pandemic
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A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that has spread through human populations across a large region, for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic. Further, flu pandemics generally exclude recurrences of seasonal flu, throughout history, there have been a number of pandemics, such as smallpox and tuberculosis. One of the most devastating pandemics was the Black Death, killing over 75 million people in 1350, the most recent pandemics include the HIV pandemic as well as the 1918 and 2009 H1N1 pandemics. A pandemic is an epidemic occurring on a scale which crosses international boundaries, the World Health Organization has a six-stage classification that describes the process by which a novel influenza virus moves from the first few infections in humans through to a pandemic. A disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it is widespread or kills many people, for instance, cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered a pandemic because the disease is not infectious or contagious. Then you might ask yourself, What is a global outbreak, global outbreak means that we see both spread of the agent … and then we see disease activities in addition to the spread of the virus. The 2009 revision, including definitions of a pandemic and the leading to its declaration, were finalized in February 2009. The pandemic H1N12009 virus was neither on the horizon at that time nor mentioned in the document, all versions of this document refer to influenza. The phases are defined by the spread of the disease, virulence and mortality are not mentioned in the current WHO definition, HIV originated in Africa, and spread to the United States via Haiti between 1966 and 1972. AIDS is currently a pandemic, with rates as high as 25% in southern and eastern Africa. In 2006, the HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women in South Africa was 29. 1%, infection rates are rising again in Asia and the Americas. The AIDS death toll in Africa may reach 90–100 million by 2025, there have been a number of significant pandemics recorded in human history, generally zoonoses which came about with domestication of animals, such as influenza and tuberculosis. There have been a number of particularly significant epidemics that deserve mention above the mere destruction of cities, possibly typhoid fever killed a quarter of the Athenian troops, and a quarter of the population over four years. This disease fatally weakened the dominance of Athens, but the sheer virulence of the disease prevented its wider spread, the exact cause of the plague was unknown for many years. In January 2006, researchers from the University of Athens analyzed teeth recovered from a mass grave underneath the city, possibly smallpox brought to the Italian peninsula by soldiers returning from the Near East, it killed a quarter of those infected, and up to five million in all. At the height of an outbreak, the Plague of Cyprian. Plague of Justinian, from 541 to 750, was the first recorded outbreak of the bubonic plague and it started in Egypt, and reached Constantinople the following spring, killing 10,000 a day at its height, and perhaps 40% of the citys inhabitants
22.
Communist Party of India
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The Communist Party of India is a communist party in India. In the Indian Communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Communist Party of India was founded, but the date maintained as the foundation day by the CPI is 26 December 1925. However, the Communist Party of India, which separated from the CPI, has a different version that it was founded in 1920, the Communist Party of India has officially stated that it was formed on 25 December 1925 at the first Party Conference in Kanpur. The founding members of the party were M. N, Roy, Evelyn Trent Roy, Abani Mukherji, Rosa Fitingof, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Shafiq Siddiqui, Rafiq Ahmed of Bhopal and M. P. B. T. Aacharya, and Sultan Ahmed Khan Tarin of North-West Frontier Province, the CPI says that there were many communist groups formed by Indians with the help of foreigners in different parts of the world and the Tashkent group was only one of. Contacts with Anushilan and Jugantar groups in Bengal, small communist groups were formed in Bengal, Bombay, Madras, United Provinces and Punjab and Sindh. However, only Usmani became a CPI party member, during the 1920s and the early 1930s the party was badly organised, and in practice there were several communist groups working with limited national coordination. The British colonial authorities had banned all communist activity, which made the task of building a united party very difficult, between 1921 and 1924 there were three conspiracy trials against the communist movement, First Peshawar Conspiracy Case, Meerut Conspiracy Case and the Cawnpore Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. In the first three cases, Russian-trained muhajir communists were put on trial, however, the Cawnpore trial had more political impact. Roy, S. A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, Singaravelu Chettiar, Ghulam Hussain, sharma were charged, in Cawnpore Bolshevik Conspiracy case. Singaravelu Chettiar was released on account of illness, Roy was in Germany and R. C. Sharma in French Pondichéry, and therefore could not be arrested, Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from the Russians in Kabul and was pardoned. Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani and Dange were sentenced for various terms of imprisonment and this case was responsible for actively introducing communism to a larger Indian audience. Dange was released from prison in 1927, on 25 December 1925 a communist conference was organised in Kanpur. Colonial authorities estimated that 500 persons took part in the conference, the conference was convened by a man called Satyabhakta. At the conference Satyabhakta argued for a National communism and against subordination under Comintern, being outvoted by the other delegates, Satyabhakta left both the conference venue in protest. The conference adopted the name Communist Party of India, groups such as Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan dissolved into the unified CPI. The émigré CPI, which probably had little organic character anyway, was substituted by the organisation now operating inside India
23.
