title: Roman roads

text: A "via" connected two cities. "Viae" were generally centrally placed in the countryside. The construction and care of the public roads, whether in Rome, in Italy, or in the provinces, was, at all periods of Roman history, considered to be a function of the greatest weight and importance. This is clearly shown by the fact that the censors, in some respects the most venerable of Roman magistrates, had the earliest paramount authority to construct and repair all roads and streets. Indeed, all the various functionaries, not excluding the emperors themselves, who succeeded the censors in this portion of their duties, may be said to have exercised a devolved censorial jurisdiction.


title: Roman roads

text: The devolution to the censorial jurisdictions soon became a practical necessity, resulting from the growth of the Roman dominions and the diverse labors which detained the censors in the capital city. Certain "ad hoc" official bodies successively acted as constructing and repairing authorities. In Italy, the censorial responsibility passed to the commanders of the Roman armies, and later to special commissioners – and in some cases perhaps to the local magistrates. In the provinces, the consul or praetor and his legates received authority to deal directly with the contractor.


title: Roman roads

text: The care of the streets and roads within the Roman territory was committed in the earliest times to the censors. They eventually made contracts for paving the street inside Rome, including the Clivus Capitolinus, with lava, and for laying down the roads outside the city with gravel. Sidewalks were also provided. The aediles, probably by virtue of their responsibility for the freedom of traffic and policing the streets, co-operated with the censors and the bodies that succeeded them.


title: Roman roads

text: It would seem that in the reign of Claudius (AD 41–54) the quaestors had become responsible for the paving of the streets of Rome, or at least shared that responsibility with the quattuorviri viarum. It has been suggested that the quaestors were obliged to buy their right to an official career by personal outlay on the streets. There was certainly no lack of precedents for this enforced liberality, and the change made by Claudius may have been a mere change in the nature of the expenditure imposed on the quaestors.


title: Roman roads

text: The official bodies which first succeeded the censors in the care of the streets and roads were two in number. They were:


title: Roman roads

text: Both these bodies were probably of ancient origin, but the true year of their institution is unknown. Little reliance can be placed on Pomponius, who states that the "quattuorviri" were instituted "eodem tempore" (at the same time) as the "praetor peregrinus" (i.e. about 242 BC) and the "Decemviri litibus iudicandis" (time unknown). The first mention of either body occurs in the "Lex Julia Municipalis" of 45 BC. The quattuorviri were afterwards called "Quattuorviri viarum curandarum". The extent of jurisdiction of the Duoviri is derived from their full title as "Duoviri viis extra propiusve urbem Romam passus mille purgandis". Their authority extended over all roads between their respective gates of issue in the city wall and the first milestone beyond.


title: Roman roads

text: In case of an emergency in the condition of a particular road, men of influence and liberality were appointed, or voluntarily acted, as "curatores" or temporary commissioners to superintend the work of repair. The dignity attached to such a curatorship is attested by a passage of Cicero. Among those who performed this duty in connection with particular roads was Julius Caesar, who became "curator" (67 BC) of the Via Appia, and spent his own money liberally upon it. Certain persons appear also to have acted alone and taken responsibility for certain roads.


title: Roman roads

text: In the country districts, as has been stated, the magistri pagorum had authority to maintain the "viae vicinales". In Rome itself each householder was legally responsible for the repairs to that portion of the street which passed his own house. It was the duty of the aediles to enforce this responsibility. The portion of any street which passed a temple or public building was repaired by the aediles at the public expense. When a street passed between a public building or temple and a private house, the public treasury and the private owner shared the expense equally. No doubt, if only to secure uniformity, the personal liability of householders to execute repairs of the streets was commuted for a paving rate payable to the public authorities who were responsible from time to time.


title: Roman roads

text: The governing structure was changed by Augustus, who in the course of his reconstitution of the urban administration, both abolished and created new offices in connection with the maintenance of public works, streets and aqueducts in and around Rome. The task of maintaining the roads had previously been administered by two groups of minor magistrates, the "quattuorviri" (a board of four magistrates to oversee the roads inside the city) and the "duoviri" (a board of two to oversee the roads outside the city proper) who were both part of the collegia known as the vigintisexviri (literally meaning "Twenty-Six Men").


title: Roman roads

text: Augustus, finding the collegia ineffective, especially the boards dealing with road maintenance, reduced the number of magistrates from 26 to 20. Completely abolishing the "duoviri" and later being granted the position as superintendent (according to Dio Cassius) of the road system connecting Rome to the rest of Italy and provinces beyond. In this capacity he had effectively given himself and any following Emperors a paramount authority which had originally belonged to the city censors. The "quattuorviri" board was kept as it was until at least the reign of Hadrian between 117 and 138 AD. Furthermore, he appointed praetorians to the offices of "road-maker" and assigning each one with two lictors. Also making the office of curator of each of the great public roads a perpetual magistracy rather than a temporary commission.


title: Roman roads

text: The persons appointed under the new system were of senatorial or equestrian rank, depending on the relative importance of the roads assigned to them. It was the duty of each curator to issue contracts for the maintenance of his road and to see that the contractor who undertook said work performed it faithfully, as to both quantity and quality. Augustus also authorized the construction of sewers and removed obstructions to traffic, as the aediles did in Rome.


title: Roman roads

text: It was in the character of an imperial curator (though probably armed with extraordinary powers) that Corbulo denounced the "magistratus" and "mancipes" of the Italian roads to Tiberius. He pursued them and their families with fines and imprisonment for 18 years (21–39 AD) and was later rewarded with a consulship by Caligula, who also shared the habit of condemning well-born citizens to work on the roads. It is worth noting that under the rule of Claudius, Corbulo was brought to justice and forced to repay the money which had been extorted from his victims.


title: Roman roads

text: Special "curatores" for a term seem to have been appointed on occasion, even after the institution of the permanent magistrates bearing that title. The Emperors who succeeded Augustus exercised a vigilant control over the condition of the public highways. Their names occur frequently in the inscriptions to restorers of roads and bridges. Thus, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Trajan, and Septimius Severus were commemorated in this capacity at Emérita. The Itinerary of Antoninus, which was probably a work of much earlier date, republished in an improved and enlarged form, under one of the Antonine emperors, remains as standing evidence of the minute care which was bestowed on the service of the public roads.


title: Roman roads

text: Ancient Rome boasted impressive technological feats, using many advances that would be lost in the Middle Ages. These accomplishments would not be rivaled until the Modern Age. Many practical Roman innovations were adopted from earlier designs. Some of the common, earlier designs incorporated arches.


title: Roman roads

text: Roman road builders aimed at a regulation width (see Laws and traditions above), but actual widths have been measured at between and more than . Today, the concrete has worn from the spaces around the stones, giving the impression of a very bumpy road, but the original practice was to produce a surface that was no doubt much closer to being flat. Many roads were built to resist rain, freezing and flooding. They were constructed to need as little repair as possible.


title: Roman roads

text: Roman construction took a directional straightness. Many long sections are ruler-straight, but it should not be thought that all of them were. Some links in the network were as long as . Gradients of 10%–12% are known in ordinary terrain, 15%–20% in mountainous country. The Roman emphasis on constructing straight roads often resulted in steep slopes relatively impractical for most commercial traffic; over the years the Romans themselves realized this and built longer, but more manageable, alternatives to existing roads. Roman roads generally went straight up and down hills, rather than in a serpentine pattern of switchbacks.


title: Roman roads

text: As to the standard Imperial terminology that was used, the words were localized for different elements used in construction and varied from region to region. Also, in the course of time, the terms "via munita" and "vía publica" became identical.


title: Roman roads

text: "Viae" were distinguished not only according to their public or private character, but according to the materials employed and the methods followed in their construction. Ulpian divided them up in the following fashion:


title: Roman roads

text: The Romans, though certainly inheriting some of the art of road construction from the Etruscans, borrowed the knowledge of construction of "viae munitae" from the Carthaginians according to Isidore of Sevilla.


title: Roman roads

text: The "Viae terrenae" were plain roads of leveled earth. These were mere tracks worn down by the feet of humans and animals, and possibly by wheeled carriages.


title: Roman roads

text: The "Viae glareatae" were earthed roads with a graveled surface or a gravel subsurface and paving on top. Livy speaks of the censors of his time as being the first to contract for paving the streets of Rome with flint stones, for laying gravel on the roads outside the city, and for forming raised footpaths at the sides. In these roads, the surface was hardened with gravel, and although pavements were introduced shortly afterwards, the blocks were allowed to rest merely on a bed of small stones. An example of this type is found on the Praenestine Way. Another example is found near the Via Latina.


title: Roman roads

text: After the civil engineer looked over the site of the proposed road and determined roughly where it should go, the agrimensores went to work surveying the road bed. They used two main devices, the rod and a device called a "groma", which helped them obtain right angles. The "gromatici", the Roman equivalent of rod men, placed rods and put down a line called the "rigor". As they did not possess anything like a transit, a civil engineering surveyor tried to achieve straightness by looking along the rods and commanding the "gromatici" to move them as required. Using the "gromae" they then laid out a grid on the plan of the road. If the surveyor could not see his desired endpoint, a signal fire would often be lit at the endpoint in order to guide the surveyor.


