Back in Time is a newspaper type column that reports an incident from the past as though it has happened just yesterday. It allows the reader to re-live it several years later, on the date it had occurred.
For this incident, we go back in time to 1947.
India, Friday, 15th August: After several long and hard years of slavery and almost a century after the first fight for Independence, the Revolt of 1857, India’s freedom struggle has finally come to pass.
The declaration of Purna Swaraj and the perseverance of Gandhi and the Indian National Congress in their nationwide movements of resistance to foreign rule made it clear to the British government that they could no longer colonise India.
Indian Independence Act:
The Indian Independence Act 1947 has been passed. A provision states that an assembly would be set up to frame the Constitution of free India
Transfer of power from the British rule to the Indian government took place today. Jawaharlal Nehru will be the first Prime Minister of free India.
Tryst with Destiny:
In his speech yesterday, he said; “At the stroke of 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, then 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 India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.”
All the martyrs who sacrificed their lives fighting for their country were saluted. The Indian flag was hoisted, and Indians dressed in patriotic attire, sang the national anthem and flew tricoloured kites.
The Indian Independence, as celebratory an occasion it is, has come at a cost, however.
Partition of India:
15th August will also be marked down in history as the day of the partition of India. The British India Empire was divided into the Dominions of India and Pakistan.
East Pakistan and West Pakistan were created. Pakistan celebrated its Independence Day yesterday and will be governed by Jinnah and the All-India Muslim League.
This territorial (and to some extent religious) division of the Indian Subcontinent will displace many and the prediction of the aftermath can only be underestimated.
Post scriptum:
In the years to come, many riots between the two countries followed. More blood was shed and more lives were lost.
In 1971, a separate state of Bangladesh was created in place of East Pakistan.
Today, in 2015, India celebrates its 69th Independence Day!
