India's connections to Time's Person of the Year | #184
but mostly Taylor Swift lyrics 🍾💍
Taylor Swift has recently been named the Time Magazine Person of the Year. The award is given to people who "for better or for worse... has done the most to influence the events of the year". In March 2023, she embarked on the Eras tour that has so far grossed an estimated $906M to date! If that wasn’t enough, she re-recorded her album and became the woman with the most number 1 albums in Billboard history. Even the Federal Reserve has said the Eras Tour has boosted the economy!
It got us thinking about Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and some interesting stories about them, with Taylor Swift lyrics thrown in for good measure <3
Things we learnt this week 🤓
“Long live the walls we crashed through, how the kingdom lights shined just for me and you.”
In the January 5th 1931 edition, Time Magazine declared Mahatma Gandhi as the “Man of the Year”. They described him as “the little half-naked brown man whose 1930 mark on world history will undoubtedly loom largest of all.” On January 26, 1930 he promulgated the demand for Indian independence. In March he marched to Dandi and made salt in defiance of the harsh salt tax. In May he was arrested and jailed in Poona. By December, more than 30000 supporters were arrested for participation in Satyagraha. The British had to take this L with a pinch of salt.
Presenting your Man of the Year for 1930 - ‘Saint’ Gandhi “Knew he was a killer first time that I saw him”
In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini led the Iranian revolution, where he disposed of the American supporting Shah and established the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ayatollah has an interesting connection with India. His grandfather Ahmad Musavi was a Shia scholar born near Lucknow. In 1830, in order to escape British rule, he left India & finally settled in a village called Khomeyn in Iran. Although he stayed and settled in Iran, he continued to be known as Hindi, indicating his stay in India, and Ayatollah Khomeini even used Hindi as a pen name in some of his ghazals to highlight his Indian connection.
“Tonight we'll stand, get off our knees, fight for what we've worked for all these years.”
If you were part of the India against Corruption protest in 2011, then you were also a Person of the Year. In 2011, the person of the year was ‘The Protestor’. Time magazine recognized the significance of the protests during the Arab Spring, the protests against austerity measures in Greece and Spain along with protests in India against corruption. A fun fact - Anna Hazare wanted to start his protest in March 2011, but eventually launched it on April 5, 2011. The reason - India was in the midst of cricket World cup fever and Anna Hazare realized that the public would care only after the tournament got over!
From IWTK, with love 💌
It's a labour of love from one of IWTK’s founders. Hari Shenoy (connosieur of hip hop, and author of this primer of Indian Hop Hop) has released his first hip-hop album. Do listen on Spotify, Apple, YouTube Music.
Only In India 🇮🇳
Indian education is being Modi-fied.
Stay hydrated,
❤️ IWTK
the Anna Hazare protests in 2011 began 2-3 days after the World Cup final, and ended 1-2 days before the IPL was going to begin