Independence Day (India)
India's Independence Day is celebrated on August 15th to commemorate its independence from British rule and its birth as a united nation on that day in 1947. The day is a national holiday in India. It is celebrated all over the country through flag-hoisting ceremony and distribution of sweets. The main celebration takes place in New Delhi, where the Prime Minister raises the national flag at the Red Fort and delivers a nationally televised speech from its ramparts.
History
Road to independence
On 3 June 1947, Viscount Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General of India, announced the partitioning of the British Indian Empire into a secular India and a Muslim Pakistan. At midnight, on 15 August 1947, India became an independent nation. This was preceded by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's famous speech titled Tryst with destiny
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance
Violent clashes between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs followed this partition. Prime Minister Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel invited Lord Mountbatten to continue as Governor General of India. He was replaced in June 1948 by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari. Patel took on the responsibility of unifying 565 princely states, steering efforts by his “iron fist in a velvet glove” policies, exemplified by the use of military force to integrate Junagadh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Hyderabad state into India.
The Constituent Assembly completed the work of drafting the constitution on 26 November 1949; on 26 January 1950 the Republic of India was officially proclaimed. The Constituent Assembly elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first President of India, taking over from Governor General Rajgopalachari. Subsequently, a free and sovereign India absorbed two other territories: Goa (liberated from Portuguese control in 1961) and Pondicherry (which the French ceded in 1953-1954). In 1952, India held its first general elections, with a voter turnout exceeding 62%; in practice, this made India the world's largest democracy.
Independence day in literature
The magical moment of freedom was described by poet Pradeep in film Jagriti (1954):
मंजिल पे आया मुल्क हर बला को टाल के
सदियों के बाद फिर उड़े बादल गुलाल के
हम लाए हैं तूफ़ान से कश्ती निकाल के
इस देश को रखना मेरे बच्चों सम्भाल के
Translation:
- The nation arrived at its destination, after surviving many calamities
- and after several centuries, celebrated the freedom by throwing colored powder
- We (the older generation) have steered this ship during the terrible storms,
- You, my children, keep this nation safe.
See also
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