How 15 August became our Independence Day!
(Independence Day Celebration at Red Fort, New Delhi, 2024)
Hearty Greetings on our Independence Day.
15 August 1947: Significance
How did 15 August become our Independence Day? Or rather, why did the British choose 15 August 1947 as the date for the independence of India and Pakistan? Ramachandra Guha writes:
“Every year after 1930, Congress-minded Indians celebrated 26 January as Independence Day. However, when the British finally left the subcontinent, they chose to hand over power on 15 August 1947. This date was selected by the Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, as it was the second anniversary of the Japanese surrender to the Allied Forces in the Second World War.”[i].
Tryst with Destiny
A little
before midnight on August 14-15, 1947, in the Constituent Assembly Hall in
Parliament, Jawahar Lal Nehru delivered his ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech[ii]
[iii],
considered one of the great speeches of the 20th century.
“Long years
ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall 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. (Italics by the blogger.)
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. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of
dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause
of humanity."
It was a
momentous occasion, a moment of great hopes and aspirations, and Nehru was possibly
a little carried away; for all the world was not asleep and many countries were
wide awake (US: 2.30 PM, UK: 6.30 PM, Germany 7.30 PM, Aus: 5.30 AM). But Nehru
was entitled to a little poetic fervour and flourish on such a historic
occasion.
During Aug
14-15, 1947, Gandhi was not at New Delhi; but at Calcutta to douse the communal
fire. When Nehru delivered the ‘tryst with destiny’ speech, Gandhi was fast
asleep at that hour.
More
seriously, the solemn pledge was: ‘we shall redeem our pledge,’ and we as
citizens of India need to introspect whether we have redeemed the pledge, and
to figure out what we need to do now and in future to realise the dreams that
were dreamed then and thereafter.
It may be
useful for us to recall what B.R. Ambedkar said to the Constituent Assembly of
India on 26 November 1949:
“By
independence, we have lost the excuse of blaming the British for anything going
wrong. If hereafter things go wrong, we will have nobody to blame but
ourselves.”
Some
astrologers claim that India’s birth as a free nation at the midnight hour of
Aug 14-15, 1947 was inauspicious since it was Rahu Kala at that hour. However,
Nehru had possibly performed a puja to offset the malefic influence of rahu;
and the midnight event commenced with the auspicious sound of conch, which
would have rendered rahu ineffective!
The trauma
of Partition, and the many difficulties of the early years after our freedom
are now painful memories of the past. India is now a strong, confident country holding
its head high in the comity of nations, and capable of fulfilling the dreams
and aspirations of all its citizens.
Happy
Independence Day!
***
Postscript
* Rahukalam
A friend informs me that in
Tamilnadu, there is no rahukalam during 6.00 PM to 6.00 AM. That is so
reassuring. Rahu did not cast his evil eye when India was born!
Note
Last year, I
had shared a blog: Patriots of Pollibetta. In case you missed it,
here is the link:
https://pkdash-author.blogspot.com/2023/07/patriots-of-pollibetta.html
[i] (India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha, First published in 2007 by Macmillan, 10th Revised Edition published in 2017 by Picador India.)
[ii] Here is the full text of Jawaharlal Nehru’s iconic
“Tryst with Destiny” speech, delivered on the eve of India’s independence,
August 14, 1947:
"Long years ago we
made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall 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. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take
the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the
still larger cause of humanity.
At the dawn of history
India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with
her striving and the grandeur of her successes and her failures. Through good
and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the
ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India
discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an
opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us.
Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the
challenge of the future?
Freedom and power bring
responsibility. That responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body
representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom, we
have endured all the pains of labor, and our hearts are heavy with the memory
of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past
is over, and it is the future that beckons to us now. That future is not one of
ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we might fulfill the pledges
we have so often taken and the one we shall take today.
The service of India
means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty
and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the
greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That
may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our
work will not be over. And so we have to labor and to work and work hard to
give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for
the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today
for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart. Peace has been said to
be indivisible, so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in
this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell."
[iii] Link for You Tube video: https://youtu.be/2Cudc5Mhlcc?si=UkHjrXJ-sa2-V1ik
***
Congratulations for 77th Years of Independence! As we have entered 78th year I hope we all as Indian also become more independent, more open minded, along with culture start respecting all genders equally, so that we are able to celebrate next year independence day with no more candle march in limelight and we celebrate Independence day with pride and not with heavy heart as working female in Indian society!
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