Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1947
India gains independence on 15 August. Pakistan is formed a day earlier. Partition is followed by
mass cross-border exodus, as Hindus and Muslims migrate to their respective nations.
1947-48
First war between India and Pakistan takes place after the (procrastinating) Maharaja of Kashmir
signs the Instrument of Accession that cedes his state to India. Pakistan challenges the document's
legality.
1948
Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse on 30 January. Godse and his
co-conspirator Narayan Apte are later tried, convicted and executed (by hanging).
17 September 1948
Asaf Jah VII, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, surrenders to the Indian government. The Muslim dyn-
asty was receiving support from Pakistan but had refused to join either new nation.
November 1949
The Constitution of India, drafted over two years by a 308- member Constituent Assembly, is adop-
ted. The Assembly included dozens of members from Scheduled Castes.
26 January 1950
India becomes a republic. Date commemorates the Purna Swaraj Declaration, or Declaration of
Independence, put forth by the Indian National Congress in 1930.
1961
In a military action code-named 'Operation Vijay' the Indian government sends armed troops into
Goa and - with surprisingly little resistance - ends over four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule in
the region.
1965
Skirmishes in Kashmir and the disputed Rann of Kutch in Gujarat flare into the Second India-
Pakistan War, said to have involved the biggest tank battles since WWII. The war ends with a UN-
mandated ceasefire.
1966
