Vol. 1988No. 200The long eighties
The India you were born into
Monday18 July1988
The archive's lens for 18 July 1988 is the year's unfinished questions — a useful counterpoint to the larger story that telecommunications, popular culture and economic change were accelerating toward the end of the decade.
Change dateThe Front Page
India enters a new decade
Technology, society and political change reshape public life
India was experiencing rapid change in communications, public policy and national politics.
More than 100 people were killed and several injured as Bangalore-Trivandrum Island Express fell into Ashtamudi lake at Perumon in Quilon district of Kerala.
More than 100 people were killed and several injured as Bangalore-Trivandrum Island Express fell into Ashtamudi lake at Perumon in Quilon district of Kerala.
India in Numbers
A snapshot of India when you were born.
In july 1988, a litre of petrol cost Loading… and a local phone call cost Loading….
Interpolated placeholder between benchmark years; replace with annual UN WPP estimate before publication. Not a census count. Source: current India population working dataset.
Prices from the month you were born, listed the way the kirana shop would have written them.
- The Hindu archive
- National archival records
- Press and public memory
04 · Sport
India on the field in 1988
Moment of the year · Chess
Viswanathan Anand becomes India's first Grandmaster
Anand earned the Grandmaster title.
198805 · Cinema & music
What India was watching and humming
The film everyone queued for that month, and the song that played from every cassette player that year.
QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK
Year 1988
Film of the year · 1988
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak
Also in theatresTezaab · Shahenshah · Khoon Bhari Maang · Dayavan · Salaam Bombay! · Hero Hiralal
Song of the year · 1988
"Papa Kehte Hain"
Also on the radio"Ek Do Teen" · "Ae Mere Humsafar" · "Ghazab Ka Hai Din"
$ cat science-and-technology-1988
Computerisation and telecom modernisation
What science and technology looked like in India in 1988.
IRS-1A
India launched IRS-1A, an important step toward operational remote sensing.
Technology moves closer to daily life
Computing, communication and consumer electronics were gradually moving from specialist institutions toward ordinary homes, offices and public life.
Faces of 1988
V. P. Singh
Formed the Janata Dal and forged the National Front coalition to challenge Rajiv Gandhi's government.
Rajiv Gandhi
Ordered Operation Cactus to prevent a coup in the Maldives and lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Oversaw the successful test firing of the Prithvi ballistic missile on 25 February.
BR Chopra
Broadcast the TV adaptation of 'Mahabharat', securing record-breaking viewership.
Sachin Tendulkar
Shared a record 664-run partnership with Vinod Kambli in school cricket and made his first-class debut with a century.
L. K. Advani
Steered the BJP toward explicit support for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
09 · BEYOND INDIA
Beyond India
Before the internet put the world in our pockets, news from abroad arrived through telegrams, radios, television sets and eventually phones.
Palestinian state is proclaimed
15 NOV
The Palestinian National Council proclaims the State of Palestine in Algiers.
1988, circled in red
The year India turned 41.