History Of India's Single Time Zone
Image: Unsplash
21 May 2024
In India, the sun rises nearly two hours earlier in the east of India than in the west. Many people have wondered how the time zone was decided for the diverse region
Image: Unsplash
India's half-hour zone began during the colonial era when the world was getting closer due to the introduction of steamships and railroads, as per CNN
Image: Unsplash
India had localised schedules up to the 19th century, which frequently varied not just from city to city but even from village to village
Image: Unsplash
However, by 1792 East India Company were running one of the earliest observatories in Asia, located in Madras
Image: X/@historyinmemes
Ten years later, Madras time was proclaimed to be "the basis of Indian Standard Time" by the observatory's first official astronomer
Image: X/@MInherited
Several discussions in the world, resulted in the creation of the first international time zones during a meeting in Washington DC, in 1884
Image: Pexels
The Greenwich Meridian, served as the foundation for the zones. In hourly stages, time zones east of the Meridian are normally later than Greenwich Mean Time
Image: X/@WindowsKernel
However, the adoption of the system was a slow process. Madras Time was still a source of contention in India
Image: Pexels
Although the nation's trains adopted the time, local communities and labour unions opposed it, refusing to have strict new timings forced upon them
Image: Pexels
The colonial government adopted a time that was five and a half hours ahead of GMT and the Indian Standard Time was instituted in 1906
Image: Pexels
Check More Stories
Image: Unsplash
ndtv.com