India's Time Zone conundrum: Report highlights legacy of colonialism and geopolitical complexity

By Team Asianet Newsable | First Published May 9, 2024, 6:32 PM IST

"For more than a century, India’s clocks have officially fallen short of the full hour in calculating any time difference it has with most countries," according to a CNN report.

India finds itself in a unique time zone conundrum, situated nine and a half hours ahead of New York, five and a half hours ahead of London, and three and a half hours behind Tokyo. This peculiar 30-minute difference has persisted for over a century, making India an unconventional outlier among nations, according to a CNN report.

Spanning across what could typically be two time zones due to its vast geographical expanse, India has steadfastly adhered to its idiosyncratic timekeeping system despite calls for change from various quarters. According to the report, this adherence stems from a complex historical legacy dating back to the colonial era when rapid advancements in transportation, such as steamships and trains, were reshaping global connectivity.

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In sharing this 30-minute deviation with a select few nations and territories like Iran, Myanmar, and certain parts of Australia, India occupies a distinct position. While this time deviation may seem arbitrary to some, its roots lie deep in India's historical narrative, reflecting a blend of tradition, colonial influence, and practical considerations.

Before the 19th century, India operated on highly localized times, varying from city to city and even village to village, mirroring the global norm of the time. However, lurking in the background was the formidable East India Company, a dominant British trading entity that gradually extended its influence over vast swathes of the subcontinent.

The report stated that as early as 1792, the East India Company was overseeing one of Asia's pioneering observatories in Madras (now Chennai). By 1802, the observatory's inaugural official astronomer proclaimed Madras time as the foundation of Indian Standard Time.

However, it wasn't until the emergence of steam-powered locomotives and the strategic interests of the East India Company that this standardization gained traction. Over several decades, amidst the backdrop of advancing technology and commercial imperatives, the notion of a unified time system for India gradually took root, the report added.

“The railroads had immense sway over the colonial powers,” Geoff Gordon, a senior researcher in public international law at the University of Amsterdam, told CNN.

“Before the railroads won the contest for Madras time, there was a contest among the powerful cities – Bombay, Kolkata,” Gordon added. “That fight didn’t last long.”

The CNN report highlighted amidst similar discussions worldwide, prompted by the necessity of coordinating transcontinental rail journeys and enhancing maritime navigation, the first international time zones were established during a conference in Washington DC in 1884.

These zones were centered around the Greenwich Meridian, a longitudinal line passing through the Greenwich Observatory in London. Time zones located to the east of this meridian typically lagged behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in hourly increments.

Global adoption of this standardized time system was gradual. In India, debates reportedly persisted, with Madras Time still a point of contention. Despite its endorsement by the country's railways, significant opposition arose from workers and local communities unwilling to embrace the imposition of rigid new schedules, according to the report.

"There’s less room to maneuver as your working rhythms are linked up no longer with your boss down the street, the church bell, and the 20 other people that you go to work with,” Gordon told CNN. “But it’s now determined by the railroad that arrives once a day.”

By 1905, Madras Time had been universally adopted across India, albeit with a few pockets of resistance, the report noted.

As the 20th century dawned, scientific bodies began advocating for India's time to align with GMT. The Royal Society in London, for instance, reportedly suggested the establishment of two time zones for India, each differing from GMT and from one another by one hour: six hours ahead of GMT for the eastern regions and five hours ahead for the western regions.

However, the colonial administration rebuffed this proposal, opting instead for a centralized time system positioned midway between the suggested time zones, according to the CNN report. Thus, India settled on a standard time of five and a half hours ahead of GMT, a decision reflective of pragmatic considerations rather than adherence to scientific recommendations.

“It strikes me as sort of typical of the colonial mindset,” Gordon added.

In 1906, India's British rulers introduced Indian Standard Time.

The report stated, "While the 30-minute difference is a lingering remnant of India’s colonial past, some countries have changed their own time zones more recently."

For example, Venezuela's former president Hugo Chávez rolled clocks back by half an hour in 2007 to extend daylight hours for schoolchildren, a move later reversed by current leader Nicolas Maduro.

Similarly, in 2015, North Korea diverged from South Korea's time zone by establishing "Pyongyang Time," positioning the country eight and a half hours ahead of GMT instead of nine.

India's decision-making process regarding time zones during the colonial era involved a complex interplay of political, scientific, and commercial interests, as highlighted by Gordon in the CNN report. This contrasted with the more recent and sometimes unilateral changes seen in other countries.

Gordon likened India's decision-making process regarding time zones to the surreal dystopian world portrayed in Terry Gilliam's 1985 film "Brazil" or the intricately convoluted contraptions illustrated by US cartoonist Rube Goldberg.

“It’s just this unbelievably haphazard Rube Goldberg-esque construction, that is built up through lots of different inputs, lots of people acting opportunistically, lots of people acting naively,” he added. “There was a lot of weirdness and wildness.”

The CNN report noted that India's single time zone has sparked considerable debate over the years, particularly with populations in the northeast advocating for a separate time zone due to the country's vast geographical expanse.

"Though this problem isn’t unique to India: geographically, China is the third largest in the world and still only has one time zone, which a 2014 study argues is symbolic of the state’s centralized control over people’s everyday lives," the report claimed.

The report also claimed that India's official timekeepers, the National Physical Laboratory, have advocated for the adoption of two separate time zones to address this issue. "India’s official timekeepers, the National Physical Laboratory, even called for two separate time zones on account of this issue, citing reports of India’s time “badly affecting” the lives of people in the northeast," it stated.

The NPL's proposed solution reportedly involves establishing two time zones: one set at five and a half hours ahead of GMT for the majority of the country, and another at six and a half hours ahead specifically for the "extreme northeast regions," encompassing areas like Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

Maulik Jagnani, an assistant professor of economics at Tufts University, told CNN, "Despite geographical differences—such as the sun rising and setting nearly two hours earlier in the northeast compared to Gujarat—both regions adhere to the same time-zone."

Jagnani's widely cited paper published in 2019 shed light on the profound influence of sunlight on natural circadian rhythms among India's population, particularly focusing on its effects on children.

“This setup affects children’s sleep patterns […] children exposed to later sunsets go to bed later,” Jagnani added. “Fixed school and work start times do not allow for corresponding adjustments in wake-up times, leading to reduced sleep and poorer educational outcomes.”

The report claimed that the NPL also acknowledged this issue, emphasizing the significant influence of circadian rhythms on health and work efficiency, noting its correlation with the overall socio-economic development of the region.

"However, it looks like India’s unusual time zone is here to stay. When the question of introducing two time zones was put to India’s parliament in 2019, a government committee rejected the concept over unspecified 'strategic reasons'," the report concluded.

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