Itihaas 2.0: Recent Episodes
Sneha Gore Mehendale
Itihaas 2.0 is a podcast that looks at Indian history with a twist. It brings history out of boring textbooks and looks at things around us, tracing their evolution. From brands to elections and from media to public policy, this podcast explores why today's India is the way it is.
On the occasion of world radio day, this episode traces the evolution of the earliest broadcasting medium- Radio. It features Dr. Ujjwala Barve in conversation with Sneha Gore Mehendale where they do a succinct recap of the All India Radio (AIR). Dr. Barve talks about her own association with the AIR, its former glory, the challenges AIR faced on its way and its current, modern Avatar.
This episode moves away slightly from any history of cinema. It talks of history as depicted IN cinema. In the first part of this three-way conversation, a film-maker and a film scholar discuss various related issues. 'Historical fiction', the eternal struggle between the truth and artifice, when does a historical film become a historical film and much more.
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.
The Ramadan special food offered in Mumbai's old by-lanes of Bhendi Bazaar and Muhammad Ali Road is a part of personal history of many people. As this area gets ready for massive renovation, we trace the memories of this place with a former resident and wonder how history will survive in this change.
Cinema is a ‘reflection of the society’, yes. And hence, it is also a moving document of our history. Indian cinema provides us innumerable glasses to look at the evolution of the society around us. This episode traces the evolution of settings of Hindi Cinema. From being village-centric to urban, to even being set in other countries, Hindi Cinema is slowly again becoming locally rooted, thereby completing a circle. Listen to the film critic and professor Ajit Duara discussing it.
Most of the food exchanges are so well assimilated that it is impossible to say that they once belonged somewhere else. In part two of the conversation with Keertida Phadke, we talk of food that is native to India but is shining and getting assimilated other countries and their culinary cultures.
Food is fluid. It moves with time, with people, with cultures. Food exchanges only enrich a culture and most of the food exchanges are so well assimilated that it is impossible to say that they once belonged somewhere else.
This episode traces food which is not technically ‘Indian’ in origin, but has been phenomenally ‘Indian’ized. In the first part of this two-part conversation Chef and food entrepreneur Keertida Phadke talks of some such items.
History is not always past events. Sometimes you also live in truly historic times, much like the current pandemic. As the vaccine for CoVid-19 becomes the new global quest, we here talk about this facet of the current times and future history- what are vaccine trials and why do they matter. Featuring on this episode is Dr. Snajay Mehendale, a noted epidemiologist and public health researcher.
The issue of Naxalism has plagued India for more than the past five decades with no solution in sight. This episode features journalist Siddharthya Roy in conversation with Sneha Gore Mehendale discussing the history, present and the relevance of Naxalism to contemporary India.
In the later half of the 1990s, the political situation in India became super unstable with no government being steady. India saw 4 elections in those 10 years. We discuss the elections of 1996,98 and 99 in this episode.
The late 80s have a nation going through a major change where governance takes a back seat, political opportunism is ripe and social fabric is being churned and strained like never before. This episode talks about the elections of 1989 and 1991 and traces these changes.
The first non-congress government, rampant with factions, ego, and opportunism, could not even complete a full term.
This episode discusses the situation in the Janata regime, the 1980 elections and how Indira returned to the power with a thumping majority.
In the middle of the stormy decade, came an unprecedented political move- the emergency from 1975 to 1977. The democracy was almost dead for 19 long months. The 1977 elections, which came after this draconian rule, decimated the Congress for the first time.
In this new episode, we discuss these elections and the complicated background of that one.
The elections of 1971 happened on the backdrop of multiple major sociopolitical churnings. Indira era began a couple of years before that, decimating the political opposition and cementing her position by the victory in 1971 Bangladesh war. Things were not at all cool though. The country was going through turbulent times. In this episode, Ranjeet Rane and Sneha gore Mehendale discuss the 1971 elections, a prologue to the stormy decade.
The fourth general election of 1967 is brought a beginning of a new era. The grand old party in India getting more factionized,clear emergence of a political opposition, and India still surviving as a single country, despite predictions of doom.
Sneha Gore Mehendale converses with Neha Phadke Mahajan about all of it in this episode
Moving to the 1960s, where Congress had completed a decade of power and other sociopolitical factors were playing a role in the electoral politics. importantly, the third election of 1962 also coincides with the Sino-Indian war.
Joining us on the conversation is Parimal Maya Sudhakar explaining the build-up to 1962 elections and aftermath.
That is the name of the system using which India has its election.
It is crucial to understand what it is as it can massively swing elections this way or that way.
Sneha gore Mehendale discusses this important phenomenon with Neha Phadke Mahajan and notes a few interesting statistics of electoral wins and misses due to FPTP.
