Itihaas 2.0

Origins of a lot of food are very diverse. Yet they somehow manage to reach a country and get assimilated in the gastronomy and culture so well, that people often do not believe that they are from somewhere else. Chillies, Mirchi as known in Hindi, has a similar story of coming from abroad and becoming a concept, a necessity, 'Made in India' ! Sneha Gore Mehendale and gandhali Kulkarni trace the origins of this 'Indian' spice.

This episode talks about a historic and very controversial move in the independent India: Demonetization.

Most people understand the word constitution. They also know that a country is governed by a constitution. But beyond this, they usually do not go. Most of us do not know why or how our constitution was made, because we think it is a difficult matter. Difficult to understand. Which it is not. In very simple terms, Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Now as any country is made of people, we can say the laws are primarily made for them. Constitution gives power. It confers and explains rights, functions, principles, restrictions and obligations on the part of individual, states and everybody who is a citizen of India. The purpose of the Constitution is to maintain harmonious relations between the individuals and the states on one hand and between the different organs of the government on the other. Almost all countries in the world are run based on some constitution. Lets say the constitution ensures that a country does not work according to whims and fancies of someone, but there is a legal framework given to run a society, and more importantly it provides stability. Rulers or governments can change but the laws generally do not change randomly. The Constitution of India was drawn up by a Constituent Assembly initially summoned on December 9, 1946, under the president-ship of Sachidananda Sinha. This obviously, was organized with an undivided India in mind. On August 14, 1947, the Constituent Assembly met as the Sovereign Constituent Assembly for the Dominion of India. After the demise of Sinha, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was entrusted with the job on August 29 1947. Constitutional provisions were adopted from the constitutions of various countries of the world such as Britain, United States, France, Germany, Japan, China, Canada, Australia, South Africa and the Soviet Constitution. Of course, it was not a case of mere copy and paste, as we say nowadays. All of these were debated, studied and adopted with keeping Indian society in mind. A draft constitution was published in February 1948 and public opinion was invited. This makes it clear that constitution is not something that is god-send, or something that is forced upon us. It is a public document, and it is considered as the voice of the people. As we discussed before, Indian leaders demanded complete independence and have been observing 26 January as a sort of ‘independence day’ since 1930, , it was decided to bring the Constitution in operation on 26th January 1950, recognizing the significance of that day. It is interesting to know that the Constitution of India is one of the lengthiest and the most detailed compared to any constitutions in the world. It contains 450 articles. And in these 67 years, it has by and large maintained ts sanctity and it is still in operation. The constitution begins as WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. Each word here is loaded with so many meanings and connotations and it a topic of lengthy discussions. But suffices to say, with adoption of this constitution, India became an official republic and therefore, we celebrate 26th January every year as the republic day.

Doordarshan (DD), India’s public service broadcaster is six decades old. And boy, what changes has Doordarshan seen during these years! From twice a week, educational broadcast to a 24- hour channels and a dense network of correspondents, DD has come a long way. This episode features ex-journalist and media academic Dr. Ujjwala Barve, talking of her memories of working with Doordarshan since early days, and the changes today.

In this second part of the polio episode, Sneha and Dr. Sanjay Mehendale discuss what were the hurdles in successful implementation of the polio eradication programme, and how can India ensure that it stays polio free.