Today’s History: The Government of India Act was passed in the British Parliament 163 years ago, only after that the British Crown started ruling India

Although the East India Company had come to India for trade, but seeing the weakening of the Mughal Empire, the company’s greed increased. The company annexed different princely states of India. The aim of the company was to earn maximum profit, so it committed many atrocities on Indians. The condition of workers and peasants started deteriorating.

Due to these policies of the Company, discontent was growing among the Indians. This dissatisfaction on a large scale first surfaced in 1857. This rebellion, which started from Meerut, soon spread to different parts of the country and it shook the foundation of the East India Company. For the first time there was such a big revolt against the East India Company.

At the same time, a reformist section of Britain was also demanding that the governance of a vast country like India should not be handed over to a pure trading institution like East India. Corruption in the company had reached its peak, due to which the British government was unable to get economic benefits from India.

The bill was introduced in Parliament by the then Prime Minister of Britain, Lord Palmerston.

Due to all these reasons, there was increasing pressure on Britain to take the rule of India directly under its control. The British Parliament passed an Act on 2 August 1858. It was named the Government of India Act 1858.

Under this, the rule of India went into the hands of the British Crown and India was directly controlled by the Parliament of England. A secretary was appointed for administration in India, who was accountable to the queen.

A 15-member Indian Council was formed by abolishing the post of India’s minister in the British Parliament. The Governor General of India came to be called the Viceroy. The Board of Directors and Board of Control of the East India Company were abolished and the Indian Secretary was appointed.

It was also announced that Indians would be given equal opportunities in the administrative services. No discrimination will be made on any grounds. The rights of Indian kings will be protected. With this, India became a British colony. Lord Canning was appointed the first Viceroy of India. This Act came into force on 1 November 1858.

1999: Hundreds of lives were lost due to negligence of railways

1 August 1999. After leaving Delhi, the Brahmaputra Express was moving towards Dibrugarh in Assam. Another train Avadh-Assam Express was coming from Dibrugarh to Lalgarh in Rajasthan. Both the trains were packed and were moving at high speed towards their destination. Avadh-Assam Express reached Kishanganj station. The work of construction and maintenance of new track was going on at Kishanganj station. Because of this only one of the four tracks was operational. The cabinman, negligent in giving the signal, sent the train on the wrong track. There was a fierce collision between the two trains at Gaisal station in North Dinjapur at around 2.45 pm on the night of 2nd August. The collision was so strong that several bogies, including the engine, jumped up to 40 feet in the air.

Due to the collision, the bogies caught fire and there was a huge explosion. The body parts of the passengers flew off to the surrounding building.

The government put the death toll at around 300, but there were many times more people in the bogies than the capacity. Because of this, it is feared that about 1000 people died in this accident.

The responsibility of investigating the cause of the accident was entrusted to the CBI. CBI filed the charge sheet on 20 July 2001. In 2007, on the basis of the CBI report, the court convicted 6 railway employees. All were jailed for 2 years and fined Rs 11,500.

1990: Beginning of the Gulf War

2 August 1990. Time – Around 2 o’clock in the night. The whole of Kuwait was sleeping at this time when the Iraqi army of Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait with hundreds of tanks. The Kuwaiti army could not cope with this sudden attack and many Kuwaiti soldiers were killed. Those who survived fled to Saudi Arabia. Even the royal family of Kuwait had to flee to Saudi Arabia. By morning, Iraqi forces had captured the whole of Kuwait.

With this, Iraq captured about 20% of the world’s oil reserves. A meeting of the UN Security Council was held hurriedly in the morning, in which the Iraqi army was asked to withdraw from Kuwait. Iraq refused to obey the UN Security Council. As a result, on 6 August, the Council imposed a number of sanctions on Iraq.

These sanctions also had no effect on Iraq. On 8 August 1990, Iraq declared Kuwait as its part.

President George Bush meeting with US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.

On January 17, 1991, the US Army launched Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. 38 other countries were also supporting America. For the next 6 weeks, there was a fierce war between Iraq and other countries. More than 1 lakh Iraqi soldiers were killed in the war and 383 American soldiers were also killed.

On 28 February 1991, US President George Bush declared a ceasefire. In April, Iraq accepted the terms of the ceasefire, and with this Kuwait gained independence from Iraqi occupation.

The Gulf War is said to have started from a misunderstanding. Before invading Kuwait, talks were held between Saddam Hussein and the then US ambassador April Glaspi on the Kuwait border dispute. In this meeting, April told Saddam Hussein that the border dispute between Iraq and Kuwait is a mutual issue of both countries and America has nothing to do with it. Saddam felt that after the attack on Kuwait, America or its other allies would not intervene, but the opposite happened.

Due to which other important national and international events, the day of August 2 is remembered…

2018: Tech company Apple’s market value exceeded 1 trillion dollars. Apple became the first publicly listed US company to achieve this feat.

2012: American swimmer Michael Phelps won three consecutive gold medals at the London Olympics.

1943: The Japanese Navy sank the American ship PT-109 during World War II. This incident became the reason for America’s involvement in World War I.

1870: The world’s first underground railway started under the River Thames in London.

1790: The census was conducted for the first time in America. At that time the population of America was around 3.9 million, of which about 7 lakh were prisoners.