title: Roman roads

text: The "libratores" then began their work using ploughs and, sometimes with the help of legionaries, with spades excavated the road bed down to bedrock or at least to the firmest ground they could find. The excavation was called the "fossa", the Latin word for ditch. The depth varied according to terrain.


title: Roman roads

text: The method varied according to geographic locality, materials available and terrain, but the plan, or ideal at which the engineer aimed was always the same. The roadbed was layered. The road was constructed by filling the ditch. This was done by layering rock over other stones. Into the ditch was dumped large amounts of rubble, gravel and stone, whatever fill was available. Sometimes a layer of sand was put down, if it could be found. When it came to within 1 yd (1 m) or so of the surface it was covered with gravel and tamped down, a process called "pavire", or "pavimentare".


title: Roman roads

text: The flat surface was then the "pavimentum". It could be used as the road, or additional layers could be constructed. A "statumen" or "foundation" of flat stones set in cement might support the additional layers. The final steps utilized lime-based concrete, which the Romans had discovered. They seem to have mixed the mortar and the stones in the ditch. First a small layer of coarse concrete, the "rudus", then a little layer of fine concrete, the nucleus, went onto the pavement or "statumen". Into or onto the nucleus went a course of polygonal or square paving stones, called the "summa crusta". The "crusta" was crowned for drainage.


title: Roman roads

text: An example is found in an early basalt road by the Temple of Saturn on the Clivus Capitolinus. It had travertine paving, polygonal basalt blocks, concrete bedding (substituted for the gravel), and a rain-water gutter.


title: Roman roads

text: Romans preferred to engineer solutions to obstacles rather than circumvent them. Outcroppings of stone, ravines, or hilly or mountainous terrain called for cuttings and tunnels. An example of this is found on the Roman road from Căzănești near the Iron Gates. This road was half carved into the rock, about 5ft to 5ft 9in (1.5 to 1.75m), the rest of the road, above the Danube, was made from wooden structure, projecting out of the cliff. The road functioned as a towpath, making the Danube navigable. Tabula Traiana memorial plaque in Serbia is all that remains of the now-submerged road.


title: Roman roads

text: Roman bridges, built by ancient Romans, were the first large and lasting bridges built. River crossings were achieved by bridges, or "pontes". Single slabs went over rills. A bridge could be of wood, stone, or both. Wooden bridges were constructed on pilings sunk into the river, or on stone piers. Larger or more permanent bridges required arches. These larger bridges were built with stone and had the arch as its basic structure (see arch bridge). Most also used concrete, which the Romans were the first to use for bridges. Roman bridges were so well constructed that a number remain in use today.


title: Roman roads

text: Causeways were built over marshy ground. The road was first marked out with pilings. Between them were sunk large quantities of stone so as to raise the causeway to more than above the marsh. In the provinces, the Romans often did not bother with a stone causeway, but used log roads ("pontes longi").


title: Roman roads

text: The public road system of the Romans was thoroughly military in its aims and spirit. It was designed to unite and consolidate the conquests of the Roman people, whether within or without the limits of Italy proper. A legion on the march brought its own baggage train ("impedimenta") and constructed its own camp ("castra") every evening at the side of the road.


title: Roman roads

text: Milestones divided the via Appia even before 250 BC into numbered miles, and most "viae" after 124 BC. The modern word "mile" derives from the Latin "milia passuum", "one thousand paces", each of which was five Roman feet, or in total . A milestone, or "miliarium", was a circular column on a solid rectangular base, set for more than into the ground, standing tall, in diameter, and weighing more than 2 tons. At the base was inscribed the number of the mile relative to the road it was on. In a panel at eye-height was the distance to the Roman Forum and various other information about the officials who made or repaired the road and when. These miliaria are valuable historical documents now. Their inscriptions are collected in the volume XVII of the "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum".


title: Roman roads

text: The Romans had a preference for standardization wherever possible, so Augustus, after becoming permanent commissioner of roads in 20 BC, set up the "miliarium aureum" ("golden milestone") near the Temple of Saturn. All roads were considered to begin from this gilded bronze monument. On it were listed all the major cities in the empire and distances to them. Constantine called it the "umbilicus Romae" ("navel of Rome"), and built a similar—although more complex—monument in Constantinople, the Milion.


title: Roman roads

text: Milestones permitted distances and locations to be known and recorded exactly. It was not long before historians began to refer to the milestone at which an event occurred.


title: Roman roads

text: Combined topographical and road-maps may have existed as specialty items in some Roman libraries, but they were expensive, hard to copy and not in general use. Travelers wishing to plan a journey could consult an "itinerarium", which in its most basic form was a simple list of cities and towns along a given road, and the distances between them. It was only a short step from lists to a master list, or a schematic route-planner in which roads and their branches were represented more or less in parallel, as in the "Tabula Peutingeriana". From this master list, parts could be copied and sold on the streets. The most thorough used different symbols for cities, way stations, water courses, and so on. The Roman government from time to time would produce a master road-itinerary. The first known were commissioned in 44 BC by Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Three Greek geographers, Zenodoxus, Theodotus and Polyclitus, were hired to survey the system and compile a master itinerary; the task required over 25 years and the resulting stone-engraved master itinerary was set up near the Pantheon. Travelers and itinerary sellers could make copies from it.


title: Roman roads

text: Outside the cities, Romans were avid riders and rode on or drove quite a number of vehicle types, some of which are mentioned here. Carts driven by oxen were used. Horse-drawn carts could travel up to per day, pedestrians . For purposes of description, Roman vehicles can be divided into the car, the coach, and the cart. Cars were used to transport one or two individuals, coaches were used to transport parties, and carts to transport cargo.


title: Roman roads

text: Of the cars, the most popular was the "carrus", a standard chariot form descending to the Romans from a greater antiquity. The top was open, the front closed. One survives in the Vatican. It carried a driver and a passenger. A "carrus" with two horses was a "biga"; three horses, a "triga"; and four horses a "quadriga". The tyres were of iron. When not in use, its wheels were removed for easier storage.


title: Roman roads

text: A more luxurious version, the "carpentum", transported women and officials. It had an arched overhead covering of cloth and was drawn by mules. A lighter version, the "cisium", equivalent to a gig, was open above and in front and had a seat. Drawn by one or two mules or horses, it was used for cab work, the cab drivers being called "cisiani". The builder was a "cisarius".


title: Roman roads

text: Of the coaches, the mainstay was the "raeda" or "reda", which had four wheels. The high sides formed a sort of box in which seats were placed, with a notch on each side for entry. It carried several people with baggage up to the legal limit of 1000 Roman "librae" (pounds), modern equivalent . It was drawn by teams of oxen, horses or mules. A cloth top could be put on for weather, in which case it resembled a covered wagon.


title: Roman roads

text: The "raeda" was probably the main vehicle for travel on the roads. "Raedae meritoriae" were hired coaches. The "fiscalis raeda" was a government coach. The driver and the builder were both referred to as a "raedarius".


title: Roman roads

text: Of the carts, the main one was the "plaustrum" or "plostrum". This was simply a platform of boards attached to wheels and a cross-tree. The wheels, or "tympana", were solid and were several centimetres (inches) thick. The sides could be built up with boards or rails. A large wicker basket was sometimes placed on it. A two-wheel version existed along with the normal four-wheel type called the "plaustrum maius".


title: Roman roads

text: The military used a standard wagon. Their transportation service was the "cursus clabularis", after the standard wagon, called a "carrus clabularius", "clabularis", "clavularis", or "clabulare". It transported the "impedimenta" (baggage) of a military column.


title: Roman roads

text: For non-military officials and people on official business who had no legion at their service, the government maintained way stations, or "mansiones" ("staying places"), for their use. Passports were required for identification. "Mansiones" were located about apart. There the official traveller found a complete "villa" dedicated to his use. Often a permanent military camp or a town grew up around the "mansio". For non-official travelers in need of refreshment, a private system of "inns" or "cauponae" were placed near the "mansiones". They performed the same functions but were somewhat disreputable, as they were frequented by thieves and prostitutes. Graffiti decorate the walls of the few whose ruins have been found.


title: Roman roads

text: Genteel travelers needed something better than "cauponae". In the early days of the "viae", when little unofficial provision existed, houses placed near the road were required by law to offer hospitality on demand. Frequented houses no doubt became the first "tabernae", which were hostels, rather than the "taverns" we know today. As Rome grew, so did its "tabernae", becoming more luxurious and acquiring good or bad reputations as the case may be. One of the best hotels was the "Tabernae Caediciae" at Sinuessa on the Via Appia. It had a large storage room containing barrels of wine, cheese and ham. Many cities of today grew up around a "taberna" complex, such as Rheinzabern in the Rhineland, and Saverne in Alsace.


title: Roman roads

text: A third system of way stations serviced vehicles and animals: the "mutationes" ("changing stations"). They were located every . In these complexes, the driver could purchase the services of wheelwrights, cartwrights, and "equarii medici", or veterinarians. Using these stations in chariot relays, the emperor Tiberius hastened in 24 hours to join his brother, Drusus Germanicus, who was dying of gangrene as a result of a fall from a horse.


