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| 1950s |
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| This decade was marked especially by India's emerging leadership of what came to be called the “nonaligned nations,” composed primarily of postcolonial nations anxious to remain independent of cold war bipolarity (See 1962–75). (Nehru worked with Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt and Pres. Sukarno of Indonesia in forging these ties among developing countries.) These efforts were accompanied by resolution of several still-ambiguous relationships with imperial powers, especially with France and Portugal (who still retained control over pockets of territory in the subcontinent) and with the U.S. and the USSR. | 1 |
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| 1950s–1960s |
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| The Tamil film industry became closely aligned with the Tamil language movement. Tamil linguistic pride translated into pro-Tamil, anti-Brahman, anti–North India political sentiments. The key symbol of this ideological stance was MGR, the main film star of the Tamil cinema industry, who was first used to draw crowds for the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) political party. Eventually, MGR gained such a strong following that he served three terms as chief minister of Tamilnadu (1977, 1980, and 1985). | 2 |
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| 1950, Jan. 26 |
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| INAUGURATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDIA and election of Rajendra Prasad as its first president. | 3 |
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| April 8 |
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| Mounting tension between India and Pakistan was eased by an agreement (Delhi Pact) between Prime Ministers Pandit Nehru and Liaqat Ali Khan, promising fair treatment to each other's minorities. The continued deadlock over Kashmir, on the other hand, made any really close relations between the two countries impossible. | 4 |
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| Nov. 20 |
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| Nehru declared that India accepted the 1941 McMahon boundary with Tibet, and not the line indicated on Chinese maps. | 5 |
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