September 29th, 2007
War time correction for horoscopes
During World War II, all over pre-independence India, i.e. present day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, clocks were moved forward by one hour to make Indian time 6 hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT. The exact dates for this change are from September 1, 1942 to October 14, 1945. 1
For any charts prepared for births during this period, simply move the clock back for an hour -OR- fill 6 30 E in the timezone column. E.g. for a chart prepared for Jan 01, 1944, Bombay at 9:00 AM, both of the following are valid inputs for making a birth chart:
Figure 1: Vedic Astrology Chart for 9 AM, time zone as 6:30 hours ahead of GMT.
Figure 2: Vedic Astrology Chart for 8 AM, time zone as 5:30 hours ahead of GMT.
Both these inputs in the birth chart generation application essentially give us the same Vedic Astrology birth chart -
Figure 3: Vedic Astrology birth chart for 1-1-44, same with both the inputs.
1As suggested by Basab, I did some research on astro.com website. If I take a date of 15th August, 1947 and cast a chart for 12:00 AM at New Delhi, the software on the site automatically suggests IST, i.e. GMT+5:30. If the city is changed to Calcutta, the software suggests IDT, which is GMT+6:30. This is indeed confusing. IMHO, in case of a confusion, two horoscopes with GMT+6:30 and GMT+5:30 should be cast and basic chart rectification techniques should be used.
Kshitij ji,
in one of the astro-softwares i was checking that they have considerd the war time correction from 1st,sep 1942 to 31st august,1947 and war time corerction is not only used in India but also other countries as well. i saw that they have done war tiem correction for New York city as well and what do you think about the chart which i had mentuioned in my mail to you where the year of birth is 1946 and the war time corerction has been used.
At the first glance, 31st August 1947 looks incorrect. India’s independence chart cast on 15th August 1947 at 00:00 hours is cast with GMT+5:30 and not GMT+6:30.
War time was indeed followed throughout the world. I could not find any credible source of information regarding specific places and countries, though. Thats the reason I did not mention it in the article.
they have considered war time correction upto 31st aug, 1947 in the website http://www.astro.com