title: Roman roads

text: Two postal services were available under the empire, one public and one private. The "cursus publicus", founded by Augustus, carried the mail of officials by relay throughout the Roman road system. The vehicle for carrying mail was a "cisium" with a box, but for special delivery, a horse and rider was faster. On average, a relay of horses could carry a letter in a day. The postman wore a characteristic leather hat, the "petanus". The postal service was a somewhat dangerous occupation, as postmen were a target for bandits and enemies of Rome. Private mail of the well-to-do was carried by "tabellarii", an organization of slaves available for a price.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: India began administration of COVID-19 vaccines on 16 January 2021. , India has administered over 2.19 billion doses overall, including first, second and precautionary (booster) doses of the currently approved vaccines. In India, ' of the eligible population (12+) has received at least one shot, and ' of the eligible population (12+) is fully vaccinated.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: India initially approved the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine (manufactured under license by Serum Institute of India under the trade name Covishield) and Covaxin (a vaccine developed locally by Bharat Biotech). They have since been joined by the Sputnik V (manufactured under license by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, with additional production from Serum Institute of India being started in September), Moderna vaccines, Johnson & Johnson vaccine and ZyCoV-D (a vaccine locally developed by Zydus Cadila) and other vaccine candidates undergoing local clinical trials.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: According to a June 2022 study published in "The Lancet", COVID-19 vaccination in India prevented an additional 4.2 million deaths from December 8, 2020, to December 8, 2021.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Citizens above the age of 12 can book appointments through the COWIN platform or can do a Walk-In registration on site.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Vaccine certificates can be downloaded digitally through the COWIN platform, or citizens can ask for a hard copy from vaccination centres.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: In September 2020, India's Health minister Harsh Vardhan stated that the country planned to approve and begin distribution of a vaccine by the first quarter of 2021. The first recipients were to be 30 million health workers directly dealing with COVID patients.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 1 January 2021, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved emergency use of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine (local trade name "Covishield"). On 2 January, the DCGI also granted an interim emergency use authorisation to BBV152 (trade name "Covaxin"), a domestic vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology. This approval was met with some concern, as the vaccine had not then completed phase 3 clinical trials. Due to this status, those receiving Covaxin were required to sign a consent form, while some states chose to relegate Covaxin to a "buffer stock" and primarily distribute Covishield.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: India began its vaccination programme on 16 January 2021, operating 3,006 vaccination centres on the onset. Each vaccination centre will offer either Covishield or Covaxin, but not both. 165,714 people were vaccinated on the first day of availability. Difficulties in uploading beneficiary lists at some sites caused delays. In the first three days, 631,417 people were vaccinated. Of these, 0.18% reported side-effects and nine people (0.002%) were admitted to hospitals for observation and treatment. Within those first days, there were concerns about low turnout, due to a combination of vaccine safety concerns, technical problems with the software used, and misinformation.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: The first phase of the rollout involved health workers and frontline workers, including police, paramilitary forces, sanitation workers, and disaster management volunteers. By 1 March, only 14 million healthcare and frontline workers had been vaccinated, falling short of the original goal of 30 million.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: The next phase of the vaccine rollout covered all residents over the age of 60, residents between the ages of 45 and 60 with one or more qualifying comorbidities, and any health care or frontline worker that did not receive a dose during phase 1. Online registration began on 1 March via the Aarogya Setu app and Co-WIN ("Winning over COVID-19") website. Amid the beginnings of a major second wave of infections in the country, vaccine exports were suspended in March 2021, and the government ordered 110 million Covishield doses from SII. The company aims to produce 100 million doses per month, but by May 2021 its production capacity was only 60–70 million doses. Following the conclusion of its trial, the DCGI issued a standard emergency use authorisation to Covaxin on 11 March 2021.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: From 1 April, eligibility was extended to all residents over the age of 45. On 8 April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a four-day "Teeka Utsav" ("Vaccine Festival") from 11 to 14 April, with a goal to increase the pace of the program by vaccinating as many eligible residents as possible. By the end of the "Utsav", India had reached a total of over 111 million vaccine doses to-date.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 12 April, the DCGI approved Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use in India. A phase 3 trial was conducted in the country in September 2020, which showed 91.6% efficacy. The local distributor Dr. Reddy's Laboratories stated that it planned to have the vaccine in India by late May 2021.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 19 April, it was announced that the next phase of the vaccination programme would begin on 1 May, extending eligibility to all residents over the age of 18. Under phase 3, individual stakeholders were also given more flexibility in how they conduct the vaccination programme. As part of this plan, only half of the vaccines procured by the Central Drugs Laboratory from manufacturers would be distributed by the central government. This supply would go to government-run clinics and be offered free-of-charge to residents 45 and over and priority workers and siphoned off to states based on factors such as the number of active cases and how quickly they are administering vaccines. The remainder would be offered to individual states and purchased on the open market (including private hospitals), which would be able to serve residents over the age of 18.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Registration for the next phase began on 28 April; a single-day record of nearly 13.3 million people registered. Due to supply issues, several states, including Delhi, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh announced that they would delay their wider rollouts of vaccines to later in the month.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: The initial shipment of 150,000 Sputnik V doses arrived on 1 May, and began to be administered on 14 May. An estimated 156 million doses is expected between August and December; initially, doses will be sourced from Russia, but domestic production is expected to begin by August 2021.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 13 May, the DCGI approved phase 2 and phase 3 trials of Covaxin on children 2–18. On 14 May, health officials projected that based on the anticipated approval of additional vaccine options, it could receive at least 2.17 billion more vaccine doses from August to December 2021. On 25 May, India exceeded 200 million vaccine doses administered in total. On 3 June, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pre-ordered 300 million doses of a potential fourth vaccine, Corbevax, which is undergoing phase 3 clinical trials.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 23 May, the union government allowed walk-in registrations for vaccination throughout the country; a health worker at the vaccination centre would register the recipient in the Co-win vaccination database. The government claimed in an affidavit to the Supreme Court that as of June 23 about 78 per cent of vaccines had been administered via walk-in registration.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 31 May, an affidavit was issued in the Supreme Court of India requesting a review of the central government's vaccine distribution strategy, suggesting that the decision to only offer doses at no charge to priority workers and residents over the age of 45 was "prima facie arbitrary and irrational".


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 7 June, Prime Minister Modi announced that India would migrate back to centralised procurement of vaccines by 21 June. In an address, Modi stated that multiple chief ministers had requested that the central government reconsider its new distribution strategy and reinstate the system it had used before May. As before, the centre will procure up to 75% of the country's vaccine supplies from manufacturers in bulk and distribute them to states at no additional charge. Vaccines would now be offered at no charge for those in the 18–44 age group. Private hospitals will still be responsible for the remaining 25% of procurement, but fees for appointments are now capped at .


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 21 June, the day these changes took effect, approximately doses were administered—India's largest single-day total until that point. The states of Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka had the highest local totals. Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha P. Chidambaram accused Bharatiya Janata Party of having "hoarded" vaccine doses in the days leading up to 21 June in order to encourage larger numbers; seven states controlled by the BJP were among the top ten states to have administered vaccine doses that day, few of these states had below-average vaccination numbers in the days leading up to 21 June (such as Madhya Pradesh, which went from 692 doses on 20 June to the next day, and numbers had dropped significantly in the state the next day).