Indian National Congress
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The Indian National Congress is one of two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. Congress was founded in 1885 during the British Raj, its founders include Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, there have been seven Congress Prime Ministers, the first being Jawaharlal Nehru, and the most recent Manmohan Singh. The partys social liberal platform is considered to be on the centre-left of Indian politics. From 2004 to 2014, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, a coalition of regional parties. As of March 2017, the party is in power in five states, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Meghalaya, in Bihar, it is a part of the ruling coalition. The Congress has previously directly ruled Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, in the 2014 general election, the Congress had its poorest post-independence general election performance, winning only 44 seats of the 543-member house. The party primarily endorses social liberalism—seeking to balance individual liberty and social justice, the Congress was founded in 1885 by Indian and British members of the Theosophical Society movement, including Scotsman Allan Octavian Hume. It has been suggested that the idea was conceived in a meeting of 17 men after a Theosophical Convention held in Madras in December 1884. Hume took the initiative, and in March 1885 the first notice convening the first Indian National Union to meet in Poona the following December was issued. Its objective was to obtain a share in government for educated Indians and to create a platform for civic. The first meeting was scheduled to be held in Poona, Hume organised the first meeting in Bombay with the approval of the Viceroy Lord Dufferin. Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee was the first president of the Congress, the first session was held from 28–31 December 1885, representing each province of India, the Partys delegates comprised 54 Hindus and 2 Muslims, the rest were of Parsi and Jain backgrounds. It also included Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Mohammed Ali Jinnah—later leader of the Muslim League and instrumental in the creation of Pakistan. The Congress was transformed into a movement by Surendranath Banerjea and Sir Henry Cotton during the partition of Bengal in 1905. Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in 1915, in 1923 following the deaths of policemen at Chauri Chaura, Gandhi suspended the agitation. In protest, a number of leaders, Chittaranjan Das, Annie Besant, the Khilafat movement collapsed and the Congress was split. Although its members were predominantly Hindu, it had members from other religions, economic classes, at the Congress 1929 Lahore session under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, Purna Swaraj was declared as the partys goal, declaring 26 January 1930 as Purna Swaraj Diwas, Independence Day. The same year, Srinivas Iyenger was expelled from the party for demanding full independence, the British government allowed provincial elections in India in the winter of 1936–37 under the Government of India Act 1935
24.
Janata Party
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In the general election held after the end of the state of emergency in 1977, the Janata party defeated Congress to form the first non-Congress government in the history of the Republic of India. Raj Narain, a socialist leader, had filed a legal writ alleging electoral malpractice against Indira Gandhi in 1971, on 12 June 1975, Allahabad High Court found her guilty of using corrupt electoral practices in her 1971 election victory over Narain in the Rae Bareli constituency. She was barred from contesting any election for the six years. Economic problems, corruption and the conviction of Gandhi led to protests against the Congress government. The rationale was that of preserving national security, however, the government introduced press censorship, postponed elections and banned strikes and rallies. Opposition leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Jivatram Kripalani, Biju Patnaik and Morarji Desai were imprisoned, Narain defeated Gandhi at Rae Bareli in those elections. The new Janata-led government reversed many Emergency-era decrees and opened investigations into Emergency-era abuses. By mid-1979, Prime Minister Morarji Desai was forced to resign, popular disenchantment with the political in-fighting and ineffective government led to the resurgence of Gandhi and her new Congress party, which won the general election called in 1980. Although the original Janata Party fragmented and dissolved, modern political parties continue to invoke its legacy, in August 2013, the party was merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Having led the Indian independence movement, the Indian National Congress became the most popular party in independent India. However, the Indian National Congress bifurcated in 1967 over the issue of the leadership of Indira Gandhi, supporters of Indira Gandhi claimed to be the real Congress party, adopting the name Indian National Congress – where R stood for Requisition. Congress politicians who opposed Indira identified themselves as the Indian National Congress – where O stood for Organisation or Old, however, Indiras subsequent inability to address serious issues such as unemployment, poverty, inflation and shortages eroded her popularity. The frequent invoking of Presidents rule to state governments led by opposition political parties was seen as authoritarian. Political leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Kripalani and Congress chief Morarji Desai condemned Indiras government as dictatorial, Narayan and Desai founded the Janata Morcha, the predecessor of what would become the Janata party. The Janata Morcha won the elections for the Vidhan Sabha of the state of Gujarat on 11 June 1975, on 12 June 1975 in State of Uttar Pradesh v. Raj Narain, the Allahabad High Court found Indira guilty and barred her from holding public office for six years. Opposition politicians immediately demanded her resignation and stepped up mass protests against the government, on 25 June, Narayan and Desai held a massive rally in Delhi, calling for a Satyagraha – a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience to force the government to resign. On 25 June 1975, the President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, accepted prime minister Indira Gandhis recommendation to declare a state of national emergency, Indira argued that the political and civil disorder constituted a threat to national security. A state of emergency enabled the government to issue executive decrees without requiring the consent of Parliament
