Aagaar azaad na hotey toh Bina Ticket k NRI hotey -- Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we will redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. 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.... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again."
- Jawaharlal Nehru (Speech on Indian Independence Day, 1947)
Commemorating the day India attained freedom (15th August); Independence Day is celebrated with flag hoisting ceremonies and cultural programmes in the state capitals. The Prime Minister's speech at the Red Fort in Delhi is the major highlight. The Delhi skyline gets dotted with thousands of kites taking to the sky this very day.
On 15 August 1947, India attained freedom from the British rule. Every year, August 15 is celebrated as the Independence Day in India. This national festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm all over the country.
The preparations begin a month in advance. Roads are decorated with flags and buntings. Buildings of national importance are illuminated.
History
At the stroke of midnight, as India moved into August 15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, read out the famous speech proclaiming India's independence.
The moment ended three centuries of British colonial rule. The land was no longer the summer retreat of British sahibs who fancied spices, shikar, elephants and snake-charmers.
Independence was also the end of nearly a century of struggle for freedom, battles, betrayals and sacrifices. It also created a situation where we were responsible for ourselves.
But it wasn't a period of unqualified joy. For a lot of people, in spite of a new era promised by independence, partition was a painful reality and so was the bloodshed that accompanied it. That was 53 years ago. Much has changed; the struggle for freedom lives on in history books and memoirs, and on the tombstones of valiant martyrs. Politics has undergone a personality change from fiery idealism to a pragmatic cynicism. Karma drives the nation on its way forward, and population has crossed the billion mark.
But, come August 15, and the people put their troubles behind them for a while, as they stand up as a nation for the National Anthem. Along with the soaring cadences of the anthem, the hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow are renewed in political speeches and replays of the deeds of those who earned us our freedom.
Independence Day is an occasion to rejoice in our freedom and to pay collective homage to all those people who sacrificed their lives to the cause. But it is more than that. It also marks the coming together of more than 400 princely states into one nation - India. This was probably our biggest diplomatic success.
Each year, August 15 gives us the reason to celebrate all this, and do much more - it is a time to contemplate what we have and how we achieved it.
Though India had no dearth of religious and community festivals, there was, till Independence, no true national festival that the whole country could partake of. Independence Day, beginning as a day to commemorate the greatest moment in Indian history, has now come to signify a feeling of nationalism, solidarity and celebration.
Independence Day remained the sole national festival till India declared itself a republic in 1950. On January 26, 1950, Republic Day became the second Indian national holiday.
Flag Hoisting
“Under this flag, there is no difference between a prince and a peasant, between the rich and the poor, between man and women."
--Mrs. Sarojini Naidu
Preamble of the Flag Code of India says that: "The significance of the colours and the chakra in the National Flag was amply described by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan in the Constituent Assembly which unanimously adopted the National Flag. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan explained -
"Bhagwa or the saffron colour denotes renunciation of disinterestedness. Our leaders must be indifferent to material gains and dedicate themselves to their work.""The white in the centre is light, the path of truth to guide our conduct.""The green shows our relation to soil, our relation to the plant life here on which all other life depends.""The Ashoka Wheel in the centre of the white is the wheel of the law of dharma. Truth or satya, dharma or virtue ought to be the controlling principles of those who work under this flag. Again, the wheel denotes motion. There is death in stagnation. There is life in movement. India should no more resist change, it must move and go forward. The wheel represents the dynamism of a peaceful change."
On 15 August 1947 India and Pakistan were created. India adopted the tricolour of orange, white, and green with a blue Ashoka Chakra at the centre. Unofficially this tricolour had been the flag of the Indian National Congress. The orange colour represented Hinduism, the green colour - Islam and the white colour represented peace. There was a blue spinning wheel in the centre, which represented Gandhiji's call for economic self-sufficiency through hand spinning.
Prime Minister of India hoists the flag and pays his homage to the freedom fighters and addresses the Nation. Children are brimming with enthusiasm on this day. Early in the morning, they attend the flag hoisting ceremony in their schools. They sing patriotic songs and present skits and dramas based on the freedom struggle.
1947: Independence for India and Pakistan.On August 15, 1947, the former Mogul Empire is divided into the independent nations of India and Pakistan. Mohandas Gandhi struggled through decades of peaceful resistance before Britain finally accepted Indian independence. Self-rule had been promised during World War II, but after the war triangular negotiations between Gandhi, the British, and the Muslim League stalled over whether to partition India along religious lines. Eventually, Lord Mountbatten, the British viceroy of India, forced through the compromise plan. Gandhi called the agreement the noblest act of the British nation, but religious strife between Hindus and Muslims soon marred his exhilaration. Hundreds of thousands, including Gandhi, were killed before the fighting ended in 1949.
"JAI HIND" --- On behalf of all Indians
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