'1987: Key Events

• Institutionalised corruption and capital flight become dominant political issues. Arms deals (e. g. buying Bofors guns and HDW submarines) and the hiring of an American detective agency to trace illegal funds held by Indians abroad provoke a series of inquiry commissions.

• Finance Minister V. P. Singh is sacked and becomes a leading opponent of the Rajiv Gandhi regime. Amitabh Bachchan resigns as MP after allegations that his family is involved in the Bofors kickback scandal.

• In Deorala, Roop Kanwar is burnt alive on her husband’s funeral pyre, reviving the ritual murder of widows which had been banned for a century.

• The Jharkhand agitation in Bihar strives for separate statehood.

• The government persecutes the Indian Express, a virulent anti- Rajiv Gandhi paper which relentlessly pursued he corruption scandals.

• 300,000 Muslims at a New Delhi rally demand the return of the Babri Mosque, while militant Hindus gather at Ayodhya to pledge the building of a temple.

• India sends troops to support the Sri Lankan government against the guerrilla movement launched by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

• The Baroda art exhibition, Questions and Dialogue, signals the emergence of the Radical Painters & Sculptors Association dominated by artists from Kerala and takes a militant stand on the commercialisation of Indian art, emphasising a role for the radical avant-garde.

• The Ramayana TV serial (1986-8) becomes Indian TV’s first major hit.

• The NFDC starts the quarterly journal Cinema in India.