1934: Key Events

• The Congress Socialist Party is founded in Bombay, consisting of a group of Marxists, including Jayaprakash Narayan, Achyut Patwardhan and Yusuf Meherally; it later re- established links with the A. P. Kisan Sabhas and emphasised land reform as an integral part of the nationalist agenda.

• The CPI is banned.

• Jinnah returns from England to head the Muslim League.

• Major earthquake in Bihar, destroying the city of Monghyr.

• The Royal Indian Navy is set up.

• Bengal’s ‘establishment’ literary weekly Desh starts.

• Bombay Talkies is established.

• Zubeida and Nanubhai Vakil start Mahalaxmi Cinetone.

• First sound features in Oriya (Seeta Bibaha) and Kannada (Bhakta Dhruva).

• Ch. Narasimha Rao’s Seeta Kalyanam, for Vel Pictures, is the first sound feature made in Madras.

• Meenakshi Cinetone is founded with K. Subramanyam’s Pavalakkodi.

• Priyanath Ganguly helps start Kali Films in Calcutta.

• Rajit studio’s Toofan Mail is the Hindi cinema’s first major success in the ‘stunt’ film genre, leading to Wadia’s Hunterwali (1935).

• The Hindi film periodical Chitrapat, edited by Hrishamcharan Jain, is launched in Delhi; it publishes scripts, fiction serials, poetry and news about international cinema. Bengali film weekly Ruprekha, edited by Jyotishchandra Ghosh, starts.

• The Urdu novelist Munshi Premchand is hired as a scenarist by Ajanta Cinetone at Rs 8000 per year.