Indian 50 paise coins-I

50 paise, 2008

The latest 50 paise coin has a Bharatnatyam mudra design on the reverse. Many people do not accept 50 paisa as a legal tender these days and most people are not even aware that this 50 paisa coin exists.

50 paise: Indira Gandhi

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi(1917-1984) was the prime minister of India for three terms, from 1966 to 1977; and fourth term from 1980 to 1984, when she was assasinated in the wake of operation blue star.

She is the only female prime minister of India till date, and was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. She married Feroze Gandhi (no relation to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also called Mahatma Gandhi). She was brought up in a politically strong and influential household, and after the sudden demise of Lal Bahadur Shastri, she was thrust into the foremost ranks of congress by the congress president K.Kamaraj. She made politically correct moves and very influential, so she came into power. But some inabilities and some inefficiencies led to the enforcing of the emergency in the late 1970s. This caused her to be out of power for three years. She also devalued the rupee from 4 Re to a dollar to 7 Re/dollar, and charges of corruption were proved against her, but she refused to resign.

In 1984, some extremists in Punjab were in the holy shrine of Darbar sahib in Amritsar, and she went through with the hard military operation against those people, forgetting about the place and the civilian pilgrims there. This operation was named 'operation bluestar', and was the cause of her assasination at the hands of two of her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh.

50 paise: fisheries

This 50 paise coin shows the four headed lion symbol and the denomination on the reverse. We can also see "satyamev jayate" in Hindi. This phrase means 'truth alone triumphs'. This was a question to Jamal Malik in the movie Slumdog Millionaire, which recently won as many as eight oscars.

The obverse of this 1986 fifty paise coin commemorates the fisheries industry of India. India is a peninsula and has a very long coastline. A large number of people earn their livelihood through fishing, and this also provides for the food of thousands of people in India. The fishing industry of India has grown five-fold since its independence in 1947. The inscription in Hindi says "matsya udyog" which means fisheries industry.

Fifty paise , 1970

This is the 50 paise coin of 1970. The reverse reads "pachas paise" which means fifty paisa, and also "rupaye ka adha bhag" which means 1/2 part of a rupee. The obverse shows the country and the four headed lion symbol.