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 23 June, India surpassed over 300 million vaccine doses administered in total. On 28 June, India overtook the United States in total vaccine doses administered. On 29 June, the DCGI approved the Moderna vaccine (which is being imported by Cipla) for emergency use. Vinod Kumar Paul stated that the Pfizer vaccine was also likely to be approved soon.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 6 August 2021, India crossed the 500 million doses milestone within 6 months from the onset of the vaccination program.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 7 August 2021, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved emergency use of the Johnson and Johnson single-dose vaccine. On 16 Aug 2021, India administered around 8.81 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, achieving the highest single-day record and overtaking its own previous record of 8.61 million doses, by 16 August the cumulative doses had surpassed the 55 million mark.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 20 August 2021, India granted emergency authorization to Zydus Cadila's vaccine ZyCoV-D, the world's first DNA plasmid-based COVID-19 vaccine, for patients 12 and older.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: India granted emergency use approval to the world's first DNA based COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by for adults and children aged 12 years and above. The vaccine is administered using a needle-free applicator. The government announced on 30 September 2021 that the ZyCoV-D vaccine will be a three dose vaccine and it will be included in the Covid vaccination programme of India.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Since August 10, 2021, foreign nationals residing in India can now receive the COVID-19 vaccine by registering themselves on the Cowin platform; like other eligible beneficiaries, the foreign nationals can book a slot via the portal and use their passport as a document to verify their identity for the registration process.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: By 26 August 2021, 50% of the adult population in India were inoculated with at least one dose of the approved vaccines, which included 99% coverage among healthcare workers and 100% front-line workers for the first dose.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 27 August 2021, India crossed the milestone of administering more than 10 million (1 crore) doses of COVID-19 vaccine in a single day, setting a new world record. Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 2.8 million doses, followed by Karnataka with 1 million doses and Maharashtra at third with 0.98 million doses.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 29 August 2021, Himachal Pradesh became the first state to complete administering first doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 100% of the population. On 31 August, India again set another single-day vaccination record by inoculating around 12 million (1.2 Crore) doses in 24 hours.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: By September 2021, all adult people in Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Ladakh, and Lakshadweep have received at least one dose of Covid vaccine as the cumulative jabs administered in the country crossed 75 crores. Many city corporations, talukas, gram panchayats and districts had also administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination to 100 per cent of their adult population.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: As many as 25 million people were vaccinated on Narendra Modi's birthday on 17 September 2021. This is the highest single-day vaccination tally so far in the whole world. There are allegations that a lot of pressure could have been put on officials to increase and twist to record vaccination numbers on the Prime Minister's birthday as some people who had not received their Covid shots somehow seem to have been issued vaccination certificates including those who are deceased.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 27 September, India administered over 1 crore vaccine doses for the fifth time, and total vaccination coverage crossed 86 crore (860 million). On 2 October, this increased to 960 million.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: By September 2021, several companies had received approval to begin clinical trials on COVID-19 vaccines for children. Discussions were also emerging over whether India would utilize vaccine booster doses, with the government having maintained that they were studying their applicability, and that they were focused on their goal to administer a primary series of vaccine doses to all adults. On 21 October 2021, India crossed the one billion mark for administered doses.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 26 December 2021, Prime Minister Modi announced that vaccine eligibility would be extended to youth 15 to 18 years of age from 3 January 2022 (with online registration opened on 1 January 2022); this age group would exclusively receive Covaxin. It was also announced that booster doses would become available from 10 January 2022, beginning with frontline workers, and residents over the age of 60 with comorbidities. Within this cohort, doses would be prioritized to those who had received their second dose at least nine months prior.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 14 March 2022, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced that vaccine eligibility would be extended to children 12–14, and that this group would exclusively receive Corbevax. Booster eligibility was also extended to all adults 60 and older. On 8 April 2022, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced that all adults 18 and over would become eligible for booster doses beginning 10 April, and that they would be available via private vaccination centres.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: In May 2022, the Supreme Court of India ruled that COVID-19 vaccine mandates were unconstitutional, citing the "emerging scientific opinion" that COVID-19 vaccines did not reduce the risk of transmission by those who are vaccinated.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: As of early May 2020, there were over 30 vaccine candidates in development in India, many of which were already in pre-clinical trials.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) is the world's largest vaccine maker. This existing capacity enabled India to be a major participant in the COVAX programme to distribute vaccines to developing countries. In February 2020, SII had begun animal trials of vaccine candidates. SII announced in April 2020 that it would apply for clinical trials from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) in April 2020. SII president Adar Poonawalla said that a vaccine would be delivered within a year, but projected an efficacy between 70 and 80%.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: In August 2020, SII received approvals for phase 2 and phase 3 trials of its version of a vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford's Vaccitech. SII joined GAVI in a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to produce 100 million doses of vaccine for developing countries. The SII planned to manufacture 1.5 and 2.5 billion doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine per-year under the trade name "Covishield". By its approval in January 2021, the company had stockpiled 50 million doses, but well short of its own target of 400 million. The government ordered 21 million doses to be delivered by February, but the company said no indication of any further orders were given. The company began to export the remaining stocks instead.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with U.S.-based FluGen, expected to begin the first clinical trials of a nasal vaccine by late-2020. The Indian Council of Medical Research partnered with Bharat Biotech in May 2020 to develop a COVID vaccine entirely within India. In June 2020, it received DCGI approval to begin phase 1 and phase 2 trials on its vaccine, BBV152 (trade name "Covaxin"). In September 2020, it was reported that in pre-clinical trials on animals, Covaxin was able to build immunity. In July 2021, Bharat Biotech reported the vaccine to be effective against asymptomatic cases, effective against symptomatic cases, effective against severe COVID-19 infection, and effective against the Delta variant. On 20 April 2021, Bharat Biotech announced that it had expanded its production capabilities for Covaxin to 700 million doses per-year.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Cadila Healthcare began vaccine development in March 2020, including a viral vector vaccine and a DNA plasmid vaccine. In mid-July 2020, Cadila held early human trials of its vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D, and received approval for phase 3 trials in January 2021. It began large-scale production in April 2021, with Cadila expecting to receive emergency authorisation between May and June 2021. On 1 July 2021, Cadila Healthcare reported the efficacy to be 66.6% against symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% against moderate or severe disease in its interim analysis of its phase 3 trial data.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: In September 2020, Dr. Reddy's partnered with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to conduct phase 3 trials of the Sputnik V vaccine in India, and to distribute the vaccine there once approved. In April 2021, RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev told NDTV that they had "five great manufacturers in India" who would be producing the vaccine, and felt that the country could become Sputnik V's "production hub" for use and export. Dr. Reddy's is also working with the RDIF on approval of "Sputnik Light"—a regiment of Sputnik V consisting only of the first dose.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: In April 2021, phase 3 clinical trials were approved for another vaccine, Corbevax, a protein subunit that is being developed by BioE, the Baylor College of Medicine, and Dynavax Technologies.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 2 June 2021, the DCGI removed the requirement that India-specific clinical trials (bridging trials) be held for vaccine candidates developed outside of India, provided that they are already approved by a recognised international public health agency such as the World Health Organization (WHO), European Medicines Agency (EMA), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), or Japan's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency. These changes were intended to help expedite the availability of vaccines already in use in other countries.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: In mid-July, it was reported that approval of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, as well as a shipment of vaccines donated by the United States (which includes the AstraZeneca, Janssen, Moderna, and Pfizer vaccines), had faced delays due to requests from their manufacturers for indemnity clauses from Indian authorities, which would relieve them from legal liability for adverse reactions.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 21 September 2021, the Indian Government said that it will not purchase the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines as domestic output of more affordable and easier-to-store vaccines has jumped.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: In the Quad summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would make 8 million doses of J&J vaccine available by the end of October under the Quad vaccine partnership. It will be manufactured in India by the Biological E. This would be ready by the end of October, compatible with our decision to resume vaccine export.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Optimizing vaccination deployment for India includes tailoring of strategies to the demographic and epidemiologic situation by modeling vaccination scenarios, explore measures to reach children at risk and co-optimizing vaccination strategy for societal and individual benefit in parallel.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: In September 2021, India's government announced that it would not buy COVID-19 shots from Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech (22UAy.DE) and Moderna (MRNA.O), mainly because the domestic output of more affordable and easier-to-store vaccines of Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech & Cadila Healthcare has jumped.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: India will make 8 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine available by the end of October under the Quad vaccine partnership.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Vaccine Maitri ("English:" Vaccine Friendship) is a humanitarian initiative undertaken by the Indian government to provide COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world. The government started providing vaccines from 20 January 2021. As of 6March 2022, India had delivered around 16.3 cror doses of vaccines to 96 countries. Of these, 1.43 cror doses were gifted to 46 countries by the Government of India. The remaining 10.71 cror were supplied by the vaccine producer under its commercial and, 4.15 cror doses were supplied throw COVAX obligations. In late March 2021, the Government of India temporarily froze exports of the Covishield, citing India's own COVID crisis and the domestic need for these vaccines.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: The Health Minister of India, Mr. Mansukh Mandaviya announced in September that India will resume the export of vaccines from October to the rest of the world.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were gifted by India to the UN peacekeepers on 27 March to be distributed to all peacekeeping missions.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: India has two approved COVID-19 vaccines: Covishield and Covaxin. Both of them were exported and used in foreign grants by the Government of India.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 1 January 2021, the Drug Controller General of India, approved the emergency or conditional use of Covishield. Covishield is developed by the University of Oxford and its spin-out company, Vaccitech.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 2 January 2021, Covaxin India's first COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology received approval from the Drug Controller General of India for its emergency or conditional usage.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: India kicked off international shipment of the vaccines on 20 January 2021, only four days after starting its own vaccination program. Bhutan and Maldives were the first countries to receive vaccines as a grant by India. This was quickly followed by shipments to Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Seychelles. By mid-March 2021, India was also supplying vaccines on a commercial basis to countries including Canada, the UK, and Saudi Arabia.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: As of 21 February 2022, India had exported total 16,29,63,500 doses including 1,42,67,000 vaccine provided as grant to more than 96 nations and, UN Peacekeepers and UN Health workers.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: The Serum Institute of India was selected as a key supplier of cost-effective COVID-19 vaccines to the COVAX initiative, 19.8 million doses of Covishield vaccines were supplied by India to various countries through the initiative.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: In May, when COVAX was already short 140 million doses, the Serum Institute announced that it expected to maintain its suspension of vaccine deliveries to COVAX through the end of 2021 due to the second wave of COVID-19 in India and the US ban on export of key raw materials.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: The percentage of population inoculated shown in the table above is according to the 2021 projected population of India with all age groups.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: According to the government, based on the projected mid-year count for 2021, the country's total population aged 12 years and above is approximately 108 crore. Around 94.59% of the 12+ population of the country have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine since the vaccination drive began.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Over 80% of the population of India have a positive response for getting anti covid shots. India has one of the lowest vaccine hesitancy in the world.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: There was vaccine hesitancy in the initial months of 2021, especially in rural India and among poor and tribal populations. Constant government and public awareness drastically reduced vaccine hesitancy. Since May 2021, more than half of daily doses administered in India have been from rural parts. Vaccine centers in India have witnessed large number of people willing to get covid vaccine resulting in overcrowding and mismanagement. Many centers across India in months of April & May reported severe shortage of covid vaccines due to large crowds turning up for vaccination. In cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru many people even after waiting for hours did not receive their covid vaccine due to shortage. Since July, vaccine supply has drastically increased thus India is vaccinating at a very fast pace.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: One study published on vaccine acceptance shows that 79.5% of people from Delhi want to take a COVID-19 vaccine. In another study which was published from West Bengal, a state in Eastern India, has shown that 77.27% of people want to take the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the finding from these two studies, it can be expected that over 75% of people want to get a COVID-19 vaccine.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: Like many other vaccinations, COVID-19 vaccines also have a risk of causing side effects. According to India's Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the most common side-effects include pain or swelling at the injection site, fever, irritability and headaches. The UK Government also lists fatigue, nausea and joint pain as common side-effects of the Oxford vaccine (known as Covishield in India). Medical experts maintain that vaccines used are safe and their benefits outweigh the risks. It is also important to note that adverse cases do not necessarily have a causal relationship with the vaccines.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: A total of 617 serious adverse events were reported until March 29. Of these, 180 cases resulted in death. The Immunisation Technical Support Unit at the federal health ministry examined 192,000 case reports, including 12,400 deaths. In more than half of the examined cases of death, the cause of death was found to be acute coronary syndrome. However, the documentation had been completed for only 3,500 cases.