Did you know that the second general elections of India in 1957 is when the first incident of booth capturing was recorded?!
Listen to this episode that talks about such interesting things along with the backdrop of the 1957 elections and the aftermath.
The implementation of the Mandal commission's report had deep rooted repercussions, especially in the northern India.
What were these effects? Where are we with reference to the issue of caste-based reservations? What does the future hold? Is there any other way of implementing reservations?
Dr.Vikas Pathak offers insights in his conversation with Sneha Gore Mehendale.
1990s remain one of the most turbulent decades of the modern India, and one of the three Ms that caused this turbulence was 'Mandal'. The report of Mandal commission, advocating caste based reservations, specifically, OBC quota in central government jobs and PSUs, was implemented in 1990.
In this episode, Sneha Gore Mehendale and Pradnya Shidore take an overview of 'affirmative action' that India has seen and what exactly is this much controversial term "mandal".
Part two of this wonderful conversation has Dr. Sajjan Kumar talk about why has communalism become an everyday phenomenon, and if at all, there is a hope that India gets rid of this issue.
The Demolition of Babri Masjid gave way to a new type of communalism in India. It is not a sporadic issue anymore, it has seeped into our daily lives.
In this excellent conversation with Sneha Gore Mehendale, Dr. Sajjan Kumar explains why exactly has the situation become like this, in this first part of the conversation.
Parle G is an iconic made in India story by all means.
A 90 year old biscuit brand,it boasts of being the world's largest selling biscuit! In this episode, Sneha Gore Mehendale & Dr. Nilesh Gokhale trace the trajectory of this much beloved biscuit, and examine its brand identity.
BCCI was initially not happy with the IPL format, but the common man took to it in full force, and IPL became a hit product.
It did affect the game of cricket too.
In the second part of this IPL episode, Sneha Gore Mehendale and Sushobhan Patankar discuss how IPL affected Indian cricket and where will Indian cricket go from here.
The Indian Premier League began in 2008 and it changed the Indian cricket for good. In a country where cricket is no less than a religion, IPL emerged as a phenomenon in itself.
In this first part of this two-part episode on IPL, Sneha Gore Mehendale and Sushobhan Patankar discuss the emergence of IPL.
A cup of tea is omnipresent in our lives. And yet, tea does not belong to India.
It came here a couple of hundred years ago and got perfectly assimilated in the Indian lives.
In this episode, Sneha Gore Mehendale and Gandhali Kulkarni trace the origin of tea, its travel and how it has evolved as a concept and a culture- made in India.
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.
Voice Over: Sneha Gore Mehendale and Tanmay Kanitkar
India faced a sociopolitical storm in the year 2011, with almost the entire nation getting united demanding something called Lokpal.
It was an unprecedented drama, the movement called India against corruption.
What was it, what made it successful and what are the lessons learnt from its aftermath, explains Tanmay Kanitkar.
In this second part of the conversation with Parimal Maya Sudhakar, we explore how the Chinese perspective has changed over the years, where and how has India achieved a status higher than China and whether there is possibility of another Indo- Chinese war.
The Sino-Indian war of 1962 remains one of the most landmark events in the post independence Indian history.
Not because we lost it, but 'coz it forever affected the way these two countries have been with each other.
In the first part of this podcast, Sneha Gore Mehendale is in conversation with Parimal Maya Sudhakar, an expert in international relations with special focus on China.
Parimal explains how the war affected India on diplomatic, governance and economic levels and where do we stand today vis-a-vis China.
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.
In 2014, the World Health Organization declared India as Polio Free. For a poor,populous and diverse country like India, this is a huge achievement. In this episode, Sneha is in conversation with Dr. Sanjay Mehendale, a very senior public health expert, and they explore the story behind pushing polio out of India.
Starting with a single-screen theatre, PVR has become the undisputed king of multiplexes in India. We explore this story that is full of twists, is inspiring and is proudly 'Made in India'.
This is a story of India's iconic tipple, a very old vatted rum, Old Monk. Despite not being considered as a very glamorous drink, it has millions of die-hard fans and is definitely, a successful made-in-India story.
hailing from Hardidwar, a small town on the Ganges, Baba Ramdev and his brand Patanjali has reached unprecedented heights. This episode of 'made in India' is a very short story of this game changer of Indian FMCG sector.
Continuing the story of India's space mission, Dr Chitnis speaks about various interesting details- how did they find the spot of launching station at Sriharikota, what is ISRO culture and why ISRO is a creative organization!
Despite being a poor nation, India launched a great space programme. In last 60 odd years, India has come a long way from being a beginner to making and launching satellites for other countries.
In conversation with Padmabhushan Dr. E. V. Chitnis, a living history of India's space programme listening to this fascinating history.