25.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
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The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is a Maharashtrian regional party based in Maharashtra and operates on the motto of Sons of the Soil. The party was founded by Raj Thackeray, nephew of late Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, Raj Thackeray resigned from his uncles party in January 2006 and announced his intention to start a new political party. The reason given by him for breaking away from the Shiv Sena was that the latter was run by petty clerks because of which it had fallen from its former glory. Also Thackeray declared his motive of building a political awareness for the development related issues of the state, at the time of the partys foundation, Raj Thackeray stated that he does not want to have hostilities with his uncle who was, is and always will be mentor. Although the MNS is a group from the Shiv Sena. When unveiling the party in an assembly at Shivaji Park he said, Raj Thackeray considers himself an Indian nationalist. The party also recognises secularism as one of its core tenets, after the clashes,73 MNS activists and 19 SP workers were arrested by Mumbai Police for indulging in violence. On 6 February 2008, reportedly, about 200 Congress and NCP party workers quit the party, a petition was filed in the Patna civil court on 8 February against Thackeray for his alleged remarks over Chhath, the most popular festival of Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Nashik police detained 26 MNS workers for the violence, in February 2008, Raj Thackareys speech on the issue of migration into Mumbai from other parts of India created a well publicised controversy. MNS supporters clashed with activists of the Samajwadi Party leading to street violence, Thackeray also criticised noted film actor turned politician Amitabh Bachchan, a native of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, for business toward Uttar Pradesh because of Amar Singh. Bachchan came into fame and fortune in Mumbais film industry – Bollywood, in October 2008, MNS activists beat up North Indian candidates appearing for the all-India Railway Recruitment Board entrance exam for the Western region in Mumbai. One Bihari died because of accident and rioting ensued following coverage in Hindi Media with support from NCP/Congress. In retaliation for the MNS attack on Biharis and North Indians in general, following the uproar in the Indian parliament, and calls that there was no pressure to arrest the MNS chief, Raj Thackeray was arrested in the early hours of 21 October. He was produced before a court on the day itself and would return the day after spending the night in jail. Following the arrest, however, MNS party activists took out their anger on parts of Mumbai city, the arrest resulted in applause, fear and calls for a ban on the MNS. On 10 October 2006 clashes erupted between supporters of Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena headed by Raj Thackeray and it was alleged that workers of MNS had torn the posters bearing the photographs of Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray near the SIES college in Mumbai. Later as a retaliation it was alleged that Shiv Sena workers brought down the hoardings with Raj Thackerays photo near the Sena Bhavan at Dadar, as the news spread about the incident groups gathered near the Sena Bhavan and started pelting stones at each other. In this incident a policeman was injured and many supporters of both parties were injured, to restore order the police fired tear gas shells at the mob
26.
Shiv Sena
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Shiv Sena, also known by the name Sena, is an Indian far-right regional political party. Its ideology is based on ideology and Hindu nationalism, founded on 19 June 1966 by political cartoonist Bal Thackeray. The party originally emerged from a movement in Mumbai demanding preferential treatment for Maharashtrians over migrants to the city and it is currently headed by Thackerays son, Uddhav Thackeray. Members of Shiv Sena are referred to as Shivsainiks, although the partys primary base is still in Maharashtra, it has tried to expand to a pan-Indian base. In the 1970s, it moved from advocating a pro-Marathi ideology to one supporting a broader Hindu nationalist agenda. The party started taking part in Mumbai Municipal elections since its inception and it has been a coalition partner in the National Democratic Alliance since 1998, including the Vajpayee Government during 1998–2004 and the present Narendra Modi Government. The party has a hold over the Bollywood film industry. It has been referred to as an extremist, chauvinist, as well as a fascist party, Shiv Sena founder, Bal Thackeray, has taken comparisons with fascism as compliments as well as openly stated that he didnt believe in democracy. Shiv Sena and its supporters have been known to resort to violence with impunity, Shiv Sena has been blamed for the 1970 communal violence in Bhiwandi, the 1984 Bhiwandi riot and violence in the 1992-1993 Bombay riots. 80% of Shiv Sena MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha face criminal charges, after the Independence of India in 1947, regional administrative divisions from the colonial era were gradually changed and states following linguistic borders were created. Within the Bombay Presidency, a popular struggle was launched for the creation of a state for the Marathi-speaking people. In 1960, the presidency was divided into two linguistic states - Gujarat and Maharashtra, moreover, Marathi-speaking areas of the erstwhile Hyderabad state were joined with Maharashtra. Mumbai, in ways the economic capital of India, became the state capital of Maharashtra. On one hand, people belonging to the Gujarati community owned the majority of the industry, on the other hand, there was a steady flow of South Indian migrants to the city who came to take many white-collar jobs. In 1960 Bal Thackeray, a Mumbai-based cartoonist, began publishing the cartoon weekly Marmik. Through this publication, he started disseminating anti-migrant sentiments, on 19 June 1966, Thackeray founded the Shiv Sena as a political organisation. The Shiv Sena especially attracted a number of unemployed Marathi youth. Shiv Sena cadres became involved in attacks against the South Indian communities, vandalizing South Indian restaurants
