'''Key Events'''

* Plague in Bombay and Pune; national famine until 1897. 

* E. B. Havell, one of the figureheads of the Bengal School of Painting, is appointed Superintendent of the Government School of Art, Calcutta. 

* Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vande_Mataram|Vande Mataram]] (Hail to the Mother), one of India’s national anthems later appropriated by Hindu chauvinists, is recited for the very first time at the Indian National Congress. 



* Bal Gangadhar Tilak inaugurates a festival around the figure of the 17th C. Maratha emperor Shivaji to generate nationalist sentiment. 

* B. R. Rajam Aiyer publishes the social reform novel, Kamalampal Charitram, in Tamil. 

* The singer Vishnu Digambar Paluskar leaves the Miraj court to popularise classical music. For an article on the history of classical music [[http://chandrakantha.com/articles/tawaif/6_passing_the_torch.html|click here]]

*  First film screening at Watson’s Hotel, Bombay, on 7 July, by the Lumière cameraman Marius Sestier. 

[[Image(TOI.jpg)]]

[[Image(Watson's-Hotel.jpg)]]Watson's hotel as it currently stands

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*  The Madras Photographic Stores advertises imported ‘animated photographs’, reviewed in the Journal of the Amateur Photographic Society of Madras.

[[Image(1896.jpg)]]