Internet on Independence Day (1995)

Terror ravages Mumbai (2008)
In terms of sheer brazenness, the 26/11 attacks by Pakistan-based terror groups on key locations in Mumbai (including a railway station, two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre, and a hospital) ranks up there with 9/11. The attack lasted three days, killed 166 people from 17 countries. It resulted in a review of India’s security architecture, but although the United Progressive Alliance government passed a stringent anti-terror law (UAPA, 2008), and set up a new federal agency, the National Investigation Agency, the attack reinforced perceptions that the dispensation was soft on terror. Worse, despite evidence pointing to the role of Pakistan-based groups, Islamabad declined to act against them (and the people involved) in any meaningful way. Covered 24x7 by live TV, the attacks outraged a nation, and may have well swayed sentiment in favour of the muscular response to terror strikes from across the border that are preferred by the current government.
2009: America’s First African American President
• Date: Jan. 20
• Location: Washington D.C.
After defeating Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona by amassing 365 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote, Barack Obama is sworn in as the first African American president of the United States. Obama inherits the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but with his party holding majorities in both houses of Congress at the time, the president is able to pass a stimulus package and his signature Affordable Care Act in March 2010.

The movement against corruption (2011)
The second term of the United Progressive Alliance government was characterized by economic headwinds that the government of the day seemed incapable of negotiating and a raft of corruption scandals involving national resources such as spectrum and coal. Leveraging this narrative, an orthodox Gandhian from Maharashtra, and his diverse group of followers – from an ambitious former IPS officer to a civil-servant-turned-activist to a yoga guru to a lawyer who specialized in public interest litigations – launched an India against corruption movement. The Gandhian, Anna Hazare, was the face of the campaign and embarked on an indefinite fast seeking the appointment of an independent anti-corruption ombudsman. The movement caught the imagination of the nation, old political parties hitched their fortunes to the bandwagon (and new ones were birthed from it), and while it may not have succeeded in its original objectives it did pave the way for change – and briefly showcase the limits of the possible for civil society movements