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: By 7 June, 26,000 adverse events had been reported following immunisation. Of this, 24,901 were minor, 412 were significant and 887 were serious. 488 deaths were also reported, including 301 men and 178 women (details of 9 deaths were not available). Both vaccines had an adverse reaction rate of about 0.01% and a fatality rate of around 0.0001% - 24,703 events and 457 deaths from 210 million Covishield doses, 1,497 events and 20 deaths following 25 million Covaxin doses. Maharashtra reported the most adverse events (4,521), followed by Kerala (4,074), Karnataka (2,650) and West Bengal (1,456).


title: COVID-19 vaccination in India

text: On 15 June, the government published a review of case reports that had occurred between 5 February and 31 March 2021, focusing on 31 cases and one death from anaphylaxis that were believed to have been attributed to the vaccine, out of nearly 60 million doses administered in the time period. Only three of these cases, and the single death of a 68-year-old patient, were determined to be "vaccine-product related", with the remainder having been classified as coincidental, indeterminate, or unclassifiable. The report stated that "mere reporting of deaths and hospitalisations as serious adverse events does not automatically imply that the events were caused due to vaccines. Only properly conducted investigations and causality assessments can help in understanding if any causal relationship exists between the event and the vaccine."


title: Kaoru Mitoma

text: Born in Kanagawa, Mitoma grew up in the Kawasaki area and joined the Frontale academy at the U10 level. Offered a promotion from the U-18s to the senior team coached by Yahiro Kazama, he chose instead the University of Tsukuba, a Japanese university football powerhouse who had recently produced Frontale stalwarts such as Shogo Taniguchi and Shintaro Kurumaya. Mitoma professed to feel unprepared to enter professional football at age 18, citing the struggles of fellow Kawasaki academy products Ko Itakura and Koji Miyoshi to win regular playing time with the senior squad.


title: Kaoru Mitoma

text: During his time at Tsukuba, Mitoma was selected to represent Japan at the 2017 and 2019 Universiade tournaments, as well as the 2018 Asian Games and the 2019 Toulon Tournament with the under-23 national team. Playing in the with Tsukuba, he was named to the all-league XI in his final three seasons while majoring in physical education. In addition, Tsukuba appeared in the 2016 and 2017 Emperor's Cup tournaments making an upstart run to the round of 16 in the latter edition, upsetting J.League clubs YSCC Yokohama, Vegalta Sendai (against whom Mitoma scored a brace), and Avispa Fukuoka along the way. While enrolled in college, Mitoma also occasionally joined Frontale's senior team for training sessions as a Special Designated Player starting in his sophomore year, appearing in a single J.League Cup match in 2019.


title: Kaoru Mitoma

text: In July 2018, Mitoma agreed on a professional contract with Kawasaki Frontale senior team starting in 2020. He made his official pro debut on the opening matchday of the 2020 J1 League and quickly established himself after the league resumed following the COVID-19 outbreak, becoming the first rookie to reach double digits in goals in the first division since Yoshinori Muto.


title: Kaoru Mitoma

text: On 10 August 2021, Mitoma joined Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion on a four-year deal, joining Union SG on loan for the first year. Mitoma scored his first goal for Union SG on 16 October, where he scored a hat-trick in a 4–2 home victory over Seraing.


title: Kaoru Mitoma

text: On 13 August 2022, Mitoma made his Premier League debut for Brighton, coming on as a 75th-minute substitute for Leandro Trossard in a 0–0 draw with Newcastle United at the Falmer Stadium. He made his first "Albion" start on 24 August, playing 67 minutes of the 3–0 away win over League One side Forest Green Rovers in the EFL Cup second round. Mitoma made his first Premier League start on 29 October, setting up Leandro Trossard's fifth minute opener in the eventual 4–1 home thrashing over Chelsea. A week later, he scored his first goal for the "Seagulls" heading them level from a Adam Lallana cross in the eventual 3–2 away win over Wolves. Mitoma also helped Brighton in both other goals with his run into the box creating Pascal Groß's 83rd minute winner. Mitoma scored again in Brighton's next match four days later, putting "Albion" in front in the eventual 3–1 away win over Arsenal in the EFL Cup third round.


title: Kaoru Mitoma

text: After being capped at youth level, Mitoma was called up to the Japan senior squad for the first time in November 2021 for 2022 World Cup qualfiers against Oman. He made his debut on 16 November, coming on as a substitute in the 1–0 away win over Oman.


title: Kaoru Mitoma

text: On 24 March 2022, Mitoma scored his first two international goals in a 2–0 World Cup qualification win against Australia. Coming from the bench at the 86th, the winger opens the score three minutes later. He score another during the added time. This win confirms Japan's qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Mitoma's double offers him his First "A" international titularisation at the following game, five days later, against Vietnam.


title: Kaoru Mitoma

text: On 1 November, Mitoma was named in Japan's 26-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In the last group game which came against Spain on 1 December, Mitoma assisted Ao Tanaka's winner that saw Japan qualify to the round of 16 as group winners. The goal came with controversy, originally being ruled out for the ball going out of play, VAR awarded the goal giving the reason that the curvature of the ball was hanging over the chalk.


title: Roller derby

text: Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played by two teams of fifteen members. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States.


title: Roller derby

text: Game play consists of a series of short scrimmages (jams) in which both teams designate a jammer (who uniquely wears a star on the helmet) and four blockers to skate counter-clockwise around a track. The jammer scores points by lapping members of the opposing team. The teams attempt to hinder the opposing jammer while assisting their own jammer—in effect, playing both offense and defense simultaneously.


title: Roller derby

text: While the sport has its origins in the banked-track roller-skating marathons of the 1930s, Leo Seltzer and Damon Runyon are credited with evolving the sport to its competitive form. Professional roller derby quickly became popular; in 1940, more than 5 million spectators watched in about 50 American cities. In the ensuing decades, however, it predominantly became a form of sports entertainment, where theatrical elements overshadowed athleticism. Gratuitous showmanship largely ended with the sport's grassroots revival in the first decade of the 21st century. Although roller derby retains some sports entertainment qualities such as player pseudonyms and colorful uniforms, it has abandoned scripted bouts with predetermined winners.


title: Roller derby

text: Modern roller derby is an international sport, mostly played by amateurs. It was under consideration as a roller sport for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS), recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the official international governing body of roller sports, released its first set of Roller Derby Rules for the World Roller Games, organised by World Skate, that took place September 2017 in Nanjing, China. Most modern leagues (and their back-office volunteers) share a strong "do-it-yourself" ethic that combines athleticism with the styles of punk and camp. , the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) had 451 full member leagues and 46 apprentice leagues and the Roller Derby Coalition of Leagues (RDCL) supporting women's banked track roller derby had eight full member leagues.


title: Roller derby

text: Contemporary roller derby has a basic set of rules, with variations reflecting the interests of a governing body's member leagues. The summary below is based on the rules of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). In March 2010, Derby News Network said that more than 98% of roller derby competitions were conducted under WFTDA rules. For example, members of the United Kingdom Roller Derby Association are required to play by WFTDA rules, while members of the former Canadian Women's Roller Derby Association were encouraged to join the WFTDA.


title: Roller derby

text: Roller derby is played in two periods of 30 minutes. Two teams of up to 15 players each field up to five members for episodes called "jams". Jams last two minutes unless called off prematurely. Each team designates a scoring player (the "jammer"); the other four members are "blockers". One blocker can be designated as a "pivot"—a blocker who is allowed to become a jammer in the course of play. The next jam may involve different players of the 15 roster players, and different selections for jammer and pivot.


title: Roller derby

text: During each jam, players skate counterclockwise on a circuit track. Points are scored only by a team's jammer. After breaking through the pack and skating one lap to begin another "trip" through the pack, the jammer scores one point for passing any opposing blocker. The rules describe an "earned" pass; notably, the jammer must be in-bounds and upright. The jammer's first earned pass scores a point for passing that blocker and a point for each opponent blocker not on the track (for instance, serving a penalty, or when the opposition did not field five players for the jam). If the jammer passes the entire pack, it is a four-point scoring trip, commonly called a "grand slam".


