India's Unique Time Zone: The Historical Journey and Impact of Indian Standard Time

 

India is roughly 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) long, with a longitude of 30 degrees from east to west. This indicates that the average solar time, which determines time based on the sun's location in the sky, is off by two hours. But as a result of British domination, the nation only has one time zone, according to a BBC article. After three hours and thirty minutes behind Tokyo, five hours and thirty minutes ahead of London, and nine hours and thirty minutes ahead of New York is the Indian time zone. Interestingly, India's clocks have been unable to adjust for time differences in whole hours with other nations for more than a century.

CNN states that India is among the select few nations and areas that adhere to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). India's half-hour time zone was established during the colonial era, as steamships and railways brought the world closer together. Prior to the 19th century, India, like the majority of other countries, had local time schedules that frequently differed not only between cities but also between villages. Nonetheless, the East India Company progressively seized dominance over significant regions of the subcontinent, and by 1792, they were running one of the oldest observatories in Asia, which was situated in Madras (present-day Chennai).

A decade later, the observatory's first official astronomer proclaimed Madras time to be "the basis of Indian Standard Time." But before it could be put into practice, a few decades passed, steam engines advanced, and the East India Company's business concerns took precedence. According to University of Amsterdam researcher Geoff Gordon, railroads had a big influence on colonial powers. Before railroads established Madras time as the norm, there was a race between the two largest cities, Bombay and Calcutta. The competition was over quickly."

In the meantime, the first international time zones were established during a conference in Washington, D.C., in 1884, motivated by the desire to improve sea navigation and better coordinate continental rail traffic. These zones were based on the Greenwich Meridian, a line of longitude that passes through the Greenwich Observatory in London and runs from north to south. Time zones east of the Meridian are typically one hour behind Greenwich Mean Time. Adopting this approach, though, was a drawn-out procedure.

In India, Madras Time continues to be a divisive topic. Local towns and labor organizations rejected the new time and failed to implement it strictly, even though the country's trains adopted it. "You have less room to maneuver," stated Mr. Gordon, "because your work rhythm is no longer linked to your boss, the church bell, or the 20 other people you work with." These days, the train that arrives once a day dictates it."

Madras Time was created and embraced in India in 1905. Throughout the 20th century, a few scientific bodies pushed for India's time to be adjusted to GMT. Even two time zones for India—one an hour ahead of GMT and one an hour behind—were proposed by the Royal Society in London. First, the west of the nation would be five hours ahead of GMT, and the east would be six hours ahead. Instead, a single consistent time zone that was five and a half hours ahead of GMT was adopted by the colonial authorities. Thus, British officials in India established Indian Standard Time in 1906.