1913: Key Events

• The first telephone service in India begins in Simla; the first carrier system is between Delhi and Agra in 1930.

• The militant Ghadar Movement, calling for the violent overthrow of British rule, is started by US-based Indians in San Francisco.

• Pherozeshah Mehta starts the Bombay Chronicle.

• Jaladhar Sen and Amulyacharan Bidyabhushan start the popular Bengali literary monthly Bharatbarsha; early essays on film include Pramathanath Bhattacharya’s ‘Bioscope’ in the inaugural issue and Narendra Dev’s ‘Chhayay Mayay Bichitra Rahasya’ on film-making techniques, later published as a book in 1934; the monthly also publishes Saradindu Bandyopadhyay’s screenplay of Kalidasa.

• Rabindranath Tagore receives Nobel Prize for literature.

• Bal Gandharva starts the Gandharva Natak Mandali, the most famous of the Marathi Sangeet Natak repertories.

• The Parsee Theatre group, Khatau-Alfred, performs Narayan Prasad Betaab’s Mahabharata play.

• Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra opens on 21st April to a select audience; on 3 May it opens commercially in Bombay’s Coronation Cinematograph.