title: Roller derby

text: Each team's blockers use body contact, changing positions, and other tactics to help their jammer score while hindering the opposing team's jammer.


title: Roller derby

text: Play begins by blockers lining up on the track anywhere between the "jammer line" and the "pivot line" 30 feet in front. The jammers start behind the jammer line. Jams begin on a single short whistle blast, upon which both jammers and blockers may begin engaging immediately.


title: Roller derby

text: The pack is the largest single group of blockers containing members of both teams skating in proximity, arranged such that each player is within 10 feet of the next. Blockers must maintain the pack, but can skate freely within 20 feet behind and ahead of it, an area known as the "engagement zone".


title: Roller derby

text: The first jammer to break through the pack earns the status of "lead jammer". A designated referee blows the whistle twice and continually points at the jammer to confer lead jammer status, which lets that jammer stop the jam at any time by repeatedly placing hands on hips. Lead jammer status cannot be transferred to other skaters, but certain actions (such as being sent to the penalty box) cancel lead jammer status, meaning that the jam has no lead jammer and must continue for the full two-minute period. If the jam is not called off by the lead jammer, it ends after two minutes. If time remains in the period, teams then have 30 seconds to get on the track and line up for the next jam. If the 30-minute period ends while a jam is underway, the jam plays out to its natural conclusion.


title: Roller derby

text: A skater may block an opponent to impede their movement or to force them out of bounds. The blocker must be upright, skating counterclockwise, in bounds, and within the engagement zone. Groups of blockers on the same team typically create formations, known as walls, to prevent the opposing blocker from passing. Blocking with hands, elbows, head, and feet is prohibited, as is contact above the shoulders, below mid-thigh, or to the back.


title: Roller derby

text: Referees penalize rules violations. A player receiving a penalty is removed from play and must sit in the penalty box for 30 seconds of jam time. If the jam ends during this interval, the player remains in the penalty box during the subsequent jam until the interval ends. While the penalty is being served, the penalized player's team plays short-handed, as in ice hockey. A player "fouls out" of the game on the seventh penalty, and is required to return to the locker room.


title: Roller derby

text: A "power jam", derived from ice hockey's "power play", refers to a scenario when one team's jammer is sent to the penalty box. In this case, that jammer's team cannot score. If the lead jammer is penalized, no one can prematurely end the jam.


title: Roller derby

text: It would be pointless to play if neither team could score; thus, both jammers cannot serve a penalty at the same time. If one jammer is sent to the penalty box while the opposing jammer is already serving a penalty, the opposing jammer is released from the penalty box early. The second jammer's penalty is then only as long as the amount of time the first jammer spent in the box.


title: Roller derby

text: Players skate on four-wheeled ("quad") roller skates, and are required to wear protective equipment, including a helmet, wrist guards, elbow pads, knee pads, and mouth guards. All current sets of roller derby rules explicitly forbid inline skates for players. (USARS requires quad skates for all skaters. WFTDA and MRDA permit inline skates for referees, but virtually all referees wear quad skates.) Individual teams may mandate additional gear, such as padded knee length pants, similar to what aggressive skateboarders wear, and gender specific gear such as a hard-case sports bra for female players and protective cups for males.


title: Roller derby

text: Offense and defense are played simultaneously, a volatile aspect that complicates strategy and tactics. For example, one team's blockers may take offensive action to create a gap in the opposing wall for their jammer to pass through, but this same maneuver could potentially weaken their own defenses and allow the opposing team's jammer to score.


title: Roller derby

text: Strategies (high-level plans toward achieving the game's goal, which is to outscore the opposition) include the following:


title: Roller derby

text: WFTDA bouts are officiated by three to seven skating referees and many non-skating officials (NSOs). Volunteer leagues adapt when fewer than the optimal number of officials are present.


title: Roller derby

text: Up to four referees skate on the inside of the track. In flat-track derby, up to three additional referees skate on the outside of the track. They call penalties, award points, and ensure safe game play. Referees must wear skates and typically wear white and black stripes.


title: Roller derby

text: NSOs take up a range of positions inside and outside the track, start and time the jams, record and display scores and penalties communicated by referees, record the number of each skater on track for a given jam, and time and record skaters in the penalty box.


title: Roller derby

text: The growing popularity of roller skating in the United States led to the formation of organized multi-day endurance races for cash prizes as early as the mid-1880s. Speed and endurance races continued to be held on both flat and banked tracks in the century's first three decades and spectators enjoyed the spills and falls of the skaters. The term "derby" was used to refer to such races by 1922.


title: Roller derby

text: The endurance races began to transform into the contemporary form of the sport in the mid-1930s, when promoter Leo Seltzer created the Transcontinental Roller Derby, a month-long simulation of a road race between two-person teams of professional skaters. The spectacle became a popular touring exhibition. In the late 1930s, sportswriter Damon Runyon persuaded Seltzer to change the Roller Derby rules to increase skater contact. By 1939, after experimenting with different team and scoring arrangements, Seltzer's created a touring company of four pairs of teams (always billed as the local "home" team versus either New York or Chicago), with two five-person teams on the track at once, scoring points when its members lapped opponents.


title: Roller derby

text: On November 29, 1948, before television viewership was widespread, "Roller Derby" debuted on New York television. The broadcasts increased spectator turnout for live matches. For the 1949–1950 season, Seltzer formed the National Roller Derby League (NRDL), comprising six teams. NRDL season playoffs sold out Madison Square Garden for a week. During the late 1950s and 1960s, the sport was broadcast on several networks, but attendance declined. Jerry Seltzer (Leo's son), the "Roller Derby" "commissioner", hoped to use television to expand the live spectator base. He adapted the sport for television by developing scripted story lines and rules designed to improve television appeal, but derby's popularity had declined.


title: Roller derby

text: 1989 saw the debut of "RollerGames," an even more theatrical variant of roller derby for national audiences. It used a figure-8 track and rules adapted for this track. Bill Griffiths, Sr. served as commissioner while his son, Bill Griffiths, Jr., managed the L.A. T-Birds, who (according to the storyline) were seeking revenge on the Violators (led by Skull) for cheating in the Commissioner's Cup. The other teams included the Maniacs (led by Guru Drew), Bad Attitude (led by Ms. Georgia Hase), the Rockers (led by DJ Terringo and consisting of skaters who were also professional rock and roll musicians), and Hot Flash (led by Juan Valdez Lopez). It ran one season, because some of its syndicators went bankrupt.


title: Roller derby

text: In 1999, TNN debuted "RollerJam," which used the classic rules and banked oval track, but allowed inline skates (although some skaters wore traditional quad skates). Jerry Seltzer was commissioner for this version.


title: Roller derby

text: Roller derby began its modern revival in Austin, Texas in the early 2000s as an all-female, woman-organized amateur sport. By August 2006, there were over 135 similar leagues. Leagues outside the U.S. also began forming in 2006, and international competition soon followed. There are over 2,000 amateur leagues worldwide in countries including Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, New Zealand, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Israel, Singapore, UAE, Egypt, Thailand, and China. In many international leagues, gear and equipment must be imported. Roller derby's contemporary resurgence has been regarded as an aspect of globalization which demonstrates "the speed with which pop culture is now transported by highly mobile expatriates and social media, while also highlighting the changing role of women in many societies".


title: Roller derby

text: Many roller derby leagues are amateur, self-organized and all-female and were formed in a do-it-yourself spirit by relatively new enthusiasts. In many leagues (especially in the U.S.), a punk aesthetic and/or third-wave feminist ethic is prominent. Members of fledgling leagues often practice and strategize together, regardless of team affiliation, between bouts. Most compete on flat tracks, though several leagues skate on banked tracks, with more in the planning stages.


title: Roller derby

text: Each league typically features local teams in public bouts that are popular with a diverse fan base. Some venues host audiences ranging up to 7,000. Successful local leagues have formed traveling teams comprising the league's best players to compete with comparable teams from other cities and regions. In February 2012, the International Olympic Committee considered roller derby, amongst eight other sports, for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games.


title: Roller derby

text: In 2009, the feature film "Whip It" featured roller derby and introduced a wider audience to the sport. The WFTDA encouraged leagues to coordinate with promotions during the film's release to increase awareness of the leagues. Furthermore, corporate advertising has used roller derby themes in television commercials for insurance, a breakfast cereal, and an over-the-counter analgesic.


title: Roller derby

text: Most players in roller leagues skate under pseudonyms, also called "derby names" or "skater names". These typically use word play with satirical, mock-violent or sexual puns, alliteration, and allusions to pop culture. Referees often use derby names as well, often shown on the backs of their striped uniforms. Some players claim their names represent alter egos that they adopt while skating.


title: Roller derby

text: Whether a team should skate under real names or derby names is sometimes debated. Some derby names are obscene, a subject of some internal controversy.


title: Roller derby

text: Copying of derby names has attracted legal and sociological analysis as an example of indigenous development of property rights. New players are encouraged to check derby names against an international roster to ensure they are not already in use.


