'1964: Key Events

• Nehru dies; Lal Bahadur Shastri becomes prime minister. The Communist Party of India splits, the majority of the rank and file going to the CPI (Marxist).

• The split is triggered by the India-China war, but the larger context is the CPSU’s support for the Congress, regarded as an imperialist ally by the CPI’s left wing.

• Following a split in the Congress and the imposition of president’s rule in Kerala, 800 CPI(M) cadres are arrested, including A. K. Gopalan, the best known of Kerala’s Marxist leaders.

• The indigenously manufactured Vaijayanta tank is the showpiece of the Indian Army’s arsenal.

• The National Film Archive of India is founded in Pune under the Information & Broadcasting Ministry. The Film Institute at Adyar, Madras, starts. Report on Indian Cinema for UNESCO by Jerzy Toeplitz, president of FIAF.

• He notes the Bombay cinema’s impact on the Hindi language.

• First Kashmiri film: Naizraat.