From the archives of the Hindustan Times: August 22

Nehru urges revival of Swadeshi movement (1954)

New Delhi- The Prime Minister appealed today (August 21) to the nation to revive the Swadeshi movement. He was laying the foundation-stone of a building for the Indian Standards Institution.

The I.S.I., which has a staff of 31 technical officers and 123 other staff, lacks suitable accommodation at present.

The proposed building project, expected to cost about Rs 10 lakhs, has been made possible by the Central Government placing at its disposal 1.6 acres of land at a central site near Hardinge Bridge, New Delhi, for a nominal payment of Rs 56,000, as against the site’s market value of Rs 4 lakhs.

The building, including essential services and equipment, is likely to cost about Rs 12 lakhs. Contributions for industry, trade and State Governments are expected to provide the necessary finance.

Mr Nehru, addressing a short speech in Hindi to a gathering which included diplomats, Ministers and prominent citizens, expressed the view that the aim of all producers, big or small, should be to produce goods that are good so that the consumer, in the foreign as well as the domestic markets, would have the confidence that, when buying goods produced in this country, he was buying something worthwhile.

The Prime Minister sternly warned the business community not to try to exploit the Swadeshi sentiment by turning out shoddy goods. He was equally insistent that the good name of this country should not he spoiled by the export of goods that are not first-rate.

Mankad dead (1978)

Bombay- Vinoo Mankad, former Indian all-rounder Test cricketer, died at the Bombay Hospital today (August 21).

Mankad, 62, had been ailing for nearly two years.

He is survived by his wife and three sons Ashok-also a Test cricketer- Atul end Rahul-who is now playing in league matches in England.

Mankad was cremated at the Chandanwadi electric crematorium in South Bombay in the evening. His eldest son, Ashok Manked, performed the last rites.

Prominent among the former Test players who attended the funeral were Vijay Merchant, Polly Umrigar, M. K. Mantri, Raf Singh, Nari Contractor and the present Test player Sunil Gavaskar and members of the Bombay Cricket Association.

A large number of cricket fans and his admirers also attended.

Manked, whose condition took a turn for the worse yesterday, was admitted to the Bombay hospital this morning.

Vinoo Mankad created a number of records in his illustrious Test career, the Lords’ Test of 1951-52 being known as the “Mankad Test” because of his score of 172 in the first innings and unbeaten 51 in the second innings and an impressive tally of five wickets.

With Pankaj Roy, he was responsible for totting up a record first-wicket partnership of 400-odd runs against New Zealand in Madras in 1956.

Earthquake leaves over 700 dead (1988)

Patna- Over 200 people were killed and thousands injured when a high-intensity earthquake rocked the whole of the north and central Bihar and parts of south Bihar at about 4.40 this morning (August 21). (News agencies, however, put the toll at over 450.)

The disaster, which was reminiscent of the 1934 quake, left behind a trail of devastation, rendering thousands of people shelter less.

With reports pouring in from district headquarters and mofussil areas, there was every possibility of the casualty figure going up. The condition of many of the injured, admitted to the various hospitals in the State, is also reported to be precarious.

While the official sources put the death figure at 85 and that of the injured at 600, unconfirmed reports indicated that the figures were three times higher. The break-up of the official casualty figures was Darbhanga (33), Madhubani (30), Saharsa (12), Munger (11), Khugaria (4) and Nalanda (4).

The worst-hit districts were Darbhanga, Madhubani, Munger and Saharsa, where the maximum deaths occurred. A resident of Munger who visited the HT office this afternoon conjectured that over 100 people might have lost their lives in that district alone.

He said hundreds of injured people were brought to the district hospital for treatment and the skeletal staff at the hospital had a tough time attending to them. Many of the relatives took away the bodies of their dear ones for fear of post-mortem and other official procedures.

It was the second time in less than a month that Munger and its neighbouring areas experienced a tremor. It might be recalled that in the 1984 earthquake also, Munger and adjoining districts were the most ravaged.

When the earth started shaking at 4.42 a.m., most people got up from their beds and ran out of their houses for safety. An old man said that in terms of intensity today’s tremor was no less than that of the 1934 quake. Cries of children rent the air as their parents took them in their arms and ran helter-skelter. In one bizarre incident in the State capital, a young man jumped out from his first-floor house in Shastrinagar and suffered minor injuries.

Although no casualty has till the time of writing been reported from anywhere in Patna, a few buildings in the Patna City area collapsed, injuring the residents. The intensity of the quake was such that the decades old Secretariat building facing Raj Bhawan developed cracks in its wall. Another building which had a similar fate is the 70-year-old jubilee storey in Raj Bhawan.

In Darbhanga the building of a residential Madarsa collapsed, trapping at least a score of school children along with the principal. The bodies of 14 children have been recovered so far.