title: Roller derby

text: The names of roller derby events are also as sardonic and convoluted—for example, Night of the Rolling Dead ("Night of the Living Dead"), Knocktoberfest (Oktoberfest), Spanksgiving (Thanksgiving), Seasons Beatings (Seasons Greetings), Grandma Got Run Over By a Rollergirl ("Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer"), Cinco de May-hem (Cinco de Mayo), and War of the Wheels ("War of the Worlds").


title: Roller derby

text: Roller derby is a contact sport, and injuries can occur. Superficial injuries include bruising. However, torn ligaments, broken bones, and concussions also occur.


title: Roller derby

text: Some leagues prominently display their injuries, to embellish the image of violence or machismo. However, some skaters say the sport is reasonably safe if skaters take precautions. The rules require appropriate medical professionals on-site at every bout, even if not required by laws or arena regulations. The WFTDA offers insurance for leagues in the United States with legal liability and accident coverage, but it recommends that skaters also carry their own primary medical insurance.


title: Roller derby

text: Although the early 2000s revival of roller derby was initially all-female, some leagues later introduced all-male teams and all-gender games; there were over 140 junior roller derby programs in the United States, and many more around the world.


title: Roller derby

text: College roller derby is also expanding in the United States. The University of Arizona's Derby Cats describe themselves as the first-ever official college flat-track roller derby team. The first intercollegiate derby bout took place on March 3, 2018, when the Claremont Colleges roller derby team defeated Arizona State University.


title: Roller derby

text: The website FlatTrackStats compiles ratings of WFTDA teams, adjusting them after every bout based on how the actual score compares to the predicted score. The WFTDA's own Stats Repository has comparable information and often is updated at halftime of a bout.


title: Roller derby

text: Roller derby bouts are now streamed online, and there are archived videos of past bouts and tournaments. The WFTDA offers live streaming video of its tournaments at wftda.tv. Derby News Network offered live streaming video and archived video including events outside the WFTDA.


title: Roller derby

text: "FiveOnFive" magazine covers roller derby and diverse aspects such as business, training, junior roller derby, and nutrition.


title: Roller derby

text: The largest governing body for the sport is the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), with 397 full member leagues and 48 apprentice leagues. WFTDA membership is a major goal of aspiring leagues. Other associations support either coed or men-only derby; the largest organization supporting male roller derby is the Men's Roller Derby Association (MRDA). Within the United States, the Junior Roller Derby Association governs play by those under 18. It modifies the WFTDA rules for minors, such as prohibiting hitting and accelerating into a block. Some U.S. leagues decline affiliation with a national organization because they prefer local governance.


title: Roller derby

text: USA Roller Sports (USARS) is recognized by the International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS) and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) as the National Governing Body of competitive roller sports in the United States, including speed, figure, hockey, roller derby and slalom. WFTDA and USARS maintain a reciprocity agreement for insurance purposes.


title: Roller derby

text: Outside the United States, many roller derby leagues enjoy support from their national skate federations, such as Skate Australia, the British Roller Sports Federation, and Roller Sports Canada. In Europe, roller derby was recognized as a sport in Paris in 2010 by the Federation Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS), which reports directly to the International Olympic Committee. As of 2017, FIRS has been accepted as the international rule set by the International Olympic Committee. Teams competed under the FIRS rules at the 2017 Nanjing Games. The former Canadian Women's Roller Derby Association worked with the American federation.


title: Roller derby

text: Since 2006, the WFTDA has sponsored an annual championship. In 2008, it adopted the "Big 5" format: four regional playoffs and a final championship tournament. As of 2019, the WFTDA postseason includes two playoffs that feed into the Championship tournament, plus three standalone, regionally-based Continental Cups. The WFTDA also recognizes eligible tournaments hosted by member leagues.


title: Roller derby

text: Internationally, the first Roller Derby World Cup took place in Toronto, Canada, in December 2011. The second World Cup took place in Dallas, Texas, in December 2014.


title: Roller derby

text: Since 2012, USARS has held an annual Roller Derby National Championship. In 2017, FIRS and the USOC recognized USARS to participate in the 2017 Nanjing games.


title: Roller derby

text: The largest roller derby tournament in the southern hemisphere, The Great Southern Slam, has been held biannually in Adelaide, South Australia since 2010.


title: Roller derby

text: Zaina Arafat said in the "Virginia Quarterly Review" that roller derby defies heteronormativity and patriarchal standards. In Egypt, Arafat says, there are expectations that a woman will not show visible scars, will have an unblemished body for her husband, and will refrain from activities that may damage her body. She says roller derby in Egypt is subversive, as it acts as an indirect political statement.


title: Roller derby

text: Author Carly Giesler said that skaters enact sexualities that create or reclaim an identity, and their role parodies "hegemonic scripts of sexuality" through the use of costumes, derby names and personas. Roller derby acts as a unique stage for female athletes, letting them rebut constraints society places on women and female athletes. Giesler said that female sports objectifies them for the male gaze, but roller derby turns this on its head by disregarding gender roles and norms.


title: Insanity

text: Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to other people. Conceptually, mental insanity also is associated with the biological phenomenon of contagion (that mental illness is infectious) as in the case of copycat suicides. In contemporary usage, the term "insanity" is an informal, un-scientific term denoting "mental instability"; thus, the term insanity defense is the legal definition of mental instability. In medicine, the general term psychosis is used to include the presence either of delusions or of hallucinations or both in a patient; and psychiatric illness is "psychopathology", not "mental insanity".


title: Insanity

text: In English, the word "sane" derives from the Latin adjective "sanus" meaning "healthy". Juvenal's phrase "mens sana in corpore sano" is often translated to mean a "healthy mind in a healthy body". From this perspective, insanity can be considered as poor health of the mind, not necessarily of the brain as an organ (although that can affect mental health), but rather refers to defective function of mental processes such as reasoning. Another Latin phrase related to our current concept of sanity is "compos mentis" (lit. "sound of mind"), and a euphemistic term for insanity is "non compos mentis". In law, mens rea means having had criminal intent, or a guilty mind, when the act (actus reus) was committed.


title: Insanity

text: A more informal use of the term insanity is to denote something or someone considered highly unique, passionate or extreme, including in a positive sense. The term may also be used as an attempt to discredit or criticize particular ideas, beliefs, principles, desires, personal feelings, attitudes, or their proponents, such as in politics and religion.


title: Insanity

text: Madness, the non-legal word for insanity, has been recognized throughout history in every known society. Some traditional cultures have turned to witch doctors or shamans to apply magic, herbal mixtures, or folk medicine to rid deranged persons of evil spirits or bizarre behavior, for example. Archaeologists have unearthed skulls (at least 7000 years old) that have small, round holes bored in them using flint tools. It has been conjectured that the subjects may have been thought to have been possessed by spirits which the holes would allow to escape. More recent research on the historical practice of trepanning supports the hypothesis that this procedure was medical in nature and intended as means of treating cranial trauma.


title: Insanity

text: The Greeks appeared to share something of the modern Western world's secular and holistic view, believing that afflictions of the mind did not differ from diseases of the body. Moreover, they saw mental and physical illness as a result of natural causes and an imbalance in bodily humors. Hippocrates frequently wrote that an excess of black bile resulted in irrational thinking and behavior.


title: Insanity

text: Romans made other contributions to psychiatry, in particular a precursor of some contemporary practice. They put forward the idea that strong emotions could lead to bodily ailments, the basis of today's theory of psychosomatic illness. The Romans also supported humane treatment of the mentally ill, and in so doing codified into law the principle of insanity as a mitigation of responsibility for criminal acts, although the criterion for insanity was sharply set as the defendant had to be found ""non compos mentis"", a term meaning "not sound of mind".


title: Insanity

text: During the 18th century, the French and the British introduced humane treatment of the clinically insane, though the criteria for diagnosis and placement in an asylum were considerably looser than today, often including such conditions as speech disorder, speech impediments, epilepsy, and depression or being pregnant out of wedlock.


title: Insanity

text: Europe's oldest asylum was the precursor of today's Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, known then as "Bedlam", which began admitting the mentally ill in 1403 and is mentioned in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales". The first American asylum was built in Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1773. Before the 19th century these hospitals were used to isolate the mentally ill or the socially ostracized from society rather than cure them or maintain their health. Pictures from this era portrayed patients bound with rope or chains, often to beds or walls, or restrained in straitjackets.


title: Insanity

text: Insanity is no longer considered a medical diagnosis but is a legal term in the United States, stemming from its original use in common law. The disorders formerly encompassed by the term covered a wide range of mental disorders now diagnosed as bipolar disorder, organic brain syndromes, schizophrenia, and other psychotic disorders.


title: Insanity

text: In United States criminal law, insanity may serve as an affirmative defense to criminal acts and thus does not need to negate an element of the prosecution's case such as general or specific intent. Each U.S. state differs somewhat in its definition of insanity but most follow the guidelines of the Model Penal Code. All jurisdictions require a sanity evaluation to address the question first of whether or not the defendant has a mental illness.


title: Insanity

text: Most courts accept a major mental illness such as psychosis but will not accept the diagnosis of a personality disorder for the purposes of an insanity defense. The second question is whether the mental illness interfered with the defendant's ability to distinguish right from wrong. That is, did the defendant know that the alleged behavior was against the law at the time the offense was committed.


