'1965: Key Events

• Second Indo-Pakistan War since Partition disputing the Kashmir borders. Pakistan invades Chhamb and the Rann of Kutch (1-23 September).

• Major language riots in South India over the adoption of Hindi as India’s national ‘link’ language. Demonstrations in Madras exceed those of the 1942 Quit India movement. ​M. Karunanidhi is among the arrested DMK agitators.

• Kerala declares a strike on 18 February. The CPI(M) emerges as the dominant political party in Kerala’s mid-term elections. However, its significant left wing concentrates increasingly on creating peasant organisations with an extra-parliamentary action programme.

• Charu Majumdar, leading the best known of these movements, declares: ‘The real fight against revisionism can never be begun unless the peasant starts it through revolutionary practice’.

• Television becomes a daily service of one hour, restricted to Delhi.

• The International Film Festival of India turns competitive.

• ​R. Kariat’s Chemmeen.