These amazing stories of india that will amaze you,
Independence Day: 10 Fascinating Stories of India’s Independence
Mahatma Gandhi led the Indian independence movement. But when the country got independence on August 15, 1947, they were not involved in the celebration.
You may not be aware of some of the interesting things associated with independence.
- Mahatma Gandhi was in Noakhali, Bengal, thousands of kilometers away from Delhi, on Independence Day, where he was on hunger strike to stop communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.
- When it was decided that India would become independent on August 15, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel sent a letter to Mahatma Gandhi.
The letter read, “August 15th will be our first Independence Day. You are the Father of the Year. Bless you in it.”
- Gandhi replies to the letter, “How can I come to celebrate when Hindus-Muslims are taking one another’s life in Kolkata? I will lay down my life to control this situation.”
- Jawaharlal Nehru gave the historic speech ‘Tries with Destiny’ from the Viceroy Lodge (current Rashtrapati Bhavan) at midnight on August 14. Nehru did not become prime minister at the time.
The speech was heard all over the world, but Gandhi slept at nine o’clock that day, so he did not hear it.
- Lord Mountbatten worked in his office on August 15, 1947. In the afternoon Nehru handed over a list of his cabinet and then addressed a meeting at the Princess Gardens near India Gate.
- On every Independence Day, the Indian Prime Minister hangs a flag from the Red Fort. But that didn’t happen on August 15, 1947.
According to an inquiry by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, on 16 August 1947, Nehru flagged off the Red Fort.
- According to Campbell Johnson, the then Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten’s press secretary, the second anniversary of Japan’s dedication to the Allied forces was on August 15.
On the same day, India decided to become independent.
- Border line between India and Pakistan was not fixed till 15 August. It was decided by the announcement of the Radcliffe line on August 17th.
- India became independent on August 15, but had no national anthem of its own. Rabindranath Tagore wrote Jan-Gan-Mana only in 1911. But that national anthem could only happen in the 1950s.
- August 15 is the Independence Day of three countries other than India. South Korea became independent from Japan on August 15, 1945.
Bahrain was liberated from Britain on August 15, 1971, and on August 15, 1960 from Congo France.
