1932: Key Events

• Within three days of the Congress Party’s decision to resume the civil disobedience movement, the entire leadership is jailed and all civil liberties suspended. Over 80,000 non- violent protesters court arrest.

• Ramsay MacDonald?’s ‘Communal Award’, creating separate electorates in the provincial legislatures for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans, Depressed Classes, Women, Marathas and ‘Others’, further emphasises British efforts to communalise the nationalist movement and gives a new lease of life to the Hindu Mahasabha, which becomes its most strident opponent.

• First sound features in Gujarati (Narasinh Mehta) and Marathi (Sant Tukaram).

• The East India Film Co. starts in Calcutta, pioneering Bengali, Tamil and Telugu film-making.

• The Motion Picture Society of India is set up to represent the Indian film industry (in 1951, the Film Federation of India takes over).

• Hindi weekly Cinema Sansar, edited by Radhakrishna Sharma and featuring screenplays, lyrics, stories and film news, is launched in Bombay.

• In Bengal, the monthly Chitrapanji edited by Abani Basu includes serious essays by film-makers.