title: Insanity

text: Additionally, some jurisdictions add the question of whether or not the defendant was in control of their behavior at the time of the offense. For example, if the defendant was compelled by some aspect of their mental illness to commit the illegal act, the defendant could be evaluated as not in control of their behavior at the time of the offense.


title: Insanity

text: The forensic mental health specialists submit their evaluations to the court. Since the question of sanity or insanity is a legal question and not a medical one, the judge and or jury will make the final decision regarding the defendant's status regarding an insanity defense.


title: Insanity

text: In most jurisdictions within the United States, if the insanity plea is accepted, the defendant is committed to a psychiatric institution for at least 60 days for further evaluation, and then reevaluated at least yearly after that.


title: Insanity

text: Insanity is generally no defense in a civil lawsuit, but an insane plaintiff can toll the statute of limitations for filing a suit until gaining sanity, or until a statute of repose has run.


title: Insanity

text: Feigned insanity is the simulation of mental illness in order to deceive. Amongst other purposes, insanity is feigned in order to avoid or lessen the consequences of a confrontation or conviction for an alleged crime. A number of treatises on medical jurisprudence were written during the nineteenth century, the most famous of which was Isaac Ray in 1838 (fifth edition 1871); others include Ryan (1832), Taylor (1845), Wharton and Stille (1855), Ordronaux (1869), Meymott (1882). The typical techniques as outlined in these works are the background for Dr. Neil S. Kaye's widely recognized guidelines that indicate an attempt to feign insanity.


title: Insanity

text: One famous example of someone feigning insanity is Mafia boss Vincent Gigante, who pretended for years to be suffering from dementia, and was often seen wandering aimlessly around his neighborhood in his pajamas muttering to himself. Testimony from informants and surveillance showed that Gigante was in full control of his faculties the whole time, and ruled over his Mafia family with an iron fist.


title: Insanity

text: Today feigned insanity is considered malingering. In a 2005 court case, "United States v. Binion", the defendant was prosecuted and convicted for obstruction of justice (adding to his original sentence) because he feigned insanity in a Competency to Stand Trial evaluation.


title: Insanity

text: In modern times, labeling someone as insane often carries little or no medical meaning and is rather used as an insult or as a reaction to behavior perceived to be outside the bounds of accepted norms. For instance, the definition of insanity is sometimes colloquially purported to be "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." However, this does not match the legal definition of insanity.


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: Winston Churchill was a staunch imperialist and monarchist who, according to historian Roy Jenkins consistently exhibited a "romanticised view" of both the British Empire and the reigning British monarchy, especially of Elizabeth II, during his last term as British Prime Minister. In the 21st century, his personal views on empire and race became one of the most discussed aspects of his legacy. Churchill made numerous statements which are obviously racist, and his critics have alleged that his personal views on race played a part in various decisions he made throughout his life; these include his response to the Bengal famine of 1943. His defenders, such as historian Andrew Roberts, have described such accusations as being attempts to discredit Churchill that lack factual support.


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: Historian John Charmley has written that Churchill viewed British domination around the globe, such as the British Empire, as a natural consequence of social Darwinism. Charmley argued that similar to many of Churchill's contemporaries, he held a hierarchical perspective on race, believing white Protestant Christians to be at the top of this hierarchy, and white Catholics beneath them, while Indians were higher on this hierarchy than black Africans. However, historian Richard Toye follows on from this by saying that Churchill was not unique in having these views, and that although Churchill may have thought that white people were superior, it did not mean he thought it was therefore correct to treat non-white people in an inhumane way — he did not. Paul Addison says Churchill saw British imperialism as a form of altruism that benefited its subject peoples because "by conquering and dominating other peoples, the British were also elevating and protecting them". To Churchill, the idea of dismantling the Empire by transferring power to its subject peoples was anathema – especially manifested in his opposition to the Government of India Act 1935 and his acerbic comments about Mahatma Gandhi, whom he called "a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir". Some critics have equated Churchill's imperialism with racialism, but Addison among others has argued that it is misleading to describe him as a racist in any modern context because the term as used now bears "many connotations which were alien to Churchill".


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: Churchill advocated against native self-rule in Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, the Americas and India, believing that the British Empire promoted and maintained the welfare of those who lived in the colonies; he insisted that "our responsibility to the native races remains a real one".


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: In 1899, a Boer jailer asked Churchill: "…is it right that a dirty Kaffir should walk on the pavement?… That’s what they do in your British Colonies." Churchill termed this the root of Boer discontent:


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: British government is associated in the Boer farmer’s mind with violent social revolution. Black is to be proclaimed the same as white…. nor is a tigress robbed of her cubs more furious than is the Boer at this prospect.


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: In 1902, Churchill stated that the "great barbaric nations" would "menace civilised nations", and that "The Aryan stock is bound to triumph".


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: In 1906, Churchill stated that "We will endeavour... to advance the principle of equal rights of civilized men irrespective of colour."


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: In 1920, Churchill wrote, in an editorial promoting the antisemitic Jewish Bolshevism conspiracy theory, that "There can be no greater mistake than to attribute to each individual a recognisable share in the qualities which make up the national character. There are all sorts of men – good, bad and, for the most part, indifferent – in every country, and in every race. Nothing is more wrong than to deny to an individual, on account of race or origin, his right to be judged on his personal merits and conduct."


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: In 1937, Churchill stated that "I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: In 1942, an October meeting of Cabinet discussed colour bars after Viscount Cranbourne said that one of his black officials in the Colonial Office had been barred by a restaurant because American officers had imposed a "whites-only" policy. Churchill addressed Cabinet (after making an insensitive joke; saying "That's alright, if he takes a banjo with him, they’ll think he’s one of the band".) and Cabinet concluded that the US Army "must not expect our authorities, civil or military, to assist them in enforcing a policy of segregation. It was clear that, so far as concerned admission to canteens, public houses, theatres, cinemas, and so forth, there would, and must not, be no restriction of the facilities hitherto extended to coloured persons as a result of the arrival of United States troops in this country".


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: By the 1940s, Churchill still cherished the ideals of imperialism that he had followed since the 1890s, whilst much of British opinion had abandoned them. Colonialism was now seen as a crude device for the oppression of the weak by the strong. After the Second World War, old arguments about white racial superiority were no longer acceptable. The British public rejected the Churchillian notion of an imperial race predestined by moral character to rule and refashion the world in the British image. Among younger Britons, especially in academic circles, criticism grew sharper. Indeed, the empire itself was rapidly disintegrating, starting with India in 1947, and finishing up with all the African colonies in the 1950s.


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: In 1955, Churchill expressed his support for the slogan "Keep England White" with regards to immigration from the West Indies.


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: In 1907, Churchill made it a condition of British support for a United South Africa: “...our right to be consulted effectively upon the native policy. I would not do anything for them without a sufficient return for the benefit of the native.”


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: Though he held particular contempt for Arabs, Churchill was supportive of Ibn Saud, insofar as Ibn Saud would support the policy for a Jewish state in Palestine that Churchill had driven personally in the 1920s. Churchill met Ibn Saud personally in February 1945 to discuss issues surrounding Palestine, though the meeting was reported by Saudis at the time as being widely unproductive, in great contrast to the meeting Ibn Saud had held with American President Franklin D. Roosevelt just days earlier.


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: After 1945, many and perhaps most black intellectuals and activists in the United States became convinced that Churchill's racism was a major factor in what they saw as his cynical attempt to buttress an exploitative overseas empire that Britain could no longer afford. They charged him with suppressing the democratic aspirations of people of colour.


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: South African President Thabo Mbeki claimed his attitude toward black people was racist and patronising. That complaint was shared by critics such as Clive Ponting. Historian Roland Quinault states that, "Even some historians otherwise sympathetic to Churchill have concluded that he was blind to the problems of black people."


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: Even though he was wary of communist Jews, Churchill strongly supported Zionism and he described Jews as "the most formidable and the most remarkable race", whose "first loyalty will always be towards [Jews]".


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: Churchill had some sympathy for the "Jewish Bolshevism" conspiracy theory, and in his 1920 article which he titled "Zionism versus Bolshevism", he wrote that communism, which he considered a "worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality", had been established in Russia by Jews:


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution, by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews; it is certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. With the notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders.


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: Although an anti-Semitic belief in an international Jewish conspiracy was not unique among British politicians of the time, few of them had the stature of Churchill. The article was criticised by the "Jewish Chronicle" at the time, calling it "the most reckless and scandalous campaign in which even the most discredited politicians have ever engaged". The "Chronicle" said Churchill had adopted "the hoary tactics of hooligan anti-Semites" in his article.


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: However, according to Andrew Roberts, one of his biographers, Churchill rejected antisemitism for virtually all of his life. Roberts also describes Churchill as an "active Zionist" and philosemitic at a time when "clubland antisemitism... was a social glue for much of the Respectable Tendency". In the same article, Churchill wrote; "Some people like the Jews and some do not, but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race that has ever appeared in the world." He further pointed out that the Bolsheviks were "repudiated vehemently by the great mass of the Jewish race", and concluded:


title: Racial views of Winston Churchill

text: We owe to the Jews a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all wisdom and learning put together.