1935: Key Events

• Buddhadev Bose and Samar Sen start the leading poetry quarterly Kavita in Bengal, introducing major writers such as Jibanananda Das and Bishnu Dey.

• The Indian Broadcasting Service starts its Delhi station.

• The Government of India Act (1935) provides provincial autonomy for elected ministers. Debates over participation in elections divide Congress. The Act defines an Anglo-Indian as a ‘European with a male progenitor, but the female is a native Indian’.

• The Seventh Congress of the Communist International (1935) calls for united anti-Fascist fronts. The CPI, regrouped under P. C. Joshi, abandons its critique of the Congress as a ‘party of the bourgeoisie’ to make common cause with several left groups, including the Congress Socialists, the Royists and the All- India Kisan Sabha (founded in 1936). The broad socialist front is supported by Nehru.

• India produces 228 features. In a booming South India, studios are started in Madras (K. Subramanyam’s Madras United Artists), Salem (Angel Films, 1934) and Coimbatore.

• The first All-India Motion Picture Convention is held. First films in Punjabi (Sheila) and Assamese (Joymati).

• Dhoop Chaon establishes playback singing as a standard practice.

• Launch of the seminal film monthly Filmindia; initially edited by D. K. Parker, it was later taken over by its proprietor Baburao Patel and lasted until 1961.

• The Quetta earthquake on 21 May; its after-effects are filmed by P. V. Pathy.