While the world limped back from the disaster of the last world war the 50’s was a decade of widespread uncertainty with the looming threat of the new atomic weapons. Peace still eluded the world. There was war in Korea and the French war in Vietnam. The independence movement in the lesser developed world witnesses the waning of imperial powers of Britain and France across most of the African continent.
Civil war attained maturity in America and demands for racial integration grew louder in the Sothern States under the charismatic leadership of Martin Luther King.
It was also an exciting time for the scientific world. The structure of DNA was unveiled, new horizons in medical advancements and complex surgeries were performed for the first time, and the first computer were introduced.
Winds of Change
The 60’s saw a pace of change quicken in International, social and cultural affairs and advances in technology that would have seemed unimaginable at that time, especially in the exploration of space. Unfortunately this also brought the thawing of relations between the two super powers then, the Soviet Union and the USA that marked the beginning of the Cold War. This also led to the space race where the world watched in astonishment as the American and Soviets vied to undo each other in the race to the moon. While the Soviet Union was the first to put a man in space, America created a sensation by the moon landing at the end of 60’s.
A revolution in fashion, music, literature and arts took place by immortal names such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Doors in music, Andy Warhol in art. Fashions considered outlandish at the time became popular; the miniskirts, caftans and later the bell bottomed trousers. A sea change in the moral fabric such as sexual permissiveness, use of contraceptive pill and the smoking of marijuana joints completed the age of dissent like never before.
During the 70’s the dream run of the 60’s came to a gradual end with the American war in Vietnam that was widely criticized even in America and the Watergate scandal that brought about the impeachment of Richard Nixon. There was wide spread demand for a peaceful world symbolized by the hippie movement and the flower power.
This period also market the beginning of International terrorism when terrorists attacked the and held Israeli athletes hostages.
India too, witnessed sweeping political and far reaching socio-economic changes such as the devaluation of the Rupee and the nationalisation of the banks, abolition of Privy Purse and urban land ceiling.