1914: Key Events

• Start of WW1. Indian soldiers fight with British forces at Kut-al-Amara in Turkey and in Mesopotamia.

• Gandhi’s agreement with General Smuts in South Africa on immigration and taxation laws for Indians is the first political success of his Satyagraha (non-violent) ‘experiments with truth’.

• The Komagata Maru sails from Hong Kong to Vancouver carrying 376 passengers including several Sikh Ghadar activists, and is refused entry by Canadian authorities. Ali Kazmi has made a documentary ​Continuous Journey about this incident

• The MacMahon Line fixes the border between India and China, leading to disputes erupting in the 1962 war.

• Phalke shows his first three features, Raja Harishchandra, Mohini Bhasmasur and Satyavan Savitri, in London.

• R. Venkaiah and R. S. Prakash build Madras’s first permanent cinema, the Gaiety.