The Independence Day of India, celebrated on 15 August, is a holiday commemorating India's independence from the British rule and its birth as a sovereign nation on 15 August 1947. India achieved independence following the Indian independence movement noted for largely peacefulnonviolent resistance and civil disobedience led by the Indian National Congress. The independence coincided with the partition of India wherein the British Indian Empire was divided along religious lines into two new states—Dominion of India (later Republic of India) and Dominion of Pakistan (later Islamic Republic of Pakistan); the partition was stricken with violent communal riots.
The Independence Day is a national holiday in India. The flagship event takes place in Delhi where the Prime Minister hoists the national flag at the Red Fort, followed by a nationally broadcast speech from its ramparts. The day is observed all over India with flag-hoisting ceremonies, parades and cultural events. Citizens rejoice the day by displaying the national flag on their attire, household accessories, vehicles; varied activities such as kite flying, bonding with family and friends, and enjoying patriotic songs and films are seen.
Security concerns over militant attacks and sporadic calls for boycotting the celebration by separatist outfits occasionally limit the celebration in some places. Some organisations have carried out terrorist attacks on and around 15 August, and others have declared bandh and used black flags to boycott the celebration. Several books and films feature the independence and partition as pivotal events in their narrative.
Main article: Indian independence movement
History
The present-day India was a part of the British Indian Empire. Although the British East India Company started trading in India in the seventeenth century, Company rule in India started from 1757 after the Company's victory in the Battle of Plassey. In 1858, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India. The period after World War I was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a non-violent movement of non-cooperation and civil disobedience, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol.[2]:167 During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections.[2]:195–197 The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II, the Congress's final push for non-cooperation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism led by the All-India Muslim League. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the bloody partition of the subcontinent into two states: India and Pakistan.[2]:203
Immediate background
In 1946, the Labour government in Britain, its exchequer exhausted by the recently concluded World War II, and conscious that it had neither the mandate at home, the international support, nor the reliability of native forces for continuing to control an increasingly restless India,[2]:203[3][4][5]decided to end British rule of India. In February 1947, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Clement Attlee announced that the British government would grant full self-governance to British India by June 1948 at the latest.[6] With the British army unprepared for the potential for increased violence, the new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, advanced the date for the transfer of power, allowing less than seven months for a mutually agreed plan for independence.
The British government announced on 3 June 1947 that the principle of partition of India was accepted by the British government,[6] the successor governments would be given dominion status and would have an implicit right to secede from the British Commonwealth. Viceroy Mountbatten chose 15 August as the date of power transfer; he chose this date as this was the second anniversary of Japan's surrender in the World War II.[7]The Indian Independence Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo 6 c. 30) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that partitioned British India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan.[8] The Act received the royal assent on 18 July 1947.[6]
The Indian Independence Act's salient provisions were:[8]
- the division of British India into the two new and fully sovereign dominions of India and Pakistan, with effect from 15 August 1947;
- the partition of the provinces of Bengal and Punjab between the two new countries;
- the establishment of the office of Governor-General in each of the two new countries, as representative of the Crown;
- the conferral of complete legislative authority upon the respective Constituent Assemblies of the two new countries;
- the termination of British suzerainty over the princely states, with effect from 15 August 1947, and the right of states to accede to either dominion;
- the dropping of the use of the title "Emperor of India" by the British monarch (this was subsequently done by King George VI by royal proclamation on 22 June 1948);
- the provision for the division of joint property between the two new countries, including in particular the division of the armed forces.
Partition and independence
Main article: Partition of India
Millions of Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu refugees trekked across the newly drawn borders. In Punjab, where the new border lines divided the Sikh regions in halves, massive bloodshed followed; in Bengal and Bihar, where Mahatma Gandhi's presence assuaged communal tempers, the violence was mitigated. In all, anywhere between 250,000 and 1,000,000 people on both sides of the new borders died in the violence.[9] While the entire nation was celebrating the Independence Day, Gandhi decided to stay in Calcutta and help mitigate the communal carnage.[10] On 14 August 1947, the new Dominion of Pakistan came into being; Muhammad Ali Jinnah sworn in as its first Governor General in Karachi. At midnight, as India moved into 15 August 1947,Jawaharlal Nehru delivered the Tryst with destiny speech proclaiming India's independence.
| “ | 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. | ” |
—Tryst with destiny speech, Jawaharlal Nehru, 15 August 1947[11] | ||
Celebration
In the 1929 Lahore session of Indian National Congress, the Purna Swaraj declaration, or "Declaration of the Independence of India" was promulgated,[12]and 26 January was declared as India's Independence Day.[12] The Congress called people to take pledge on that day until India attained complete independence from the Great Britain.[13] Between 1930 and 1947, 26 January was observed as the Independence Day of India, and carried symbolic value to the Congress.[14][15] Following the actual independence in 1947, the Constitution of India came into effect on and from 26 January 1950; since then 26 January is celebrated as the Republic Day.