The Right to Education, as seen in the last episode is a landmark legislation in India, shaping our future generations.
Are the provisions realistic though? what are the hurdles? What is the on ground situation? Sneha Gore Mehendale and Ketaki Latkar discuss it.
It was really a historic decision by the Govt of India and draft and implement the basic right to education for all its citizens. What does it say? And moreover, is it working in the way that will achieve what it intends to achieve?
Sneha and Ketaki discuss this in this two part episode.
The UID initiative by the Govt. of India was one of the milestone decisions in the last 70 years. And to say that it is significant would be an understatement as the UID or 'Aadhar' has become a key- document for an Indian. It is supposed to be linked to almost everything and hence has sparked off intense debates.
This episode does a quick recap of how it began, where are we now with reference to Aadhaar and what are the challenges that we are facing.
Voice: Sneha Gore Mehendale & Karan Deshmukh
India faced a tricky economic situation back in 1991, which incidentally started the biggest economic reforms in India.
This episode talks about why we landed in such a scenario and how the reforms, better known as LPG, forever changed the way India operates .
This episode talks about a historic and very controversial move in the independent India: Demonetization.
Discussing the effects-both short and long term-of the demolition of Babri Masjid on dec 6th, 1992.
It is 25 years since Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was razed to the round and yet that continues to have repercussions on various levels. In this two-part episode, I and my co-host Pradnya discuss about a series of events that led to the demolition of this mosque.
Back to the season India@ 70.
Once dependent on other countries for food as it was unable to produce grains for its own people, India today is a chief exporter of food grains.
This episode tells a brief story of the green revolution in the 1970s that made it possible.
Although many international make-up brands have now firmly established themselves in the Indian market, Lakme still remains one of the top players in the field.
Here is brief story of this first make in India make up brand.
Cafe Coffee Day, popularly known as CCD is one of the most favourite places for the youth to hang out. Not only is CCD the first Indian chain of coffee shops, it also takes the credit of literally cultivating the love for coffee.
This episode features a short history of this popular 'made in India' brand.
Amul is a classic 'made in India' story. An amazing history of 72 years, where a rural movement created a globally known and hugely successful brand. We explore some known-unknown aspects of the story here.
One of the best known brands proudly 'Made in India', Time pieces from have found their way in almost every Indian home.
It has been three years since India started an ambitious initiative named Make in India. And yet, there have been so many stories since so many years of those who have been making in India.
We started listening how hundreds of small pieces of land had to be forged into one nation called India. While most did, a few did not want to. Here we explore how Hyderabad became an obstacle and how the situation was dealt with.
For all our knowledge that India became independent on August 15th, 1947, it was not really one country called India that became free. A nation had to be forged from more than 550 different countries!
Who did that and how? We explore it in two parts. Part one here.
The Indian ocean turned into a monster on the fatal day of December 26th, 2004. The Tsunami killed several thousand people on Indian coastline too.
Today, 14 years after the tragedy, we are better prepared to forecast it and potentially save many lives.
Interestingly, did you know that the Ocean retreats just before a Tsunami strikes?!
Content: Shivani Deshmukh & Sneha Gore Mehendale
Voice-Over: Sneha Gore Mehendale
Bhopal Gas Tragedy in 1984 remains one of the most horrific industrial disasters. This episode talks about that unfortunate night in December 1984 an.d its aftermath
Throughout the 1990s several young Indian women won global beauty pageants. While Indians felt amazing that sub-continental beauty was being globally recognized, 2001 was the last year of this winning streak.
Why is it so? This episode explores concepts of beauty, free market economy and social impact.
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.
We always learn so many things in school. And then when we grow up, we realize half of them are of no use or they are taught without a perspective. Now the same applies to our textbooks in history. We always learned some random dates, some articles of treaties, some names of places and in general a lot to remember. To mug up and write in papers. Most of it was from one or two or 6 or twelve centuries ago. Specifically with India, our history textbooks stopped at 1947, when India got independent. As if nothing of significance has happened after that.
Today, India as an independet country celebrates 70 years of existence. So much happened in those seventy years, so much to be proud of, so much to grieve, so much to remember and so much to learn from it. The country has come a long way with respect to everything in those seven decades. So many things of these 70 years affect us today. And yet we never learned all this in the school textbooks.
India at 70 by Itihaas does precisely that. Through this season, we learn about marked moments in India's post independence history. Moments in last 70 years. They are not in chronological or rather in any order. These are moments, things, incidences and inventions of all kinds. But they, in some way or the other, make india what it is today. They are of that significance.
So today onwards, we meet through this podcast. We understand what all happened in these 70 years, through small episodes, and we understand how India stands at 70.