Independence Day is one of the three national holidays in India (the other two being the Republic Day on 26 January and Mohandas Gandhi's birthday on 2 October) and is observed in all Indian states and union territories. On the eve of the Independence Day, the President of India delivers the "Address to the Nation", which is televised nationally. On 15 August, the Prime Minister of India hoists the Indian flag on the ramparts of the historical site Red Fort in Delhi. Twenty-one gun shots are fired in honour of the solemn occasion.[16] In his speech, the Prime Minister highlights the achievements of his government during the past year, raises important issues and gives a call for further development. He pays tribute to the leaders of the freedom struggle. The Indian national anthem, Jana Gana Mana is sung. The speech is followed by march past by divisions of the Indian Army and paramilitary forces, and parades and pageants showcasing events from the struggle for independence as well as cultural traditions of the country. Similar events take place in state capitals where the Chief Ministers of individual states unfurl the national flag, and parades and pageants follow.[17]
Flag hoisting ceremonies and cultural programmes take place in government and non-government institutions in the country.[18] Schools and colleges conduct flag hoisting ceremonies and various cultural events within their premises. Major government buildings are often adorned with strings of light.[19] In some cities, such as Delhi, kite flying is a celebratory event associated with the Independence Day.[16][20] National flags of different sizes are used abundantly by the rejoicing residents to symbolise their allegiance to the country.[21] Citizens adorn their cloths, wristbands, cars, household accessories with replicas of the tri-colour.[21] Newspapers have reported a trend that the celebration pattern has changed from a nationalistic one to a more relaxed, festive one, where friends and family bond and make merry.[22][23] The Indian diaspora celebrates the Independence Day in various parts of the world, particularly in regions with high concentration of non-resident Indians, with parades and pageants.[24] In some locations such as several cities in the United States, 15 August has received the nomenclature "India Day" among the diaspora and the local populace.[25]
Security threats
Security measures in the country are intensified before the Independence Day celebration, especially in major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and in troubled states such as Jammu and Kashmir. The celebratory events are anticipated to be the target of terrorist attacks, particularly by the Islamic fundamentalist militants.[26][27] The aerial space around the Red Fort is declared a no-fly zone during the celebration to prevent aerial attacks,[28] and additional police forces are deployed in other cities.[29] Separatist insurgent organisations have called for boycotting the Independence Day on several instances.[30][31][32] Organisations such as the United Liberation Front of Assam in Northeast India have repeatedly boycotted the celebrations, and have carried out terrorist activities like bomb blasts on and around 15 August.[33][34] As a consequence, the celebratory events in Northeast India is often marred by the looming tension.[35] Separatist protesters have boycotted the Independence Day in Jammu and Kashmir with bandh (strike), use of black flags and even by burning the Indian national flag.[36][37][38] Boycotting of the Independence Day celebration has also been called for by insurgent Maoist rebel organisations.[39][40]
In popular culture
On the Independence Day and the Republic Day, patriotic songs in Hindi and regional languages are broadcast on TV and radio channels.[41] They are also played at locations of flag hoisting.[41] Patriotic films are broadcast on television channels.[18] Over the decades, the number of such film broadcast has decreased as channels report that too many patriotic films would overwhelm the audience who want popular entertaining films to enjoy the holiday.[42] The population cohort belonging to the Generation Next often combine nationalism with popular cultureduring the celebration of the Independence Day. Outfits displaying the three colours of the national flag—saffron, green and white; use of food colours to make savouries and delicacies resembling the tri-colour; cloth-designs reflecting ideas gleaned from the cultural traditions of India are example of such mixture.[22] Retail stores offer discount on merchandise to promote buying spree around the Independence Day.[43][44] Rampant commercialisation of patriotism during the Independence Day has been noted in newspaper reports.[43][45][46]
The independence and partition inspired literary creation in many languages.[47] Artistic depictions of the partition of India are the topic of many scholarly discourses. Literature describing the human cost of the independence and partition comprises Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan (1956), several short stories such as Toba Tek Singh (1955) by Saadat Hassan Manto, Urdupoems by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Bhisham Sahni's Tamas (1974), Manohar Malgonkar's A Bend in the Ganges (1965), Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy Man (1988) and many more.[48][49] Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children (1980), which won the Booker Prize and the Booker of Bookers, weaved its narrative based on the children born with magical abilities on the midnight of 14 August 1947.[49] Freedom at Midnight (1975) is a non-fiction by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre that chronicled the events surrounding the first Independence Day. There is a paucity of films related to the independence and partition.[50][51][52] Early films relating the circumstances of the independence, partition and the aftermath include Nemai Ghosh's Chinnamul (1950),[50]Dharmputra (1961),[53] Ritwik Ghatak's Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), Komal Gandhar (1961), Subarnarekha (1962);[50][54] later films include Garm Hava (1973), Tamas (1987);[53] starting from the late 1990s more films on this theme were made, including several mainstream films—Earth (1998), Train to Pakistan (1998), Hey Ram (2000), Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001),Madrasapattinam (2010), Pinjar (2003), Partition (2007).[53] The biopics Gandhi (1982), Jinnah (1998), Sardar (1993) also have the independence and partition as significant events in their screenplay.
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